--- Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
   I may have
found the tape... I would play with it tonight, but the felt 
 pad has fallen off the
metal leaf spring behind the tape, and the first
 few inches got wrinkled in my player when I tried to listen to it.
 If you could repair the felt pad, would you be able to make any use of
 the data on the tape? 
 
I am not certain if the VIP uses a header or not, but given how simple
the monitor is, and the fact that unlike, say, the PET, there is no
file name (and no redundant copy), I would expect that the first file
on the tape is completely hosed.
  I have repaired cassette pressure pads in the past. If
you can find
 another cassette of the same brand with a good pad then you can often
 open up the cassette housing (all decent compact cassettes are assembled
 with screws!) and swap over the leaf spring/pad assembly. 
If it had screws, I'd have done that already.  I used to go through a lot
of tapes and I was in grade school/high-school when I was using them,
so many of my tapes are high quality, but most are not.  I did use the
expensive Memorex screw-type for really important stuff.  I also tended
to not write just to the front of the tape (and wear it out).
With this exception of this one VIP tape and a few DEC TA60s, all of
my cassettes are Commodore.  I'd estimate 3% C-64, 1% VIC-20, and the
rest, 40-col BASIC 2 PET.  I've already slurped up all the ones that
are not in "Rabbit" format.  As soon as I decide how to restore my
original 32K PET (intermittent keyboard problems - it's already the
second PCB.  I have at least one NOS keyboard sans cable; the question
is do I move the cable or build a new one from scratch), I will be
slurping up the handful of Rabbit tapes.  I have the Rabbit software
in ROM and on standard C= cassette.
   Worst case,
I'll have to type stuff in, then "save" through a PeeCee
 sound card.  I am a little concerned about mains noise, so I'm  
 Don't you still have a cassette (or other tape) recorder? Can't you still
 get blank tapes? I would want to save it in as many ways possible! 
 
I wasn't figuring on relying on stretchable analog technology.  I _could_
cut a new tape, but I hadn't planned on it.
-ethan
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