andylama Posted May 21, 2003 Share Posted May 21, 2003 i.e. the Voice Box from The Alien Group Anyone know where I can get my hands on one? Also, does anyone have a web-link for the issue of Antic that has the DIY speech synth (SP0256-AL2 based) project with schematic AND program listing?...or know where I can get that specific back-issue? I built one of these many years ago when that Antic came out (and it worked great!), but now it's long gone...and I want it back. I'm ready to build another one. Thanks in advance Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 21, 2003 Share Posted May 21, 2003 This? http://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n9/Talking...Typewriter.html The accompaning program is tokenized Basic, and can be listed by loading it into Atari800Win (or porting with SIO2PC). As explained, getting that chip might be a problem I gather. Did Speak'n'Spell use that chip? I remember a Popular Science article that showed how to build a synth using one of those (they wired it to a Timex Sinclair in the article, but it stated that pretty much any computer could be modded). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted May 21, 2003 Share Posted May 21, 2003 Here is some info on the chip used in the Voice Box http://www.redcedar.com/sc01.htm WRL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted May 21, 2003 Share Posted May 21, 2003 The Antic project used an SPO256 Speech chip, Radio Shack used to stock millions of them, you should'nt have a probem still finding some, if you don't find it on EBay or with some Googling... try the Vintage Computers newsgroups and post there, you're bound to find someone sitting on a box of 100 just itching to part with them for next to nothing. One warning on the Antic speech box, DO NOT plug/unplug the box while the Atari is ON, it can lock up your system and I remember on the Bulletin boards (pre-Web for all you non-80's telecommer's) about people's PIA's being damaged and losing use of the joystick ports. Curt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andylama Posted May 21, 2003 Author Share Posted May 21, 2003 This?http://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n9/Talking...Typewriter.html The accompaning program is tokenized Basic, and can be listed by loading it into Atari800Win (or porting with SIO2PC). As explained, getting that chip might be a problem I gather. Did Speak'n'Spell use that chip? I remember a Popular Science article that showed how to build a synth using one of those (they wired it to a Timex Sinclair in the article, but it stated that pretty much any computer could be modded). Nukey, Yep, that's the one exactly! THANK YOU! Surprisingly, this chip can still be had. They used to sell it at Radio Shack, but you can still get it on the web. Surprisingly, the price hasn't changed in 16 years! I think this chip was very different than the one in the Speak & Spell. This chip sounds a bit better, IIRC. Back in late 1987, I built one of these for my 800, and wrote a rudimentary command line parser that would translate typed strings to phoneme codes, then say it. It was my final project in electronics in college. I've forgotten most of my Atari BASIC chops, so I don't remember how to deal with the "tokenized" program listing. Can you refresh my memory? I'm now using an 800XL and APE/SIO2PC. Thanks a bunch! Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 21, 2003 Share Posted May 21, 2003 It's coded right in Basic itself (i.e. when you use a statement like PRINT, that word isn't written in plain text, but uses a "token" instead). To list the program in an emulator, download the program to a hard drive folder. In the emulator, boot up with the hard drive patch enabled, and hit alt-h to browse to the folder that the program is in. Then just... LOAD"H:TYPETALK.TLK" In the emulator, you can list it or copy it to an .atr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andylama Posted May 21, 2003 Author Share Posted May 21, 2003 Nukey, Oh, oh, oh, right! Of course. I actually did know that, but it has been so long since I've done anything other than play games on my 8-bit... It's hard to imagine that 20 years ago, I was an 8-bit "hacker" (back then, the term "hacker" had no negative connotations). I knew 6502 assembly code. I wrote programs that used up all the free RAM. Nowadays, it's all I can do to remember how to display a disk directory in BASIC. My brain has been polluted with Visual Basic...and I can't get up! Thanks Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 21, 2003 Share Posted May 21, 2003 lol...actually, the term "hacker" had at least one negative connotation (i.e. who jocks steal their lunch money from). And in my case, it was usually a given that any program that held any importance to me would either be destined to fill all available memory or lock me out when putting the finishing touches on it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted May 22, 2003 Share Posted May 22, 2003 Nukey, Oh, oh, oh, right! Of course. I actually did know that, but it has been so long since I've done anything other than play games on my 8-bit... It's hard to imagine that 20 years ago, I was an 8-bit "hacker" (back then, the term "hacker" had no negative connotations). I knew 6502 assembly code. I wrote programs that used up all the free RAM. Nowadays, it's all I can do to remember how to display a disk directory in BASIC. My brain has been polluted with Visual Basic...and I can't get up! Thanks Andy Did you program anything commercial or for a magazine? If you ever feel like programming assembly again, I'm sure it would come back to you. Check out www.atariarchives.org and www.atarimagazines.com to jog your memory. The Atari 5200 is calling you. If you wrote a new game for the 5200 you could be a hero like Cafeman with his Koffi game. