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A cassette tape used in early computers is a plastic cartridge containing magnetic tape on two spools, used to store digital data as audio signals. The data is recorded and played back by a tape deck or drive, which interacts with the tape via a read/write head. This method allowed for affordable mass storage when floppy disks were expensive, with programs and data encoded as varying audio frequencies.

How it Worked

Data Encoding: The computer converts digital data into audio frequencies.

Recording: The tape drive records these audio frequencies onto the magnetic tape as patterns of magnetism.

Playback: When playing back, the read/write head detects the magnetic patterns, converting them back into electrical signals that the computer interprets as data.

Loading: Early systems, like the Commodore 64, often used a "fast loader" program stored on a cassette to speed up data transfer, as standard loading was quite slow.