The album « The Bop Won’t Stop » by Shakin’ Stevens contains a game in its cassette version. It’s called The Shaky Game, as indicated on the cover.

Today’s topic is a bit special. I won’t be talking about a program for an old computer found on a vinyl record, but rather about a program discovered in a YouTube video.

On the vinyl Africa by Lelu/Lu’s (1986), there’s a track called Blipverts, which contains two programs for the ZX Spectrum.

While searching for more vinyl records containing computer data, I stumbled upon Let’s Get Digital by What Fun!, a Dutch group. And I got stuck a bit before getting the program to work.

The band Information Society hides quite a lot of things in their records, and even though it’s not vinyl, I still find it interesting to include it with the rest. And this time, I (again) was a little disappointed. Because while I found what was hidden on the CD… the continuation is unachievable in 2021.

It’s my current obsession at the moment: I’m trying to find and retrieve hidden data from old CDs, vinyl records, cassettes, etc. I’m not looking for conventional data tracks but rather programs for the old computers of the 80s, like the ZX Spectrum, Apple II, BBC Micro, etc. Surprisingly, there are quite a few examples: I have nearly thirty examples at home, and a fairly long list of others to find. This page summarizes the research, with a regularly updated list.

I had missed it a bit because Apple TV doesn’t support Netflix’s interactive episodes (and because, honestly, I don’t like that kind of thing), but the interactive episode of Black Mirror, Bandersnatch, contains a program for the ZX Spectrum.

On MC Frontalot’s album Zero Day, there’s a hidden track named Painstakingly Concealed Secret Track. It’s on the CD as well as on Apple Music if you want to give it a try. And it contains a program for Commodore 64.

This week, a rather recent vinyl program: it dates back to 2018. It’s found on the disc Newtown Parkway / Astrablast by Soundhog and is designed for the BBC Micro B.

I continue with my games on vinyl, this time with Bál Az Operában by KFT (a Hungarian band). It’s a bit special (like all of them, admittedly) because the game is not on the vinyl itself but on the cover. Indeed, there is a listing for ZX Spectrum to copy.