Loading PC Games from Reel to Reel Tape
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
Jerry
In 1971 I was stationed at a small base a few miles outside of Da Nang Vietnam. We had just moved down from Phu Bi during a reorganization session. When we got there, we found a need for a VHF repeater to reach our troops in the field who could be separated from HQ by some very high hills and, a few mountains in the area. So it was, I was assigned to the team who were allowed into the NSA bunker which lay deep within an underground bunker atop of Monkey Mountain. We took a Jeep from our outfit, through Da Nang and up the mountain, it was a rather uneventful trip as the area was pretty much safe during daylight hours. On the trip I saw what appeared to be tape from a reel to reel however much wider, it had been unrolled alongside the road that lead up to the compound. When we got inside the bunker, I understood what it was. This was my first encounter with a large, room size computer system with racks of reel to reel drives updating data on who knows what. We went through their computer room to the back of the bunker where the radio equipment was housed carrying our two large VHF radios. With the help of a couple tech's from the NSA, we installed our radios and they were hooked to some antenna cables that lead somewhere atop Monkey Mountain, I never did find out where, but after a couple of hours of installation and some testing we found we could not only reach our troops on patrol with their PRC77's but also our sub-unit headquarters radio rooms. It was a great step forward for us, sort of like the 2 meter repeater systems now used by we Ham's across the world.
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In 1971 I was stationed at a small base a few miles outside of Da Nang Vietnam. We had just moved down from Phu Bi during a reorganization session. When we got there, we found a need for a VHF repeater to reach our troops in the field who could be separated from HQ by some very high hills and, a few mountains in the area. So it was, I was assigned to the team who were allowed into the NSA bunker which lay deep within an underground bunker atop of Monkey Mountain. We took a Jeep from our outfit, through Da Nang and up the mountain, it was a rather uneventful trip as the area was pretty much safe during daylight hours. On the trip I saw what appeared to be tape from a reel to reel however much wider, it had been unrolled alongside the road that lead up to the compound. When we got inside the bunker, I understood what it was. This was my first encounter with a large, room size computer system with racks of reel to reel drives updating data on who knows what. We went through their computer room to the back of the bunker where the radio equipment was housed carrying our two large VHF radios. With the help of a couple tech's from the NSA, we installed our radios and they were hooked to some antenna cables that lead somewhere atop Monkey Mountain, I never did find out where, but after a couple of hours of installation and some testing we found we could not only reach our troops on patrol with their PRC77's but also our sub-unit headquarters radio rooms. It was a great step forward for us, sort of like the 2 meter repeater systems now used by we Ham's across the world.
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Get
Hey just an idea on this, anybody ever heard of raspberry Pis? There mini PCs that can load a Linux based OS system that is actually not to bad, you can run emulation software called retroPi which run MAME Arcade, SNES, GENESIS PS1, if you have a proper hookup for a Sega Dreamcast to broadband, you can actually get back online off of a raspberry Pi,
My idea was would if somebody made a machine or an adapter piece that could go from a reel to reel or cassette or any type of tape machine to an adapter piece that transfers the signal to USB to the Raspberry Pi, of course a software would have to be coded to allow the adapter to transfer the signal to the Pi
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Hey just an idea on this, anybody ever heard of raspberry Pis? There mini PCs that can load a Linux based OS system that is actually not to bad, you can run emulation software called retroPi which run MAME Arcade, SNES, GENESIS PS1, if you have a proper hookup for a Sega Dreamcast to broadband, you can actually get back online off of a raspberry Pi,
My idea was would if somebody made a machine or an adapter piece that could go from a reel to reel or cassette or any type of tape machine to an adapter piece that transfers the signal to USB to the Raspberry Pi, of course a software would have to be coded to allow the adapter to transfer the signal to the Pi
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TheVicar
I went full geek with my 1981 8bit BBC Micro by playing a tape cassette via a small FM radio transmitter and having a radio wired into the back of the BBC Micro cassette port, therefore loading software via a radio transmission. Pre-bluetooth tech enabled!
(One thing to note when transmitting or even the standard saving of data to tape/digitising tape data - do not have a mobile phone anywhere near your recording equipment as the RF spikes they create are fully destructive to any new save)
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I went full geek with my 1981 8bit BBC Micro by playing a tape cassette via a small FM radio transmitter and having a radio wired into the back of the BBC Micro cassette port, therefore loading software via a radio transmission. Pre-bluetooth tech enabled!
(One thing to note when transmitting or even the standard saving of data to tape/digitising tape data - do not have a mobile phone anywhere near your recording equipment as the RF spikes they create are fully destructive to any new save)
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Trev0r98
Except that it takes 11 seconds worth of tape to record this small text file. 15 ips (tape transport speed) x 11 = 165 inches of tape. That's 13. 75 feet of tape, or roughly 4. 2 meters. Not very efficient storage medium at all. Setting that super nice Tandberg deck's transport speed down to 3. 75 ips (if possible) is still overkill for a 22 kHz sample rate - 8 bit depth, and in mono. Failing that, 7. 5 ips would still be an improvement over 15 ips.
