"Electric Eye" is being re-issued on vinyl, with the original C-64 easter egg plus a NEW one for the other side that I coded. You can pre-order it here: boonesoverstock.com/products/prodigal-electric-eye-new-red-vinyl-2020-retroactive-records
Loyd Boldman, the lead singer of Prodigal, was my dad & I thank you so much for doing this! This is the first time I’ve ever actually seen somebody use this program! I’ve been hearing about it since I was a kid!
Hi Dan, I'm glad you saw this! Your dad seemed like a very interesting guy, I enjoyed reading an interview with him I saw online. Thanks for commenting :)
vcolinc I can’t say for sure, but, quotes by Einstein & Jesus definitely seems like something my dad would have chosen. He had a wide variety of interests. He never let his religion limit his interests in popular culture, which I always liked.
@@danboldman7226 It seems strange to have quotes from Einstein and Jesus beside each other but they are both very nice quotes, and there's something very intriguing about having had to decode them this way.
This is pretty cool. An interesting twist here. I had the same idea for the soundtrack cassette of Planet X3. I had written a nice little 1K demo and the original cassette master had the program at the end of the cassette. However, the people making the cassette said that I was going to blow somebody's eardrums out if they didn't know this program was on the cassette and it just started playing over their headphones with the volume up loud. We tried reducing the volume of the program, but then it wouldn't load on a real C64 datasette, at which point I decided there was no point of leaving it on there.
Yes, I think that's part of why they hid this in a 2nd runout groove so that it wasn't annoying or even damaging people or equipment. It's also probably why they didn't include it on the cassette version. Lots of commenters have asked "why didn't you just use the cassette version of the album?"
This was absolutely brilliant. The whole journey and the struggle to get the hidden program off the vinyl made it even more special. What an absolute gem 💎
That would have been great. I got Rick Rolled myself a couple videos ago in a novel way. Jump to about 27:30 if you want to see: th-cam.com/video/712jLsOnoZg/w-d-xo.html
You raise an interesting point. How many dormant Rick rolls are there hidden in cultural artifacts? It also raises the philosophical question, if a Rick Astley video is embedded somewhere but no one actually sees it, does he still never give you up, let you down, run around and hurt you?
I hear Rick Astley is a generous guy and will happily lend you any one of his Disney Pixar animated movies on DVD. There is one exception; he’s never gonna give you Up.
TCB was the initials of the program's author. In 1984 he was 23-years old, working for Disney as a show tech, and found out about the project through a Commodore Business Machines store on S. Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando. ;-)
Definitely interesting watching this unfold. Like a "digital" message in a bottle. Thanks so much for the video. I really enjoyed this whole experience. Wow...
Setting the text color to the background color in the last satement before the end command was a clever and short way to hide the "READY."-message after the program execution. That's also the reason for no visible effect after hitting the stop key alone - it couldn't stop the program because it had already ended (but seemed to be in an ifinite loop or something).
Its okay. He could have just went to line 10 and have line 10 goto itself forever, or just do a "10 GET A$:IF A$="""THEN GOTO 10". I guess it was to space space by printing the background color and hiding that READY?
If he pressed CTRL-2 he would get he cursor back :D. If you change the color and background to black, it looks as though it is gone. CTRL-2 will change it to white.
Here's a tip that worked for me, when I was copying old tapes with wear to new ones, I had this trick to make the audio-data signal "more robust", if you will: 1) Record the audio on PC 2) Use a converter to turn the audio file into a .T64 file, a tape image for emulators 2.5? Maybe test in in an emulator first 3) Now convert the T64 file back to audio - you will notice it will sound very different from the original 4) Record back to tape I did this with a relatively good sound card from '97 and not-so-good all-in-one stereo system, and they worked great... Just though you might find it helpful too :)
Back in the early 1980s I found several used audio cassettes and when I played them they all had several minutes of this crazy noise. I was completely puzzled. I was worried that I damaged the speakers on my Dad's stereo. Then a month later I learned that the computers in my school used audio cassettes to save computer programs.
I had an Atari 800 in the early 80s. I eventually bought another 800 used that came with a 810 disc drive and a cassette drive along with several cassettes and a bunch of the early 1979 “productive software” like finance, record keeping etc. I was amazed to learn I could have games loading and have Ozzy or Dio playing while it was loading. I forget how that was possible as the data recorder wasn’t a 4 track
This was beyond cool. Just the amount of effort needed to get that off the record and into a C64, even back then, makes this impressive. Even more awesome doing it now all these years later.
In the 80s I would download music from the radio. I lived in Dallas, TX, USA and there was a weekly 1/2 hour computer show on a local station(97.1 I think). In the last few minutes of the show they would play a program (mostly games) so that their listeners could record it. I thought it was common but since I have yet to meet anyone who experienced this. I wonder if it was more popular in Europe where more people were using tape drives? Who else download programs from the radio in the 80s?
They used to broadcast audio-encoded programs on Swedish public service radio too. Tape drives were ubiquitous, be it for Commodore, Sinclair or the home grown ABC80
Interesting! I had heard of this happening in parts of Europe, but never in the USA. I wonder where they sourced the programs they broadcast, and if those programs still exist.
Imagine if someone created a tape drive that had a phone number dialing system in it and you could dial a number it would ask you for a digit code that was the name of the program you wanted then it would ask you for your credit card I don't know if they had those in the 80s but then after giving it the number it would let you download a program onto a tape that was loaded into the cassette deck
@@bland9876 While technically possible there would be no error correction. If you are going to do this over phone line then you would have been better to transfer the files over a modem using Punter protocol or xmodem file transfer. The did have credit cards in the 80s but far fewer people used them.
To start with I was like "c'mon, get a move on with that record player". Within minutes I was hooked. Loved how it unfolds, a great little story there. I used to own the Vic20 btw. Loved that computer. Thanks.
