Sorry, I've posted this before so always feel like blabbering if I repeat - but here goes - I was 14, my dad had a print business and printed all the cockpit panels for a private company developing an F16 simulator for the Israeli air force. He took me to their offices one weekend. The setup was a full 180 degree screen projections, a realistics 1:1 F16 cockpit with all the panels and buttons etc, and a SGI running the show. They gave me the spinning Beatle car demo, and then sat me down to fly. That day left a hard imprint (including the price tag on the SGI which they were proud to mention). I was an Amiga kid, and to top it all off, the other room had what seemed like hundreds of Amigas, which were used to build 3D models for the simultaor.

They said they received a demo. That is to say they were among people who got a few minutes to witness the $250k worth of hardware in action.

I remember that flight simulator demo, it was something you'd find at events and trade shows or even super fancy arcades. This was back in the first VR 'boom' and tail end of the era of arcades. Some companies used SGI and similar powerful workstations to build simulator game pods, like for mechwarrior and spacecraft racing games. People would pay for a 5-10 minute session in one.

"Demo" can mean a lot of things. Getting hands on a VIP pass at an airshow meant I received, as an 8 year old, a rather comprehensive demo... of JAS-39 Gripen multirole fighter jet. Just the seat I sat for half an hour cost $250k.

Sometimes you can get yourself into really interesting places :)