Speaking as an old person who learned to code as a young teenager on the C64 (motivated in part by the ability to pirate games because I otherwise had no means to afford them), by the C64 era disk drives were a lot more prevalent than tape in my experience, at least here in the USA.
The C64 users of the time that I knew, including myself, were all using the 1541 floppy drive (keep the screwdriver handy so you can quickly pop the top off when it inevitably needs to be realigned because of how common it was for anti-piracy measures of popular games to knock the drive head around).
Still slow (but probably sped up by a 'fast load' cartridge if you were and avid user), but not quite as bad as the PET-era cassette tape situation.
And back to the main topic -- I played a lot of multiplayer Bubble Bobble on the C64 with my sisters and cousins. Enough that I can still easily recall the theme song decades later.
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.
The C64 users of the time that I knew, including myself, were all using the 1541 floppy drive (keep the screwdriver handy so you can quickly pop the top off when it inevitably needs to be realigned because of how common it was for anti-piracy measures of popular games to knock the drive head around).
Still slow (but probably sped up by a 'fast load' cartridge if you were and avid user), but not quite as bad as the PET-era cassette tape situation.
And back to the main topic -- I played a lot of multiplayer Bubble Bobble on the C64 with my sisters and cousins. Enough that I can still easily recall the theme song decades later.