Vintage cassette tape holds Apple I BASIC, killer modem tune

Fair warning: this here post is nerdier than usual, and those who begin to feel nauseous at the mere mention of data-bending may want to refrain from continuing on. For you brave, hardened souls that are following through, feast your eyes on the "first piece of software ever sold by Apple." The Apple I BASIC cassette wasn't even included with all of the 200 Apple Is produced eons ago, but a few engineering souls have managed to extract the data and create an MP3 of the wave structure. Not surprisingly, the tone resembles that of a 1200 Baud connection, and if we should say so ourselves, would make for a wicked ringtone. Believe us, it gets even weirder in the read link, but you'll have to determine whether venturing down is something your brain can handle.

[Via BoingBoing]

[matt @ Jul 19th 2008 2:57PM]

Everyone Do First Mac Comments


Mine was the Mac Classic

[Spyvie @ Jul 19th 2008 6:27PM]

I've never owned a Mac, but I did have an Apple II/e way back in the 80s

[whatishalo? @ Jul 19th 2008 8:00PM]

If you play it backwards at half speed it says "Bill Gates is Satan"

[Ayrkain @ Jul 20th 2008 9:42AM]

Apple ][+

had Ultima 1-3, Zork 1-3, and Prisoner. Loved those games.

[josearoldan @ Jul 19th 2008 3:00PM]

Congratulation, that doesn't make you anymore special.

[Pan @ Jul 20th 2008 3:34AM]

Only one congratulation? Kinda stingy there.

[SINNN @ Jul 19th 2008 3:03PM]

Btw.... will this fix my 3g iphone? I spent 400 on this new phone and I am still getting edge speed. I paid all that money just to get a plastic back. :(

[SuperSexyErik @ Jul 19th 2008 3:11PM]

what an idiot. check your coverage next time. fool.

[Phoenix @ Jul 19th 2008 3:13PM]

Do you have 3g coverage? if you didn't check the coverage/speed before buying you're a retard

[happy_penguin @ Jul 19th 2008 4:46PM]

Jayzus! You don't have to resort to name calling.

[Spyvie @ Jul 19th 2008 5:35PM]

While I agree that SINNN is an idiot, shouldn't the professional sales staff at the ATT/Apple store help the buyer decide if a 3g phone is right for them?

[BigD145 @ Jul 19th 2008 6:25PM]

Spyvie? Um, no. That's not what sales is all about. You don't sell something that a person needs, you sell something they will buy.

[kccboy2004 @ Jul 20th 2008 8:05AM]

@SINNN,

how dare you question the Great Lord Stephen in an Apple related blog. you are hereby condemned to be taken from this place and by his minions, to be verbal abused by the eyes until you are reduced to a grovelling reformed Apple purchaser.

you will repent, blasphemer !!

the iPhone is perfect and =we will not hear anyone say otherwise, let alone someone who actually has first hand experience of owning and using one. Job forbid.

this is a wanrning - any of you Apple users that have problem with the product or service - JUST SHUT UP ! Wingers.

[Backlin @ Jul 20th 2008 8:33AM]

How would a sine wave fix an iPhone?

[Freakin Ijit @ Jul 19th 2008 3:06PM]

When I built my first homebuilt in the mid-70s, I would have killed to have a mass storage device like a cassette deck.

I still have my "TTL Cookbook" and "TV Typewriter Cookbook".

["What's a typewriter?" I hear in the background...]

[fred @ Jul 19th 2008 4:05PM]

BASIC was no fun if you didnt have a cassette deck to save it.

Make a cool program, play it for an hour, and wave goodbye when you turn the computer off.

[Carl M @ Jul 19th 2008 4:58PM]

I think that either there's a misprint on the label, or else it's fake.

The Run command should be "E000G", not "E000R" ("G" for "go", "R" for "read").

At least, that's what the Apple II ROM monitor commands were.

[Freakin Ijit @ Jul 20th 2008 7:56AM]

> BASIC...

That first homebuilt mentioned above was programmed in octal...and I listened to it running via my nearby el-chepo stereo and could tell if things were going okay or not.

After I got some more money I managed to expand the memory beyond 4kBs and bought =2= 8" floppy drives (and interface).

Went straight to Tiny-C (interpreted C), then Aztec C. Never had BASIC.

Heaven.

[Freakin Ijit @ Jul 20th 2008 8:05AM]

After posting the Tiny-C comment above I googled for it and see that MUCH later someone wrote a dinky compiler and called it Tiny-C, too. However, THIS:

http://primepuzzle.com/tiny-c/

is the Tiny C I was commenting about, not that one.

[SINNN @ Jul 19th 2008 3:10PM]

A typewritter is a type of dinosaur that makes a klak noise.

[kccboy2004 @ Jul 20th 2008 10:08AM]

@SINNN,

Did you not know my son, the slogan "Apple only just works".

This means that you haveto find the exact parameters within which to operate the product.

As far as the iPhone goes, this is not just some ordinary phone, so don't expect it to work ordinarily.

[MuffinStory @ Jul 19th 2008 3:12PM]

I think I actually will use it as a ringtone. Then when my phone rings, people will freak out and be all like, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"

No, really, I will.

