The Magnetic Vault records digital things — books, games, small AI models — onto ordinary audio cassette tapes, then reads them back byte-for-byte exact. A love letter to analog media.
Every file is already a song waiting to be sung — a stream of numbers that, given the right voice, the magnetic heads will carry and the reels will remember.
A cassette doesn't know it's storing DOOM. It hears tones — chirps, hums, a hiss that means something. We turn a digital file into that sound, record it onto ordinary ferric tape, and play it back. The same numbers come out the other side, in the same order, not one bit moved.
This is a working project, not a thought experiment. DOOM has been decoded byte-exact off a real cassette — same SHA-256 in as out. Around it sits a small library: self-narrating books, a fantasy games console, a chess engine, 58 classics on one C90.
Everything here is open source and free to try in your browser. If you want the physical object — a real tape that holds a real game — you can order one, pressed to order.
The Vault's design pulls from three wells: the bold graphic punch of 1970s–80s cassette j-cards, the geometry of Bauhaus and mid-century print, and the colour-blocked spines of vintage paperback sets. Flat colour, hard edges, confident type.
Reference imagery for the Vault's visual language; the final tile is rendered in our ferric palette in CSS.
Each one is free to try and free to download. Most can be ordered as a made-to-order cassette; a few sit under a NonCommercial license and are free-and-gift-only. Every card is a little inlay you can hold.
Each tape is recorded to order on a real deck — Dolby off, levels set, a hand-written inlay. Pick a release above and hit its Order button for secure hosted checkout.
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