I grew up in the Philippines and Betamax were the thing there... I moved to USA, no Betamax, but it was VHS... I have a lot of vhs tapes (used to record tv shows I liked)… and I still have them (until I find the season dvd for them)… but I don't have a vhs player anymore.. but I collect "stuff" so... :)
Betamax might have been the superior tape method, but VHS won out thanks to lower standards of licensing. I would imagine a VCR would be easy to get at a thrift shop or Goodwill, but that's if it interested you.