Before "modern" computers as the Atari ST were able to sync to tape by
SMPTE, computers as the Commodore 64 synced by some kind of click,
without a time code. IOW you couldn't cue at a wanted position, you
always needed to start from the beginning. This sync was not less good
than sync between MIDI and audio is nowadays, in my experiences it was
much more accurate, than the supposedly "frame accuracy" between MIDI
and audio of Linux DAWs is nowadays.
YMMV!
Regards,
Ralf