Isnt hindsight wonderful! I also had a vic20, then sold it to a friend and bought a C64, then sold that to a friend and bought an Amiga500. Oh how I wish I never sold any of them now!
Really neat, the Swedish synthpop duo Adolphson-Falk actually did something very similar on their vinyl release of "Över Tid och Rum" in 1984 as well. They had a program for Atari's 8-bit line of computers hidden at the end of it.
@@martinlund9524 There's an upload of the program in action if you search the album title on youtube. But it's a single screen of color cycling raster bars with the album title in the middle.
This is one of my favourite albums of all time and I’ve long been curious about the code. Thanks so much for doing this! This whole video made my little nerd heart happy.
@@mrmaniac3 Wife: "wait! What the hell have you been doing?!" Me: "I just put a dab of grease on the old gate hinge" *Looks in mirror* Me : *looks like an obese Jason Statham from the transporter 2 oil fight scene*
That’s an awesome Easter egg to find. Man, I miss the old days of computing where Easter eggs like this were buried in just about everything. It really was the Wild West of the digital age.
Thank you! Finally got to see what this was! I never could get it to work on a C64 emulator. The 2 CD version of this album released recently has this as an audio track. It might have been easier, but it was much more fun to watch you get it off the LP. Loved that first Prodigal album back in the day.
Prodigal was criminally overlooked in the 80s. I got to see them when they toured on this album. Amazing concert. I remember hearing an interview the band mates did where this program was mentioned, never thought I would actually get to see it.
11:41 - Probably the head azimuth was off. There was a time when I had this little screwdriver inserted into the head screw hole every time I loaded a game, ready to quickly adjust it while watching the running lines on the screen (that obviously ONLY worked with turbo loaders with signal display).
I was thinking that also. When I used a conventional twin cassette recorder the alignment was different to computer data. I made a perspex plastic arrow with a precision screwdriver inserted through it to see how many degrees left or right it needed to be turned. Later I built a mini amplifier with headphones connected directly to the head to listen for loudness and get it perfect every time.
I did it too hundreds of times with Commodore. Also later with my Technics I was adjusting it so music sounds clear, anyway I do it nowadays when copying music from cassettes to digital... and play in Dolby C. I still have my Commodore in full working condition - the video made me take it out and play with it :)
This is amazing, back then I was playing crazy Colin action biker, I got the game cheap when I collected a few walkers crisps packets. The good old days, thanks for posting this mate, brought back some memories man.
It might have started off in the aviation industry. On the UH1 helicopter there's a nut that holds the rotors on to the driveshaft that is nicknamed the Jesus Nut. I'm sure this isn't the first example of such a design either. If it fails the only thing protecting you from the ground is Jesus. From there I think it expanded to other areas of industry where we have Jesus clips holding all kinds of things together.
That's the way I heard it too. The technical term is "C-clip" in this case, but the frustration of working with them, especially if you don't have the proper pliers on hand, is too well known to need any further explanation.
I got a good Jesus Clip story for you. About three years ago my manager and I were working on a machine that broke down in the middle of a packaging run on our canning line. The clip slipped and flew up and over the conveyor and then the next thing I hear was the sound of a clip impacting the bottom of an empty can. On a conveyor with around 700 other empty cans on it. Long story short, I found it. Foreign objects are a huge no-no in food packaging. Trust me.
I was thinking of a different cartoon: In an episode of King of Hill, Hank says to a Christian rocker, "Can't you see you're not making Christianity better? You're just making rock 'n' roll worse."
This is amazing. The only other thing I'm aware of like this is a full game on Shaking Stevens album "The Bop Won't Stop." It was actually a reasonable game too for 1983
Very interesting, I hadn't heard of this one. Looks like it's a Spectrum game: shakynow.com/shaky-s-spectrum-48k-game-t188.html You might be interested in the follow-up video I did of a record from a German band that has a little C64 game hidden on it: th-cam.com/video/ZAVuvXlbs4Q/w-d-xo.html
This brought back memories from my Sinclair Spectrum 48k days. The cassette players with mono heads were the best, the stereo heads would have to be very precise aligned to work!
Hi threre from Germany. Great vid. It's taking me back to the days when this tech had been state of the art. We actually used to copy these tapes containing games. I owned the same tape deck as you. Back then it turned out that copying didnt work when Dolby NR (neither B nor C) had been activated. Also the tapes had to be the more expensive ones (the tape itself black, not brown).
Thats what 1st came to my mind too. Now the question is, can a modem understand it and translate it back to a more modern PC, so a commodore wouldnt be necessary. Better yet, just a program that interprets the audio directly? If so, I got a feeling Im going to be going through a ton of licorice pizzas looking for outgroove tracks.
Well, isn't this essentially what a modem did? It would play these similar sounds over an analog phone line? The modem on the other end was essentially just listening and then interpreting it... would've worked the same if you just had it playing loudly in a room and the other computer had a microphone.
I remember the times, when "WDR Computer Club" (a German TV program about computers) would send program code en bloc in their TV transmissions which could be recorded via tape (as a consequence there was an audio break during the software broadcast). Later, data was fragmented to packets and the payload was put into the space within the vertical blank interval (VBI). The technology was called "Videodat". But then you had to use a video card and you had to use special software "multidec" for extraction from the whole signal. The TV program was running normally during the software broadcast as it was not affected by the data within the VBI. At the beginning, transfer speed was about 50 bytes/sec (from January 7, 1986), then 200 bytes/s (1988), then up to 10kbit/sec (1993). 10kbit/sec was similar to the modem transfer speed of that time but with Videodat there was no connection fee - which was something to keep down back then.
you have make me remember that even on Teletext Italian TV used to send(MS-DOS) computer program. I hope that Robin will try to follow my suggest for a future video
this was also known as "Hard Bit Rock". The East German Radio station DT64 did the same thing in the 80s. Broadcasting computer programs via FM Radio. Prominently for users of the domestic Robotron KC series. Like the KC87. But i think the basic programs should also work on C64 and similar machines.
