In Digital Living

Format wars: The tech that should have won

Did you love Laserdisc? Were you bonkers over Betamax? Do you cry yourself to sleep because BeOS never hit the big time? Fret no more -- superdork Captain Tech is here to travel back in time and save the format losers that should have triumphed

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8-track

What it was
A simple tape format made up of a never- ending loop of tape and four 'programmes' which offered almost CD-like skipping between songs. Also known as Stereo 8, it was incredibly popular during the late 60s and early 70s.

Why it lost
Although 8-track was incredibly popular in the US, especially in cars, it eventually lost out to compact cassette, which brought with it a few features that 8-track didn't have, such as Dolby noise reduction and the ability to rewind the tapes.

Why it should have won
Nothing screams 'great idea' more than a tape that doesn't need to be rewound or turned over at the end of a side. Well, 8-track didn't have sides -- instead each tape had four stereo programmes. These programmes were selected by pressing a button on the front of the player. Alternatively, the next programme would be automatically played after the previous one had finished.

The humble 8-track also had the potential to save lives. With compact cassette you needed to mess about with rewind and fast-forward controls. This is fine if you're making mix tapes in your bedroom, but when you're driving around town you need to keep your eyes on the road. 8-track was so simple: you plugged in a cartridge and off it went.

Despite being remembered as a failure, it's important to remember that when Ford started offering players in its cars they shifted 65,000 units in the first year, far more than anyone expected.

Cart also lived on well into the 90s as a system for playing jingles on radio. Although slightly modified, it was the same perpetual loop with a tone that allowed fast queuing to the start of the recording. Ironically, it was pretty much replaced by fellow format loser MiniDisk, which allowed for a similar speed of queuing while being easy to record on.

Our fantasy outcome
Captain Tech loves 8-track, so to save it, all he would need to do is go back to the groovy 60s and introduce home recorders so people can make their own compilations. Oh, and having rewind and fast-forward on the decks would help sell a few more players.