it was built in. i cant seem to find it anywhere as ive forgotten the name of it. im sure it was on a youtube video somewhere. any help would be appreciated. it may have its own type of cassettes but you could modify an ordinary one to work on it. and obviously it had no buttons on it for play, rewind, etc
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im looking for an old computer that had automatic rewind and fast forward on an ordinary compact cassette tape
- Thread starter the777
- Start date
krebizfan
Veteran Member
It sounds like the system you are describing is the Coleco Adam with its DDP (data drive packs). Those used a standard cassette with modifications to prevent installing the tape the wrong way but the tape media was standard audio tape and there are instructions out there to modify a standard cassette into a DDP.
There were other computers with internal cassette decks that were fully software controlled and used standard cassettes. I think the Wang 2200 was one example.
NeXT
Veteran Member
The only thing I am aware of that did that was the Coleco ADAM but that doesn't use regular cassettes.
There was also the Data Cassette format that saw use through to the 90's but even that also used a special cassette tape.
Wang had at least one series of machine/terminal that also took cassette-like tapes but I've never seen that used before.
Edited: krebizfan be snipin' my post.
There was also the Data Cassette format that saw use through to the 90's but even that also used a special cassette tape.
Wang had at least one series of machine/terminal that also took cassette-like tapes but I've never seen that used before.
Edited: krebizfan be snipin' my post.
krebizfan
Veteran Member
Since this might involve hazy memories, another fully controlled tape drive using standard cassettes was The Digital Group's Phideck. It was typically sold as an external enclosure with up to 4 drives but someone might have incorporated a single board computer with the enclosure. http://bytecollector.com/dg_phideck.htm
voidstar78
Veteran Member
MCM/70? It had ordinary looking tapes.
krebizfan
Veteran Member
Streamer cassettes looked like normal compact cassettes except for a notch in the back of the shell. The tapes used different media. While it was possible to saw a compact cassette shell to use in a streamer deck, data was unlikely to be stored and the tape would soon break and unspool. The MCM-70 used streamer tape though the fact is relatively hidden in the manual. Coleco's DDP was unusual in that while the shell was modified, the tape remained audio standard.
Another rare candidate for automatic control is http://www.trs-80.org/beta-80/ though like a lot of the other advanced compact cassette data storage mechanisms, it was mainly released as an external device.
One of the terminals I used had tape for storage but the tape controls were on the keyboard instead of on the cassette deck. No automatic tape control even though at first glance it looked like it did. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name.
One thing I always thought was strange was that Atari and Commodore rewired the internals of the decks used but didn't add the couple of extra wires to give the computer complete control of tape movement.
Another rare candidate for automatic control is http://www.trs-80.org/beta-80/ though like a lot of the other advanced compact cassette data storage mechanisms, it was mainly released as an external device.
One of the terminals I used had tape for storage but the tape controls were on the keyboard instead of on the cassette deck. No automatic tape control even though at first glance it looked like it did. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name.
One thing I always thought was strange was that Atari and Commodore rewired the internals of the decks used but didn't add the couple of extra wires to give the computer complete control of tape movement.