[masswerk]

The sounds are actually extracted from footage showing this kind of equipment at work. The tape drive operations are controlled by random (based on what assumptions on the index and block locations should we do this?), but should usually feature some pauses and stops. The action of the tape tensioners is highly exaggerated in order to provide a substitute for the vacuum columns that can't be shown in this layout (providing a bit of a visual explanation for the asynchronous action of the reels).

Please understand that this is not meant to be a full emulation (like, say, Hercules compiled via Emscripten). Otherwise you would have to re-implement Google on top of zOS ... ;-)