I always liked Datasettes as they provide the highest amount of physical nostalgia. Up untill now I always thought I had a C2N growing up bit now realise it was one of the third party ones and I later got a C2N in a mixed lot with my first Amiga ( along with a Vic 20)
In Europe in the early days many people just bought any old tape recorder from an electrical store. My first C64 in 1983 had a basic silver Saisho(?) tape recorder. I played around with it recording sounds after I got a 1530 a couple of years later. My original Breadbin died in about 1985/6(?) and I was bought a new 64C 'Connoisseur pack' that had a 64C, 1530 drive and the mouse (with Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo + Chess games) plus a new Ferguson 14" TV to use as a monitor. I ran both 1530's as I found some games preferred one drive over another (I also had my copy of Test Drive chewed up by one of the drives and that cassette never worked again afterwards). I had a C64C + 128 + several disk drives loads of disk an SD2IEC, half a dozen joysticks etc until 2020 when I sold the entire collection after getting a 'The C64' unit. I don't have room for the collection since my kid was born (and I lost my man cave) and now I have the c64 on a shelf under my work from home desk, so I get to play it a LOT more than when I had to unpack and set everything up. It got to be such a chore (with consequential nagging from the wife) that I hardly ever ended up playing it. Now I play my The C64 EVERY week! (Plus it allows you to play REU games like Sonic etc!).
I had the 1982 version of the tape drive with the darn grounding wire for my Vic-20. I ended up wrapping it behind the connector just to get it out of the way.
Super interesting and informative! Thanks Mr. Hutchins. I never noted the differences in the internal 2001 tape drives before -- my 2001-4 also has that Sanyo drive in it.
Thanks for taking the time to share information on your collection. I think the datasette collection bug has just bitten me. I've got about 6 in storage that I'm now going to have to identify and then try to complete the set
Well done video. Thnx a lot. I've attached a line-in connector to one of my 1530s to use with an old iphone to playback wav files converted from prg or tap files. I can play them back from within google drive and can upload a file to google drive from and computer. I use it mostly for loading a debugging program to any problematic cbm device with a datasette port.
This is quite amazing, I thought I new a lot about commodore systems and peripherals but my knowledge on commodore tape drives has been lacking. Thanks for repairing that ;)
@@HutchCA I was thinking is was a user modification too until you turned it over and showed the label. I agree that Commodore probably just used parts they had on hand to make them.
I have a 1530 Datasette, but instead of cutting the ground wire off, I opened the connector housing and wound the wire around the cable inside the housing, just in case I would ever need the grounding.
I find this more interesting than I thought. Well done. We had pet 8032's in school and I bought a vic20 and c64 for home use when I was in highschool. Thanks for doing these vids!
I thought I was the only one who liked tape drives. There were also 3rd party drives that looked different. I still like loading from cassettes as it makes you wait for the program / game to load so that once the game is up and running you don't switch off as soon as you get to a part of the game that's difficult. You invested time in the loading so you tend keep playing the game to get through the hard parts. Instant load carts are great but it's too easy to switch off and try another game.
This is a very nice set of videos about the commodore cassette units - thanks for making them. I have a very early Pet that took the white keyboard cassette with cut out back. I have restored it to working condition but loaned out the cassette years ago and it never came back. I’m now looking for a cassette with cut out back. Any ideas where I can get one? I have several white and black versions I thought would work but require the case be cut to fit in. It would be great to get my blue faced pet working again with original parts.
@@HutchCA Thanks for your rapid reply. I know what you mean about getting the proper fit. The cassette cut out on my early pet is narrower than the later ones. Your white key back cut out cassette is the type I need. You can see that it’s narrower, especially in the back door area. I have the bracket and screws for the white key cassette and several other black and white cassettes that are wider and don’t fit. I’ve been looking on eBay for over a year for the proper cassette under Commodore cassette and Commodore dataset but so far no luck. Should I modify my search? I appreciate your advice, knowledge and collection of all things Commodore.
That's an awesome collection of datasettes there. I have the black and white versions of the C2N, a black one in my PET 2001-8 (plus a spare external one with a longer lead), and a white one I use with my early VIC-20. I'd love to get hold of either of the two previous versions (the Sanyo or white keys one) to put in my PET. Do you think they would fit in the cutout in the case?
Was the shielded connector variant just for the US market? I had a C2N with my VIC in the UK back in the day, and that was the unshielded variant and I just bought one on E bay from the UK and again, it had the unshielded connector.
On the contrary. I had Japanese while some of my friends had Taiwanese version. Japanese buttons were harder to push, and the cover was more prone to breaking. Counter was harder to read too. I personally liked the Taiwanese version.
@@HutchCA Most US sellers won’t ship to Canada. Those that do tend to charge as much for shipping as for the unit itself, and will use a courier rather than USPS. A $30 USD dataset ends up being north of $100 CAD after currency exchange, duty, and brokerage fees.
Strange that there was never a C64 bread bin colored version.
