This page may help you identify the tape player used in some arcade games of the 60's and 70's.  Some games used a modified consumer tape player, and others had tape cartridge built specifically for the game.  Midway, for example, had at least four different tape players in its gun games alone - and they are generally not interchangeable. 

This page is part of my 8-track Sound Project.  Click on one of the buttons in the column to the left to get around the different areas of the project and this website.  The information below will hopefully make it possible to identify tape players of unknown heritage, and to verify that the correct player is installed in a particular game.

If you have any comments, corrections or additional information that you would like to contribute, please let me know. 

Click on any of the pictures for a larger view

These 8-track players fall into two categories: modified consumer players and special-purpose players.  Modified consumer players were hard-wired for power connections and may have additional wiring to bring out the amplified audio output.  Many Midway games used a custom-designed tape player built around a standard 8-track cartridge.  However, there is little commonality in the tape track layout.  Different Midway games put audio on one, two, three, or four channels, and each of these players was subtly different.  Anything that played more than two channels needed a second playback head, for example.  

Some games had optional 8-track players that simply provided background sound effects or music.  Other sound effects, such as gunshots, were created by separate transistorized circuit boards.  In these cases, the 8-track player was often a consumer model that was slightly modified to obtain its power from the game.  In these cases, the tape deck is fairly easy to replace with another home player if the original is missing.

Some games used tape cartridge formats other than 8-tracks.  One was a short-lived consumer format called PlayTape, that preceded 8-tracks and was apparently even less popular.  Drivemaster is the only game that I know of that used this tape format.  Some fortune tellers and puppet games used a special 1/4 inch tape cartridge and dedicated player.  See below for some examples.