A Box of Tapes

[8-bit Coma]

While cleaning out some stuff my parents put in storage decades ago I found a Puma shoebox filled with cassettes with software from my Atari 400.  Most of it is stuff that was typed in from ANALOG or ANTIC along with a few commercial games.

I'm a coder today, and I learned to program on that 400.  I don't have the computer anymore (much less the 410 recorder) and I know almost all of this stuff is online somewhere now anyway so I'm going to toss it.  I'm in a place in my life where I just want less stuff, you know?

But I wanted to savor the nostalgia one last time before I do.  Here's to pleasant memories.

 

[reifsnyderb]

Why don't you see if someone wants it?  I see an original SCRAM cassette, too.

[8-bit Coma]

2 hours ago, reifsnyderb said:

Why don't you see if someone wants it?  I see an original SCRAM cassette, too.

I would absolutely be open to sending this to somebody if they're interested.  I just figured that none of it was that rare/interesting since everything has been copied online in one way/shape/form.  

[Mrshoujo]

At least use the tapes for music... After letting someone recover the data.

Cassettes are worth saving. 

[Hawkeye68]

I would probably save any tapes that had my own programs on them.  They can be converted to .wav files and read by emulators without too much effort.  Someday retirement will give you a lot of time and you may want to see them again for old time's sake.

 

As you say, anything else (commercial or type-ins) can be found online.

[developerdude]

Hello,

I have had the EXACT same experience of starting out on an Atari 400. I had to work my butt off to buy it and then more work just to get a cassette drive. 
Then I programmed the heck out of that computer, storing hundreds of programs to tape. 
That was back between 1981-1985. 
I kept everything for decades and then tried to load some of those old programs I wrote. Sadly, many were un-readable. 

I’m also a developer today and would 

happily try to read those tapes and send you whatever is salvageable (or upload to Atariage, or any other site and then return the tapes if you want. 
Let me know here or direct email if you’re interested. 
Steve 

sadevelopers@gmail.com

 

[Fuji-Man]

OMG, I remember those rainbow tapes, had a bunch of them, may have bought them at Kmart (rip). How awesome!

[8-bit Coma]

1 hour ago, Fuji-Man said:

OMG, I remember those rainbow tapes, had a bunch of them, may have bought them at Kmart (rip). How awesome!

 

Yeah, some light Google detective work suggests that these tapes were probably manufactured/purchased in 1980-1981.  They were cheap!  Ha ha.

http://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/2014/07/swireintermagnetics-rainbow-tape.html

[8-bit Coma]

8 hours ago, developerdude said:

I’m also a developer today and would 

happily try to read those tapes and send you whatever is salvageable (or upload to Atariage, or any other site and then return the tapes if you want. 
Let me know here or direct email if you’re interested.

 

Thanks so much for the offer, but I'm good.  I went through the box and there's nothing original in here.  And all of the magazine published software is now somewhere online, like the first game by Infocom's Brian Moriarty that was published in ANALOG:

https://archive.org/details/a8b_Adventure_in_the_5th_Dimension_1983_ANALOG_Computing_US_BASIC

I'm just pleased that there are people out there that love these old systems and programming languages and software ecosystems enough to archive them.

Cheers.

[+Fred_M]

On 7/9/2022 at 4:14 AM, 8-bit Coma said:

While cleaning out some stuff my parents put in storage decades ago I found a Puma shoebox filled with cassettes with software from my Atari 400.  Most of it is stuff that was typed in from ANALOG or ANTIC along with a few commercial games.

I'm a coder today, and I learned to program on that 400.  I don't have the computer anymore (much less the 410 recorder) and I know almost all of this stuff is online somewhere now anyway so I'm going to toss it.  I'm in a place in my life where I just want less stuff, you know?

But I wanted to savor the nostalgia one last time before I do.  Here's to pleasant memories.

 

 

NEVER throw away original tapes ?

 

I see an original tape of Labyrinth. That one is not preserved by a8preservation.com ?

 

So please donate the tapes to someone who can archive them please!

Edited July 10, 2022 by Fred_M

[8-bit Coma]

1 hour ago, Fred_M said:

That one is not preserved by a8preservation.com 

Thanks for the heads up!  How would I go about contributing to a8preservation?  I just looked at their site and there's no mailing address or instructions on how to submit the media.

[Mrshoujo]

23 hours ago, Hawkeye68 said:

I would probably save any tapes that had my own programs on them.  They can be converted to .wav files and read by emulators without too much effort. 

Or you could, you know, just copy them to disk files with a utility. So they could load faster. Just an idea.

[+Fred_M]

8 hours ago, 8-bit Coma said:

Thanks for the heads up!  How would I go about contributing to a8preservation?  I just looked at their site and there's no mailing address or instructions on how to submit the media.

You can contact @Farb here on AtariAge, he is one of the guys involved with this project.

 

The easiest way to preserve the tape is by making a recording of it as a wav-file, but you will some equipment to do that. Hopefully Farb knows someone near your location who can help.

[BillC]

20 hours ago, Fred_M said:

I see an original tape of Labyrinth. That one is not preserved by a8preservation.com ?

 

So please donate the tapes to someone who can archive them please!

The CAS files/raw dumps of SCRAM on a8preservation are unverified, I'm sure additional raw dumps of this tape would be appreciated as well.