Just checking out some of my stuff packed away in the stacks, some of this I haven't looked at in years. Here's a nice little gem, still in the package!
I'm sure it would work fine in a walkman. As most computers including the TI 99/4 were designed to be used with standard shoebox type cassette recorders it is probably a standard ferric tape. However did you notice the length? CP15 is almost certainly 15 minutes or 7.5 minutes a side. With a typical computer program being 5 minutes or less in length that the advantage of "Computer Cassettes" was you could just put one program per side and not much rewinding was required if you wanted the other program. If you think finding the track you want is difficult on an audio C60 try it on an 80s computer where everything just sounds like beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep (or a dial up modem).
I learned basic on a Sinclair ZX-80 with a tape drive, the hard drive on my Apple II was one of the biggest leaps in technology I had ever seen.
hey Longman, you're so right - anybody remembers my post lately about that austrian ROTORCHROME reel-2-reel cassette ? when i put it in a deck to find out what was on it, face a starts with exactly those beeeeeeeeeep's, it reminded me immediately of my first personal-computer wich was a Commodore VIC20 (it's still somewhere at my parents house...), i got it 2nd hand in 1982 (!). it featured a "datasette" recorder, wich was nothing more than a cheap cassette-recorder i must go there within the next days and play Indiana Jones in between cob-webs and bats, to find it
You mean like this? (WARNING: Very loud, turn volume right down!!! It gets a bit more interesting after 1:15)
Haha, glad to hear it. I'll be recording that onto a cassette soon to use in my Spectrum, I might have to look out for some of these computer tapes.
Was that in the USA ? I know Sinclair sold some computers there. I agree with the point about hard drives. Even Floppy Drives were a big step forward from Tape. Both were originally very expensive though. Back on the subject of tapes, does anyone remember when they came taped to the front of computer magazines. http://www.wizwords.net/the-spectrum-covertape-wars/#.Wfj2RE2DMeg Usually very cheap ones with welded cases and sometimes no transparent plastic in the windows. I wonder what happened to all the millions that must have been made.
We had the Timex Sinclair, Timex had the distribution channels and they advertised it like crazy at $199, then $99. It's competition was the Apple II at $1600+, the TRS-80 and maybe the Commadore PET. The Sinclair was a great way to learn basic and the hacking community was in to it so there was a ton of add-ons. My neighbor used it for advanced math equations and it give the HP Calculators a run for the money.
In the UK Timex (who were well known for their watches) was the sub-contact manufacturer of the Sinclair computers and TVs. I wonder what year that was ? By about 1984 I bought a TI99/4A, new but on clearance for less than I paid for my ZX81 !
In the UK we got the ZX80 in 1980 followed by ZX81 in 1981. Here is a link to a ZX81 advert http://dayintechhistory.com/dith/march-5-1981-timex-sinclair-zx81-launched/ Sinclair were renown for slow delivery, I waited about eight weeks for my ZX81. It is rumoured that they used the money people sent in response to the adverts to finish the development of each product. With so much demand in the UK it isn't surprising if they launched products later in the USA. By 1982 they had launched the ZX Spectrum, which most people had expected to be called the ZX82. That had a very long run, with Amstrad who bought out Sinclair selling variations of the Spectrum until 1992.