I read in the news pages of this month's Pixel Addict magazine (worth a read although a bit pricey) that cassette sales have hit a 20 year high!

"Artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Harry Styles have helped sales reach their highest level in 20 years!"

Re: Cassette sales
By: Ginger1 to All on Sun Jul 02 2023 20:29:25

I read in the news pages of this month's Pixel Addict magazine (worth a read although a bit pricey) that cassette sales have hit a 20 year high!

"Artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Harry Styles have helped sales reach their highest level in 20 years!"

I hadn't heard that about cassettes, only that vinyl sales are on the up ...

Re: Cassette sales
By: Keyop to Ginger1 on Wed Aug 30 2023 21:52:11

"Artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Harry Styles have helped sales reach

their highest level in 20 years!"

I hadn't heard that about cassettes, only that vinyl sales are on the up ...

I wish they would start manufacturing floppy disks again. That would be terrific news. Would gladly pay 1 UKP a disk.

Re: Cassette sales
By: Ginger1 to Keyop on Sun Sep 24 2023 16:13:11

I wish they would start manufacturing floppy disks again. That would be terrific news. Would gladly pay 1 UKP a disk.

You can still buy 3.5" disks from Amazon, but getting hold of 3" or 5.25" disks is very difficult.

Re: Cassette sales
By: Keyop to Ginger1 on Fri Oct 13 2023 20:56:53

I wish they would start manufacturing floppy disks again. That would be

terrific news. Would gladly pay 1 UKP a disk.

You can still buy 3.5" disks from Amazon, but getting hold of 3" or 5.25" disks is very difficult.

I've bought some new-old-stock ones from ebay before and have seen big boxes full of them in a few retro computer shops. The NOS ones are pricey..and the old ones have been really unrealiable.

Actually, this has encouraged my interest in 8-bit and cassettes. I can pick up new TDK tapes at a local record store for less than a quid, and old games have (Almost without fail) worked very well.

Surprisingly, I've heard good things about microdrives :)

Re: Cassette sales
By: Ginger1 to Keyop on Fri Jan 05 2024 19:58:05

I've bought some new-old-stock ones from ebay before and have seen big boxes full of them in a few retro computer shops. The NOS ones are pricey..and the old ones have been really unrealiable.

Actually, this has encouraged my interest in 8-bit and cassettes. I can pick up new TDK tapes at a local record store for less than a quid, and old games have (Almost without fail) worked very well.

Surprisingly, I've heard good things about microdrives :)

I've just started buying original games for my spectrum on tape. Gone are the days of cramming loads of games on a C90 :)

As for microdrives, I really hated them. So unreliable ... lost lots of data on those, either due to the tape stretching or the spectrum crashing and writing random crap onto the tape (even in write protect mode).

Actually, this has encouraged my interest in 8-bit and
cassettes. I can pick up new TDK tapes at a local record store
for less than a quid, and old games have (Almost without fail)
worked very well.

Surprisingly, I've heard good things about microdrives :)

I've just started buying original games for my spectrum on tape.
Gone are the days of cramming loads of games on a C90 :)

C90s are annoying for tape work on a computer aren't they! I spend more time fast forwarding and rewinding then actually loading or saving.

Saw a Speccy in the window of a charity shop on the IoW last year. Wish I
had indulged!

As for microdrives, I really hated them. So unreliable ... lost
lots of data on those, either due to the tape stretching or the
spectrum crashing and writing random crap onto the tape (even in
write protect mode).

I wonder if they improved at least the firmware side of things on the QL?
I've been dabbling with a QL emulator on the Amiga, which uses the floppy
drive natively....much nicer I'm sure.




--== dial-up Nights BBS ==--
Running on an a1200 030
Open 9 pm - 5 am UTC
+44(0)1202 741079
============================ 3007 06-06-2221:20DANIEL PATH GINGER1 Re:amiga 500 pimpin' 1
... Okay! - Okay! - I'll be off the phone in a minute! Geez!

NesQWK 1.06 < (c) 1995 NoLimits Software. Unregistered evaluation copy.

Actually, this has encouraged my interest in 8-bit and
cassettes. I can pick up new TDK tapes at a local record store
for less than a quid, and old games have (Almost without fail)
worked very well.

Surprisingly, I've heard good things about microdrives :)

I've just started buying original games for my spectrum on tape.
Gone are the days of cramming loads of games on a C90 :)

C90s are annoying for tape work on a computer aren't they! I spend more time fast forwarding and rewinding then actually loading or saving.

Saw a Speccy in the window of a charity shop on the IoW last year. Wish I
had indulged!

As for microdrives, I really hated them. So unreliable ... lost
lots of data on those, either due to the tape stretching or the
spectrum crashing and writing random crap onto the tape (even in
write protect mode).

I wonder if they improved at least the firmware side of things on the QL?
I've been dabbling with a QL emulator on the Amiga, which uses the floppy
drive natively....much nicer I'm sure.




--== dial-up Nights BBS ==--
Running on an a1200 030
Open 9 pm - 5 am UTC
+44(0)1202 741079
============================ 3007 06-06-2221:20DANIEL PATH GINGER1 Re:amiga 500 pimpin' 1
... Okay! - Okay! - I'll be off the phone in a minute! Geez!

NesQWK 1.06 < (c) 1995 NoLimits Software. Unregistered evaluation copy.

Re: Re:Cassette sales
By: Ginger1 to KEYOP on Mon Jan 08 2024 21:31:00

C90s are annoying for tape work on a computer aren't they! I spend more time fast forwarding and rewinding then actually loading or saving.

I saw someone selling the ultimate play the game selection compilation on ebay recently, but they're not on separate tapes, so I gave that one a miss.

Saw a Speccy in the window of a charity shop on the IoW last year. Wish I had indulged!

What model, how much and was it in good condition?

I wonder if they improved at least the firmware side of things on the QL? I've been dabbling with a QL emulator on the Amiga, which uses the floppy drive natively....much nicer I'm sure.

I think the tape tech was the same, so the stretching problem would have been similar... Not sure about the firmware though...