[Raion]

I don't think this is true, it seems like a lot of people got into the hobby due to the hardware behind these machines. After all, SGI pioneered a lot in the realm of graphics and high performance computing. Their advancements weren't all due to some magic software advancements. For example, their pioneering in the fields of dedicated 3D graphics hardware, accelerated geometry pipelining (they arguably brought it to the "mainstream" but didn't invent it), clustering (NUMAlink), etc. Personally, I have a copy of the "RealityEngine Graphics" paper by Kurt Akeley that I printed out and have in a school binder because I think a lot of what they did with hardware is fascinating. The engineering that went into many of these machines is beautiful. I'm sure others can chime in on this, but to me it seems inaccurate/biased to say that SGI hardware is far less interesting than the software to most people. It's fine if you didn't get into this for the hardware, but I don't think it's fair to say that most did.

Maybe it's the people I am associated with, but when I show off IRIX on my SGIs, the most often question I get is

Can I run IRIX on x86/PowerPC/ARM?

I don't mean to discount SGI's advances in hardware, but up until the Linux 3.x kernel, or recent versions of DFBSD/FBSD, people always have been on about how can they run IRIX.

Emulators is rarely asked, tbh.

[thunderbird32]

According to a MAME dev I spoke with on Reddit:

MAME's SGI emulation has improved to the point of loading the IRIX installer now (and the Linux kernel boots). Still not perfect, but better.

So, soon we may have an SGI emulator worth using!

Also of note, they have working HP 9000/370 emulation (complete with video acceleration and ethernet), and Intergraph Clipper emulation (to the point it boots into X11 under CLIX).

They're also actively working on Microsoft Jazz emulation (MIPS Magnum).

EDIT: Also of note, there is interest in m68k Sun emulation and better Macintosh PPC emulation. Also I was told "88k is a lot of effort (typical Motorola first-system effect) for not a lot of payback, but I'm sure we'll do it eventually" when I asked about Aviion/Luna emulation. I'm not holding my breath, but these are exciting times for emulation.

He did say they'd probably not ever do Solbourne emulation. Much like Clipper it's not documented, and there's even less interest in reverse-engineering it.

[Raion]

As have I discussed it with an MAME dev. The emulation isn't anywhere near enough to boot IRIX, let alone use any useful applications. It's one thing to boot into a firmware console. It's another to get a working desktop with full acceleration and utilization of resources. This is like early WinUAE days, and it's only a few people working on it. It's a long way off.

[thunderbird32]

True, but it only took them two years from nothing to booting into X11 for the Intergraph InterPro/Clipper, and the Indy/MIPS is way better documented (and I'd think way more desirable). I'm going to be optimistic on this one. Even if it's not entirely warranted.