History Main / ComputerEqualsTapedrive

* The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m8IOD-wk9g music video]] for the song "Computer Games" by [[NewWaveMusic NewWave]] group Mi-Sex was filmed on location at what was then Control Data Corp's [[UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}} North Sydney]] processing centre. In 1979. It does overlap with ComputerEqualsMonitor though.

* The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m8IOD-wk9g music video]] for the song "Computer Games" by Music/NewWave group Mi-Sex was filmed on location at what was then Control Data Corp's [[UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}} North Sydney]] processing centre. In 1979. It does overlap with ComputerEqualsMonitor though.

-> Whoa, whoa, what's this? Are you kidding me? Are we using tape reel computers? Noooo! Wait ... are those slots for punched cards?

Superseded by ComputerEqualsMonitor.

It might seem weird, but [[http://www.securitronlinux.com/bejiitaswrath/computer-tape-drives-coming-back-to-the-computers-of-2012/ the tape drive is not exactly extinct]] as a storage medium, and modern ones can store up to 8 TB of data. Their niche seems to be for the purpose of backups in large multinational enterprises though, given the low retrieval speeds. As for appearing in film, most filmmakers give the modern drive a pass since modern LTO tape drives don't look anything like those tape drives of old and are so uncommon that not many people have seen one; the tapes look like small videocassettes (nothing like the big open-reel tapes that used to be common) and the drives mount in the same bays as CD/DVD drives. Not to mention that the lack of activity indicators on one and the inability to see the tape reels spinning, as well as the abovementioned speed issue, makes it a very boring subject to film.

* Lampshaded in ''{{Freemans Mind}}'' when Gordon enters an old but still in-use reactor test site. Despite being under attack from an {{Eldritch Abomination}}, it is the sight of a tapedrive (and punchcards, see the page quote) that sends him to a raging rant.

No longer as common, since in RealLife, almost everybody[[note]]except certain industrial class backup systems[[/note]] has stopped using the old-fashioned 9-track mag tape reel because of size and cost, e.g. a 6250 bpi, 1600 foot tape could hold, at most, a little over 100 megabytes of data[[note]]the normal maximum block size is 32760 bytes, and each 32760-byte block takes, with the gap following it, 5.992 inches[[/note]], and costs about US$12. By 2012, it was possible to walk into a stationery store and buy a microSD card the size of a man's thumbnail for close to $12, and it would hold at least 4 billion bytes, or about 50 times as much as the above tape reel. And that's not even the cheapest example. A top-the-line 4 terabyte[[note]]that's 4,000,000 megabytes, since disk drives are sized in decimal, not binary, units[[/note]] hard drive could often be purchased at or under US$200. That means data storage on modern hardware is ''[[ReadingsAreOffTheScale thousands]]'' of times cheaper today, and that's before factoring in inflation.[[note]]It's impractical to use because of extremely slow random access, not because of low capacity and high cost. Most have moved on to modern tape cassette drives, which has a capacity of up to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_drive#History 5 terabytes.]][[/note]]

* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', Cap and Black Widow stumble upon an old SHIELD lab and an early 80's-era computer complete with this function. It turns out that the computer is much more advanced than they initially thought.

* In ''TheItalianJob'' (1969), all the traffic lights in Turin were controlled by computer. Our heroes caused a massive traffic jam by sneaking into the computer center and hanging a magtape that made the whole system go haywire. Presumably the control software read the tape automatically, as no other interaction was needed.
** It shouldn't have worked anyway - when we see the tape being read, we see that it's actually [[SurroundedByIdiots twisted]] over the heads, and should therefore be unreadable

* In the [[The8bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames 8 bit era]] of home computers (Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Dragon, TRS-80 and the like) software was available on cassette tapes, which were the exact same format as the Compact Cassettes that younger tropers associate with the 1990s for some reason (but were actually invented in the 1960s and were just as prevalent in the 1980s)

* In the early days of home computers (Commodore 64, Amiga, etc.) certain programs came on cassettes, about the size of a '90s music tape.

