Here's a comparison photo for scale with a Microcassette, Pocket Rocker cartridge, and Bandai micro cartridge.

Following on from @avavsystems post about Pocket Rockers, here's some more about them.

They were advertised with the tagline ‘Tiny Tapes, Tiny Players’ and came in a range of colourful designs. They were a fashion item as much as a music system (the tapes […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

An obscure background music system from the UK, the Ditchburn Symphonaire was introduced in 1962 and utilised the 'C' size Fidelipac cartridge to provide up to four hours of music from the Ditchburn Music Library across two tracks.

Thanks to @avavsystems for donating this rare example.

The MI-12877 was a cartridge containing thin magnetic wire for recording and playback of audio, and was introduced in 1947 for use in the RCA Magnetic Wire Recorder. Wire was already in use as a recording medium but it was fragile and needed to be threaded […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

The Extended Density (ED) 3.5-inch Microfloppy was an advance on the HD version, with improved oxide coatings that offered 2.88 MB of storage.

Introduced in 1991 on the NeXTcube, NeXTstation and IBM PS/2 model 57, it was too small an advance in capacity over […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

The SQ Quadraphonic version of Tubular Bells came a with sticker on the front cover that said 'For people with four ears'. The rear cover said 'Store in four dry places'.

Kodak launched their popular range of instant film cameras in 1976, along with an instant integral film pack, the PR10. This was similar to Polaroid's SX-70 instant film and Polaroid launched a lawsuit against Kodak that Kodak evenually lost, and had to stop […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

The Friden Computyper computer of 1967 was marketed as a billing machine and made use of a cartridge with a continuous loop of punched Mylar tape to program it.

The tapes were prepared by a Friden office, to meet the needs of the company running the […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

The Karat film cartridge was reintroduced as the Agfa Rapid cartridge in 1964. This was almost identical, the main difference being a metal tab on the back of the cartridge that helped the camera identify the speed of the film.

Agfa introduced their Karat series of cameras in 1936 and with it introduced a new film cartridge system for 35 mm photographic film. Two cartridges were used, with the film being drawn from one cartridge and then being pushed into the empty cartridge. One […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

The Sharp Magnetic Bubble Memory cartridge was introduced in 1983 for use as removable storage in the Sharp PC-5000 portable computer, in place of a hard disk or internal floppy disks. It offered 128 KB of storage.

This cartridge was kindly donated by my […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

The Music Screeners series was a short-lived format that offered multimedia content on a 3.5-inch floppy disk. They were launched by Sony in late 1995 with 21 titles - more were planned for 1996 but this doesn't appear to have happened.

Each disk was themed […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

In the 1900s and 1910s there were a number of Chicago-based record labels that operated a type of premium scheme whereby the phonograph itself was inexpensive but the purchaser was locked-in to purchasing discs made for the player through the use of different […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

Some older automatic washing machines used metal punched cards to control their wash cycles and offer more choice over programmes. The cards were placed in a slot on the machine – a top row of smaller perforations was used to pull the card along and as the […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

This is a background music cartridge from Planned Equipment Ltd. (PEL). Using an 8-Track cartridge, it offered four 4 hours of mono music by running the tape at half the normal speed and using all eight tracks.

This particular cartridge was kindly donated by […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

Busy Bee Records was started in 1904 and was one of a number of Chicago-based labels that operated a type of premium scheme whereby the phonograph itself was inexpensive but the purchaser was locked-in to purchasing discs made for the player.

The Busy Bee […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

Introduced around the early 1930s, the Movie-Jeckor was a toy projector that used paper rolls and an electric lamp.

The reel contained two rows of images and as a handle on the projector was turned, the strip was advanced and a shutter inside the projector […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]

UD-4 was a lesser known quadraphonic LP format introduced by Nippon Columbia (Denon) in 1974. It contained both matrix and discrete quadraphonic systems, but didn't do well commercially with just 30 releases. This is a sampler album from 1974. More information […]

[Original post on mastodon.world]