Jurassic Park packed $4 million of legit 1993 computer hardware - a software engineer detailed every single piece of hardware in the film

Hardware Inventory

Google software engineer Fabien Sanglard meticulously listed the computer hardware and software used in the first Jurassic Park film. He even added details for each device, turning the film into something of a computer museum.

The movie featured 6 different types of computers, a PDA, a supercomputer, and more. Sanglard, who currently works as a Software Engineer at Google, has meticulously detailed every computer he can find in the original Jurassic Park movie, finally letting interested fans and viewers know what computers they need to get if they want to recreate the park.

The complete list and corresponding details are available on Sanglard’s website, which shows a total of six unique working computers, a PDA, two large CRT monitors, and a classic mechanical keyboard. He also covered the software that received screen time, including the meteorology software used in the movie to show the hurricane about to batter the island, which was also used in actual newsrooms at the time.

Most of the equipment listed can actually be found in the Jurassic Park Control Room, and even though most were only found in this particular set, they were all real, and most actually worked.

Equipment Cost and Authenticity

Sanglard quoted the film’s special effects coordinator, Cory Faucher, from the book The Making of Jurassic Park. According to Faucher:

“Everything in the set was real. We couldn't fake any of it, because audiences are so sophisticated now in their knowledge of computers. All told, $875,000 worth of computer hardware loaned by Silicon Graphics, $350,000 worth from Apple and some $500,000 in additional hardware and software went into equipping both the set and off-stage control room.”

This meant that all the gear the crew and cast were working with cost $1,725,000 back in 1992 - that’s worth more than $4 million in today’s money.

Complete Device List

Notable Details

The only non-working unit in the set was the Thinking Machines CM-5, which one commenter said was only the front panels of the supercomputer with red LED lights.

Most of the software that we see on screen was actually working, except for the scene where Nedry was supposedly talking to his getaway driver while looking at him from a security feed on his Macintosh. Eagle-eyed viewers have long noticed that this wasn’t an actual video feed but a prerecorded video playing in QuickTime; you can even see the mouse cursor hiding the pause button.

It’s nice to see all these high-end computers that actually work the way they were meant to, unlike the nonsense that we see in many Hollywood films and TV shows that have a person (or two) typing gibberish to counter a “hacker” and then stopping the attack by just unplugging the terminal from the power source.

So, if you want to see all these vintage machines in action, go ahead and watch Jurassic Park again this weekend. You can also check out this 3D-printed retro PC that looks like it's from the '80s and '90s or this M4-powered iMac G3 if you want to see more classic PCs (but running on modern hardware, this time).