I had a C64 and my friend had one along with a tape drive. I bought "Temple of Apshai" and he let me borrow the drive. Talk about the wild west... no loading bars or completion percentage ...it was push play and pray. I also had an Ensoniq ESQ-1 that you could back up to tape, but it was abysmal. I miss a a lot of the 80's but I don't miss "tape drives".
What I find truly amazing... You found a store that sells new cassette tapes!!!!! 😳 Having said that, who remembers the game “Raid Over Moscow” for the C-64? Great video. Very interesting!
Fans of the band still ask him about the hidden program from time to time, and all he had was his memories of it from 1984, so he was happy to have someone find it. :)
AHH,brings back memories fiddling with this cassette player. We used to.eeh,"trade" programs with each other.Dear God if you put a screwdriver and changed the head on the datasette,it could take ages to get it back.. We also had a radio program here in Sweden that transmitted code. If i hade the rec level too high,it was impossible to get it right
That is super cool. I've never heard of such a thing. Reminds me of Jack whites album. It has so many different things. Play it backwards, play on the label, hidden songs......great video. I'm new to your channel. Just subscribed.
I love this! Long before I knew there were such things called Easter Eggs, I began my "egg" hunt. The C= PET would display random characters for a split second on a warm start. There had to be some .. meaning to it all. (Yes .. 40 years of electronics since - I get it now). Still .. it was the search at the time, the curiosity, the discovery. Writing a program to render the ROM contents in ASCII .. is there an error message i haven't yet seen up there in $E000 (Sorry, been a very long time). The feeling that you had for all intents possibly discovered the portal to the yet to be named Matrix in the day. Dinosaurs etched into the edges of silicon litho masks. Didn't matter how lame the actual egg itself. Thanks mate, this vid rocks. Brings back a lot of 8 bit era memories.
@@8_Bit The old "hidden tracks" were common where you'd have to listen to some silence after the last song for it and stuff...good times This, however, is another level. The difficulty of accessing this plus the innovation of even considering "what if" for this...awesome.
I remember in my ZX81 days, pre C64, my dad being annoyed that his expensive stereo portable player didn’t work loading programs, but my dirt cheap one did. Must be a stereo thing that old computers didn’t like at all.
Yes, I've heard various theories about why some cassette players don't work so well. Stereo/mono might be one explanation, or that higher-quality tape decks better represent the higher frequencies, and maybe that confuses the computer upon playback? Another person mentioned the azimuth alignment, which I barely understand.
TH-cam told me to check this video, probably because i have been digging throu C64 and CPC464 stuff. And i was so excited when i saw the title of your video, because knew what was gonna happen (im 38 and still got my CPC ((somewhere))), a shame a regular transfer didnt work. But ho boy, was this awesome! Im still beaming. Thank you for the video and happy holidays :D!
I have no idea why TH-cam recommended this video for me. I remember I was watching a video about some guy tearing down a modern Casio watch, and then I'm here.
This is brilliant! I'm superduper impressed and absolutely in a fomoee mode - those easter eggs - haha. My mind can't stop wondering what goodies might still be out there undiscovered. I'll always remember what it felt like when I found a hidden track on a music CD. ~ This little 'gem' will probably make some folks find their old vinyls and listen to them. Kudos to you!
Reminds me of the good ol' days when programmers would distribute their programs over the airwaves to be recorded, and played as the original "Indy games." So sad to see that in all of our advancements in Technology we've lost such a beautiful era of open source sociability, and that it's all about profit, not enjoyment.
What the heck are you talking about. As if the 80s wasn't full of people all about profits. Remember that little company called Microsoft? They didn't take over the world thanks to open source sociability, that's for sure. The open source and free software movements are still out there. Don't have to look hard to find people with the same spirit - just a different technology being employed.
@@Dracconus There are an uncountable number of free indie games out there. Indie game devs are still a huge thing. The medium happens to be the internet instead of the airwaves, but it's the same spirit.
Thanks for posting this. Good Job!!! The Commodore 64 was my first computer. As a result, it catapulted me into a rewarding computer career. It's good to see people preserve old technology even though it may be obsolete.
Love the shout-out to vwestlife. He got me into pretty much the majority of the retro tech and audio stuff I watch on TH-cam. Subscribing to you as well.
@@BenMale Trust me, it's just the hole. The turntable has a certain mass that would not easily be accelerated and braked down systematically every revolution. Could also be that the "thorn" is not thick enough.
@@stefanocrespi5424 Sorry, no :) The effective speed is a product of the revolutions per timespan and momentaneous distance of the grove to the center. If the hole is not centered, the pickup follows as you say but the relative speed to the grove will still vary. Just draw an exaggerated out of center circle on a disk, rotate that and you'll understand :)
I love that you did so much work and had to use such specialized equipment to be able to run a program that did something that would be completely effortless on even slightly newer technology 🤩👍
That's awesome. I removed the return mechanism on my LP player decades ago, because I had so many albums with easter eggs in the run out groove, but they were all just music and such from the artist, never a program.
When I was a kid my dad got hurt and we almost didn't get anything for Christmas and the one thing I remember the most is I got a commodore c64 I wish I knew how to use it and still had it
That was amazing and catched me by random in the right mood. It was amazing in itself but also amazing to see someone fiddling with the stuff i did every day when i was a kid. Thank you so much 😊
That TV on the cover is an RCA Colortrak 2000 lyceum model from the same year. My grandma had that set in her living room and I claimed it for myself years later when she passed. It currently resides in my bedroom and still works amazingly well, the stereo output on it still sounds better than any other TV I've ever owned, either SD or HD.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
"Electric Eye" is being re-issued on vinyl, with the original C-64 easter egg plus a NEW one for the other side that I coded. You can pre-order it here: boonesoverstock.com/products/prodigal-electric-eye-new-red-vinyl-2020-retroactive-records
Loyd Boldman, the lead singer of Prodigal, was my dad & I thank you so much for doing this! This is the first time I’ve ever actually seen somebody use this program! I’ve been hearing about it since I was a kid!