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Except that it takes 11 seconds worth of tape to record this small text file. 15 ips (tape transport speed) x 11 = 165 inches of tape. That's 13. 75 feet of tape, or roughly 4. 2 meters. Not very efficient storage medium at all. Setting that super nice Tandberg deck's transport speed down to 3. 75 ips (if possible) is still overkill for a 22 kHz sample rate - 8 bit depth, and in mono. Failing that, 7. 5 ips would still be an improvement over 15 ips.
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:
I just put an 16 MB N64 rom on a digital tape format (DAT) as 44. 1khz 16bit, though it could've been 48 khz if i wanted it to. Since the tape itself is digital, all I did was open up the rom in HXD and add a WAV header on top, then transmitted over TOSLINK to my deck. I have no way of getting it back as I don't have a SPDIF input for my computer, but hopefully it will be the same.
I should mention that the resulting file was only 90 seconds long.
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I just put an 16 MB N64 rom on a digital tape format (DAT) as 44. 1khz 16bit, though it could've been 48 khz if i wanted it to. Since the tape itself is digital, all I did was open up the rom in HXD and add a WAV header on top, then transmitted over TOSLINK to my deck. I have no way of getting it back as I don't have a SPDIF input for my computer, but hopefully it will be the same.
I should mention that the resulting file was only 90 seconds long.
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Siggy
My brother, the PC tech. lyin sack a chit is what he is.
I asked him years ago that if music can be recorded on CDs (data, then why cant data be recorded on tape? Even though its not in sectors. Its not retreiving that data on demand, just storing it to be played back on media that does store in sectors. He said it doesnt work. that way.
Ever meet someone that thinks they know Jack but doesnt? Then youve met my brother.
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My brother, the PC tech. lyin sack a chit is what he is.
I asked him years ago that if music can be recorded on CDs (data, then why cant data be recorded on tape? Even though its not in sectors. Its not retreiving that data on demand, just storing it to be played back on media that does store in sectors. He said it doesnt work. that way.
Ever meet someone that thinks they know Jack but doesnt? Then youve met my brother.
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Ian
very cool. I know tapes were used in spy movies back in the day. But it would be a good Mission Impossible bit, where once again they are disavowed and so they need to use w/e tech they can, and tape systems are what they can get a hold of for w/e reason. And Tom cruise jumps off a building and the tape player gets destroyed, so now he's scrambling trying to find a way to read the tape. you can picture the scene I'm sure.
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very cool. I know tapes were used in spy movies back in the day. But it would be a good Mission Impossible bit, where once again they are disavowed and so they need to use w/e tech they can, and tape systems are what they can get a hold of for w/e reason. And Tom cruise jumps off a building and the tape player gets destroyed, so now he's scrambling trying to find a way to read the tape. you can picture the scene I'm sure.
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Jarlsh
Very cool! The mention of software on vinyl is awesome, I never heard or thought of that before. Back around 2001 I was recording my vinyl albums with Roxio so I could burn CDs for the car, not the same at all, but also an epic waste of time, and HDD space. With CDs up at $18 bucks each and used vinyl at garage sales for $1, it was the economical thing to do as a broke audiophile. Great video!
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Very cool! The mention of software on vinyl is awesome, I never heard or thought of that before. Back around 2001 I was recording my vinyl albums with Roxio so I could burn CDs for the car, not the same at all, but also an epic waste of time, and HDD space. With CDs up at $18 bucks each and used vinyl at garage sales for $1, it was the economical thing to do as a broke audiophile. Great video!
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Airton
On my Brazilian Apple II clone (a DM II) I used an spare Akai tape deck to save and load programs. The VU meters were useful for making the volume right. It never failed to load a program. I think it was a CS-705D or similar. There was also an University radio (Radio USP) with a program that played programs, yes programs for you to record and load in your computer.
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On my Brazilian Apple II clone (a DM II) I used an spare Akai tape deck to save and load programs. The VU meters were useful for making the volume right. It never failed to load a program. I think it was a CS-705D or similar. There was also an University radio (Radio USP) with a program that played programs, yes programs for you to record and load in your computer.
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Truckguy1970
I miss the days of these old MS Doss games. They were a PITA to configure and set up but I always liked a challenge lol. I see you're also an audiophile as well. I have 2 reel to reels, a TEAC X1000R and a TEAC A2300SX. I also have 2 Cassette decks, an AKAI GXC 760D and a Kenwood KX1030. I also have a Pioneer Centrex RH65 8 track as well: )
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I miss the days of these old MS Doss games. They were a PITA to configure and set up but I always liked a challenge lol. I see you're also an audiophile as well. I have 2 reel to reels, a TEAC X1000R and a TEAC A2300SX. I also have 2 Cassette decks, an AKAI GXC 760D and a Kenwood KX1030. I also have a Pioneer Centrex RH65 8 track as well: )
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