PDP-11/45

The machine that did the Death Star.

It was animated by [Larry Cuba], located at Circle Graphics Habitat at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and run by Tom Defanti.

Today, that machine is restored and owned by Steve Heminover, discussing the restoration process here (at Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2019)

Watch his talk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mtLUws1bOk

In 1974, Steve Heminover became a part of the Circle Graphics Habitat at UIC, an early pioneer of computer graphics modeling and animation. One of the most famous outputs of this group was the use of the Vector General Graphics Display to display the 3-D wireframe animation for Star Wars, featuring Larry Cuba's groundbreaking work. In this talk, Steve goes over that history, how he obtained the original Vector General Graphics Display used for Star Wars, how the restoration process progressed, and the final result: Viewing the Death Star on the very screen it was filmed from.