Hi Dan, I'm glad you saw this! Your dad seemed like a very interesting guy, I enjoyed reading an interview with him I saw online. Thanks for commenting :)
Hi Dan, do you know if your father or the band chose those quotes?
vcolinc I can’t say for sure, but, quotes by Einstein & Jesus definitely seems like something my dad would have chosen. He had a wide variety of interests. He never let his religion limit his interests in popular culture, which I always liked.
@@danboldman7226 It seems strange to have quotes from Einstein and Jesus beside each other but they are both very nice quotes, and there's something very intriguing about having had to decode them this way.
Cool
My mother did vocals on this album and when she saw this in my feed she freaked lol
Yes, I remember her telling me about it when I would look through the records. I believe she still has it.
I also remember her telling me whilst we were vacationing in Vancouver in my RV in around 1990. I believe she also had some credits on another record?
Are you all related?
@@davyjones2994 I'm related to the original commenter. We don't actually know the other person lol.
@@davyjones2994 apparently lmao
You deserve a medal! Its 2019 and you record a tape from a vinyl! And to top it off, you run it on a C64. Awsome!
COALA CHAOS Some are still keepin it real
This is pretty cool. An interesting twist here. I had the same idea for the soundtrack cassette of Planet X3. I had written a nice little 1K demo and the original cassette master had the program at the end of the cassette. However, the people making the cassette said that I was going to blow somebody's eardrums out if they didn't know this program was on the cassette and it just started playing over their headphones with the volume up loud. We tried reducing the volume of the program, but then it wouldn't load on a real C64 datasette, at which point I decided there was no point of leaving it on there.
Yes, I think that's part of why they hid this in a 2nd runout groove so that it wasn't annoying or even damaging people or equipment. It's also probably why they didn't include it on the cassette version. Lots of commenters have asked "why didn't you just use the cassette version of the album?"
It would be great to have a program there that plays music.
Too bad David, would have been great. Did you think about putting a warning message before the program?
Best regards,
A huge fan
@@Flying-Roro ...right! with a narrative countdown :) "3... 2... 1... you have the last chance to save your hearing!.."
@@a.kazakov I remember those on some testing records and tapes, only slightly different wording :D
This was absolutely brilliant. The whole journey and the struggle to get the hidden program off the vinyl made it even more special. What an absolute gem 💎
A missed opportunity for the most elaborate Rick Roll in history.
That would have been great. I got Rick Rolled myself a couple videos ago in a novel way. Jump to about 27:30 if you want to see: th-cam.com/video/712jLsOnoZg/w-d-xo.html
You raise an interesting point. How many dormant Rick rolls are there hidden in cultural artifacts?
It also raises the philosophical question, if a Rick Astley video is embedded somewhere but no one actually sees it, does he still never give you up, let you down, run around and hurt you?
You know the rules. And so do I.
especially since it was 3 years before the song had been written (or at least released)!!
I hear Rick Astley is a generous guy and will happily lend you any one of his Disney Pixar animated movies on DVD. There is one exception; he’s never gonna give you Up.
This is how we will beat Skynet.
Erase this before it reads!!!
Lmao
NO FATE
@@Radiant3ProductionsAtlanta It's too late.
Arnold Shwarzenegger must know......kkkkkkkk
TCB was the initials of the program's author. In 1984 he was 23-years old, working for Disney as a show tech, and found out about the project through a Commodore Business Machines store on S. Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando. ;-)
Some true believers in The King will never, ever be convinced.
"Taking Care of Business" was the first thing that came to mind in reference to Elvis Presley!
... is that Tom C. Beaton... aka TCB?
Was the wait worth the payoff? A legend is what you are good sir.
@@jouleskelvin Haha, sorry for the delay... Yep!
As an old school home computer geek This was, by far, the most interesting video on the C64 I've ever seen. Well done! I salute you sir.
Definitely interesting watching this unfold. Like a "digital" message in a bottle. Thanks so much for the video. I really enjoyed this whole experience. Wow...
Setting the text color to the background color in the last satement before the end command was a clever and short way to hide the "READY."-message after the program execution. That's also the reason for no visible effect after hitting the stop key alone - it couldn't stop the program because it had already ended (but seemed to be in an ifinite loop or something).
Its okay. He could have just went to line 10 and have line 10 goto itself forever, or just do a "10 GET A$:IF A$="""THEN GOTO 10". I guess it was to space space by printing the background color and hiding that READY?
If he pressed CTRL-2 he would get he cursor back :D. If you change the color and background to black, it looks as though it is gone. CTRL-2 will change it to white.
I wondered what that last printed character was!! (Reverse +) :)
It's gonna say "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."
I just watched that a few days ago.
Jump darby, jump
son of a BITCH
“A crummy commericial?...”
Here's a tip that worked for me, when I was copying old tapes with wear to new ones, I had this trick to make the audio-data signal "more robust", if you will:
1) Record the audio on PC
2) Use a converter to turn the audio file into a .T64 file, a tape image for emulators
2.5? Maybe test in in an emulator first
3) Now convert the T64 file back to audio - you will notice it will sound very different from the original
4) Record back to tape
I did this with a relatively good sound card from '97 and not-so-good all-in-one stereo system, and they worked great... Just though you might find it helpful too :)
Back in the early 1980s I found several used audio cassettes and when I played them they all had several minutes of this crazy noise. I was completely puzzled. I was worried that I damaged the speakers on my Dad's stereo. Then a month later I learned that the computers in my school used audio cassettes to save computer programs.
