Cassette tape collectors

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 6:08 pm

Some people should let the past die.

I saw an article about this in Spin magazine and I thought 'what the fuck do people collect such things for?"

Obviously my syntax was affected by such a weird idea. I have some cassette tapes lying around. I bet anyone over the age of thirty still have a few cassettes lying in corners and shoeboxes, gathering dust. My tapes have actual sounds and music on them, not just shrink-wrapped blanks. The four track recorder has long since broken but the tapes remain, a testament to a past era with much more free time. I still have some tapes I made when I was twelve years old. My first tape recorder. Me acting like a blithering idiot. Embarrassing. Maybe I'll put some on youtube.
I gave most of my music tapes to a co -worker. He still plays them because he isn't up to the CD age yet and his radio at work only has a tape deck, so I get to hear my old music collection from time to time.
My best friend had a cassette briefcase. One of those leather covered tape case holders with snugly fitting places for forty of his favorite tapes. I wonder what happened to that? I also remember a pile of tapes on the back seat floor of his car which almost filled the whole footwell area. Now they are all gone.
He never recorded his own tapes but preferred to buy them at Tapeworld. I never had any store bought tapes but preferred to dub his. I'm cheap like that.

THE
CAPSTAN ROLLER
AARDVARK

Maxell · Post by **Maxell** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:41 am

I got my first tape player when I was 12. I didn't know how it worked, so I taped my first song (Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams) off MTV. I waited for that song to play for 2 hours, and then taped it. I then figured out that I could tape off the radio, so I did and then recorded my own commercials in between the songs.

I still buy stereo console units that play tapes, and I have 3 of the faux-wooden tape drawers sitting on the floor in my bedroom, that rare, if ever, get played. I have every single mix tape my best friend made me, all 13. She individually decorated all the covers, or would write funny things on them. I have mix tapes from old lovers and wanna-be lovers, with imploring overwrought messages written inside the tape jacket. I have mixes from people I barely remember, but were my best friend that one summer when we found ourselves trapped in some shithole job together. I have hair bands that I got for free when other people switched over to cd. Fuck that, man, you gotta listen to that shit on tape!

I've pared the collection down by alot, and threw them all into a bag that went to the thrift store. I want to believe they are sitting on a shelf somewhere, maybe being played by staff members on all the old players that they get, and that they weren't summarily disposed of, but I don't want to look.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:33 pm

I have a bunch of cassettes still, with the original music that my old, old "band" did. God, I wish I had the time to make music again. I miss it terribly.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 5:43 am

I'm 35 years old, so I started with records. By the age of seven or so I had a turntable with a built in cassette deck that allowed me to dub all my records to cassette.

Around that same time I had one of those small Radio Shack cassette players that I would talk into and sing songs and stuff. My older neighbor had a few cassettes and I remember dubbing them by putting our two cassette players in a 69 position, his on play and mine on record.

Around third grade or so I got my first ghetto blaster (I guess them call them boom boxes now). It of course had a built in stereo so that allowed me to start recording songs off the radio, which I did often. My favorite thing to record would be the end of the year countdowns -- "The Top 85 of 1985" and so on.

At some point the plastic door that held the cassettes in broke off. The thing still worked, but whenever the player stopped the tape would just fall out of the player. This became a problem later when I got a waterbed and put the player above my head on the headboard. Sometimes I'd fall asleep with a tape playing and when it hit the end of the side, CONK, the tape would fall out and hit me in the head.

In Oklahoma you can get a motorcycle license at 14, which I did. I also got my first job that year, working at a concession stand making $3/hour. Doesn't sound like much until you start adding everything up. I was working 5 hours a night M/T/Th/F (no games on Wednesday -- Oklahoma is church country) and then quite often they would have basketball/football/baseball tournaments on the weekend and I would rack up anywhere from 10-20 hours over a weekend. Considering I had no bills, I was bringing in mad dough. Around that same time I discovered Sound Warehouse and the rest was history. I began going there once a week buying ... everything. I'd start in the A's, working my way down the list. I'd blow $100 a week on cassettes. Sometimes they were bands I had heard of, other times I just bought tapes because I thought the cover art looked cool. As you can imagine I ended up with some good music and some stinkers, too.

I had one of those cassette briefcases too. I had one that held 30 tapes and then a bigger, puffy one that held 60 (30 on each side). By then (late 80s/early 90s) I had broadened my tastes a bit -- one side was heavy metal, the other was rap and alternative. Ya can't have those groups mingling.

In 1992, a year out of high school, someone broke into my car and stole my stereo and all my tapes. I was already dabbling in CDs around that time but I decided at that point to replace those cassettes with CDs. That event was the turning point for me.

