[LeifH12345]

The FF/RW thing is more for new tapes that have been sitting “packed”. I actually had a couple tapes seize up and stop recording during a concert, so after that I began to “unpack” them after opening the package before taking them out with a portable battery peered recorder

You should be ok to just start playing them but to be safe test out the deck with a couple tapes you don’t care about and don’t walk away just in case. I’ve had and heard of tapes getting eaten