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Old Victor Lambda v2 / Interact Home Computer (1978) not loading programs at all?

thekingofmonks

This is a very old device, so I don't think that many here would be able to help me out.

 

The device in question is a Victor Lambda v2 from 1980, or a rebrand of the Interact Home Computer from 1978. My dad's family won the whole set (including joysticks and game or educational cassettes/magnetic tapes) at a carnival game in the mid-80s. They played space invaders and some other games then, but haven't used it since.

 

This particular model has an Intel 8080A (2MHz), 16KB of memory, 2KB of volatile storage and a 112x78 color display that is output from a SCART/péritel port.

 

I have been trying to start programs from the magnetic tapes it came with, but to no avail. When booted, the computer shows a blue screen that says "Press L to read cassette" (in French).

 

The instructions for loading a program are as follows:

  1. Insert the tape in the tape compartment
  2. Reset the computer (reset button)
  3. Press L on the keyboard
  4. Rewind, then read the tape
  5. (Games only) Connect the joystick(s)
  6. (Unwritten) Wait for the program to load (10-15 minutes according to Internet and under 30 minutes, says my dad)

 

I did exactly as told and waited even longer than 30 minutes for each tape, but not a single program has started so far.

The tapes simply reach their end and the machine stops reading from them, but the tape compartment's motor still spins.

The screen remains the same the entire time.

I also couldn't find any videos anywhere showing tapes being loaded into this computer.

 

 

So, to anyone who has knowledge or even experience with this type of hardware:

Is it normal that it doesn't show anything else while the programs are loading?

Could it simply be that the tapes have been demagnetized over the years, even though they clearly still have data given the sounds the machine makes while loading?

Am I doing anything wrong?

 

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While the tapes may certainly have degraded, what's more likely is the tape transport mechanism on the computer has degraded and failed.  I suspect this is the case because it's not doing anything at all as it never picks up on a data stream.  A tape wouldn't have uniformly and entirely degraded, it should have dumped an error if it got a bad data stream (something you could probably figure out by looking at a ROM dump).  

 

The lubricants and belts in a tape drive often gum up or dry out after a couple decades so while you may hear a motor spinning, there's no guarantee it's actually powering all the other important gears and spindles and whatnot.  I would go on YouTube and see how Colin from This Does Not Compute has repaired several tape players so you know of the potential problems and pitfalls. There might be a surviving repair guide/parts list if you can identify the manufacturer of the tape drive assembly which would have been certainly off the shelf at that time and not done in house by a small-time systems manufacturer.  

 

You could definitely try playing the tapes in a cassette player and compare it to downloaded audio files of tapes that use the same protocol... probably Kansas City standard, but who knows.  But I wouldn't do that as a first step given how fragile the tapes are.  You might not be able to play them a second time.  

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