I had an Atari 800 in the early 80s. I eventually bought another 800 used that came with a 810 disc drive and a cassette drive along with several cassettes and a bunch of the early 1979 “productive software” like finance, record keeping etc. I was amazed to learn I could have games loading and have Ozzy or Dio playing while it was loading. I forget how that was possible as the data recorder wasn’t a 4 track
Brilliant video this. Leave it to Christian rock bands to leave messages for future nerds.
This was beyond cool. Just the amount of effort needed to get that off the record and into a C64, even back then, makes this impressive. Even more awesome doing it now all these years later.
In the 80s I would download music from the radio. I lived in Dallas, TX, USA and there was a weekly 1/2 hour computer show on a local station(97.1 I think). In the last few minutes of the show they would play a program (mostly games) so that their listeners could record it. I thought it was common but since I have yet to meet anyone who experienced this. I wonder if it was more popular in Europe where more people were using tape drives? Who else download programs from the radio in the 80s?
They used to broadcast audio-encoded programs on Swedish public service radio too. Tape drives were ubiquitous, be it for Commodore, Sinclair or the home grown ABC80
Interesting! I had heard of this happening in parts of Europe, but never in the USA. I wonder where they sourced the programs they broadcast, and if those programs still exist.
@KoivuTheHab wow, a random internet person says it didn't happen... I guess that settles it then.
Imagine if someone created a tape drive that had a phone number dialing system in it and you could dial a number it would ask you for a digit code that was the name of the program you wanted then it would ask you for your credit card I don't know if they had those in the 80s but then after giving it the number it would let you download a program onto a tape that was loaded into the cassette deck
@@bland9876 While technically possible there would be no error correction. If you are going to do this over phone line then you would have been better to transfer the files over a modem using Punter protocol or xmodem file transfer. The did have credit cards in the 80s but far fewer people used them.
I was legitimately hoping it would just say, "Drink Ovaltine."
To start with I was like "c'mon, get a move on with that record player". Within minutes I was hooked. Loved how it unfolds, a great little story there. I used to own the Vic20 btw. Loved that computer. Thanks.
Isnt hindsight wonderful! I also had a vic20, then sold it to a friend and bought a C64, then sold that to a friend and bought an Amiga500. Oh how I wish I never sold any of them now!
"Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine" It's a crummy commercial!
I made the same association, from the movie _A Christmas Story._ 🙂
The 'Ovaltine' wasn't so great, but the 'Jet Jackson' patch was!
“Son of a b!tch”
BEST COMMENT EVER!
Quiet, Little Orphan Annie
Really neat, the Swedish synthpop duo Adolphson-Falk actually did something very similar on their vinyl release of "Över Tid och Rum" in 1984 as well.
They had a program for Atari's 8-bit line of computers hidden at the end of it.
I had no idea!
What was it?
@@martinlund9524 There's an upload of the program in action if you search the album title on youtube. But it's a single screen of color cycling raster bars with the album title in the middle.
This is one of my favourite albums of all time and I’ve long been curious about the code. Thanks so much for doing this! This whole video made my little nerd heart happy.
I'm happy to help my fellow nerds - I love stuff like this too :)
This has been one of the most interesting videos I’ve seen in a long time...and I’m not entirely sure why.
It's the Canadian Dad delivery.
I'm on board with that statement.
Jason Compton - Joe Pera
Lol
Get. Out. More.
08:08 *screeching*
TH-cam subtitles: [Music]
sounds like a fax machine!
*Aphex Twin has entered the chat*
"Should be able to put it back together,"......... famous last words :-)
If grease is involved, even the smallest amount... it will get on you no matter how hard you try to avoid it.
The harder you try to avoid it, the bigger the mess you'll make
Just get it over with and slather it all over your hands before you wind up getting it on yourself
As with many things. Sometimes the harder I try, the worse it turns out.
@@mrmaniac3
Wife: "wait! What the hell have you been doing?!"
Me: "I just put a dab of grease on the old gate hinge"
*Looks in mirror*
Me : *looks like an obese Jason Statham from the transporter 2 oil fight scene*
Console lmao
That’s an awesome Easter egg to find. Man, I miss the old days of computing where Easter eggs like this were buried in just about everything. It really was the Wild West of the digital age.
This is the coolest thing I've seen all year. Thanks for putting the work in for us all!
Thank you! Finally got to see what this was! I never could get it to work on a C64 emulator. The 2 CD version of this album released recently has this as an audio track. It might have been easier, but it was much more fun to watch you get it off the LP. Loved that first Prodigal album back in the day.
You found Jesus in a runout groove!
You didn’t find Jesus! He mowed my lawn today and said he’s never heard of you!
@@MichaelWaisJr soon...HE will find you...
Beetle Bayley I know! I still have to pay him for mowing my lawn the other day! :P
@@MichaelWaisJr Ha!
The "TCB" is likely the same shorthand as and nod to Elvis Presley's "Taking Care of Business", which was the slogan of EP's Memphis Mafia.
TCB - stands for “taking care of business”, that was Elvis Presley‘s motto
It's possible though.
I was going to post this too. I see you beat me to it. TCB.
So you’re saying .... Elvis wrote the program! 🤔
@@gurgy3 Takin' Care Of Business is song written by The Guess Who. Randy Bachman.
@@michaellowe3665
I was too. I don't know what the tie-in is, but regardless, that's the first thing I thought of.
Don't know why but this brought a tear to my (electric) eye.
"64 Minutes Later" >HA! I see what you did there :D
I did not until I read this comment.
