3 ms·

The BBC Micro B had a physical internal relay which controlled cassette tape player motors. The following program (from memory) would produce an alarming buzzin

The BBC Micro B had a physical internal relay which controlled cassette tape player motors. The following program (from memory) would produce an alarming buzzing which, if left long enough, purportedly led to the relay wearing out, i.e. physical damage. 10 *MOTOR 1 20 *MOTOR 0 30 GOTO 10

jlarcombe 7y ago
I think some Electron games actually used this 'feature' as a percussion sound effect...
gambiting 7y ago
I mean, CD/DVD based games consoles have the drive rated for only a certain number of reads, there is an interview with Naughty Dog devs talking about development of Crash Bandicoot, where apparently they discovered that on average playing through the entire game would do a "lifetime" of reads, Sony allowed the game to be released anyway(and it looks like the drive was under-rated if anything, since no significant drive breakages were reported from playing this game). I do however know of one Gamecube game which was an inch away from being on the market in a state that would brake the drive of every gamecube that played it - some very clever person found an undocumented command that would increase the speed of the drive, leading to super quick streaming from the drive, resolving some loading issues that the game had at the time. It worked well, the game was finished and went into manufacturing, and fortunately Nintendo realized that it's no coincidence that QA's and their own test kits keep breaking after playing the game, and pulled it before it hit the shelves.
- peterclary 7y ago
  That’s really interesting. Thanks!
- pj1115 7y ago
  That's great. Any articles about the Gamecube issue? I can't find any info.
  - gambiting 7y ago
    No, and unfortunately you won't find it anywhere since it was an internal issue. I'm intentially avoiding naming the game as I don't think this was publicized anywhere before.
    - ComputerGuru 7y ago
      It was indeed written about at length from one of the developers.
jacobush 7y ago
The Spectravideo computers (probably all MSX ones too) had it aswell. :-D

jlarcombe 7y ago

I think some Electron games actually used this 'feature' as a percussion sound effect...

gambiting 7y ago

I mean, CD/DVD based games consoles have the drive rated for only a certain number of reads, there is an interview with Naughty Dog devs talking about development of Crash Bandicoot, where apparently they discovered that on average playing through the entire game would do a "lifetime" of reads, Sony allowed the game to be released anyway(and it looks like the drive was under-rated if anything, since no significant drive breakages were reported from playing this game). I do however know of one Gamecube game which was an inch away from being on the market in a state that would brake the drive of every gamecube that played it - some very clever person found an undocumented command that would increase the speed of the drive, leading to super quick streaming from the drive, resolving some loading issues that the game had at the time. It worked well, the game was finished and went into manufacturing, and fortunately Nintendo realized that it's no coincidence that QA's and their own test kits keep breaking after playing the game, and pulled it before it hit the shelves.

peterclary 7y ago
That’s really interesting. Thanks!
pj1115 7y ago
That's great. Any articles about the Gamecube issue? I can't find any info.
- gambiting 7y ago
  No, and unfortunately you won't find it anywhere since it was an internal issue. I'm intentially avoiding naming the game as I don't think this was publicized anywhere before.
  - ComputerGuru 7y ago
    It was indeed written about at length from one of the developers.

jacobush 7y ago

The Spectravideo computers (probably all MSX ones too) had it aswell. :-D