Exploring a 1950s space ship

[Hand of Evil]

A large computer room with lines and lines of magnetic tapes.

this is why you had the Robot that goes mad

 

[Hand of Evil]

Could go with Warship deck plans, noticed a lot of spaceships from the 50s were setup like a 40s battleship.

 

[Sanguinarious]

Atomic Rockets - Atomic Rockets

projectrho.com

 

[RealAlHazred]

A large computer room with lines and lines of magnetic tapes.

Nope. Computers weren't a thing in 1950s sci-fi movies and stories. You might have a Robot Brain, but it's not going to run more than a single Robot, generally. That would change at the end of the 50s, with some press for Eniac and Univac and such.

 

[Sanguinarious]

Some computers in 50's movies were just industrial sound systems set up with blank tape playing on them.

A 50s movie called 'magnetic monster' featured a computer called MANIAC.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Some computers in 50's movies were just industrial sound systems set up with blank tape playing on them.

A 50s movie called 'magnetic monster' featured a computer called MANIAC.

Sure, but those generally didn't have spaceships. I'm thinking about Forbidden Planet, and Flash Gordon, and Desination Moon, and I don't remember seeing rooms with computers. I think people assumed they'd take up a huge amount of space, and space would be at a premium on a spacecraft. Nobody expected how small they would get!

 

[Davies]

I would start with the gondola of a dirigible and expand it to be a bit more circular rather than oblong -- flying saucers are the latter day descendants of mysterious airships, so something that expands on the closest equivalent that ever really existed might work.

 

[aramis erak]

A large computer room with lines and lines of magnetic tapes.

Only about half have computer rooms... the other half assume computers are built into the panels and system, and not room sized things set apart. The Flash Gordon movies (save the 80's one) don't have massive rooms for the computers, but do have significantly large panels...

 

[Sanguinarious]

Sure, but those generally didn't have spaceships. I'm thinking about Forbidden Planet, and Flash Gordon, and Desination Moon, and I don't remember seeing rooms with computers. I think people assumed they'd take up a huge amount of space, and space would be at a premium on a spacecraft. Nobody expected how small they would get!

The cruiser in forbidden planet nuwt have had a computer, they looked up morbius quick abd something told they they were being scanned from. Altair 4.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Blinking lights. Lots of blinking lights.