[JohnnyJohnny]

Mid-90's at the combat flight simulator experience in San Jose, CA. Had I think 4 full-size Onyx racks running with "mood lighting" on them - amazing.

[biigD]

When I was in middle school, I went to (what was then) the Museum of Science and Industry near downtown Los Angeles. They had a VR exhibit with a Crimson running the Perfomer Town demo. They had an enclosed projection display and a joystick that allowed you to move around the town. It blew my damned mind, and it amazed me that this red machine could create such an experience. Since then I was hooked on SGI.

I bought my first used SGI while in college - a 100 MHz R4600 Indy. It was slooooow, but still brought a smile to my face every time I listened to the startup chime.

[matyas]

A little-known fact was that Irix was a fairly popular platform among academic computer musicians in the 90s. We’re not talking commercial music production studios (that has always been dominated by Mac) or dj/dance music- I’m talking about the kind of people who teach composition in university music departments and create highly experimental music on usually custom software. I was in that world and knew some people who were using SGI machines, and they were generally doing the most interesting stuff. I’ll never forget when some people from Ircam (ircam.fr) showed up at the Darmstadt summer music program in 2002 and used two O2s and a Yamaha digital mixer to process a whole chamber orchestra!

[waldemar72]

My first enconunter? It was short after I graduated high school and started studying medicine, so 1992 or '93. Me and my friends from high school visited computer fair Infosystem in our city (Poznan, Poland) where I saw teal Indigo2 with some kind of cad software, guy in front of this played (rather then worked) with full screen, fully shaded model of ship propeller, I remember it was moving and rotating so smooth.
Second time it was during medical studies, on gynecological ward, they showed us brachyterapy system (for short range radiotherapy in women's cancers), crucial part of it was IRIS Indigo (Entry I suppose) which was simulating spread of applicated dose of isotope and calculating needed dose and target for depostion.

[bjames]

What got me was the Indy Ads from the 1993 and 1994 CAD magazines. I read their specs over and over because the i/o ports on the back alone were impressive compared to my 486 Dx2 66mhz machine at the time. Also watching all the movies and making of movies in the mid 90s got my attention because all you saw were SGIs. My full time job starting in the mid 90s was an AutoCAD operator but did 3D Arch renderings on the side using 3D Studio. Everything I saw that looked photo real was done on an SGI - it was disappointing at the time because the hardware costs and software costs made it impossible for me to ever attain. These machines were the dream car equivalent to computers.

[bjames]

<QUOTE author="matyas" post_id="1624" time="1532135872" user_id="244">

A little-known fact was that Irix was a fairly popular platform among academic computer musicians in the 90s.

E-MU Systems were able to connect to SGI. I have an Emulator IV Keyboard from 1996 and the manual explains how to connect the keyboard to SCSI devices (it uses SCSI for CD-Roms and Hard Drives). One of the options in the setup menu is called "SGI on SCSI Bus". This was checked if your music keyboard was connected to a SCSI chain with an SGI computer attached so that it allows 2 SCSI masters on the same chain.

[matyas]

<QUOTE author="bjames" post_id="2418" time="1534284111" user_id="319">

<QUOTE author="matyas" post_id="1624" time="1532135872" user_id="244">

A little-known fact was that Irix was a fairly popular platform among academic computer musicians in the 90s.

E-MU Systems were able to connect to SGI. I have an Emulator IV Keyboard from 1996 and the manual explains how to connect the keyboard to SCSI devices (it uses SCSI for CD-Roms and Hard Drives). One of the options in the setup menu is called "SGI on SCSI Bus". This was checked if your music keyboard was connected to a SCSI chain with an SGI computer attached so that it allows 2 SCSI masters on the same chain.

Interesting! I didn't know about the E-MU connection, but I'm not that surprised. SGIs could also read and play back audio DATs from a SCSI-attached DAT drive, something no other platform that I know of could do. SGI would have been a good platform for loading samples from CD or DAT, editing them, and then transferring to the Emulator sampler.

Somewhat better known is the fact that Steinberg's Nuendo was originally implemented on Irix before being ported to Windows and the Mac.

[bjames]

I was hoping to find Sound Designer for IRIX, but no success. Sound Designer was for Mac SEs and directly connected the E-Mu line of sampling keyboards via RS422. It allowed you to edit create your own samples/waveforms.

[twylo]

It was right after I got to college, so 1992. I remember seeing a copy of UnixWorld Magazine with a full SGI Indigo review, and I fell in love. I was absolutely lost with envy. I put the magazine cover on my dorm room wall.

Later on, I worked part time at a lab in school that had an Indigo 2, and got to play with it. It was love again, obviously, but forbidden love. That thing cost more than my tuition.

At the tail end of my college life, the SGI Indy was announced. I had to talk myself out of buying one with money I didn't have. $5K was <I>almost</I> credit card money. But with college debt... no way!

After college, I struck gold and got my dream job: Working for SGI! Well, technically. I was only a contractor, but I contracted at SGI for two years, 1996 to 1997. While I was there, the O2 and Octane were announced, as well as the N64. I got to play with all kinds of stuff. My daily driver was an R44K Indy. And I got my first "to keep" SGI from that job: they let me take home an old Indigo R4k that nobody was using any more. SGI used to devalue their internal assets to $0 for tax reasons, so a lot of employees got to take home free hardware when it wasn't used any more.

To this very day, that was the best job I've ever had. Wonderful memories :)

[BrainStorm]

Around 1991-92, fresh out of high school. Took a date to a movie at the theater at the mall (high class, right?) and the US Army (I think) had some kind of DARPA assisted recruiting demo thing... I guess. They had a battlefield VR setup with a rig you strap into with rollers or something for a floor, and very 'Doc Brown' looking VR goggles... Anyway, they had extra sets of goggles for spectators to watch, as well as a flattened version of the operators view up on a quad pane video panel. Before I got my chance behind a pair of spectators VR goggles, I was looking around at the equipment running this amazing setup. Huge bundles of cables running from box to box to widget to thingy, and back behind a black clothed panel stood three full SGI racks, with a smaller one (desksides?) at each side. The demo was a full 360 degree environment built from actual photos or video. Absolutely mind blown into another (Infinite) Reality. I was total in awe from that moment on.

Years later (1998?), Boeing Wichita's surplus store had a teal Indigo2, and an Indy on the shelf. I bought both for a combined $400. Indys are a gateway drug, just look at me now.