A guide to running IRIX 6.2 in MAME

About this project:

This is a guide that will help you set up MAME to emulate a Silicon Graphics Indy with a 100MHz MIPS R4600, 128MB of RAM, and 24-bit XL graphics. As of right now the emulator lacks networking and is fairly slow, meaning it's only really good for exploring the OS itself. Have patience with it and don't expect too much from it. I would also like to offer a shout out to everyone who worked on MAME and/or hosts these files. Thank you for making the preservation of this awesome software possible.

Files you will need:

• 72x8455.zm82 (ps2_keybc.zip)
• https://archive.org/download/MAME208RomsOnlyMerged
• natural.bin (kb_ms_natural.zip)
• https://archive.org/download/aristmk6_201810
• ip24prom.070-9101-011.bin
• http://www.vdheijden-messerli.net/sgistuff/nekochan/prom/IP24_Indy/
• MAME 0.212 or later
• https://www.mamedev.org/release.html
• A disk image with IRIX 6.2 installed
• https://tudl1910.home.xs4all.nl/Indy_emulation/irix62.chd

Making the ROM and placing the files:

The ROM file that MAME wants to boot from is a .zip file containing the first three files listed above. Compress them into one .zip archive named "indy_4610.zip" and place it into the "roms" directory in the main MAME directory. Place the irix62.chd into the main MAME directory.

Booting the emulator and setting up the OS:

Open a system shell in your host OS in the MAME directory (PowerShell on Windows, Terminal on macOS/Linux) and enter the following:

./mame64 indy_4610 -gio64_gfx xl24 -cheat -hard1 irix62.chd

As of MAME version 0.212, you will be greeted with an SCSI error at every boot. Wait a moment and then click the "continue" button to continue to the PROM setup. Next you will need to go to the command monitor and enter a three commands. The first two only need to be entered once but the third will be used on every boot.

Set the default Ethernet address:

setenv -f eaddr 08:00:69:12:34:56

Set the display to 1280x1024:

setenv monitor h

Boot the system:

auto

A few words about performance:

Average performance for me is around 15% of a real SGI Indy. That's on my Core2 Quad workstation with a Q9550 running Debian 10. On that same machine running macOS Mojave I get around 8-10%. On my main desktop, a Hackintosh with an i5-2500s and macOS Mojave, I get around 10%. I compiled MAME myself for both systems. I'm not sure why but Linux seems to be the best choice for a host OS when running IRIX in MAME.

Here's a few screenshots of the PROM and IRIX up and running:

And everything looks pretty good on my 1280x1024 monitor.

Did you think that was it? Click below.

Here are some useful links to other stuff:

IRIX Network Forums, Discord, and FTP links.

My other NeoCities site on how to make a hackintosh.

Most recent changes to this website:

I finally did something with the main page. Woo hoo! Progress!

Added MAME guide, links, stamps, screenshots, and this changelog.

Last updated: August 25, 2019