* In the early days of home computers (Commodore 64, Amiga, etc.) certain programs came on cassettes.

* Lampshaded in ''{{Freemans Mind}}'' when Gordon enters an old but still in-use reactor test site. Despite being under attack from an {{Eldritch Abomination}}, it is the sight of a tapedrive that sends him to a raging rant.

* The computers in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' are often found with tape drives. In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', these are described as being very modern real-to-reel devices. Justified, given the slightly twisted alternate history the games exist in (e.g. the transistor was never invented in the ''Falloutverse'').

No longer as common, since in RealLife, almost everybody[[note]]except certain industrial class backup systems[[/note]] has stopped using the old-fashioned 9-track mag tape reel because of size and cost, e.g. a 6250 bpi, 1600 foot tape could hold, at most, about 75 megabytes of data, and costs about US$12. By 2012, it was possible to walk into a stationery store and buy a microSD card the size of a man's thumbnail for close to $12, and it would hold at least 4 billion bytes, or about 50 times as much as the above tape reel. And that's not even the cheapest example. A top-the-line 4 terabyte[[note]]that's 4,194,304 megabytes[[/note]] hard-drive could often be purchased at or under US$200. That means data storage on modern hardware is ''[[ReadingsAreOffTheScale thousands]]'' of times cheaper today, and that's before factoring in inflation.[[note]]It's impractical to use because of extremely slow random access, not because of low capacity and high cost. Most have moved on to modern tape cassette drives, which has a capacity of up to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_drive#History 5 terabytes.]][[/note]]

* In the film ''FailSafe'' a (for then) large mainframe computer is focused upon, with the tape drives ''running backwards''. When tapes were used for main storage, not just backup, changing direction and rewriting part of a tape was common.

* The Black Mesa facility in ''HalfLife'' apparently still uses these in some areas. Seeing as many areas are converted Cold War-era missile silos and bunkers, it's possible some of the outdated equipment hasn't been replaced.

* ''[[Pinball/{{Pinbot}}]]'' has the "Computer Equals Blinking Lights" version, a giant robot with a bank of flashing multicolored lights in its chest. Turning on all the lights opens the visor to enable multiball.

No longer as common, since in RealLife, almost everybody[[note]]except industrial class backup systems[[/note]] has stopped using the old-fashioned 9-track mag tape reel because of size and cost, e.g. a 6250 bpi, 1600 foot tape could hold, at most, about 75 megabytes of data, and costs about US$12. By 2012, it was possible to walk into a stationery store and buy a microSD card the size of a man's thumbnail for close to $12, and it would hold at least 4 billion bytes, or about 50 times as much as the above tape reel. And that's not even the cheapest example. A top-the-line 4 terabyte[[note]]that's 4,194,304 megabytes[[/note]] hard-drive could often be purchased at or under US$200. That means data storage on modern hardware is ''[[ReadingsAreOffTheScale thousands]]'' of times cheaper today, and that's before factoring in inflation.[[note]]It's impractical to use because of extremely slow random access, not because of low capacity and high cost. Modern tape casette capacity is up to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_drive#History 5 terabytes.]][[/note]]

It might seem weird, but [[http://www.securitronlinux.com/bejiitaswrath/computer-tape-drives-coming-back-to-the-computers-of-2012/ the tape drive is not exactly extinct]] as a storage medium, and modern ones can store up to 8 TB of data. They are generally used as backups, though, given the low retrieval speeds. As for appearing in film, most filmmakers give the modern drive a pass since modern LTO tape drives don't look anything like those tape drives of old and are so uncommon that not many people have seen one; the tapes look like small videocassettes (nothing like the big open-reel tapes that used to be common) and the drives mount in the same bays as CD/DVD drives. Not to mention that the lack of activity indicators on one and the inability to see the tape reels spinning, as well as the abovementioned speed issue, makes it a very boring subject to film.

