Timeline for Cheapest way to store and load small dataset in the 80s?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
26 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 19, 2021 at 11:28 | comment | added | Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen | I had a TI-58 which didn't have any long term storage. It was severely missed | |
| Nov 19, 2021 at 10:57 | answer | added | wendy.krieger | timeline score: 0 | |
| Nov 2, 2021 at 4:28 | comment | added | UncleBod | The TI-59 retailed for about USD 300. The little brother TI-58 for USD 125.The biggest difference between them were the strip reader. TI apparently thought that reade was worth USD 150 or so in retail. As a spare part or sold alone? I'd guess almost as much as a new TI-59. Memory on one strip was probably about 512 bytes (480 steps plus header information). | |
| Nov 2, 2021 at 3:21 | history | edited | Schezuk | CC BY-SA 4.0 | added 124 characters in body |
| Nov 2, 2021 at 3:13 | history | edited | Schezuk | CC BY-SA 4.0 | added 208 characters in body |
| Nov 1, 2021 at 19:18 | comment | added | supercat | I paid $300 for my VIC-20 and $75 for the cassette recorder that went with it. I was hardly rolling in cash, but $375 for everything necessary to start programming was cheaper than anything else other than a Sinclair ZX-81 or maybe an RCA VIP (which I hadn't ever heard of until a few years ago), and the VIC-20 was vastly more usable than either. | |
| Nov 1, 2021 at 16:10 | answer | added | tofro | timeline score: 5 | |
| Nov 1, 2021 at 15:10 | answer | added | Will Hartung | timeline score: 6 | |
| Nov 1, 2021 at 11:24 | answer | added | PDP11 | timeline score: 6 | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 17:02 | comment | added | UncleBod | One more point: a lot of people didn't even have to buy a cassette recorder. They already owned one. Most households even had several cassette recorders in the early 80's. | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 16:45 | comment | added | Raffzahn | @Schezuk Beside that an MPF-1 was rather using a $30 (SeeRadio Shack Catalogue 1982) recorder, there were adaptor cables to use any recorder with Commodore PET, VIC20 or C64, so no need to pay Commodore prices - not to mention that the list price was rarely asked. Next, cassettes were way cheaper than other media.It's also unfair to compare special solutions with generic. Last but for sure not least, prices dropped extreme during these years so it's rather useless to compare prices more than 6-9 month apart. | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 12:46 | comment | added | mmmmmm | @Schezuk That price for a Cooomodore cassette player looks like Commodore ripping things off. Other computers could use normal cassette players which were half the price - The proice I quote is from an Argos catalog of the time | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 12:38 | comment | added | Schezuk | @WalterMitty Ahh, even an NES got one. | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 12:21 | comment | added | UncleBod | In the linked ads $75 is the list price in USA (nto Taiwan). The company in question offers it for $59. I am sure you could get it for less. Besides, they sold the computer for it (A VIC 20) for $199 (and the 1540 disk drive for $369). | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 12:18 | comment | added | Schezuk | @Raffzahn Simplest Tape recorders cost £15., much cheaper than a 1530, which surprised me. Yet weren't there anything even cheaper? For instance Yamaha Play Cards and built-in reader seam to have been far from expensive. | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 11:55 | comment | added | UncleBod | The Commodore 1530 was not a cassette player usable with anything except some Commodore computers. I am sure simple mono cassette player were much cheaper in whatever area of the world you took your prices from. | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 11:51 | history | edited | Schezuk | CC BY-SA 4.0 | added 390 characters in body |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 11:49 | comment | added | dave | For the IBM PC and its clones, a floppy drive was standard (a hard disk was not), so there was no extra drive cost, just the media. To add to @WalterMitty's comment, the system space is too wide. Are we talking about "home computers" or machines used for business? | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 11:44 | comment | added | Schezuk | @mmmmmm In 1982 a 1530 cassette cost $75 while a Taiwan MPF-1 computer costs $70. It should have had deserved some cheaper means of storage, shouldn't it? | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 10:51 | comment | added | Walter Mitty | A decade is too long a time frame. In 1980, desktop computers were for aficionados and technophiles. Floppies were expensive, but so was everything else in computing. By 1989, any computer with no hard drive was chintzy. | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 10:13 | comment | added | Raffzahn | @Schezuk Hmm, I am European, and I did not meet any C64 user without a 1541 - if not right from the start, then soon after, if they continued to use the machine for more than a few weeks. More relevant, I do not really see what the question is asking for. A list of devices? Methods? A comparison between them? Also what devices, if you're already mention cassettes, which are the lowest price option, available for next to every machine and perfectly fitting the criteria mentioned? | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 10:05 | comment | added | mmmmmm | If you can't afford a cassette player then you can't afford a computer. In UK 1981 Cassette players were £20 and computers e.g. the cheapest ZX81 ~£100 | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 9:59 | comment | added | UncleBod | 1) Do you have any statistic that shows how many 1541 that were sold compared to number of C64 computers in different areas to back up your claim? 2) If you couldn't afford a cassette player, I am very sure you couldn't afford a Commodore 1541 drive. 3) I still don't see what the high level technical calculator TI-59 have to do with this question. | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 9:45 | comment | added | Schezuk | @unclebod The Americans and the Japanese could afford 1541 drives, the Europeans could afford cassette players. Others might not. | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 9:33 | comment | added | UncleBod | What the logic in refering to such a very specific thing as the Ti-59 magnetic strip, that was almost impossible to use on anything than a Ti-59. I also have trouble understanding the statement that "A tape recorder matches all these aspects in a lesser way, sooner or later." In the 70-80 a C60 cassette tape could be bought in almost any shop for a quite small amount of money (nothing near a 5.25 floppy in price). | |
| Oct 31, 2021 at 9:21 | history | asked | Schezuk | CC BY-SA 4.0 |