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The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy VII... in 1996.
It's time for a little dive into mid-1990s computer history!
August 08, 2023
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This is a picture, from 1996, of the 3D animators working on Final Fantasy VII for the Sony PlayStation.

There’s a lot going on in that picture. Let’s take a closer look at exactly what computers and gear they were using to do the 3D animation for this game.

Why? Because, Final Fantasy 7 is a true classic. When the game was first released in early 1997, for the Sony PlayStation, it took the RPG gaming world by storm. To this day, many consider it the greatest entry in the franchise.

While I tend to prefer the earlier, 2D titles, even I must admit that Final Fantasy VII is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Technically, Final Fantasy 7 wasn’t the first time Squaresoft tested the 3D waters with their Final Fantasy franchise.

The Final Fantasy SGI Demo

That honor goes to what is known as the “Final Fantasy SGI demo”. A 3D playable demo, using characters from Final Fantasy 6, showcased in 1995.

Screenshot from the Final Fantasy SGI Demo

“In August of '95, one of the US's largest CG conventions, SIGGRAPH, was held in Los Angeles. At that time we were not sure what the next generation RPG game should look like, so as an experiment we created a CG based, game like, interactive demo to be presented at the show. It focused on battle scenes that were 100% real time and polygon based.” - Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of Final Fantasy)

Polygon did an excellent interview with Kazuyuki Hashimoto (the CG Supervisor of the Final Fantasy 6 SGI Demo) that gives some background on how that was made.

Why was it called the “SGI Demo”? Because it was created using SGI workstations, naturally.

Specifically, this beastly machine… the SGI Onyx.

Originally released in 1993, the Onyx from SiliconGraphics was an absolute powerhouse. The machines were powered by between one and four MIPS processors (originally the R4400’s) — ranging from 100 MHz to 250 MHz.

The RAM on these machines were not industry standard — they were proprietary, 200 pin SGI RAM modules available in 16MB, 64MB, or 256MB variants. The memory board (known as MC3), had slots for 32 memory modules — and could handle up to 8 GB of RAM. 16 GB in the rackmount version (yeah, there was a massive rackmount version).

Think about that for just a moment. This was the mid-1990s.

As massively beastly as that already sounds… these impressive specs were not the sole driving force in an SGI Onyx. That honor went to the graphics system… the Reality Engine 2.

The Reality Engine 2 contained twelve (count ‘em… twelve) Intel i860XP CPUs. Those CPUs, part of Intel’s 80860 line, were completely different from the x86 chips that Intel produced… the 860s were an entirely different, RISC architecture. And SGI used them (12 of them) for the geometry math of the Reality Engine.

If the name “Reality Engine” rings a bell: These machines were employed in the development of Nintendo 64 games in the mid-1990s.

Powering the SGI Onyx was the IRIX operating system — which was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. The specific version used during the production of the “Final Fantasy SGI Demo” would have likely been IRIX 6.0.

IRIX 5.3 desktop — which was similar to the 6.0 release

The cost of these massive rigs? Between $100,000 and $250,000 (depending on configuration).

Now. Take a look at that picture from 1996 again. The one where the two guys are working on Final Fantasy 7…

See that far left hand side monitor? Hm. Too small. Let’s zoom in. ENHANCE!

That is the IRIX 6 desktop running on what is likely an SGI Onyx Deskside workstation.

I say “likely” because the machine itself is not in full view. It is entirely possible that monitor is connected to an off-camera Onyx Rackmount system as well. It is also technically possible that this is connected to an Onyx2 deskside rack model such as this one:

However, considering the development timeline of Final Fantasy 7 — and the fact that the Onyx2 line did not debut until late 1996 — the original Onyx Deskside seems the most likely to be powering that far left monitor.

But what the heck is that middle screen?!

Let’s zoom in on the middle screen for a second. Because that is one seriously  interesting rig.

ENHANCE!

“What the heck is on that screen,” you ask?

That is Genera.

“What the heckatarnations is a Genera?!”

