Was checking the Zero-G sale, and googled some reviews and found a mention in SoundOnSound from 1993!

So this is a real golden oldie, that has stood the test of time.

I just then started wondering what the oldest sample set still available for sale could be, are there any sample sets from the 80's still sold in their original form for instance?

In the '80s they mostly used floppy disks and rom-cards.
Have a look at Kidnepro where they sell floppies with original samples for AKAI S900, E-mu Emax and Ensoniq ESQ-1 for instance, which means it goes back to about 1986.

One early general sample CD's was Datafile 1 from Zero-G. Actually it was not a CD-ROM but an audio CD with samples on the tracks.

Masterbits still has "SAMPLING COLLECTION 500" for sale which dates back to 1988.

In the second half of the '80s there were several sampler-specific sample CD-ROMs which currently are not for sale anymore as far as I know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUsmq97a4nY&feature=related

Sounds like they are playing it backward. I keep hearing 'Hail Satan...'

I doubt there were many (if any) sample discs around in the 80's ... I have one from '97 that came with my A3000 sampler, and a few FM discs from the same era.

heh, the testimonial from 'CU Amiga' magazine says it all!

True, the grandaddy of them all

I'd like to point you to http://cd.textfiles.com/directory.html where youll find some old floppy's and CD's.

Do a search on there for "audio" and "music", and you'll come across some stuff like loops, midi, etc.

Textfiles is a great site to waste some time on, especially if you grew up on BBS's