Datacorder
Disclaimer : this page is a bit ironic.
The tape/cassette reader/writer.
Slow and painfully, yet it makes a funny "Matrix like" sound on old 464...
Spanish Scene still produce games on this media...maybe the Nostalgia or pure masochism.
Britania was also very found of Tapes.
While in France, The awesomness and Fast speed of Discs was prefered by far.
Contents
Why so lame ?
Tapes are known for wasting 20 minutes only to find out that the load screwed up because the magnetic tape is not that reliable due to parasistic noises.
A problem encountered with this standard lies when the software have to take control of the Datacorder (to stop or play...)
As no CD reader nor MP3 reader were designed on this purpose, you have to do it manually.
This problem prooves critical when a software needs frequent Data Reading/Writing.
Yet a few advantages
It was cheap and easy.
Any AudioTape was far cheaper than a 3" disk, and easier to find.
You could get 90 "minutes" of Datas, compilations were fun to make.
Also you could copy any games with any audio double tape system.
Yet some games still include Copy protections...
Modern use
The use of Audio signal was clearly improved recently as modern Audio devices are not more analogic by logical.
As said, less parasitic noises and reliable durable storage.
Bad quality magnetic tapes had to read slowler to compensate the poor sound.
Clean modern logic signal allows to read at faster speed: see OTLA project for UltraLoads
Yet the silence times between each blocks must remain of 3-4 seconds (this is the uncompressible part...).
The strange case of the 6128+
Oddly, the 6128+ does not have any Tape connector at all.
But as the Mainboard is the same on the 464+ and the 6128+ you can easily fix this if you cannibalize a 464+ to improve your 6128+ (or find the proper electronic componnents).
Just pierce a hole in the plastic, put a Jack connector and use it for small games with any mp3 walkman.
More complex games or software should better use a Disk-like solution (no pun intended).
- Ultra Son this software use the Datacorder to sample sounds. Of course a modern mp3 or Wave source performs better, or even Gross-Development solutions.
- Disk drives
