11 Forgotten Media Formats of Yesteryear

[RobertBe]

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/technol ... ate=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

[highinfidelity]

Thanks for the link Robert. Usually these articles are quite laughable, and seem aimed to children of uneducated families who ignore the existence of objects familiar or well known to all average citizens. However, in this case, there were indeed a pair of items about which I also didn't know or have forgotten about.

The imprecision about the datassette is quite amazing, though, and I also wonder how is it possible that the last-in-line of the computers that used it was mentioned instead of the machines for which the datassette was engineered in first place. It's a well known information, and very easy to find on the web.

[akator]

It is also strange that they focused on Commodore and Sinclair, not really conveying how common cassettes were as a computer storage medium. Almost every brand of consumer computer in the late 70s and early 80s had some way to use cassettes, either through generic cassette recorders or proprietary cassette drives. I used cassettes with Apple, Atari, TRS-80, and TI computers back in the day. Even after disk drives took off, many people still used cassettes because of the low cost.

But other than that, I agree the list is above average compared to most click bait lists

[Forbidden64]

It is also strange that they focused on Commodore and Sinclair, not really conveying how common cassettes were as a computer storage medium. Almost every brand of consumer computer in the late 70s and early 80s had some way to use cassettes, either through generic cassette recorders or proprietary cassette drives. I used cassettes with Apple, Atari, TRS-80, and TI computers back in the day. Even after disk drives took off, many people still used cassettes because of the low cost.

But other than that, I agree the list is above average compared to most click bait lists

Ya even the first IBM PC, the 5150 has a cassette port (DB-25 connector and labelled as such) as an option. I haven't yet restored my IBM's, but I managed to get 4 early ones several years ago. They came with no monitor or keyboards, alas. So I cannot speak to how exactly one might use them in practice. In fact, I have never seen an IBM PC with a tape drive even in pictures... I don't even know what it looks like. I'm just glad that Commodore got a mention in these mainstream articles. Most of the time its just big iron, Apple, and IBM. those three are the mainstream of what people know about computer history...and in that order. I was hoping for a stringy floppy for my commodore...but seeing how terrible they are in the speccy's...I recanted my wish. The concept of a continuous high speed tape is pretty cool though. No piano key buttons required, so it is hands free tape operation.

[CurtisP]

Ya even the first IBM PC, the 5150 has a cassette port (DB-25 connector and labelled as such) as an option. I haven't yet restored my IBM's, but I managed to get 4 early ones several years ago. They came with no monitor or keyboards, alas. So I cannot speak to how exactly one might use them in practice..

Just like every other home computer, one used the commands in the Basic that was in ROM.