I always liked Datasettes as they provide the highest amount of physical nostalgia. Up untill now I always thought I had a C2N growing up bit now realise it was one of the third party ones and I later got a C2N in a mixed lot with my first Amiga ( along with a Vic 20)
In Europe in the early days many people just bought any old tape recorder from an electrical store. My first C64 in 1983 had a basic silver Saisho(?) tape recorder. I played around with it recording sounds after I got a 1530 a couple of years later. My original Breadbin died in about 1985/6(?) and I was bought a new 64C 'Connoisseur pack' that had a 64C, 1530 drive and the mouse (with Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo + Chess games) plus a new Ferguson 14" TV to use as a monitor. I ran both 1530's as I found some games preferred one drive over another (I also had my copy of Test Drive chewed up by one of the drives and that cassette never worked again afterwards). I had a C64C + 128 + several disk drives loads of disk an SD2IEC, half a dozen joysticks etc until 2020 when I sold the entire collection after getting a 'The C64' unit. I don't have room for the collection since my kid was born (and I lost my man cave) and now I have the c64 on a shelf under my work from home desk, so I get to play it a LOT more than when I had to unpack and set everything up. It got to be such a chore (with consequential nagging from the wife) that I hardly ever ended up playing it. Now I play my The C64 EVERY week! (Plus it allows you to play REU games like Sonic etc!).
I had the 1982 version of the tape drive with the darn grounding wire for my Vic-20. I ended up wrapping it behind the connector just to get it out of the way.
I need to rewind and play this again. Great detail!
Super interesting and informative! Thanks Mr. Hutchins. I never noted the differences in the internal 2001 tape drives before -- my 2001-4 also has that Sanyo drive in it.
Thanks for taking the time to share information on your collection. I think the datasette collection bug has just bitten me. I've got about 6 in storage that I'm now going to have to identify and then try to complete the set
Well done video. Thnx a lot. I've attached a line-in connector to one of my 1530s to use with an old iphone to playback wav files converted from prg or tap files. I can play them back from within google drive and can upload a file to google drive from and computer. I use it mostly for loading a debugging program to any problematic cbm device with a datasette port.
This is quite amazing, I thought I new a lot about commodore systems and peripherals but my knowledge on commodore tape drives has been lacking. Thanks for repairing that ;)
What an awesome collection! I had no idea that they made a white 264 computer version. That's pretty cool!
@@HutchCA I was thinking is was a user modification too until you turned it over and showed the label. I agree that Commodore probably just used parts they had on hand to make them.
I have a 1530 Datasette, but instead of cutting the ground wire off, I opened the connector housing and wound the wire around the cable inside the housing, just in case I would ever need the grounding.
Great collection!!
I find this more interesting than I thought. Well done. We had pet 8032's in school and I bought a vic20 and c64 for home use when I was in highschool. Thanks for doing these vids!
Very nice. Thank you.
Great video. Thanks.
I thought I was the only one who liked tape drives. There were also 3rd party drives that looked different. I still like loading from cassettes as it makes you wait for the program / game to load so that once the game is up and running you don't switch off as soon as you get to a part of the game that's difficult. You invested time in the loading so you tend keep playing the game to get through the hard parts. Instant load carts are great but it's too easy to switch off and try another game.
So many variations, so little difference in function :)
It would be really cool if someone made a full modern replica which worked just like the originals.
Who knew? Thanks Chuck. Well done :)
This is a very nice set of videos about the commodore cassette units - thanks for making them. I have a very early Pet that took the white keyboard cassette with cut out back. I have restored it to working condition but loaned out the cassette years ago and it never came back. I’m now looking for a cassette with cut out back. Any ideas where I can get one? I have several white and black versions I thought would work but require the case be cut to fit in. It would be great to get my blue faced pet working again with original parts.
@@HutchCA
Thanks for your rapid reply. I know what you mean about getting the proper fit. The cassette cut out on my early pet is narrower than the later ones. Your white key back cut out cassette is the type I need. You can see that it’s narrower, especially in the back door area. I have the bracket and screws for the white key cassette and several other black and white cassettes that are wider and don’t fit. I’ve been looking on eBay for over a year for the proper cassette under Commodore cassette and Commodore dataset but so far no luck. Should I modify my search? I appreciate your advice, knowledge and collection of all things Commodore.
That's an awesome collection of datasettes there. I have the black and white versions of the C2N, a black one in my PET 2001-8 (plus a spare external one with a longer lead), and a white one I use with my early VIC-20. I'd love to get hold of either of the two previous versions (the Sanyo or white keys one) to put in my PET. Do you think they would fit in the cutout in the case?
Was the shielded connector variant just for the US market? I had a C2N with my VIC in the UK back in the day, and that was the unshielded variant and I just bought one on E bay from the UK and again, it had the unshielded connector.
Great vid. Any interest in 3rd party tape recorders like Binatone, Quantum, K7, Phonemark etc?
Would you say the Japan made versions have higher quality components inside ?
On the contrary. I had Japanese while some of my friends had Taiwanese version. Japanese buttons were harder to push, and the cover was more prone to breaking. Counter was harder to read too. I personally liked the Taiwanese version.
Sweet collection, but it makes me a bit sad since I haven't been able to find one to recover a bunch of vintage tape content.
@@HutchCA Most US sellers won’t ship to Canada. Those that do tend to charge as much for shipping as for the unit itself, and will use a courier rather than USPS. A $30 USD dataset ends up being north of $100 CAD after currency exchange, duty, and brokerage fees.
@@HutchCA Thanks, Chuck. I’ll see if I can scrounge up the hardware to try that.
I have a black C2N with a red light on the right side. This lights up when you press load. Is this a new variant or after market?
Any of the drives better than others? Japan vs Taiwan?
question, there are bootleg commodore 1530 datassette (with commodore logo included)? if yes how to spot them?
Not that I've seen. I have seen new reproductions without Commodore branding.