Engineer identifies and explains every ’90s computer seen in Jurassic Park



Jurassic Park, while beloved as a film, has been the subject of snarky memes for the infamous line in which one of the characters declares, “This is a Unix system, I know this!” while using a computer with an unusual 3D file manager interface.

Despite the memes, the film’s production team was meticulous in accurately sourcing the right PCs (and adjacent details) for the sets—not too much of a surprise, given writer Michael Crichton’s background with computing and his obsessive attention to detail in the book the film is based on.

This was made clear by a little hobbyist investigation from Google software engineer Fabien Sanglard. He scanned the film and picked out every specifically identifiable piece of hardware he could see, listed what they were, and shared context from other sources on their specs, costs, and how they ended up in the production.

Truthfully, none of this is new information; people have been discussing the technology in Jurassic Park for years. But it hadn’t been put all in one place in a highly readable analysis in a long time, and it gained some traction this week on Reddit and Hacker News. Plus, Jurassic Park has been on our minds given the recent passing of beloved actor Sam Neill.

Identified hardware includes (among other things) five Thinking Machines CM-5 systems, a Motorola Envoy PDA, and multiple then-cutting-edge SGI workstations, including an IRIS Crimson and an R4000 Indigo. For additional background, Sanglard shared this quote from Jurassic Park special effects coordinator Cory Faucher, as seen in the book The Making of Jurassic Park:



Source link

  • Related Posts

    Windows 0-day drops the same day Microsoft releases record number of patches

    “If I can set up the system so that it runs my code when the admin user logs in,” the attacker has de facto administrator privileges, Will Dormann, a senior…

    Thinking Machines Lab Drops Its First Model

    Thinking Machines Lab, an artificial intelligence company started by exiles from OpenAI, has released its first model, called Inkling. The startup’s new model is open-weight, which means that researchers and…

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    You Missed

    Thirdlove TempSync T-Shirt Bra Review: Can It Actually Keep You Cool?

    Thirdlove TempSync T-Shirt Bra Review: Can It Actually Keep You Cool?

    UK economy grew by 0.1% in May despite impact of Iran war | Economic growth (GDP)

    UK economy grew by 0.1% in May despite impact of Iran war | Economic growth (GDP)

    Raptors paused Kawhi Leonard trade after balking at signing liability clause, sources say

    Raptors paused Kawhi Leonard trade after balking at signing liability clause, sources say

    Windows 0-day drops the same day Microsoft releases record number of patches

    Windows 0-day drops the same day Microsoft releases record number of patches

    GoldenEye-inspired FPS Agent 64: Spies Never Die finally locks a release date, and it’s not far away

    GoldenEye-inspired FPS Agent 64: Spies Never Die finally locks a release date, and it’s not far away

    Brookfield-Backed Data-Center Firm Raises $1.05 Billion in IPO