It was quite likely written on an Exabyte device [1], you may be able to find out which by looking at the type of tape used - MP tape was used on standard Exabyte drives, ME (shiny, evaporated metal) tape on 'Mammoth' drives. It could also be AIT [1], a Sony-proprietary format which competed with Exabyte.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20070226174943/http://www.exabyt...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Intelligent_Tape

A quick online search leads me to Data8 [1], which I admit I've never heard of. Do you think that could be the format you're thinking of?

I know that SCSI drives were made for DDS [2], which (at least, initially) used the same tapes as the DAT audio format. But those used 4mm tapes, so probably aren't what you have.

Alternatively, it could have been a custom built system that recorded data onto video 8mm tapes. That will probably be a bit harder to get the data off unless you know the details of the setup used.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data8

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Data_Storage