Same ;-)
Hahaha, I didn't either, I was too busy putting a sponge bob voice over it when I read it 😂
well it was probably more like 63.5 minutes but I bet he rounded up... LOL
C instead of "see" :D
"Greetings Professor Falcon... shall we play a game.... how about Global Thermonuclear Rock?" 😎🎸 Great work Sir BRAVO 🏆
Prodigal was criminally overlooked in the 80s. I got to see them when they toured on this album. Amazing concert. I remember hearing an interview the band mates did where this program was mentioned, never thought I would actually get to see it.
11:41 - Probably the head azimuth was off. There was a time when I had this little screwdriver inserted into the head screw hole every time I loaded a game, ready to quickly adjust it while watching the running lines on the screen (that obviously ONLY worked with turbo loaders with signal display).
I was thinking that also. When I used a conventional twin cassette recorder the alignment was different to computer data. I made a perspex plastic arrow with a precision screwdriver inserted through it to see how many degrees left or right it needed to be turned. Later I built a mini amplifier with headphones connected directly to the head to listen for loudness and get it perfect every time.
I did it too hundreds of times with Commodore. Also later with my Technics I was adjusting it so music sounds clear, anyway I do it nowadays when copying music from cassettes to digital... and play in Dolby C. I still have my Commodore in full working condition - the video made me take it out and play with it :)
This is amazing, back then I was playing crazy Colin action biker, I got the game cheap when I collected a few walkers crisps packets. The good old days, thanks for posting this mate, brought back some memories man.
The Commodore version where you have to collect red squares?
In my industry we call those retaining rings "Jesus Rings". You go to remove one and it shoots across the room and then you say "Oh Jesus".
It might have started off in the aviation industry. On the UH1 helicopter there's a nut that holds the rotors on to the driveshaft that is nicknamed the Jesus Nut. I'm sure this isn't the first example of such a design either. If it fails the only thing protecting you from the ground is Jesus. From there I think it expanded to other areas of industry where we have Jesus clips holding all kinds of things together.
That's the way I heard it too. The technical term is "C-clip" in this case, but the frustration of working with them, especially if you don't have the proper pliers on hand, is too well known to need any further explanation.
I got a good Jesus Clip story for you. About three years ago my manager and I were working on a machine that broke down in the middle of a packaging run on our canning line. The clip slipped and flew up and over the conveyor and then the next thing I hear was the sound of a clip impacting the bottom of an empty can. On a conveyor with around 700 other empty cans on it.
Long story short, I found it. Foreign objects are a huge no-no in food packaging. Trust me.
@@rayceeya8659 so that's what was in my can of baked beans! Jesus clip cut the roof of my mouth!
@@hanselmanryanjames Could be worse. There's a reason I hate glass jars and bottles. A decade in this industry teaches you to really hate glass.
Clever!
I had a RUSH record with an endless looping wind chime in the groove.
This was a nice use of it too.
Which one was it?
@@TheJosep70 I think is Fly By Night
@@TheJosep70 : It was Fly By Night. The ending of Bytor & The Snow Dog.
@@VzlaVinil : Yep. :)
Wow
That edit to the Simpsons made me bust a gut.
Project Geek i love Homer's attitude.
I was thinking of a different cartoon: In an episode of King of Hill, Hank says to a Christian rocker, "Can't you see you're not making Christianity better? You're just making rock 'n' roll worse."
This is amazing. The only other thing I'm aware of like this is a full game on Shaking Stevens album "The Bop Won't Stop." It was actually a reasonable game too for 1983
Very interesting, I hadn't heard of this one. Looks like it's a Spectrum game: shakynow.com/shaky-s-spectrum-48k-game-t188.html
You might be interested in the follow-up video I did of a record from a German band that has a little C64 game hidden on it: th-cam.com/video/ZAVuvXlbs4Q/w-d-xo.html
This brought back memories from my Sinclair Spectrum 48k days. The cassette players with mono heads were the best, the stereo heads would have to be very precise aligned to work!
TCB: Reminds me of Elvis Presley‘s Motto: Taking Care of Business
Holger Lehmann Yep, Elvis used to give away and wear necklaces wit TCB and a lightning bolt.
He also had TCB on his airplane
This shows an amazing amount of patience and skill. Thank you for sharing it with us!
That sound brings me back to my Sinclair ZX Spectrum back in 1982 and the many games on tapes pack.
Hi threre from Germany. Great vid. It's taking me back to the days when this tech had been state of the art. We actually used to copy these tapes containing games. I owned the same tape deck as you. Back then it turned out that copying didnt work when Dolby NR (neither B nor C) had been activated. Also the tapes had to be the more expensive ones (the tape itself black, not brown).
lol, the old pencil trick XD, I haven't seen it since 2006, when my last cassette player just got broken
This blows my mind! The data even sounded like the handshake of a baud modem. So wild, congrats man on being able to figure that out.
Thats what 1st came to my mind too. Now the question is, can a modem understand it and translate it back to a more modern PC, so a commodore wouldnt be necessary.
Better yet, just a program that interprets the audio directly? If so, I got a feeling Im going to be going through a ton of licorice pizzas looking for outgroove tracks.
This is nothing compared connecting to internet with phone booth 😛
@@MACTEP_CHOB
Phone booth... What's that. Lol
Well, isn't this essentially what a modem did? It would play these similar sounds over an analog phone line? The modem on the other end was essentially just listening and then interpreting it... would've worked the same if you just had it playing loudly in a room and the other computer had a microphone.
@@Cdshakes Mom works like that also.
