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Software Distribution By Vinyl

Posted by timothy on from the when-obscurantism-attacks dept.

townxelliot writes "Beige Records is home to the intriguing 8-Bit Construction Set. Their record has the distinction of being "the first ever use of the vinyl recording medium for software distribution - the inside tracks are audio data which can be dubbed to cassette tape and booted in your respective atari or commodore 8-bit computers". Samples of their music ("entirely programmed in 6502 assembly language") are available for download."

25 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. does this mean by Festering+Leper · · Score: 5, Funny

    that we'll start getting floppy 45's in magazines again?

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  2. Increasing amount of data. by Phucilage · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if you'll be able to pull the same ole trick w/ this method as you did with music. If you used lighter grooves, you able to pack more music in, it'd just be more quiet, deeper grooves was louder music, but less of them.

  3. Ahhh the good old days.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    when copyright infringement of computer games could be done with a double cassette deck.

    Some good decks could even reliably copy games in high speed dubbing mode.

    Whoohoo!

    1. Re:Ahhh the good old days.... by BearJ · · Score: 5, Funny

      So back then, we used equipment for music to copy computer programs. As opposed to today, when we use computers to copy music. What an age we live in!

      --
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    2. Re:Ahhh the good old days.... by acariquara · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yep. The turntables were turned.

      --
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  4. don't play it backwards by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    if you play it backwards you can briefly hear a voice say "6502 is dead"

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  5. Data on vinyl done before by whaley · · Score: 5, Informative

    Basicode (Hobbyscoop) was distributed on flexi discs..

    1. Re:Data on vinyl done before by shippo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I acquired three such flexi-disks on the front cover of UK computer magazines around 1982 to 1984. Only got a moderate success rate with them. One was an adventure game, with a prize awarded amongst those who could solve it. I had reverse engineered the workings of the game compiler used to create the game, so solving it should have been easy, but I couldn't get it to load at all.

    2. Re:Data on vinyl done before by moon-monster · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There used to be a few speccy games on vinyl. In fact, a few 80's pop acts (Thompson Twins, Shakin' Stevens) released some as B-sides on some of their singles.

      Apparently the game wasn't very good.

      There's some more info on previous data-on-vinyl experiments here.

      --
      "Pokey, are you drunk on love?" "Yes. Also whiskey. But mostly love... and whiskey."
  6. vinyl is for sissies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Real Men use eight tracks.

    1. Re:vinyl is for sissies by cosmic_0x526179 · · Score: 5, Funny
      Real Men use eight tracks.

      Screw that. Gimme a nice solid deck of 5081 cards any day. Now that was data ! Back when a Megabyte was enough to make your back sore. 1MB = 1,048,576 bytes = 13,108 cards = ~6.5 boxes of cards (at roughly 10 lbs/box) = ~65 lbs. Were talking serious data here.

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  7. ahh... by CdBee · · Score: 4, Funny

    but I need to know before I buy - is the record DRM-laden ?

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  8. Imagine... by IversenX · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...if you wrote DeCSS in this. Perhaps the MPAA and the RIAA would sue each other over who has the right to sue you, thus annihilating themselves into pure energy?

    --
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  9. Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've been joking about LP-ROMs for years :)

  10. Hasn't this been done before? by Fred+Or+Alive · · Score: 5, Informative

    This page has data on various vinyl records with computer data stored on them. Most of which are about 20 years old. So they're not the first to distribute computer data on vinyl.

    --
    10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
    20 GOTO 10
    1. Re:Hasn't this been done before? by Richard+W.M.+Jones · · Score: 5, Informative
      Software distribution using acetate (very flexible, cheap and light) records was very common in the UK around the early 1980s. They were the original "cover discs" on magazines!

      I still have a few games, including an Othello/Reversi game for the ZX81 from "Your Computer" magazine.

      The disadvantage was that you could play the acetate about twice before it got so damaged that it wouldn't play any more, so we used to record the record to tape first time.

      Vinyl/acetate wasn't even the strangest way that computer software was distributed. I remember they used to broadcast games late at night on TV. You had to (carefully!) record the sound signal off the TV and onto your tape machine. Madness!

      Rich.

      --
      libguestfs - tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images
  11. It's hardly a first by stx23 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Diverse artists such as Tomita, Shakin' Stevens & the Thompson Twins distributed software on vinyl over 20 years ago.

    http://www.kempa.com/blog/archives/000053.html

    OH DEAR.
    a bat bit

    you.

  12. OK - so not quite vinyl, but... by mauledbydogs · · Score: 5, Informative

    When I worked on Commodore User (UK mag) in the 80s, we gave away a flexi-disc as a covermount. It was basically a floppy plastic record. One side was a Heaven 17 track and the other, IIRC, was a datatrack designed to be recorded onto tape then loaded on a C64.

  13. When I was a kid... by marsu_k · · Score: 4, Funny

    and the C64 was oh-so-popular, the local radio station used to send freeware C64 programs over radio so you could record them on a tape and use with your Commodore. It was good listening also, if you happened to like industrial/noise.

  14. LT-TFA by x2A · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you Listen To TFA, you'll realise that this isn't just software written to vinyl, this is software encoded in music, that happens to be written to vinyl. That is, the assembly code, when played back, actually SOUNDS like music. This is completely different from having a data section at the end of a vinyl disc (for all of you who have been using that as a "this has been done before with..." example).

    'tho listening to some Speedy-J tracks, sounds like there some data encoded in those!

    -2A

    --
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  15. Why bother? by haelduksf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you really wanted to, you could probably encode music onto a piece of cheese...but what's the point?

  16. This story should have been posted later by RockClimb · · Score: 4, Funny

    A story like this should have been posted later in the day.... I woke up, went to slashdot, read the story and for a brief second thought the last 25 years of my life had been some type of twisted dream and that I was late for school. Gee thanks guys.... I nearly had a heart attack ;)

  17. John Logie Baird by maharg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    John Logie Baird recorded 30 line video onto 78rpm records in 1928. He also demonstrated a 600 line HDTV colour system in 1941.

    See http://www.answers.com/topic/john-logie-baird

    There's nothing new under the sun !

    --

    $ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
    @(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
  18. Audiophiles... by tonywestonuk · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...Of course, there are many of us who truly believe the quality of software distributed by Vinyl, will always be higher than that distributed by CD-ROM.

  19. reply from beige by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    hi folks

    thanks for the debate on our record, hope someone likes the music anyway. obviously not the first data on vinyl [just never bothered to change the webpage in 5 years] and actually not the first time the 8-bit construction set has been slashdotted. but nonetheless it's always a pleasure to see what people think.

    we received an anonymous and very interesting email in early 2002 detailing some patents regarding software distribution on vinyl. i'm appending it below for interested parties.

    thanks again
    & peace out nerds

    paul
    paul AT beigerecords DOT com

    *****
    Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 23:59:03 -0500

    Distribution of computer programs on vinyl records
    was done in the early 70's by several different
    researchers. First, a guy named
    Allan B. Chertok. He has several patents in this field,
    which I would recommend that you guys read:

    US Patent 3,662,350 (1972)
    US Patent 3,740,733 (1973)
    US Patent 3,662,354 (1972)

    Also- Norman L. Harvey. This guys was a real genius.
    Check out his patent: US 3,755,792 (1973).

    This is not to say that your work is not "original"
    and "cool". But please- give credit where credit is due!
    *****