Anyone have IRIS Universe Magazine.

KayBee

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Feb 24, 2020
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Back in the late 90s I worked at a visual effects house in Vancouver (on a TMNT tv show-low budget) and I remember these magazines being around. I forgot about it until recently. I have found very little on the web regarding it. Anyone know if these exist digitally?

Cheers,

KB
 

AstridRedfern

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Sep 20, 2022
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A bit more (only photos this time, no PDFs):

Two pages, one of them a MultiGenII advert, from an unknown issue.
Then two pages (page numbers unknown) of issue 35 (with an article on the 3D animation show "ReBoot".)
Then, finally, pages 24 and 25 of issue 33 (with an article on using CAD to design "LA Gear" shoes.)

These are taken from an eBay listing - someone's selling a bundle of Corel magazines plus five IRIS Universe magazines, a second copy of one of those magazines, and a title I can't make out. The price is steep - $199 - as is postage outside the US. I don't know if pasting eBay URLs is frowned upon here, but you can easily find the listing by doing an exact phrase search for "IRIS Universe" on the site.

Perhaps whoever's selling it might be willing to sell the IRIS Universe issues separately? I haven't asked, but it might be worth a try if you're interested in owning these.

Unknown issue, unknown page.jpg

Issue 35 page numbers unknown.jpg
Issue 33 pages 24 and 25.jpg
 
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KayBee

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Too bad that auction is for an expensive lot that is mostly "COREL" magazine of all things. I have even contacted "famous" SGI staffers from back in the day but no one so far has kept the IRIS Universe issues. I keep hoping for them to show up en masse as .pdf.
 

KayBee

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Feb 24, 2020
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Very Cool Mx! That is an interesting article.
EDIT - The magazine has articles that go way beyond other magazines, Mx's post of the realtime shadow article makes me want the magazines even more. Someone, somewhere has them on a shelf.
 
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AstridRedfern

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Sep 20, 2022
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If anyone here has a Facebook account, you may be able to contact someone who owns four issues of IRIS Universe.

(I'm not on FB, and I'd rather not sign up if I can avoid it!)

Someone called Chan Wilson posted photos of the front covers here:


IRIS_Universe_four_front_covers.jpg
 
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AstridRedfern

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More of a retype than a scan, but here is "Creatures of the complex plane" by Jeffrey Ventrella, from the Summer 1988 issue:

URL:

Archive URL:

Another archive URL:

Linked to from:

It's not in PDF format, so I couldn't upload a copy here, but hopefully the archive links will make up for that.
 
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AstridRedfern

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Thanks to Worthpoint saving information from old eBay listings, I've been able to find a few page scans from the Fall 1987 issue of IRIS Universe at https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/silicon-graphics-computer-system-sgi-1905260909 (archive.is link: https://archive.is/3nCTK).

The eBay listing it archives dates back to 2018, and is still hosted on ebay.ie (minus pictures), but not ebay.com: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/352274689499 . Note that this ONE issue sold for FORTY-THREE DOLLARS! I knew old copies of IRIS Universe are hard to find, but even so!

Front cover:

silicon-graphics-computer-system-sgi_1_9f173831cfb47cb23af3abf8c87ec68d (front cover).jpg


Back cover:

silicon-graphics-computer-system-sgi_1_9f173831cfb47cb23af3abf8c87ec68d (back cover).jpg


Pages 2 and 3 - sadly not all of the text is legible, unless your eyes are sharper than mine!

silicon-graphics-computer-system-sgi_1_9f173831cfb47cb23af3abf8c87ec68d (pages 2 and 3).jpg


Pages 16 and 17 (though, again, not all of the text is legible):

silicon-graphics-computer-system-sgi_1_9f173831cfb47cb23af3abf8c87ec68d (pages 16 and 17).jpg


Now, those of you familiar with my previous postings may note that this issue is the particular one I've been trying to track down, and Pages 16 and 17 above contain the information and screenshot I've been looking for, showing an X-Wing in the modified version of *flight*. Clearly the copyright lawyers hadn't yet made their voices heard, as back in 1987 SGI were willing to send out the new version, X-Wings and all, to anyone who wrote to them.

And, importantly, this article identifies the author as one Shannon McKenzie, of the University of Toronto. I've been searching, and have actually been able to track McKenzie down! I'd very much like to get in touch with him, and ask if he still has the old source code and if he might be willing to upload it anywhere. And maybe answer a few questions about the mod!

Sadly, there's a problem. The only ways I have to make contact would have to be through Facebook or LinkedIn, as these appear to be his only online presence:

https://ca.linkedin.com/in/shannon-mckenzie-9498801
https://www.facebook.com/shannon.b.mckenzie.9/

Facebook is out - I do not have and do not even want to have a Facebook account! As for LinkedIn... I could create an account there, but I've always been a bit uncomfortable with having to upload practically my entire CV on a social media website. Recruiters find me just fine via email and phone, and I'm willing to send my CV to them, but I still don't like making that information visible to all and sundry online.

So... this is a request to anyone with either an LI or FB profile. Could you message Shannon McKenzie on there, and ask if he still has the source for this version of flight? Or at least a compiled IRIX binary? And if he'd be willing to upload it, so that people could try to get it running on their SG boxes or more modern machines?

Thanks!

PS. From what I can see of his Facebook page, he's been looking for work since October 2021, despite a long and varied career in game development, so if you know of any suitable Canadian software firms who are hiring (or other game dev companies who might be willing to pay for relocation) maybe you could let him know?
 

AstridRedfern

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Sep 20, 2022
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Now for an article from the Summer 1996 issue (Volume 36, Issue 4):

The Art of Virtual Reality
By Paulina Borsook
In IRIS Universe. Vol. 36 (4) (Summer, 1996)
pp. 37-40, illus.


Link: http://www.immersence.com/publications/1996/1996-PBorsook.html
Archive links: https://web.archive.org/web/20180117180950/http://www.immersence.com/publications/1996/1996-PBorsook.html and https://archive.is/QQPCD

Sadly, an article footnote states that "some images from the original magazine article have been omitted in order to create balance between text and images in this web version". Anyway, here are the images, though you'll have to follow the article link for the text:

1996-PBorsook-Iris-lrg.jpg


1996-PBorsook_RAddison-3-lrg.jpg


Osm_Subt_Earth_600_v2.jpg


1996-PBorsook_CGreuel-lrg.jpg
 
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KayBee

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Feb 24, 2020
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I periodically check eBay and ABE books for IRIS Universe. If I ever find a reasonable auction I will ask for contributions from you all in order to buy them then I will scan the issues for everyone, that's the whole plan. I work with people who were SGI mgmt and no one has the issues. Heartbreaker but I will keep looking. There is the one eBay auction but the price is nuts and really I could not care less about COREL magazine, which is the majority of the lot. Anyway, someone somewhere has the whole collection, and we need to find it.
 
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