No longer as common, since in RealLife, almost everybody[[note]]except industrial class backup systems[[/note]] has stopped using the old-fashioned 9-track mag tape reel because of size and cost, e.g. a 6250 bpi, 1600 foot tape could hold, at most, about 75 megabytes of data, and costs about US$12. By 2012, it was possible to walk into a stationery store and buy a microSD card the size of a man's thumbnail for close to $12, and it would hold at least 4 billion bytes, or about 50 times as much as the above tape reel. And that's not even the cheapest example. A top-the-line 2 terabyte[[note]]that's 2,097,152 megabytes[[/note]] hard-drive could often be purchased at or under US$200[[note]]formerly $100, supply dropped after a 2011 Thailand flood that wiped out manufacturing plants[[/note]]. That means data storage on modern hardware is ''[[ReadingsAreOffTheScale thousands]]'' of times cheaper today, and that's before factoring in inflation.[[note]]It's impractical to use because of extremely slow random access, not because of low capacity and high cost. Modern tape casette capacity is up to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_drive#History 5 terabytes.]][[/note]]

[[folder:Machinima]]
* Lampshaded in ''{{Freemans Mind}}'' when Gordon enters an old but still in-use reactor test site. Despite being under attack from an {{Eldritch Abomination}}, it is the sight of a tapedrive that sends him to a raging rant.
[[/folder]]

No longer as common, since in RealLife, almost everybody[[hottip:*:except industrial class backup systems]] has stopped using the old-fashioned 9-track mag tape reel because of size and cost, e.g. a 6250 bpi, 1600 foot tape could hold, at most, about 75 megabytes of data, and costs about US$12. By 2012, it was possible to walk into a stationery store and buy a microSD card the size of a man's thumbnail for close to $12, and it would hold at least 4 billion bytes, or about 50 times as much as the above tape reel. And that's not even the cheapest example. A top-the-line 2 terabyte[[hottip:*:that's 2,097,152 megabytes]] hard-drive could often be purchased at or under US$200[[hottip:*:formerly $100, supply dropped after a 2011 Thailand flood that wiped out manufacturing plants]]. That means data storage on modern hardware is ''[[ReadingsAreOffTheScale thousands]]'' of times cheaper today, and that's before factoring in inflation.[[hottip:*:It's impractical to use because of extremely slow random access, not because of low capacity and high cost. Modern tape casette capacity is up to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_drive#History 5 terabytes.]]

* From ''{{Thunderbirds}}'', Thunderbird 5, the manned observation satellite from which poor, neglected John Tracy monitored the world's radio airwaves for distress calls, used reel-to-reel memory exclusively.

* In ''{{Lost}}'', the computer room in the first hatch (Desmond's, the Swan, 2nd season) has 'em. Whether or not the inclusion is realistic, it's good for maintaining that Forbidding Doomsday Computer vibe. The overall effect of pairing this visual with the song "Make Your Own Kind of Music" is positively surreal (especially compared to the outdoors setting that formerly predominated).

No longer as common, since in RealLife, almost everybody[[hottip:*:except industrial class backup systems]] has stopped using the old-fashioned 9-track mag tape reel because of size and cost, e.g. a 6250 bpi, 1600 foot tape could hold, at most, about 75 megabytes of data, and costs about US$12. By 2012, it was possible to walk into a stationery store and buy a microSD card the size of a man's thumbnail for close to $12, and it would hold at least 4 billion bytes, or about 50 times as much as the above tape reel. And that's not even the cheapest example. A top-the-line 2 terabyte[[hottip:*:that's 2,000,000 megabytes]] hard-drive could often be purchased at or under US$200[[hottip:*:formerly $100, supply dropped after a 2011 Thailand flood that wiped out manufacturing plants]]. That means data storage on modern hardware is ''[[ReadingsAreOffTheScale thousands]]'' of times cheaper today, and that's before factoring in inflation.[[hottip:*:It's impractical to use because of extremely slow random access, not because of low capacity and high cost. Modern tape casette capacity is up to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_drive#History 5 terabytes.]]

* Graeme's computer in ''Series/TheGoodies'' featured a large, obvious tape drive, although that was far from the oddest thing about.