I believe I first heard of these in an Alex Rider book. Forget which one.

Hmmm… Hackers maybe?

No, those were Gisbon.

maybe, but also I visited one at the computing museum in Georgia. More pcs should have a communal bench attached

I first worked on one in a summer thing between high school and college - before Jurassic Park. That experience is what originally got me interested in the Internet.