In the 1980s we downloaded games from the radio

I remember here on HN reading about some vinyl which had either software or games on from the 80s but I dont recall the artist, so this doesnt sound too far from that for me.

You're thinking of The Thompson Twins https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thompson_Twins_Adventure

In the GDR there was this BASICODE record (German website, no https, a personal blog site): http://www.simulationsraum.de/blog/2016/01/08/hard-bit-rock/

(German) Wikipedia article: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASICODE

I recorded to tape cassette GDR radio shows on VHF that broadcast code, usually for the GDR "KC 85" 8 bit computer line (U880 processor - Z80 clone).

Funny thing is, you could easily tell from the sounds if the code was assembler or BASIC. The latter was much more orderly and structured.

Problems occurred when someone nearby turned on an electrical device during that transmission, because it was audible and introduced too much of an error and the recording became unusable.

Some computer magazines included a 7 inch "flexi" record with software on. i.e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexi_disc#/media/File:FloppyR...

Or could be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camouflage_(Chris_Sievey_song). Or probably other things too.

Edit: There is a (small) wikipedia category for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Vinyl_data

Occasionally magazines in the UK would come with cover flexidiscs. They were similar to 7" records, but very much one (maybe two or three) "plays" only, so your first job was to copy the flexidisc to cassette tape.

Your Computer certainly had a few of these in the early 1980s.

One example is documented here: https://magazinesfromthepast.fandom.com/wiki/Your_Computer_V... By the way, you have no idea how exciting and space-age that cover looked in 1982.

Much later in the year 2000 there was the 8-Bit Construction Set record: http://www.beigerecords.com/products/beg-004.html

It had Atari and Commodore music (as audio) as well as Atari and Commodore software (as data).

Despite the claim on their old page to be the “first use of vinyl for software distribution” they did later acknowledge and reference some prior art in a Slashdot thread: https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=140154&threshold=-1&com...

1987 LP "Poniżej krytyki" of a Polish synth-pop group Papa Dance had a ZX Spectrum quiz game about the band on it. I actually have a copy of it. Pretty sure that wasn't the first such record in general, but it likely was the first one in Poland.

https://www.discogs.com/release/631562-Papa-Dance-Poni%C5%BC...

This might be it, but I'm not 100% sure, my memory is not what it used to be, there are also a few other good answers.

I wish HN would let you search upvoted comments and submissions, it would revolutionize my life since I can remember previous things I've upvoted, but have no easy way to find any of them. I might sit down one day, and manually export all my liked comments and subscriptions.

Idk thank you. My money is still on it being the Thompson Twins though - they were top 10 regulars and household names at the time. :)

My money says Frank Sidebottom (Chris Sievey's alter ego) probably has more cultural currency than The Thompson Twins in 202x. But obviously idk what they're thinking of.

I would love that to be true!