I had a similar experience with disk drives. They were too expensive, so I had to stick to the built-in tape unit of my Amstrad CPC464. I could save programs, w

I had a similar experience with disk drives. They were too expensive, so I had to stick to the built-in tape unit of my Amstrad CPC464. I could save programs, which made a huge difference, but tape was very limited in capability. For example, I couldn't write programs running other arbitrary programs, or programs working on databases. What I wrote was very limited in utility, usually games. Even running an assembler (which I got to hold on very late anyway) was a quite complicated process on tape. Now, after reading your story, I can't imagine being even without a tape. I at least managed to learn BASIC and Z80 Assembly with just a tape.