In the 1980s we downloaded games from the radio

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Radio / Vinyl as Software Channels

  • Many 8‑bit home computers used ordinary audio cassettes for storage, so stations could simply broadcast that audio. Listeners recorded it to tape, then “loaded” it into machines like ZX Spectrum, C64, Atari, BBC Micro, KC 85, etc.
  • Similar idea appeared on vinyl: LPs, flexidiscs and even pop albums carried data tracks for games or utilities; magazines sometimes bundled flexidiscs that you’d immediately copy to cassette.
  • Interference from household devices or weak reception could corrupt the recording and make the program unusable.

TV, Teletext, and Other Broadcast Experiments

  • Several countries broadcast software via TV: telesoftware/Prestel on BBC Micro, Ceefax pages, flashing on‑screen dots read by light sensors, and “data bursts”/Datablast still-frames meant to be stepped through on VCRs.
  • Later experiments included services like Intel Intercast that embedded web-like content in TV signals.

Typing Programs from Print

  • A parallel “distribution channel” was BASIC or assembly listings in magazines and books. Kids and adults spent hours retyping entire games and utilities.
  • Error-prone input led to checksum tools (per-line checksums, buzzer alerts, hex loaders) and elaborate debugging rituals, sometimes complicated by magazine typos and non-monospace layouts.
  • Many commenters describe this as formative for learning programming and systems internals.

Speeds, Reliability, and Techniques

  • Typical cassette data rates were on the order of tens to low thousands of bits per second; loading a game could take many minutes.
  • “Turbo tape” systems and cartridges greatly sped up loading and allowed full-memory snapshots.
  • Technically, the schemes used simple audio modulation (often FSK/AFSK), closely related to early modems and today’s digital-over-radio modes (RTTY, FT8, Bell 202).

Geography and Scale

  • Examples appear from East and West Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, UK, Spain, Brazil, New Zealand, and Eastern Europe.
  • In some places (notably East Germany with BASICODE) radio computer shows attracted huge listener response; elsewhere participants remember it as a niche curiosity.

Modern Parallels and Debate

  • Several comments note the irony that after a wired Internet phase, most software is again delivered via radio (Wi‑Fi/cellular), conceptually similar but vastly more sophisticated.
  • Some argue these broadcasts were too obscure to be “really a thing”; others counter with personal experience and listener statistics to show they were significant in certain regions.