Genera is an operating system, originally developed in the early 1980s, by Symbolics. And it was a pretty impressive system in it’s own right.

Genera was, in reality, a fork of the LISP Operating System developed at MIT. Virtual memory, a full GUI and window manager, neworking, Emacs… this thing had it all.

Back in 1982, the Symbolics Graphics Division was founded to build graphics software, with a heavy emphasis on 3D, on top of Genera — known as the “S-Graphics” suite of tools.

These were incredibly high end graphics tools used in quite a lot of movies throughout the 1980s and even into the mid 1990s, including: Star Trek III, Real Genius, and Free Willy.

So it absolutely makes sense that the Squaresoft team would be utilizing a Genera powered workstation in the development and rendering of the 3D used with Final Fantasy VII.

Based on the timeframe, odds are good that machine is a Symbolics XL1201 Compact Workstation running Genera version 8.x.  Like this one:

That machine was, in turn, driving the video output to the screen on the right… ENHANCE!

… by using a piece of software, which ran on Genera, known as FrameThrower.

What FrameThrower looks like, courtesy of @LispEngineer.

Fun, totally unrelated, bit of trivia: Symbolics registered the very first .com domain name on the entire Internet, on March 15th, 1985 — symbolics.com.

And, finally, those two monitors at the top?

This one is simple: Sony PVM Monitors.

Isn’t computer archaeology fun?

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"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

This episode is free for all to enjoy and share.

Be sure to subscribe here at Lunduke.Locals.com to get all shows & articles (including interviews with other amazing nerds).

"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

@Lunduke this seems like it would be in your wheelhouse. wordpress did a sudden TOS change, and used it as an excuse to nuke the site of this arms accessory maker. https://x.com/L6_Underground/status/1983966847977341066

🤔 If A.I. Is So Great at "Vibe Coding" - then Let It Prove Itself with 100% DevOps in PHP.
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October 15, 2025
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The Unpublished Anti-Lunduke Hit-Piece
A Tech Journalist interviewed me for a hit-piece article. But the questions made them look bad, and they shelved the story. So I'm publishing their hit-piece for them.

Back in September, shortly after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I was contacted by a Tech Journalist writing for FossForce.com (a smaller, Open Source focused publication) who was working on an article around Open Source, Antifa, and the Lunduke Journal’s coverage of those topics.

This particular outlet had, several months prior, run an “anti-Lunduke” hit piece without first reaching out for comment — which resulted in their most popular article (at least on social media) in quite some time.

With that in mind, it seemed reasonable that they’d want to repeat that success with another “anti-Lunduke” story.

This time they were doing the responsible thing. They reached out to the subject of the hit-piece article with questions. I like encouraging Tech Journalists when they do actual journalism, so I answered each and every query with easy-to-quote responses.

But, it would appear that the answers they received were not conducive to creating the hit-piece they were hoping for — my guess is they realized their questions made them look like the villain in the story. The villain they, clearly, hoped to portray me as.

They opted to not publish the piece.

So I’m publishing their hit-piece for them.

Below is every question — and every answer (with no edits) — which I was asked, on September 19th, by a Tech Journalist by the name of Christine Hall, writing for FossForce.

Fair warning: This is very, very politically charged.

Enjoy.


September 19th

Hall:

The last time I mentioned you in an article, you castigated me for not reaching out to you beforehand. Well, I’m reaching out now. We’ll see what comes of this.

You do recognize that the vast majority of organizations using the term antifa as a descriptor are not in the least bit terrorist and pose no threat to society -- and indeed, the only threats they might pose to fascist groups are not physical or life-harming?

Lunduke:

Hello Christine! Nice to hear from you!

Many, if not most, of those proclaiming support for Antifa (within Open Source) have also made statements encouraging or supporting violence and discrimination.

Regardless of that fact -- which I have documented extensively in Lunduke Journal coverage -- when violent acts are committed (such as murder, riots, and lynchings) in the name of “Antifa”, to turn around and immediately declare yourself to be “Antifa” is a clear declaration of support of that violence.

