Datasette

Before floppy drives were affordable, most Commodore owners saved and loaded programs on audio cassettes using a Datasette.

How it works

The Datasette records data as sound on tape. Commodore's own drives, the C2N and later the 1530, plug into the computer's cassette port and draw their power from it.

PRESS PLAY ON TAPE

Type LOAD and the C64 answers PRESS PLAY ON TAPE. Then you wait. A game could take several minutes to load, and a bad stretch of tape meant starting over. Turbo loaders later sped this up dramatically.

Today

The C64 Ultimate still has a real Datasette port, and its USB "cassette" carries over 100 titles. On the desk in the petscii.nw Sysop Room, the Datasette is how the sysop backs up the board.