OT - Yamaha PC100 Playcards

["Jayson Smith" <ihatespamratguynospamplease@insightbb.spamsucks.com>]

Hi,

Okay, this is totally off-topic. The only even mild link between this group
and this message is that it has to do with old stuff, old technology, etc.

So back when I was a kid we had this Yamaha keyboard called the PC100. I
wanted to have one again, and received one a few weeks ago from eBay. The
interesting thing about this keyboard is that it uses what are called
playcards. A playcard is a thick paper with a musical score and words to a
song printed, and a magstrip on one edge where the data for the song is
stored. You swipe the card through a slot on the top of the keyboard, and if
it was a good swipe and the all-important magstrip isn't mangled, a light
comes on to indicate the data has been read and the song is in memory, ready
to go.

I was wondering if anyone here knows of any forum or mailing list where
there might be people who might know or be able to figure out the data
format of the magstrip. These playcards are obviously very rare items,
having been produced for only a few years, and I think it'd be nice to be
able to archive the actual data off the magstrip in order to preserve them.
Indeed, three of the twelve cards I received with my keyboard are damaged
and appear to be irreparable.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.