Years ago, I managed a VAX Cluster that was housed in the corner of an IBM mainframe-dominated computer room. The console consisted of a vt220 and an la36 print

Years ago, I managed a VAX Cluster that was housed in the corner of an IBM mainframe-dominated computer room. The console consisted of a vt220 and an la36 print/terminal. It used to crack me up to see the mainframe's console. Big iron always had a big presence. Terminals for the tape drives, terminals for the printers, terminals for the batch jobs, terminals for everything. Parked at the end of "terminal row," where the operators gathered and spent most of their time, was a "special" console terminal -- the one running Adventure. I'd walk in, they'd look up, then go back to "work." Amid the drone of the fans, chillers and band printers you'd hear, "I think you have to put down the lantern before you pick up the keys." Tucked away somewhere behind the manuals was a hand drawn map on green-bar paper.