My Newbie Question

[Leviset]

Yes - I’ve opened up the tape cassette and can see that the rubber belt to the tape counter is intact and is turning the plastic spindle that it attaches to.
So that seems to indicate something else inside the little plastic box that the spindle disappears into, which has the 3 numeric counter dials inside it but would require a bit more open heart surgery - bearing in mind my opening newbie confession of my practical abilities!! (this is the ex 14 year old Grammar School boy who was banished from the Woodwork Class in 1964, but was fully OK with differential calculus at the same age and was taught by my Grannie to play both Cribbage and ‘5s and 3s’ quite well by the age of 4. The man who bought his wife (now of 50 years last year) a Black & Dekker drill for Christmas, the same wife who has banned me from using any type of glue in the house - but I and still can play pretty decent blues guitar and was in a couple of fairly decent Blues Bands in the 60s & 70s and only retired from doing session guitarist slots last year).
I’ve just remembered I’ve also still got a working 1960s Sony Reel to Reel, a 1970s wood and plastic desktop cassette recorder, Tascam Portastudio ministudio, and a full blown ProTools System down in my basement studio which all have counters on them and the corresponding Mic & Ear sockets, albeit the larger 6.3mm ones or RCA.
I thought I’d also heard it’s possible to ‘play’ the sound made by early computers and record it to tape via a microphone , although getting the correct volume can be tricky.