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SYMBOLICS S-PACKAGES 3D GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION DEMO

Red Martian · demo · Watch on YouTube

History of computingComputer graphics & renderingFunctional programming

What it is

A demo of the Symbolics Graphics Division's S-Packages, a Lisp-based 3D color graphics and animation system from the 1980s. It was later used in developing for the Nintendo 64.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN cites it as a startling example of how advanced Lisp machine interactive graphics were, often in Lisp and REPL-driven development discussions.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “I really enjoyed the Symbolics graphics and animations demo[0] linked in the article.”

    Surprisingly advanced 1980s Lisp machine graphics and animation

    loosetypes, 2018-10 · Strong recommendation · in “How Lisp Became God's Own Programming Language”

  2. “Be prepared to be amazed with what Xerox PARC and others were doing”

    One of several classic demos of early interactive environments

    pjmlp, 2021-01 · Recommendation · in “On Repl-Driven Programming”

  3. “If you want to see it in action, watch this”

    Symbolics 3D animation system in action

    mepian, 2022-04 · Recommendation · in “The computers used to do 3D animation for Final Fantasy VII in 1996”

  4. “It makes working on VSCode today look like banging rocks together, let alone 30 years ago.”

    Interactive Lisp systems that outclass modern editors

    hcarvalhoalves, 2024-10 · Recommendation · in “The Rise of Worse Is Better (1991)”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: symbolics, lisp, 3d animation, retrocomputing, s-packages

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