[DarkLight @ Jul 19th 2008 3:54PM]

+1

[Spherehead @ Jul 19th 2008 3:20PM]

Wanna talk weird, take that audio file and run it through Paul Stretch: http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/

[Philster @ Jul 19th 2008 3:36PM]

Whoa. You guys weren't kidding! That read link spewed some serious nerdgasm on my browser.

[AC @ Jul 19th 2008 3:36PM]

You use the nerdy warning like blogging on engadget has ever been anything but!

[tekman94 @ Jul 19th 2008 3:47PM]

So your saying, you've found the Holy Grail of Apple Inc. Cause if your not I'm saying you did.

[CraigJ @ Jul 19th 2008 3:48PM]

I still have a box of data cassettes in my garage filled with TI-99/4A and TRS-80 programs. My Apple had a floppy drive. I still have all these systems and it all still works fine. You should see Parsec on my 60" Mitsubishi.

[Vic20 @ Jul 19th 2008 4:09PM]

I was running Paradroid on my LCD the other day, and when I got to the bridge and the 999 came freakin' flying out of nowhere and slammed into me I nearly crapped myself.

[jboy @ Jul 19th 2008 3:55PM]

FAKE!

That's obviously an mp3 of Yar's Revenge.

[fanman @ Jul 19th 2008 4:03PM]

It's pretty cool that it should be on a cassette, what with music consumption being apples maker and all.

[liam @ Jul 19th 2008 4:11PM]

do your research. all of your complaints were public information.

check the macrumors buyers guide, or just google "iphone limitations".

theres a lot of information out there that will explain what the phone can and can't do.

[FunkyMonkeyBass @ Jul 19th 2008 4:12PM]

You want it as a ringtone?

Here you go:
http://audiko.net/ringtone/Apple/207409/Apple+I+BASIC/en.html

[caniac_01 @ Jul 19th 2008 4:44PM]

Maybe a little research next time before you buy a product?... especially one for $400.

Although.. I have to question how you didn't know these things, as the iPhone was HUGE news prior to its launch.. especially on this here blog. I don't feel sorry for you.

[Phoenix @ Jul 19th 2008 4:52PM]

yeah, that was common knowledge. And the fringes of 3G? Meh. It differs from device to device. I wouldn't pay extra if I was only gonna get a little difference

[SINNN @ Jul 19th 2008 5:05PM]

Well, its going to the trash. Whoops i mean back to apple. I refuse to be a i-sheep.Specialy a slave i-sheep.Back to winmo. As slow and ugly as it is... its freedom baby!

[AlphaTeam @ Jul 19th 2008 5:32PM]

Good for you. We don't care.

[jupiterthunder @ Jul 19th 2008 5:13PM]

props SINNN

[jupiterthunder @ Jul 19th 2008 5:23PM]

The helpful reply is...

If you're really dissatisfied, is it too late for you to return it? If it is, then that's gonna be a tough one to take, but you might be able to unload it and buy something more to your liking. That would ease the blow.

I don't know the details for sure, but I believe it's 30 days from date of purchase. Check the contract, call the store, or do a google.

It's a sweet looking phone for sure. And it's begging me to buy it, but I'm going to stay away myself.

[AlphaTeam @ Jul 19th 2008 5:31PM]

Looks awesome.

[PPC @ Jul 19th 2008 5:54PM]

PWNED!

[Teebo @ Jul 19th 2008 6:48PM]

When I was a kid, i remember using casettes to load & save programs on my TI-99/4A before I had a disk drive. There is a huge amount of nostalgia to me in hearing your data whizzing by. Sadly, in the grand picture of computer nostalgia, cassette data storage seems to be a long forgotten footnote. Right now I'm trying to compile various WAV & mp3 files of programs from various systems to hear the differences. Tough work.

[Crooked Style @ Jul 19th 2008 6:56PM]

A Cassette? I can't wait til they rip it and post it on TPB.org

[cormier6083 @ Jul 19th 2008 8:16PM]

Mine was the Bondi Blue iMac

[Ayle @ Jul 19th 2008 9:35PM]

Hey! If you ever modded earphones to be plugged on the data port of a TI calculator you'll hear the same sound ^^.

[Jeff @ Jul 19th 2008 10:09PM]

I never knew that cassettes stored data as a waveform...I mean, I guess if I had to think about it for some reason, I probably would have come to the conclusion, but I never thought about it. The idea of listening to data is kind of cool.

Oh, and my first Mac was an iPod :p

That's not entirely true, I suppose, my dad had some sort of Mac for a while. It was actually the first computer I ever used...I liked the one he got afterwards better, because it ran on Windows and I found it easier to use. I'm not trying to start anything here, I'm just sayin'.

[edward @ Jul 19th 2008 10:50PM]

Wow this has been a fun half hour exploring all the comments on that site and related links, My jaw dropped when Brian SMith said he was decoding RTTY on his VIC 20 interfaced with a ham radio.

[Wormbolt @ Jul 19th 2008 10:51PM]

Did this tape have a touchscreen?

If not, I don't want.

[Fraid @ Jul 19th 2008 11:40PM]

Music to my ears. Love it. Take me back eighties.....

[Dr Zoidberg @ Jul 20th 2008 5:12AM]

AAARGH, I just cant handle the nerdieness *head explodes*