C64 Tape Loading Issues

[thekosmickollector]

So I've had my C64 for a while now and it's worked without fail. But recently I got it out again and it's having a bit of trouble with loading tapes. My Star Wars game, for instance, loads only to a blank screen with "ready." on it, and typing "run" or pressing the "run/stop" button does  nothing. On another game I tried, the text went black with a message that read "out of memory". What should I do? Is my Commodore broken?



**EDIT** Don't worry, I've got it to work now. Turns out if you hold the space bar down while it loads it works for some reason

[fazerco]

So I've had my C64 for a while now and it's worked without fail. But recently I got it out again and it's having a bit of trouble with loading tapes. My Star Wars game, for instance, loads only to a blank screen with "ready." on it, and typing "run" or pressing the "run/stop" button does  nothing. On another game I tried, the text went black with a message that read "out of memory". What should I do? Is my Commodore broken?



**EDIT** Don't worry, I've got it to work now. Turns out if you hold the space bar down while it loads it works for some reason

Can you hold it down that long 

[asmodean]

That sounds really strange, I have never encountered that error before. Perhaps it's time to switch to a diskdrive instead of using tapes and holding the space bar 

[burningdoom]

The space bar part is really strange. But then I never had a tape-drive, I only used my floppy.

Have you tried cleaning the tape drive? I'd imagine like an audio tape player, it can get quite dusty in there. I'd try blowing it out, and taking a q-tip lightly-dipped in alcohol to the dirtier parts. I'd also try blowing on the tape itself where the film is. Sometimes dust gets stuck in there too.

[thekosmickollector]

Thanks for the help everyone I had a look and I don't think the tape deck was plugged in right since the port's a little dodgy but I think cleaning it out helped as well as for the space bar thing, i believe that may have just been a coincidence
Oh, and switching to a floppy drive is kinda unlikely for me since C64 floppies are much more uncommon over here since Cassettes seemed to be the more popular option back in the day for some reason

[fazerco]

Thanks for the help everyone I had a look and I don't think the tape deck was plugged in right since the port's a little dodgy but I think cleaning it out helped as well as for the space bar thing, i believe that may have just been a coincidence
Oh, and switching to a floppy drive is kinda unlikely for me since C64 floppies are much more uncommon over here since Cassettes seemed to be the more popular option back in the day for some reason

The reason is you bought a C64 with a taperecorder as a pack. The diskdrive was very expensive back then.

[burningdoom]

Thanks for the help everyone I had a look and I don't think the tape deck was plugged in right since the port's a little dodgy but I think cleaning it out helped as well as for the space bar thing, i believe that may have just been a coincidence
Oh, and switching to a floppy drive is kinda unlikely for me since C64 floppies are much more uncommon over here since Cassettes seemed to be the more popular option back in the day for some reason

The reason is you bought a C64 with a taperecorder as a pack. The diskdrive was very expensive back then.

It's still a bit pricey, probably mostly due to the shipping weight, though.

[fazerco]

Thanks for the help everyone I had a look and I don't think the tape deck was plugged in right since the port's a little dodgy but I think cleaning it out helped as well as for the space bar thing, i believe that may have just been a coincidence
Oh, and switching to a floppy drive is kinda unlikely for me since C64 floppies are much more uncommon over here since Cassettes seemed to be the more popular option back in the day for some reason

The reason is you bought a C64 with a taperecorder as a pack. The diskdrive was very expensive back then.

It's still a bit pricey, probably mostly due to the shipping weight, though.

Im not sure if it was that. But when i bought my c64 it was a 1000 of our dutch guldens. And that was alot back then. I thought the diskdrive was around the 500 mark. So do the math and it was to expensive, atleast for me.

Later when the prices went down a bought 1, it was the second version diskdrive.