Cassette magazine
Encyclopedia
A cassette magazine is a publication contained entirely on computer-readable media, specifically on cassette
. Its content consists of some combination of text, graphics, multimedia, and executable programs, and it is normally specific to one particular computer platform or operating system. The successor to the cassette magazine was the disk magazine
.
Early home and hobby users of personal computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s sometimes typed in programs, usually in the BASIC
language, which were published in the computer magazines of the time. This was a lot of work, and prone to error, so the idea of publishing a magazine directly on a computer-readable medium so that the programs could be run directly without typing came independently to several people.
Some ideas of putting bar codes into paper magazines, which could be read into a computer with the appropriate peripheral, were floated at the time, but never caught on. Since the common data storage medium of the earliest home computers was the audio cassette, the first magazine published on a physical computer medium was cassette magazine; CLOAD magazine, for the Radio Shack
TRS-80
computer, began publication in 1978, named after the command to load a program from cassette on that computer system.
CLOAD was not the first electronic periodical, however, because various ARPANET
digests had been published as text files sent around the network since the early 1970s. These, however, were pure ASCII text and hence were not cassette magazines or disk magazine
s by the current definition. Also, at the time, few people outside of academic institutions had access to this forerunner of the Internet
.
Cassette Magazine is also a monthly music mag based in Birmingham
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
. Its content consists of some combination of text, graphics, multimedia, and executable programs, and it is normally specific to one particular computer platform or operating system. The successor to the cassette magazine was the disk magazine
Disk magazine
A disk magazine, colloquially known as a diskmag, is a magazine that is distributed in electronic form to be read using computers. These had some popularity in the 1980s and 1990s as periodicals distributed on floppy disk, hence their name...
.
Early home and hobby users of personal computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s sometimes typed in programs, usually in the BASIC
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
language, which were published in the computer magazines of the time. This was a lot of work, and prone to error, so the idea of publishing a magazine directly on a computer-readable medium so that the programs could be run directly without typing came independently to several people.
Some ideas of putting bar codes into paper magazines, which could be read into a computer with the appropriate peripheral, were floated at the time, but never caught on. Since the common data storage medium of the earliest home computers was the audio cassette, the first magazine published on a physical computer medium was cassette magazine; CLOAD magazine, for the Radio Shack
Radio shack
Radio shack is a slang term for a room or structure for housing radio equipment.-History:In the early days of radio, equipment was experimental and home-built. The first radio transmitters used a noisy spark to generate radio waves and were often housed in a garage or shed. When radio was first...
TRS-80
TRS-80
TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with...
computer, began publication in 1978, named after the command to load a program from cassette on that computer system.
CLOAD was not the first electronic periodical, however, because various ARPANET
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
digests had been published as text files sent around the network since the early 1970s. These, however, were pure ASCII text and hence were not cassette magazines or disk magazine
Disk magazine
A disk magazine, colloquially known as a diskmag, is a magazine that is distributed in electronic form to be read using computers. These had some popularity in the 1980s and 1990s as periodicals distributed on floppy disk, hence their name...
s by the current definition. Also, at the time, few people outside of academic institutions had access to this forerunner of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Cassette Magazine is also a monthly music mag based in Birmingham