About the 8 Track Player – RetroTunes Review

Let me start by saying that I love the app, especially the 8 track player. RetroTunes is the only darn iPhone app on the store that features an 8 track player, and I absolutely love it! I like all the other features there, too, like the record player and the boom box. Unlike some, I have no problems getting the record crackle to work or scratching the disks, but I really want to talk about the 8 track player because it's my favorite feature right now. It needs more sound effects and better simulation. The tape decks, in general, need more sound effects because right now, all they do is click when you press buttons. I want to hear the noise of someone inserting or ejecting tapes, and when rewinding or fastforwarding, some good old tape whirring noises would be nice, if that's at all possible. Other than this, changing programs on the 8 track player could be better. As of now, pressing the program selector advances the user forward through songs like it should, but the number of programs is dependent on the number of songs in the playlist that's loaded from the iPod. I guess this is OK for convenience sake, but that's not the way a real 8 track player works. There are only four programs per tape, and each program has several songs. I'm not sure how the app could be made to create the four tape programs when switched to 8 track mode, but it would be cool if it could. Also, real 8 track players click when programs are changed automatically as well as manually, and if the 8 track in this app would do the same, the simulation would be more believable. Over all, RetroTunes is a wonderful app. The simulations are fairly realistic, although the tape decks obviously need more sound effects. To anyone who is looking for an iPhone app that simulates an 8 track player, RetroTunes is all you got, sadly, but it works well enough. Could be a little more believable, though. The app is accessible with VoiceOver, and even though the visual gimmics are pretty important, blind people, like myself, can really get a kick out of this app because of the sound effects and the way the players act when they are operated. To the developers, nice job on this neat, retro stereo, and thanks for giving me an 8 track player for my phone... sort of.
Review by Apple Rocks Hard on RetroTunes.