PREVIEW : Tape Recovery Simulator (PC)
Tape Recovery Simulator 96K is a game about recovering data from old tapes refusing to cooperate.
Discover how to resurrect the lost art of data loading from cassettes. Explore and reclaim digital treasures, or ignore data that isn’t worth anything. Fight a single invincible boss and his foolish management. Resurrect and use old data recovery methods. There are no cutscenes at all. Dad’s time was helpful. It is possible to play for only a few minutes at a time.
“You’ll work for a company that specialises in retrieving data from cassette tapes in Tape Recovery Simulator 96K. TRS96K is a fantastic niche indie game about tape data recovery. With this upcoming simulation video game, you can realise your dream of being a tape recovery specialist.
Tape Recovery Simulator 96K is a simulation game made even though no one asked for it. Computer data used to be backed up on actual tapes, from large tape rolls down to literal cassette: you know, the kind your dad made a mixtape on to entice your mom to attend the prom with him. Anyone who has used a cassette tape for music is familiar with the dangers of the tape becoming mangled and shredded, the reels becoming damaged, or the tedious chore of rewind it anytime you complete a song or need to return to a specific spot.
That was a real pain in the neck. Consider genuine data, such as programmes you’ve written, ASCII graphics you’ve diligently created, and crucial documents your firm will require in the future of everything. The prospect of this data becoming corrupt was, predictably, a waking nightmare for computer workers in the 1970s and 1980s, and it was a very real problem that cropped up on a semi-regular basis. Thankfully, wizards with machines and knowledge of tapes that no person should ever have to put to memory were able to recover the data, at least in part, and save your hours of hard work from the garbage can.
Tape Recovery Simulator 96K does a good job of laying out what you’ll need. The various types are loaded through a set of side decks, and there are several tutorial movies to show you what has to be done. After that, it becomes a matter of patience and trial and error to complete the task. To get to the heart of the problem, you’ll need to load the tape, scan it to see the individual data sectors, use an emulator to examine the tape in real-time as it’s being processed, and then modify different volume levels speed.
As you’ll discover in the final “test” before starting the game, you’ll occasionally need to skip around on the tape, pausing and starting it in various locations to jankily assemble the data in a magpie-like manner. Finally, after everything is said and done, you’ll utilise a memory screen to capture the completed recovery and email it back to your employer, who will either berate you mercilessly or brag about his great boss. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Because there is no accurate save system in place, players must rely on an imaginary set of checkpoints to resume their game from where they last left off. That is to say, if you don’t finish a tape to your satisfaction and completion, be prepared to restart the game from the beginning. Also, if the windows aren’t to your liking in their default position, be prepared to keep shifting them around because the game will reset them regardless of how they were put previous to exiting.
If you dislike the digital noise of dial-up computers of the 1990s, be aware that the sound of tapes assembling and reading their data is extremely similar and can be irritating (though I enjoyed it, nostalgia and all that jazz). You can’t play muted, though, because it’s crucial to tell how the computer is reading the noise, and emulated volume may need to be modified on the go to keep the data read going. Oh, and the game will occasionally become unresponsive. You won’t crash, but you won’t be able to input code, change tapes, or respond to emails. I’m chalking everything that happened in this area to smooth out the bugs, so take it with a grain of salt, depending on how harsh you are with games.
There is no storey to talk of with Tape Recovery Simulator 96K that works from the start. You’re a corporation employee tasked with data recovery. A lot of success, and I mean a LOT, is based on pure luck. I still didn’t fully understand what I was being asked/told to do, so I asked a coworker to teach me how to pass the basic test before I could start the game.
During the game’s third lesson, you’re told to choose a different load option, and then it’s beaten into your head that this is the best way to go. You have to keep guessing and hoping that what you’re looking for will appear in a reasonable length of time: I spent over an hour simply getting through the tutorial before getting to the main game.
However, the ambience and tone of Tape Recovery Simulator 96K elevates it beyond “not for me” to “not for anyone.” You have an email inbox that serves as your only means of communication with the rest of your firm (all three members) and a tool to keep track of work missions and explain why things are done the way they are. To begin with, this game takes place in the present day, fully admitting the existence of optical media, solid-state drives, and even cloud servers for data backup.
Your employer likes to think of their services as incredibly specialised, catering to clientele who are either too elderly or too insane to care about better alternatives. While this should create a pleasant tone for the rest of the storey (sticking to outmoded technology like a Laserdisc addict), it instead emphasises its futility. I get that gaming, particularly simulators, adheres to the maverick principle of “because we can!” but something about the whole affair seems innately wrong.
The logical title Tape Recovery Simulator 96K is loaded with nostalgia. To uncover the problems and suggest answers, you must use the restricted tools at your disposal. Thanks to its witty one-liners and outmoded visuals, this is a game that older gamers will like. Otherwise, you’ll have a confused and frustrating time if you don’t pay attention to the instruction and tiny things.
