I believe tape was much more common in Europe, the 1541 was expensive. My second-hand C64 (my first computer!) did come with a 1541, but that wasn't until the early 90s…
Yep. By the era in question in Europe if you had money for a C64 disk drive you were buying an ST or Amiga instead.
I don’t think many on the western side of the Atlantic appreciate how relatively poor, and tight fisted, much of Europe was and remains, even the good bits.
Where I grew up in Europe we had the 1541 disk drive before the Amiga came. Several people I grew up with had the C64 bread bin, the 1541 floppy drive, the cassette tape and a 9 pin printer. I only met one guy who had an Amstrad.
The screen of "Turbo 250 By Mr. Z" felt like magic. Not only could you load a game in one minute instead of ten, but you suddenly had extra commands available in the basic prompt.
