[JorgeGT]

> with optimal placement of code on the drum being seen as a major programming skill.

I remember reading an article/blog post from a programer of that time detailing how he optimized some code by taking into account the physics of the drum (such as mechanical inertia, angular momentum, etc.). I don't know how to locate it now but it was amazingly low-level.

[Stratoscope]

You may be thinking of the Story of Mel:

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Mel