[opendtv] Vinyl Data
- From: "John Shutt" <shuttj@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OpenDTV" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:56:28 -0400
Remember when a cassette tape was also a computer storage medium?
http://www.kempa.com/blog/archives/000053.html
One strategy that major record companies have been employing lately to deter
downloading is adding bonus computer content to new CD releases. I recently
discovered that this technique is not unique to CD's, but had in fact been
practiced in the vinyl era as well. That's right: there were a handful of
records released in the late 70's and early 80's that contained computer
programs as part of the audio. This is totally insane, and totally great.
Most of these programs were written for the Sinclair Spectrum home computer
series. The Sinclair Spectrum was a relatively cheap home computer system
that used a television set as a monitor and loaded programs from tapes. It
thrived in England in the early 80's:
"If the PC is the great electronic product of the 1990's, the Sinclair
Spectrum was the great electronic product of the 1980's. The Sinclair ZX
Spectrum (nicknamed the Speccy) was invented by Sir Clive Sinclair, a
British Inventor. "
In the case of these programs on vinyl, the user would have to play back the
proper portion of the record, record the resultant chatter to tape, and load
the tape into the spectrum. Some users have mentioned playing certain games
so much that they could recognise the loading sounds.
The Spectrum is emulated, so you can download the data files and an emulator
and view the programs / play these games. Failing that, you can play most of
these games directly in your browser (provided you have java enabled). All
of the data files are available in the archive at worldofspectrum.org, and
there are tons of emulators available for both the PC and mac (I used
Spectaculator for Windows and Fuse for OS X).
The most ordinary of these vinyl-encoded programs are purely informational.
Inner City Unit, a spinoff from Hawkwind, released an album called 'New
Anatomy' in 1984. The last song on side two - 'Hectic Electric' consists of
the audio pulses of a program that can be recorded to cassette and loaded
into a 48k Sinclair Spectrum. When run, the program reportedly displays "a
comprehensive description of the band, their recordings and tour schedules,
etc." I was unable to find this program data online, but the track has been
included on the CD reissue.
Similar, though slightly more involved was a program included on a record
called 'XL-1' by Pete Shelly, former leader of The Buzzcocks, in 1983. The
last song on the record - 'ZX Spectrum Code' - contains the audio pulses of
a computer program for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Again, the technically
savvy listener was expected to copy the audio to tape and "play" it to their
home computer. When properly input, the program was to be run while
listening to the rest of the album.
************************
More at link.
John
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