I remember the times, when "WDR Computer Club" (a German TV program about computers) would send program code en bloc in their TV transmissions which could be recorded via tape (as a consequence there was an audio break during the software broadcast). Later, data was fragmented to packets and the payload was put into the space within the vertical blank interval (VBI). The technology was called "Videodat". But then you had to use a video card and you had to use special software "multidec" for extraction from the whole signal. The TV program was running normally during the software broadcast as it was not affected by the data within the VBI. At the beginning, transfer speed was about 50 bytes/sec (from January 7, 1986), then 200 bytes/s (1988), then up to 10kbit/sec (1993). 10kbit/sec was similar to the modem transfer speed of that time but with Videodat there was no connection fee - which was something to keep down back then.
you have make me remember that even on Teletext Italian TV used to send(MS-DOS) computer program. I hope that Robin will try to follow my suggest for a future video
The local pirate radio transmitted C64 tapes at night.
@@Okurka. interesting
this was also known as "Hard Bit Rock". The East German Radio station DT64 did the same thing in the 80s. Broadcasting computer programs via FM Radio. Prominently for users of the domestic Robotron KC series. Like the KC87. But i think the basic programs should also work on C64 and similar machines.
Some polish radio stations were broadcasting c64 programmes in the 90s.
I had a C64 and my friend had one along with a tape drive. I bought "Temple of Apshai" and he let me borrow the drive. Talk about the wild west... no loading bars or completion percentage ...it was push play and pray. I also had an Ensoniq ESQ-1 that you could back up to tape, but it was abysmal. I miss a a lot of the 80's but I don't miss "tape drives".
TCB means Taking Care Of Business. I have not heard that in years.
it's the programmers initials
Workin overtime
What I find truly amazing...
You found a store that sells new cassette tapes!!!!! 😳
Having said that, who remembers the game “Raid Over Moscow” for the C-64?
Great video. Very interesting!
I thought the same thing.
I played circus and pitfall ... and something riding a ostrich
@@matthewdenty7760
The game with the ostrich was probably Joust. I have that and Pitfall I and II for Atari 2600.
Great game!
Did Rick Fields comment or seemed surprised that somebody in 2019 was inquiring about this?
Fans of the band still ask him about the hidden program from time to time, and all he had was his memories of it from 1984, so he was happy to have someone find it. :)
@@8_Bit This was realy cool ! Thx for sharing :)
I like how this makes it sound like he time traveled back from 2019 to 1984 to talk to Rick Fields :D
That is pretty damn cool! LOL
Good to see you here metal Jesus! Love your channel!
MetalJesus Rules
AHH,brings back memories fiddling with this cassette player.
We used to.eeh,"trade" programs with each other.Dear God if you put a screwdriver and changed the head on the datasette,it could take ages to get it back..
We also had a radio program here in Sweden that transmitted code.
If i hade the rec level too high,it was impossible to get it right
That is one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Thanks for taking the time to make the video.
That’s pretty cool for a vinyl to have a hidden thing on it from 35 years ago. Thanks for sharing and doin the hard work aswel ✌️😊
This video is so many of my favorite things in one place, I'm stunned. TY.
This is amazing. Imagine how hard this would have been back in the 80s?
Yeah, pretty sure it wasn't hard at all back then. Probably harder for him make this video and get it played back in 2019.
That is super cool. I've never heard of such a thing. Reminds me of Jack whites album. It has so many different things. Play it backwards, play on the label, hidden songs......great video. I'm new to your channel. Just subscribed.
I love how computer programs always sound like a screaming robot, in contrast to the relaxing record static
I still have my C64! When the family questions me on why I keep it... “ this the amount of computer that drove the shuttle, and got us to the moon”.
“Allegedly “
@@AztecMC1 Not allegedly.
Crazy thing is those computers were even LESS powerful!
Better send it to NASA as they are struggling to get back to the moon.....
Adam Lawson ....Yes, allegedly, fake as f***
"TCB" may have been the kid at the computer store, or refer to "Taking Care of Business", a motto Elvis used.
yeah that was my first thought as well
Also, Bachman and Turner.
Or these guys..?
demozoo.org/groups/2050/
TCB could be The Care Bears. A C64 demo group.
you just renewed my interest in commodore. dangit.
That's what I'm here for!
Check out David Pleasance's book.
Very good insight into how the company was run.
Met him once, Really nice guy.
We used to have a Commodore VIC-20. When I mention it, nobody knows what I'm talking about.
@@blackfacePM I do. I still have it somewhere. I also had the same C64 tape drive for loading and saving programs.
I love stuff like this. What a great idea by the band. Well done Robin for persevering.
I love this! Long before I knew there were such things called Easter Eggs, I began my "egg" hunt. The C= PET would display random characters for a split second on a warm start. There had to be some .. meaning to it all. (Yes .. 40 years of electronics since - I get it now). Still .. it was the search at the time, the curiosity, the discovery. Writing a program to render the ROM contents in ASCII .. is there an error message i haven't yet seen up there in $E000 (Sorry, been a very long time). The feeling that you had for all intents possibly discovered the portal to the yet to be named Matrix in the day. Dinosaurs etched into the edges of silicon litho masks. Didn't matter how lame the actual egg itself. Thanks mate, this vid rocks. Brings back a lot of 8 bit era memories.
In another 35 years this will show up on somebody’s recommendation list.
Nerdy Christian band from the early 80’s. I was destined to watch this video! Hahah.
Love the data sound, brings back those memories when I tried to make some copies 😀
The remarkable C64 was my first ever computer way back in '86, the remodeled version.
Amazing programming with the GEOS system 🍷
Way back in 1993 if you grew up in Poland :D With Alf on TV to top that off!
MAD, MAD RESPECT. Prodigal you have impressed me.
About a decade later I was stoked to find my Rebecca St James album had a music video hidden in the CD that was like 180x240.
Yeah, there was a lot of cool stuff hidden on CDs around that time. I used to stick all my CDs in my computer in case they had something on them :)
@@8_Bit The old "hidden tracks" were common where you'd have to listen to some silence after the last song for it and stuff...good times
This, however, is another level. The difficulty of accessing this plus the innovation of even considering "what if" for this...awesome.
