Originally Posted By ssWEDguy Dave and G7 -- Thanks for all the sweet computer history info. It brings back memories. The term "BUNCH" was the one I was trying to recall. I'd never heard the Snow White analogy before, but it's a good one too. All this ancient history -- and it's really not all that old. All those companies swallowing each other up. Things move so quickly in that whole industry. ----------------------- The RCA MainFrame was all done up using color spectrum displays. The model I'm thinking of was the Spectra/70. ----------------------- Really ancient history -- My first mainframe right out of school was an IBM 1401. About the size of a Volkswagen, it had a total of 4K of memory. (No, not a typo...) And punch cards.
Originally Posted By brotherdave Thanks for the insider info, G7! Very interesting info about the computers used to run Epcot when it first opened. Is anything being used in that space now?
Originally Posted By marni71 Nice memories... For those wanting a look at Communicore, and specifically Backstage Magic, I created a free to download video (yep, one of many) - "Spaceship Earth `86 and Communicore - Martins Ultimate Tribute" It`s available at www.mousebits.com as a torrent, and is probably available at YouTube (at much lower quality) - though the first half is a multi camera ride thru of the Cronkite SSE, the second half looks at the history of Communicore, and features a full walkthrough of both east and west with display details and full layout maps, and also has the full Backstage Magic show. It is a sad reflection that the bright, open layout of Communicore with good traffic flow patterns was swapped for the dark, winding paths of Innoventions (and also a lot of the original CCore entrance doors were blocked up and repositioned) - I could witter on for pages about the subject and EPCOT-Epcot generally, but I think we all know it.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^Yep. This thread sure is a blast to the past when Epcot was EPCOT Center and aimed a whole lot higher.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Looking for photos of Backstage Magic brought me to my souvenir books, bought through the years. Communicore really was a trippy place when EPCOT was a Center. Sad to also see old favorites Horizons, Imagination, and Motion in their glory days. (Sad in the sense of knowing they would be gutted and replaced.)
Originally Posted By g7 BrotherDave, I haven't been back in that area since the late 80's. I was working at what was then EPCOT Center, and a friend who worked at Central took me for a tour after-hours. I even got to hear the infamous Horizons tape on that tour. (There's a subtly provocative dialog in Horizons, clearl intended as a in inside joke by the designers, but it was hard to make out in the show audio; I was able to hear it directly from the tape). I have no idea what's in the space now, but I'd hazard a guess that anything that didn't need to be dismantled, probably wasn't. The original upstairs Image Works is some 70-80% intact, and it seems that the original unload for Adventure Thru Inner Space remained intact for years after Star Tours took over. It seems that Disney is loathe to do any more than they have to backstage. I guess that can be a good thing though, when pieces of history like this are preserved. I'd love to go back to Central now and see what it's like! There may be other bits of original Communicore hidden away as well. Speaking of which, there is one small bit that's relatively untouched. There's one corridor in Communicore West that looks almost as it did in EPCOT Center's heyday. It's such an odd juxtaposition, yet reassuring to see it. G7
Originally Posted By g7 Martin, you have my vote to "witter on" all you want! Your posts are always a great read, and the Disney community is forever indebted to you for preserving our memories on video. G7
Originally Posted By g7 To clarify my previous post, I suspect that the equipment is largely gone if they had a use or buyer for it. But I suspect that the space otherwise probably remains much the same, unless it was gutted to make room for some part of Innoventions. I haven't spent enough time in Innoventions to figure out its "footprint".
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn You know you're getting old when a historical forensic investigation uncovers the historical existencse of EPCOT's Astuter Computer Review. That was yesterday to me. Sperry/UNIVAC, Bell Systems, GE, United Technologies - where did it all go? I have the Computer Review's MP3 theme song in my playlist.
Originally Posted By brotherdave "You see my friends, the computer does the drudgery, leaves me free for better things, I push some buttons, and in another mo', what was a sticky wicket, becomes an easy go!..." Yeah, righhhht!!!!
Originally Posted By avromark ^^^ At least those computers don't experience the blue screen of death or were over run with malware.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy You ARE kidding, aren't you? You don't remember S0C7's and S0C1's? And core dumps?
Originally Posted By g7 I remember core dumps from Unix (I assume they're still happening). But what's an SOC1 and SOC7??
Originally Posted By alexbook Ooh, "core dumps" -- that's a phrase I haven't heard in a long time. The true uber-geek was the guy who could figure out what had gone wrong by reading a hex display of the core dump.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> The true uber-geek was the guy who could figure out what had gone wrong by reading a hex display of the core dump. << We had a blind programmer back then. He would get his core dumps printed in braille. Working on memory here -- a S0C7 was one of the 8 or so major common data errors that would cause your program to stop. Then you had to figure out what went wrong. It was IBM terminology. A S0C7 (referred to as a "sock seven") was a data exception.
Originally Posted By brotherdave ^^^A "shudder" just went through my body thinking back to my years in college using punch cards!
Originally Posted By Labuda My brother and I would make pictures with the punch card stuff. I made a Snoopy once. hehe