Hall:

And why did you feel it necessary to call out Danielle Foré’s [the founder of the elementary OS Linux Distribution] trans status in such an ugly manner?

Lunduke:

There is a noteworthy overlap between “Trans activism” and support for political violence -- including in the recent murder of Charlie Kirk (the murderer’s boyfriend was “Trans”).

In the case of Daniel Fore, he, a leader of an Open Source project, regularly calls for discrimination (and violence) against people he disagrees with -- often in conjunction with his self-declaration as “Trans”.

Thus, his declaration of being “Trans” becomes a part of the overall story.

It is worth noting here that The Lunduke Journal has never -- and would never -- call for discrimination or violence against someone because of how they identify or who they may (or may not) vote for.

This is in stark contrast those, such as Mr. Fore, who consider themselves “Trans” or “Antifa” -- who actively advocate for both discrimination and violence.

Hall:

Mentioning a person’s trans status in ways that are pertinent to your argument necessates rudeness such as calling her a “dude who likes to wear dresses”?

Lunduke:

Dan Fore is, in fact, a dude who likes to wear dresses.

The only reason to view that as a negative is if you view dudes wearing dresses as a negative.

Hall:

I’ll quote you on that, which I’m pretty sure won’t bother you in the least.

Lunduke:

Absolutely! Quote anything I say here. In fact, I suggest quoting absolutely everything I’ve written to you here, today.

Hall:

You also understand, don’t you, that voicing disagreement with an assessment made by POTUS is not only legal but a healthy part of the national dialog.

Lunduke:

Absolutely! Did I say somewhere that it was illegal to disagree with a politician? It seems unlikely that I have ever said that.

Hall:

Also, how would you reply to this:

There have been very few murders linked to individuals associated with Antifa, some incidents of rioting attributed to Antifa supporters, and no credible evidence of lynchings conducted in the name of Antifa. Compared to far-right groups, violence attributed to Antifa is much less frequent and lethal, with only one suspected kill—Aaron Danielson in Portland, by an anti-fascist activist—officially confirmed in recent U.S. history.

Lunduke:

Murder is bad. I am opposed to all murder.

In the context of these discussions, bearing in mind the Kirk murder is important (as many statements were made in response to it). The murderer of Kirk appears to have been pro-Trans and pro-Antifa (based on all available information).

Hall:

Is there any evidence that the suspect was part of an antifa group? I haven’t seen any.

Lunduke:

I have seen some reporting to this effect (including statements from family and messages he wrote).

But, far more important to this story, is the response to the murder among Antifa supporters (including those within Open Source). A large portion of Antifa supporters have celebrated the murder as justified because it killed someone they considered to be a “fascist”.

Hall:

Also, no group should be held responsible for what some deranged person who identifies with the group has done.

Lunduke:

I agree that a broader group should not be held responsible for the actions of a small number of individuals.

However, and this is critically important, it is entirely appropriate to hold people responsible for their own statements and actions.

With that in mind: The overall messaging of Antifa (and Antifa supporters) tends heavily towards violence. Punching, killing, molotov cocktails, etc. are all common messaging used by Antifa (including by those I quote within the Open Source world -- many of whom have advocated violence against myself).

Advocating for violence, then celebrating when violence is committed, are not good things.

Yet we see a great deal of that among Open Source supporters of Antifa.

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October 13, 2025
Sale ends in a few hours, Lifetime Subs set up.

Holy moly, you guys are amazing.

A few days ago I published a “50% off” sale for Lunduke Journal subscriptions… and all of you showed up. In a big way.

To everyone who grabbed a Lifetime Subscription over the last few days: All of you are set to full Lifetime access. You should have a confirmation email in your inbox. If not, email me and I’ll make sure you’re setup properly.

That “50% off” sale ends tonight at midnight. So you have a few hours to snag a discounted subscription, if you haven’t already.

A huge thank you to everyone who supports this work. Couldn’t do it without you.

-Lunduke

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