Inquiry

From: Philip.Belben_at_pgen.com <(Philip.Belben_at_pgen.com)>
Date: Fri Apr 30 09:54:22 1999

Hi Stephanie!


> I have a lot of the kid's computers, (Atari, Commodore, CoCo, etc), which
> I am trying to keep alive. Does anyone know if I can substitute high
> quality music tapes in place of computer tapes? Or where I can still
> find computer cassette tapes for sale?


My recollections are that the tape decks used for home computers were all fairly
cheap. Even the Commodore ones, which you had to buy specially at vast cost,
were quite cheap decks inside. (For commercial software production a friend and
I used the deck from my hi-fi, but that's another story).

The important thing is that very few of these decks could handle chromium
dioxide or metal tapes properly. Ferric oxide tapes will give you the best
results.

Other than that, use any half-way decent brand. The really top brands will give
the best results, but like many other contributors to this list, I never had any
problems with cheap tapes (I couldn't afford decent ones when I was using home
computers regularly). I have since tried the compact-cassette-sized "digital
tapes" that were popular for backups and things a few years ago, but ordinary
audio tapes work better.

After all, the home computer market had to get quite big before "computer tapes"
became readily available in small-town electronics shops and places. As far as
I can tell, the only distinguishing feature of these tapes was the short length.

Philip.

PS Do I also have to say "Welcome to the list"? This is your first post isn't
it?
Received on Fri Apr 30 1999 - 09:54:22 BST