11 Forgotten Media Formats of Yesteryear

[RobertB]

Popular Mechanics has released an on-line article entitled, "11 Forgotten Media Formats of Yesteryear". The subtitle says, "You remember the floppy drive, but do you remember the Commodore 64 tape drive?" (My answer -- of course, I do!)

They only identify the Datasette with the C64 and not with the other compatible C= 8-bit computers - PET, VIC-20, Plus/4, C128, and CBM II series. To read about what they say about the Datasette, see

 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/g3075/the-forgotten-media-of-yesteryear/?src=nl&mag=pop&list=nl_pnl_news&date=050917

 

Truly,

Robert Bernardo

June 10-11 Pacific Commodore Expo NW -

http://www.portcommodore.com/pacommex

July 29-30 Commodore Vegas Expo v13 -

http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

Edited May 11, 2017 by RobertB

[carlsson]

While the CBM-II computers do have a card edge connector for the C2N, they don't have any ROM support for one so a tape drive is dead weight on the B128, CBM 610 etc unless you use a custom ROM set or perhaps load some software from cartridge or disk.

 

However the lines are there to be polled, so a few commercial packages in the 80's implemented a polled IEC interface through the tape connector, something refined in modern days through various parties with custom ROMs, allowing you to (slowly) address a 1541 on the CBM-II computers. I believe the same kind of polling is doable on the PET/CBM line as well, but I'm unsure if anyone implemented it.

 

Besides the figure of 100 kB per cassette seems to apply to the original 300 baud loader (or if it is 600 baud but recorded twice for an effective rate of 300). With Turbo Tape 64 which I found quite robust to use even on noname cassettes, you could get up to 10 times that amount per hour of cassette tape. Suddenly one C64 could hold as much programs as three floppy disks, though sequential storage and much slower, in particular if you involve a matching disk turbo in your calculation. The disk turbo though doesn't increase storage capacity of the disk.

 

Also, while I'm not terribly well versed in ZX Spectrum hardware, I've never heard about a Microdrive adapter that would plug into your stereo before. I though it recorded digital data on the string floppy rather like a floppy disk or DAT tape I suppose, rather than audio data like a micro cassette. The "unlike the Datasette" also suggests that the regular cassette could not be recorded or copied with a standard tape recorder or stereo, while the opposite is true. The fact that you'd get copy effects that may degrade the audio data to be loaded is another matter.

Edited May 11, 2017 by carlsson

[motrucker]

Great article, that gets many, if not most, of the facts wrong. Rather short sighted too, since there are so many other devices to take pot shots at. Popular Mechanics may have a great magazine in the 1930's and 1940's, but its day has long gone.

The day that Hearst bought the publication back in the mid-fifties was it's total downfall.

 

 

 

 

 

[danny_galaga]

I didn't realise a hard drive was a forgotten media format...

 

(or a datasette for that matter)

[CatPix]

Also, while I'm not terribly well versed in ZX Spectrum hardware, I've never heard about a Microdrive adapter that would plug into your stereo before. I though it recorded digital data on the string floppy rather like a floppy disk or DAT tape I suppose, rather than audio data like a micro cassette.

And you are right. The Microdrive store data in digital format, and on a continuous loop. On this regard, it's more like a 8-track tape, but with digital data like on a floppy.

It wasn't as reliable tho, because like 8-tracks, the Microdrive faced an issue with tape stretching.

Even when the Microdrive was brand new, Spectrum magazines warned people to format their new Microdrive several times, at least 10 times, to "stretch" the tape and avoir future issues.