I remember in my ZX81 days, pre C64, my dad being annoyed that his expensive stereo portable player didn’t work loading programs, but my dirt cheap one did. Must be a stereo thing that old computers didn’t like at all.
Yes, I've heard various theories about why some cassette players don't work so well. Stereo/mono might be one explanation, or that higher-quality tape decks better represent the higher frequencies, and maybe that confuses the computer upon playback? Another person mentioned the azimuth alignment, which I barely understand.
Bias carrier wave interferes differently. You cannot hear the bias, but it is in the signal too.
This is the craziest way I've ever found out about a new album to listen to. :)
It's actually a pretty good album, and so is their follow-up!
TH-cam told me to check this video, probably because i have been digging throu C64 and CPC464 stuff.
And i was so excited when i saw the title of your video, because knew what was gonna happen (im 38 and still got my CPC ((somewhere))), a shame a regular transfer didnt work.
But ho boy, was this awesome! Im still beaming.
Thank you for the video and happy holidays :D!
I have no idea why TH-cam recommended this video for me. I remember I was watching a video about some guy tearing down a modern Casio watch, and then I'm here.
C64 owner here - this video was awesome! Thanks magic TH-cam suggestions!
This is brilliant! I'm superduper impressed and absolutely in a fomoee mode - those easter eggs - haha. My mind can't stop wondering what goodies might still be out there undiscovered. I'll always remember what it felt like when I found a hidden track on a music CD. ~ This little 'gem' will probably make some folks find their old vinyls and listen to them. Kudos to you!
Wow, vinyl, hidden c64 encodings, tapes, tape recorders... where's Marty...
Doc Brown Will be proud !!!!
Reminds me of the good ol' days when programmers would distribute their programs over the airwaves to be recorded, and played as the original "Indy games."
So sad to see that in all of our advancements in Technology we've lost such a beautiful era of open source sociability, and that it's all about profit, not enjoyment.
What the heck are you talking about. As if the 80s wasn't full of people all about profits. Remember that little company called Microsoft? They didn't take over the world thanks to open source sociability, that's for sure.
The open source and free software movements are still out there. Don't have to look hard to find people with the same spirit - just a different technology being employed.
@@bradley3549 tes because I was clearly referring to Microsoft. In all of your infinite wisdom I am glad you saw that.
@@Dracconus There are an uncountable number of free indie games out there. Indie game devs are still a huge thing. The medium happens to be the internet instead of the airwaves, but it's the same spirit.
Amazing to see this program brought to life - Great episode ;>)
Thanks for posting this. Good Job!!! The Commodore 64 was my first computer. As a result, it catapulted me into a rewarding computer career. It's good to see people preserve old technology even though it may be obsolete.
This is the stuff I love TH-cam for. Great idea and work.
Interesting, who ever knows how many vinyl records ,cassettes or even audio cd’s will contain hidden data in it for the C64.
Even youtube videos! 😜
@@stefanocrespi5424 Are there more? I only thought the Voyager golden records contained C-64 games?
Holy cow
Imagine if the program would’ve contained a prehistoric Cicada 3301 clue.
Love the shout-out to vwestlife. He got me into pretty much the majority of the retro tech and audio stuff I watch on TH-cam. Subscribing to you as well.
Thanks for recording this, and especially thanks for indexing your video. It's great stuff!
The hole of the record is not centered, the pitch of the recording oscillates slightly around its base frequency. Good that you made it regardless.
The fact the head is free to move horizontally shoud have compensated that.
Nah, it'll be down to the speed of the turntable not being consistent during playback.
@@BenMale Trust me, it's just the hole. The turntable has a certain mass that would not easily be accelerated and braked down systematically every revolution. Could also be that the "thorn" is not thick enough.
@@stefanocrespi5424 Sorry, no :) The effective speed is a product of the revolutions per timespan and momentaneous distance of the grove to the center. If the hole is not centered, the pickup follows as you say but the relative speed to the grove will still vary. Just draw an exaggerated out of center circle on a disk, rotate that and you'll understand :)
Technology Connections did a video called something like "The obviously fake teleephone ring" that demonstrated this wow effect on several films.
Hidden messages in 80s music that send you to Heaven and not Hell, who would have thought
This is what the goonies do as adults now. Feel old yet?
I love that you did so much work and had to use such specialized equipment to be able to run a program that did something that would be completely effortless on even slightly newer technology 🤩👍
That's awesome. I removed the return mechanism on my LP player decades ago, because I had so many albums with easter eggs in the run out groove, but they were all just music and such from the artist, never a program.
When I was a kid my dad got hurt and we almost didn't get anything for Christmas and the one thing I remember the most is I got a commodore c64 I wish I knew how to use it and still had it
Are you actually saying that a C64 for Christmas was almost nothing to you?!
@@DerEchteBold I thought he meant that he got a really exciting present one year, in contrast to other years.
@@benmcclen
Yes, I considered that as a possibility but it's not really what the words say, I think, that's why I asked.
Oh gosh this reminds me of some Bulgarian album out there that also has software on record
I could make a sandwich and eat it while Boulder Dash was loading from cassette. Those were magic times.
That was amazing and catched me by random in the right mood. It was amazing in itself but also amazing to see someone fiddling with the stuff i did every day when i was a kid. Thank you so much 😊
Same here.
Id never have watched this unless i was in the right mood.
Flopping about after a heavy Christmas and new year.
Brilliant
That TV on the cover is an RCA Colortrak 2000 lyceum model from the same year. My grandma had that set in her living room and I claimed it for myself years later when she passed. It currently resides in my bedroom and still works amazingly well, the stereo output on it still sounds better than any other TV I've ever owned, either SD or HD.
"64 minutes later..." - what a coincidence eh :)