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted May 22, 2003 Share Posted May 22, 2003 Hang on...I'll handle this Does he get a costume Maidens in distress? A private phone booth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andylama Posted May 22, 2003 Author Share Posted May 22, 2003 ...it was usually a given that any program that held any importance to me would either be destined to fill all available memory or lock me out when putting the finishing touches on it Yep, yep... Experienced this MANY times! LOL you have brought back a lot of bittersweet memories! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andylama Posted May 22, 2003 Author Share Posted May 22, 2003 Did you program anything commercial or for a magazine? If you ever feel like programming assembly again, I'm sure it would come back to you. Check out www.atariarchives.org and www.atarimagazines.com to jog your memory. The Atari 5200 is calling you. If you wrote a new game for the 5200 you could be a hero like Cafeman with his Koffi game. Allan Hi Allan No, nothing commercial or for a magazine, although I programmed one game that actually became "popular" (read: freely copied & traded) in the Los Angeles suburban area I grew up in. As I recall, it was a simple "Donkey Kong" style run-n-jump affair. The funny thing is: I'd go to the local Atari dealer, and there would be a kid sitting in front of an 800, playing MY GAME...except that SOMEONE ELSE'S NAME was on the splash screen (no surprise there). Being a snotty adolescent, I'd have to let the player know that I had written the game he was playing (he wouldn't believe it, of course), then I'd have to prove it by showing him some stupid "easter egg" I'd put into it. If I ever saw that game again, I think I'd fall out of my chair...then say "what a piece of junk!" ...and then there was the X-rated pinball game...but I'll leave that one up to your imagination ... I'm sure I'd love to code 6502 professionally, but (at least at this point in my life) there's no way I could make the time. Maybe in another few years...someday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 22, 2003 Share Posted May 22, 2003 well... you can be saved from these sexy commands... even when used 20 years ago... nothing comparable with VB code... lda, sta, eor, jsr, bne, bpl, rol, rts, ...... "operator - where is the next exit - ring...ring...i am out" hve ps. matrix:reloaded starting today in germany............. finally..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted May 22, 2003 Share Posted May 22, 2003 oops... i ment "who can be saved from the sexy commands..." 6502 rules... one of the real "risc" cpus.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andylama Posted May 23, 2003 Author Share Posted May 23, 2003 oops... i ment "who can be saved from the sexy commands..." 6502 rules... one of the real "risc" cpus.... Hi Heaven/TQA, Yes, I remember those...and using NOP to actually slow things down (can you imagine?!) Cute anecdote: 2 years ago, I was involved in a project where we were coding some custom industrial software (Visual Basic, client/server via Winsock controls). My co-writer was also an 8bit geek, so when it came time to select the winsock port address, we unanimously chose "6502". Only he & I know about it, but we thought of it as our own little inside joke / easter egg. Plus the systray icon looked a little like a Fuji. andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted May 24, 2003 Share Posted May 24, 2003 Speaking of voice synthesis on the 8-bit, there is also the Covox Voice Master and jr. models that were renown in the day. If you want, what I feel to be, everybit as good software voice synthesis, ATOS (which requires a hard drive or SIO2PC&APE&PC-16meg of drive space needed)has a text reader program. If you want to make it sound it's best, you spell the words as they sound and not neccesarily as they are read (use a text editor; make a .txt file) and then you load the program on the command line (with Spartdos at least). Something like this: D[X]:readtxt D[X]: message.txt and the file is read aloud by the computer, sounding very much like Joshua for 'War Games. ' Or you can load it through ATOS windows to, (I think), and select the text file you want it to read. The advantage of doing it on the command line is that you can create a batch file, as I have, that the computer reads upon boot up, an introduction (or anything you want it to be). This of course is not voice recognition like the Covox and Alien box, just making your computer talk (if that's all you want). http://cth.dtdns.net/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 The Vec Voice device that is currently being sold is really a general purpose speech synthesizer that should be able to interface to any console that supports digital joysticks, like the 2600 or 8-bit. If you want to do any modern work with an Atari console and hardware speech synthesis I would suggest trying that out. http://www.richard.hutchinson.dsl.pipex.co.../new_page_2.htm Alien Voiceboxes are pretty hard to come by. I would have loved one back in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 To be more specific, you'd need to write a new driver for the Vec Voice to use it on other platforms. But it shouldn't be that difficult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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