3945: Turns out putting things on tape is really hard

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Turns out putting things on tape is really hard

Made by: Tamara Macadam

Explanation

This comic is unexplained. If you can edit this page to provide an explanation, please do!

The author writes:

So following in the footsteps of my last submission (comic #3856), I decided to give it another go! This time around, instead of importing the raw data into a .wav file directly, I instead converted it to a bitstream. This was imported into Audacity, where every 0 was a -1 on the waveform, and every 1 was a 1 (funnily enough).

This was then dubbed onto tape, and I ripped it back onto my computer. I then converted this .wav file back into a bitstream, where every negative sample value was a 0, and every positive sample value was a 1. This bitstream was finally converted into a png using Imagemagick.

There are actual colours this time, which is an improvement! However, they are in a complete shambles, making it feel like you're having a seizure just looking at it. Weirdly, you can still make out the outlines of the original comic, so we can see that at least some of the image data was recovered. Also of note is how the colours tend to form long lines and streaks across the image, which is fairly interesting.

I'm not sure if this is better or worse than last time. I may have to look at my setup and get a better tape deck.

Original strip: 1985-06-30.

Transcript

{The entire comic has streaks of colour and heavy distortion}
{Jon drinks coffee with his back to Garfield, who is dancing}
Garfield: Shoo-doop boowa, shoo-doop boowa
{Garfield bursts into song, Jon turns around surprised}
Garfield: Well I was workin' last night on my piston head, when my friend told me my girl was dead
Garfield: Well, I'll sure, I'll sure, I'll sure
Garfield: I'll sure, I'll sure, I'll sure, I'll sure
{Garfield looks annoyed at the turntable that, unknown to us, he has been miming to; it has started repeating}
Turntable: I'll sure, I'll sure, I'll sure, I'll sure, I'll sure, I'll sure
Turntable: I'll sure
{Garfield whacks the turntable to unstick it}
SFX: KA-CHUNK
Garfield: Miss herrrrr
{Jon looks unimpressed}