John Carmack Programmed for a 28 "FullHD Monitor in 1995

The image above is a classic snapshot of John Carmack, who intensively programs some part of the engine of the legendary game Quake2 (the interface is similar to Visual Studio).

Most people look at a photograph and see a very focused, famous programmer. But if you look closely, you can see that the display he is looking at is absolutely gigantic. But the picture was taken in 1995, when LCD monitors only appeared on the market, and even the smallest LCD display cost fantastic money.

Carmack's display is something completely special. This is a 28-inch model of Silicon Graphics / Integraph InterView 28hd96, and there is no smell of any LCD here. The box made using CRT technology weighed 45 kg, with dimensions of 49.5 x 69.9 x 62 cm, and consumed about 180 watts!

If you think that Carmack remade a large TV under the monitor, then you are mistaken. This is a full-fledged computer monitor, which had several important characteristics for Carmack. Most importantly, he kept a resolution of 1920 x 1080. That is, such a resolution in which almost no game of that time could start.



The useful screen size is actually 25.9 ", and the maximum brightness is only 100 candelas / m ^2. Despite this, such a monitor was an object of desire for many programmers and gamers of that time. For a regular user, the cost of this monitor is about ten thousand dollars was too big.

I wonder if at that time Carmack had such a monitor, then what is he using now? Probably several monitors, each with a resolution of 1080p, and even all together they consume much less than 180 watts. [UPD: Carmack has said on Twitter]

Monitor specifications InterView 28hd96