SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer From 1993 Silicon Graphics Onyx RealityEngine² 18 49 Screenshot

A computer enthusiast known as "Dodoid" posted a video on his YouTube channel in August about Silicon Graphics' Onyx RealityEngine² - a $250,000 graphics supercomputer from 1993. What's interesting about SGI machines is how Nintendo, at the time, developed N64 games on the hardware; the console's internals were jointly developed by SGI.

As noted by Polygon, the creator of the video points out the similarities between 'buttonfly' - a 3D graphics menu used to launch 3D graphics demos - and the main menu in Super Mario 64. It's a likely scenario that one of the developers behind the 1996 Nintendo 64 launch title had at some point played around with buttonfly on their SGI workstation, and that's how the menu in the game was created.

SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer From 1993 Silicon Graphics Onyx RealityEngine² 18 43 Screenshot

Did you know about this already? Are you familiar with the Onyx? Do you miss Super Mario 64? Tell us below.

[source polygon.com]