On the Subject of Master Tapes

“2008 Universal Studios fire...? Never heard of it.”

You’re a new hire at UMG, and your first steps are tape archiving! You must choose the correct speed and tape stock or face eternal embarrassment from your employers who have been doing this for 10+ years...

This is a module in which you ascertain, from a master tape recording of a song, the certain speed and tape stock and submit to your corporate overlords.

Tape Machine

On the module, there is a tape machine. This tape machine will play a song when the defuser presses the green PLAY button. The song will play for 10 seconds. The song is randomly set each time the module is loaded.

Speed

Tape machines contain numerous types of speeds. Typically, 7 ½ and 15 ips speeds were used for both commercial tapes, home recording, and studio recordings. IPS stands for ‘inches per second’. To find the speed of your tape, find the song and compare it with the table.

Tape Stock

There are 3 current tape stocks to choose from:

• Scotch Magnetic Tape
• BASF (Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik)
• Ampex

To find the correct tape stock, find the song and compare it with the table.

Songs

Below are a list of songs. Find the number of the song your machine plays, and continue to the next table.

5	3	6
1	2	4

Songs (cont.)

9

8

7

Table

If the correct song has been found, take the number of the song to find both its speed and tape stock.

Song	Tape Stock	Speed
1	Scotch Magnetic Tape	15 ips
2	Ampex	7 ½ ips
3	BASF	15 ips
4	BASF	7 ½ ips
5	Scotch Magnetic Tape	15 ips
6	Ampex	7 ½ ips
7	BASF	15 ips
8	Scotch Magnetic Tape	15 ips
9	Ampex	7 ½ ips

Selection of Tape Properties

When selecting a speed or tape stock for submission, the selected property will be highlighted lime-green. Only one property of each category (tape or speed) can be selected at a time.

Select the correct properties that your tape has and proceed to the next page.

Rules and Submission

These are the rules to submit your choices at the given time on the bomb timer. Follow the first rule that is true.

• IF the bomb contains an RCA port, submit when the countdown timer has a 5 in the last position.
• Otherwise, if the bomb contains an even number of batteries, submit when the countdown timer has a 4 in the last position.
• Otherwise, if the bomb contains an parallel port, submit when the countdown timer has a 3 in the last position.
• Otherwise, if the bomb contains an even digit in the serial number, submit when the countdown timer has a 2 in the last position.
• Otherwise, submit when the countdown timer has a 1 in the last position.

Select the correct tape properties according to the previous table on page 2. Press the large SUBMIT button at the correct countdown time to finalize your answer. If the tape properties chosen are not the same as the tape your machine runs, this will result in a strike. The song will stay the same.