Several years ago I decided to go through my cassette collection and sort everything out. Things went into 4 basic piles: music I had or could get on CD/MP3, local bands, cassette tapes I recorded myself, and any of my wife's shitty music.

Anything that I already had on CD or could get on CD, I got rid of. I did this in two rounds, both on eBay. During the first round I made crazy money. I remember selling five Anthrax tapes and making four or five bucks a cassette. All my old Metallica tapes, stuff like that all went for decent money. Then a year later I did it again and I was lucky to get a buck a tape. I must've been right on the edge of the fall.

All the local bands and stuff I had recorded as a kid, I dubbed into the computer as MP3s. For the stuff I recorded I also physically scanned in each side of the cassette. With a scan of the label and a recording of the tape I had no further use for the tapes and I trashed them. I kept all the local band tapes -- probably 50 or so. They're in a box and ended up back out in the garage.

All my wife's shitty music went in the trash and I didn't even tell her. Seriously. Stuff like "Rockin' to the Oldies" and "Funny Answering Machine Songs" do not need saving.

I think that's about it with me and tapes. I still have several local band tapes I need to put into the computer and a few personal ones. Next to my main workstation I have a cassette deck that plugs right into my PC. Well, actually it plugs into a switchbox that plugs into my PC, but you know what I mean.

Worm · Post by **Worm** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:22 am

On a similar note, I wanted to put a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive in my computer, because of that one part from Snatcher.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:I have a bunch of cassettes still, with the original music that my old, old "band" did. God, I wish I had the time to make music again. I miss it terribly.

Change that old "girlfriend time" into "music time". I'm your personal life coach!

Maxell · Post by **Maxell** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 4:36 pm

Odd that someone updated this- last night I was cooking and rocking out to someone's mix tape from 1994. My best friend used to make fun of me for hating all that old 90s indie shit, she'll be pleased to know that I thought most of it rocked here in 2008.

hygraed · Post by **hygraed** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 5:59 pm

My most shameful possession is an original copy of the Clash's "Cut the Crap" on tape. What a terrible album.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 11:08 pm

Really? I could come up with at least a hundred worst tapes I own(ed).

Here's one off the top of my head -- HWA's Livin' in a Hoe House. HWA was the female (and definitely less talented) version of NWA (these were the Hoe's With Attitudes, of course). It is amazing that the act never took off with songs like "Eat my Pussy" and "Little Dick." According to Wikipedia the album was followed up by the hoe's sophomore effort, "Az Much Ass Azz U Want".

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:02 am

Worm wrote:On a similar note, I wanted to put a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive in my computer, because of that one part from Snatcher.

Haha, what's this? What in Snatcher had a floppy disk? Christ, I need to finish that game. That thing is a masterpiece.

hygraed · Post by **hygraed** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:38 am

As I recall, it was a puzzle where you find a piece of paper with what appears to be an exclamation point drawn on it. However, the exclamation point is actually the outline of the holes in a floppy disk. It's pretty rad.

Worm · Post by **Worm** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:54 pm

What I remember is you find the disk and need to go into the guy's house to use his busted ass computer to read it. To gain entry need to guess where his daughter's birthmark is (in the japanese version you need to guess her measurements). So I always thought using outdated media as a sko file proection was a pretty creative thing.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:17 pm

I don't understand why they can make a 3 1/2 USB floppy drive and not a 5 1/4 one. The connectors are the same so I don't understand why no one can do it, unless it's simply a matter of no one wanting to. I kind of wish I had a USB 5 1/4 drive lying around. I don't need one on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, but if your garage is like mine (it probably ain't) I occasionally stumble across 5 1/4 floppies and wonder, "I wonder what's on that?"

A few years ago in a thrift store I picked up a new in box combo 3 1/2-5 1/4 drive (both drives in one slot). I've never tossed it into a machine but I still have it "just in case." By the way, I have multiple 30 gallon tubs of old computer parts "just in case."

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:57 pm

I remember picking up a 1571 drive for my Commodore in a Salvation Army for six bucks. I couldn't believe it was so cheap. I'd never even think of using a 5-1/4 drive today. i have a couple discs at work with machine parameters backed up on them but there are no drives there.

I want an 8-track USB player.

THE
AND A BETAMAX
AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 1:31 pm

For a couple of years I couldn't go to a thrift without tripping over a 1541 drive. I ended up with 15 in all. I had two hooked up to my 64 upstairs, one hooked up to my PC for transferring games back and forth, and the rest are all out in the garage. I stopped at 12 because that just seemed like a logical number. I haven't seen one in a few years now. I figure I have enough to last me a few lifetimes at this point.

