The collected works of seclorum

Hi SGI fans,

So I was a heavy SGI user back in the day, had myself a personal Indy stack in my lab for development (software), had some great connections in the Hollywood SGI scene for software and so on, and had a great time until SGI moved to NT and I decided to move to Apple for my hardware needs - perhaps there are others in this boat.

I was recently given an SGI Indy for free! This was a great gift, and my task now is to get it up and running and fully functioning as a workstation - it came with no cables, but the previous owner said "it makes the boot sound when you plug it in" .. so there is hope.

What I'd like to know is if anyone has any tips or tricks for me about what to do with these old machines these days. Ultimately I'd love to fill it to the brim with working software - there was a game whose name I cannot remember, but it was awesome - it was like a ringworld-in-space kind of mech shooter .. think this will run on this Indy? It has as far as I can tell, 128megs of RAM, an R5000 (badge), and the stock SCSI internal disks .. but I haven't boosted it yet, since I don't have a monitor/keyboard/mouse combination for it yet ..

I'm thinking of doing the Internal VGA modification documented on the wiki - anyone else done this, if so, tips/hints?

I also have an O2 machine available - if I can get both of these machines in working order, I'll be tickled SGI blue .. anyone got any clues what to do with these two machines if I get them up and running? Would love to have some sort of functionality - even if its rudimentary - out of them as workstations ...

EDIT: Wanted to add pics, in case its of interest ..

Back in the day I was lucky to have a 3DGO license on my personal Indy, and I messed around in it a fair bit. Going through my archives I found some of my backups of the 3DGO projects I did - and now, just getting back into SGI, I am left wondering if I will ever find that software again, and be able to use it - on the off chance anyone knows, I thought I'd ask: anyone got ElectroGIG 3DGO and know how to install it/license it, even still today - or is this great piece of software relegated to the dustbins of software history these days .. ?

I'm not looking to pirate software - just wondering if anyone knows if it completely gone, if its abandonware, or if its just a pipe dream that I'll ever get these project files open again. Seriously, not trying to pirate! (I *did* have an original license once, though..

I'd be quite happy to just hear from someone who knows what 3DGO was!

ivelegacy: the VGA modification is documented in the wiki here: http://www.nekochan.net/wiki/Indy_VGA_Hack

I haven't done it yet, but I will soon. Also, I'd kind of like to upgrade the graphics to 24-bit .. if anyone has an upgrade for sale, let me know.

Krokodil: Yup, thats the one - Mekton - thanks for the reminder! I hope I can get it working one of these days ..

I would lust for an SGI machine from these pages alone, I think I must have read this BYTE about a thousand times before I could finally get my own humble Indy .. 'twas mostly a term for its useful life, alas, but I thoroughly enjoyed the distractions it had to offer. Man, what things could've been .. if SGI had kept up the pace .. ah well ..

I just wanted to say: THANK YOU for this resource. I know I'm grave-digging this thread, but this little effort you've made has given new life to an O2 and an Indy that are now no longer collecting dust.

And, in case anyone else needs this and can't do it themselves, contact me. For the price of a beer, I'll happily make this cable for you. Cheers michaelpastras!

Looking forward to details, I have an SGI and an O2 (as well as a few samplers) that I'll probably set up with the SCSI2SD adapter, soon enough ..

Great news! Lets hear how things progress ..

Okay, so .. I'm a bit confused. Should I follow the wiki info, or .. not .. if not .. why not? Coz it would probably be wise to update the wiki .. and I'm willing to test the changes if you can point out to me what is correct/incorrect.