SGI demos from long ago in the browser via WASM (opens in new tab)

The first thing I noticed when seeing the SGI demos for the first time is that the menu UI is strikingly similar to the file select screen in Super Mario 64.

Of course, Nintendo 64 was developed in partnership with Silicon Graphics, so there's a clear connection, and I'm far from the first to make this observation. Still, I feel as though there must be some untold history where perhaps it was used as a placeholder menu early in development, but the team grew fond of it and eventually used the same effect for the final release.

Here's a decent comparison: https://www.resetera.com/threads/super-mario-64-took-its-3d-...

Spent many (un)happy hours in front of both SGI Indy and SGI O2 during my PhD...

High point was definitely when we found out that if you telnetted to another box you could remotely play audio clips and the operator typically had no idea what was going on. Every single device ended up with a collection of Star Wars audio clips ... :)

Like raising dinosaurs from their blood found in amber-encapsulated mosquitoes dug up in mines deep underground, archaic software has been resurrected with modern technology because computer scientists were so excited they could, they didn't stop to ask if they should!

1/10 for usefulness but 10/10 for cool

It's a unix system! I know this.

Not as technically impressive, but this compilation of Nvidia (nVidia?) tech demos 1998-2025 is historically interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfWSJvKFMPE

Silicon Graphics was the thing (in computer graphics) in the beginning of the nineties

Around 1995 or 1996, a friend said he'd played a speederbike graphics/game demo running on an SGI system at some kind of touring SGI promotional event.

I've never been able to find screenshots or video of it, and was hoping it might be included here. No such luck. I don't suppose anyone remembers it?

The bounce demos all show the x29.. I wanted to see the Martini and the WV in particular, I remember those as very impressive at the time (shadowing etc). Maybe I have to fire up my old SGI Octane..

Back when I had my Indigo XS24 up and running as my main workstation, I remember they used to put out periodic "Hot Mix" demo CDs with a bunch of the latest third party software to try out. Loading the demos off the CD was excruciatingly slow, but I definitely looked forward to getting the disks in the mail.

Great times working at SGI back in the 1980s, lots of long hours, lots of fun inventing things that needed to be invented. Still miss the MIPS.

related: old demoscene demos running in the browser: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40241290

Reminds me walking Germanys Cebit each year to convince someone to sell me an SGI.

I wish they had "Tranquility" in there, this was a really nice game on Irix.

Ours a SGI 4D-220 in a molecular modeling lab, these demos made everything else look sick - we had the horsepower; engineers and programmers upset they didn't; trad CS and admins mad because I admin'd them as they were DEC and IBM snobs, mocked UNIX as a toy. Also Evans and Sutherland, a NeXT machine, MicroVAX, Macs used for building a hardware pulse sequencers for 3D NMR, custom DSP for 2D NMRs, (4) million dollar superconducting NMRs and an entire lab - all the cool toys of the day, life was good.

Really cool project, although it's too bad half the links are broken :(

Also too bad they weren't able to recover the best demo, the human cross-section demo. Someone paid a murderer for the rights to his body after he was executed, and then they chopped it up and recorded all the cross-sections.

SGI took that data and used it to create a demo that let you see the human body in a way no one (back in 2000 at least) had seen before. Nowadays, you can probably get something similar on WebMD, but at the time it was crazy impressive.

Interesting that the canvas looks to be in a 5:3 aspect ratio. Did SGI displays have that shape, or would they have used non-square pixels like many DOS games in CGA/EGA resolution?

At the SIGGRAPH '96, where they launched the N64, SGI had an awesome stage show: there was an MC and a user with a VR setup on, some Onyx refrigerators behind them, and a big screen showing the VR view.

It was awesome - they were basically building New Orleans with legos: open a toolbox filing cabinet, choose a brick, run it all the way down the block, run that line of bricks up 200 feet to create the side of a building, rinse repeat.

Would love to see that one again.

Anyone remember a MSDos capture the flag game where you controlled jello blobs like the jello demo [0], went left to right in 3D and controlled with the mouse. Been trying to remember the name of it.

[0] https://sgi-demos.github.io/sgi-demos/demos/jello/web/jello_...

About Flight: My Indy had a weird glitch. After leaving the machine on overnight invariably in the morning I'd find it running 'Flight' with a plane crashed face down as the last thing on the screen. Complete mystery. So, one night I decided enough is enough and I need to figure this out. 2:30 am, footsteps on the staircase. Now, I don't know about you but that even if you expect it that's such a chilling sound. Next thing I know Flight is up and running. I snap on the office lights to see my five year old that had figured out my password by repeated observation blink like the proverbial deer in the headlights. He cried for a bit and I asked him 'why?' and he said he wanted to show us he can fly but he can't get past the landing part... He could fly just fine though!

Everything 404?

Sad

I had an Onyx back in the day, and I remember one of the demos being a photo of a lion or tiger, and clicking on the photo caused it to warp in three dimensions like a sheet of rubber. Does anyone remember this or am I hallucinating?

WASM = fire up all the fans

hard to believe that an SGI demo on modern hardware would require that much

So looking forward to trying this! What was the one where a car was driving through a town with a few city blocks? The traffic lights would cycle way too fast…

I miss the Barcelona Pavilion walkthrough demo.

Wow when i did the jelly demo instantly when it bounced i started hearing super mario 64 noises in my head, so cool. Great work!

I would like to see dogfight and Mekton.

I spent a lot of time as a child playing the flight simulator demo, this brought back a lot of good memories

I remember the Crionics & Silents take on the jello demo:

https://youtu.be/OZTnR3FpUEA?t=412

... except that this was on a 7MHz chip.

Hello! README is fixed!

This is a project of nostalgia and I love all the nostalgic comments.