[vram22]

>Those BBC TV shows had the unusual feature of broadcasting software over the end credits. Just had to tape the screeching and play it back into the computer.

Can you explain this? Do you mean that BASIC programs were encoded as sound in some way, and then could be uploaded into the computer and run?

[cracoucax]

Never used a BBC but 8bit computers of this era often used cassettes to load and save data.

The tape would contain bleeps and blurps which would be decoded into bytes by the computer. EG this is the sound produced by an Amstrad cpc464 loading a game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvChkOHgDIo

This meant that to copy software you didn't even need a computer, just a double cassette deck.

And that by recording the credits of this BBC show to tape and playing that back into the computer you'd load some program. That's actually a brilliant idea, I wonder what kind of software they broadcasted.

[vram22]

Yes, brilliant.

Sounds (pun not intended but noticed) like steganography.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography

[vram22]

Got it, thanks.

[firecall]

Not just basic programmes, anything digital can be encoded in this way.

Software has even been distributed on vinyl records and flexi singles!

You could connect a domestic cassette recorder up to a BBC Micro and use to save and load software onto normal cassettes!

There were favoured devices that would give better results and better cassettes for data storage and so on.

Its all ancient history and folklore now :-)

[vram22]

Thanks.

[justinlloyd]

Yes. That's exactly it. Just like an acoustic modem. And also how software and data was stored on compact audio cassette when disk drives (the floppy kind, not the hard kind) were too expensive or out of reach of the average person.

[vram22]

Makes sense. Thanks.