A year or so ago I replaced the two 1541s with 1571s which is nice because of the dip switches (so I can set one to 9) and they're a lot quieter since the heads don't constantly bang. Truth be told, 99% of my C64 loading happens on a 1541 Ultimate these days; the only thing I need a real drive for is transferring more of my old disks to D64 images.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 11:02 pm

Hey, is the 1541 Ultimate a flash cart? (I guess I can look this up, but my main question is---->) What do you prefer for C64 gaming? I have an Atari 800 hooked up with a flash cart, and it's cool, but honestly, there is a ton of stuff on the Commodore that I'd love to play, but never got a chance to. I didn't have one growing up (we had a PCjr) and while I was able to grab an Atari home computer around 1993 or so, I never did so for the 64. I feel I have been missing out!

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:53 am

The 1541 Ultimate is a ~100% compatible "drive" that uses SD cards for storage and reads/writes D64 disk images instead of real floppies. It is, bar none, the best thing I ever bought for my Commodore, period.

I also own a 1541-III which had a pretty small run. Same idea, but much lower compatibility.

The 1541 Ultimate is seen like a real disk drive, so much so that you can open up Fast Hackem' or any copier of your choice and copy files back and forth between real drives and D64 disk images. It also has a block of storage set aside for cartridge ROMs so you can use Action Relay, Final Cartridge or the fastloader of your choice to speed things along. The new version of the unit has an ethernet connection and is RRNet compatible apparently (mine is the original version).

I think it runs around $200 but they way I justified it is, that's about what I paid for a real 1541 back in the day. I cannot overstate what an awesome product it is.

That being said, WinVice is a pretty good emulator these days and if you're okay with emulation, it's not a bad way to go. If you want/need the real thing however, the 1541 Ultimate is where it's at.

(EDIT: Here's how accurate the 1541 Ultimate is. It has red and green lights on the board that flash accordingly just like a real drive, and it also has a speaker jack. If you plug in a set of speakers the thing makes sounds just like a real 1541. That's crazy silly.)

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 5:04 pm

Wow, that's like too much emulation. with CCS64 the scroll lock light flashes as if it's a disk drive light to let you know it's 'working'. I thought that was a bit much. With emulation you don't the frustrations that were inherent with a floppy drive. The number one being all the games that were out there that you couldn't get. I can remember hooking up with another C64 user and transferring a game thru the phone lines, where in the past I would use the post office. I thought 'THIS IS SOOOO COOL!' Nine hours later I had a new game on it's own floppy and everything.

Speaking of carts, did the C64 take Atari carts? I had a box of carts that I swear were for the 2600. Lemmee think.

Asteroids, Moon patrol, Park ranger, Can't remember the rest of tham... had speedloader too, but that's not an atari game.

THE
BLOW ON THE CONTACTS
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 5:16 pm

The C64 and Atari 2600 (and 400/800/etc) could use the same joystick, but the carts aren't compatible.

They made a thing for the Colecovision that took Atari carts, and I think the Intellivision could do it too, but they were add-on thingies.

Garth's Equipment Shop · Wed Dec 17, 2008 8:45 pm

AArdvark wrote:Speaking of carts, did the C64 take Atari carts? I had a box of carts that I swear were for the 2600. Lemmee think.

Asteroids, Moon patrol, Park ranger, Can't remember the rest of tham... had speedloader too, but that's not an atari game.

I had the C64 with data cassette drive, but never saw one that you could put Atari cartridges in. Man I would have loved that! I had Atari 2600 with many carts back when it was still sold in stores [found it under the family tree one year]. Or are y'all referring to the Atari computer from around the same decade? As far as cartridges go I am having trouble remembering them too. One that springs to mind is Pitfall. I think the console came with a dual game cart that had Tennis or pong on it and some other game I don't remember. Oh, oh, their coming back to me now! I remember having Donkey Cong, Zaxxon, Pole Position, Tank, Raiders of the Lost Ark, QBert, Rampage, Atlantis, That Ski sports game, oh and who can forget the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Lol!

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:42 pm

As far as carts go, the C64 only plays C64 carts and the Atari 400/800 only play Atari 400/800 carts. ICJ is right that there are adapters for the ColecoVision and Intellivision to play Atari 2600 carts. There is also an adapter for the Atari 5200 as well, and the Atari 7800 plays them without an adapter (they just plug right in).

If you want to be really geeky, those Atari Flashback consoles that came out a few years back have solder points on the board for connecting a cartridge slot, if you want to upgrade it. :)