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When it originally opened in Disneyland, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room required a massive bank of computers which filled the basement floor and required air
by robbiet480 7y ago
When it originally opened in Disneyland, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room required a massive bank of computers which filled the basement floor and required air conditioning, the only building that had it, making it an excellent way to cool off during the hot summers. Another fun fact, it was so expensive that Walt funded the project himself and it required a separate admission ticket to experience it. Finally, a minor correction to the article: The Tiki Room was originally envisioned as a restaurant but was changed to be an attraction before opening because the Imagineers realized people probably wouldn't respond well to birds defecating in their food (which they obviously couldn't since they were automated).
- Animats 7y agoIn 1963? No. The first minicomputer, the PDP-8, didn't launch until 1964. Those birds were driven by audio tones on magnetic tape driving a reed receiver.[1] Reed receivers were used in early radio controlled aircraft.[2] They probably needed a big machine room for all the control gear, and it might have looked like a computer because of all the magnetic tape gear, but it wasn't. The Lincoln system used a multichannel analog instrumentation recorder. Those could record signals down to DC, because they had FM modulators and demodulators. (You can't record DC on magnetic tape directly.) I saw a copy of the original system running in an art gallery in SF in the late 1980s, set up by some retired Disney employee. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney%27s_Enchanted_Tiki_Room https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney%27s_Enchanted_Tiki... [2] http://www.rchalloffame.org/WhoFirst/First01/files/BIGrelayless-1.jpg.jpg http://www.rchalloffame.org/WhoFirst/First01/files/BIGrelayl...
- robbiet480 7y agoYou're entirely right, I misremembered the control gear as computers. As a disfan, I feel extreme shame.