While pointless and without function, it is fun to explore what would happen if you mix a tape with a floppy. They both serve the same purpose, one does it clearly better than the other and probably there is no reason to merge the two into a single device. Sometimes some things are just done for the sake of doing. This is one of those things. The point here is to come up with a retro technology. It doesnt necessary have to work or be logical, all it needs is to look and feel believable (isn't that what Hollywood feeds us in every movie?)
Size comparison (roughly to give an idea of the dimensions):
cassette - height:6 width:10 cm
datasette - height:7 width:7 cm
3,5 floppy - height:9 width:9 cm
Technology: Magnetic Tape
Dimensions:700mm x 700mm x 15mm
Date Introduced: Unknown (probably early 80s or sometime after the datasette)
Storage Capacity: Assuming its the 80's, something like 1 MB would be enough to fit the world. Why would you need anything bigger :)
The more you try to go into detail the more your logic tries to stops you from making a mess so I'll leave it here and let people fantasize it on their own.
cassette - height:6 width:10 cm
datasette - height:7 width:7 cm
3,5 floppy - height:9 width:9 cm
Technology: Magnetic Tape
Dimensions:700mm x 700mm x 15mm
Date Introduced: Unknown (probably early 80s or sometime after the datasette)
Storage Capacity: Assuming its the 80's, something like 1 MB would be enough to fit the world. Why would you need anything bigger :)
The more you try to go into detail the more your logic tries to stops you from making a mess so I'll leave it here and let people fantasize it on their own.
The UI of the Fastloader.
C64 games had a variety of covers, ranging from awesome to real goofy so
I slapped a quick, goofy game art of a space pirate, marine sort of
thing and picked a silly name (apparently silly names or horrendous
translations were a must back then).
"Star Marine"... be a marine of the stars and the star of the marine corps in this amazing space adventure. (yea right... you wait 30 minutes for the tape to load and it gives you 10 minutes of unresponsive gameplay where you rewind to load again after you die.)
"Star Marine"... be a marine of the stars and the star of the marine corps in this amazing space adventure. (yea right... you wait 30 minutes for the tape to load and it gives you 10 minutes of unresponsive gameplay where you rewind to load again after you die.)
I cleaned up the sketch, now it looks slightly believable. However I don't like the reel holes eating up most of the artwork yet I want them to be clearly visible as they are the ones that give the cassette feel. Without them what's the difference between a regular floppy? Obviously it would also need the holes for the cassette player's heads to pass through.
Maybe a cheap plastic cover would do the trick. It would also stop dust and your neighbours spoiled brat from putting his dirty fingers inside the holes and spinning the reels, spoiling your tape.
Maybe a cheap plastic cover would do the trick. It would also stop dust and your neighbours spoiled brat from putting his dirty fingers inside the holes and spinning the reels, spoiling your tape.
As the reels are blocked you would obviously need to take off the cover before you place it inside the tape . Something like a clip which you squeeze the side part to release the game disk or maybe something even more simple, all you would do is to pull it to the side to release. The artwork could be glued to the plastic or it could have a transparent sleeve (as in sega master system game boxes) so you could change the inlay image by simply removing it out of the sleeve.
Eventually you would need a device to read these things so maybe I should come up with something similar to a C64 datasette or something.
So coming up next if I can lift my lazy ass;
- screenshots of the Star Marine, a true 8-bit spectacle :)
- magazine adverts of this amazing disk / tape hybrid technology
- a device to run this piece of junk
