During the mid 80s I was working at a large datacentre. Where the systems lived was just a large cold and noisy glass fronted room full of bland beige boxes.

When we had VIPs visiting to check out where the big bucks were going we'd hang a couple of light boards off boxes in the front row and run progs that got the upright tape drives to jerk the reels back and forth like in the movies.


There were always lots of "ahhh yes" type comments when they looked into the room with the lights flashing away and the tapes spinning back and forth.