Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 1 hour ago, KainXavier said: I can't speak for future builds, but I can confirm that the AtariVox is currently unsupported by the 2600+. There is no speech output (aside from boot up) and high scores are not retained. I've tested this with Juno First on older builds as well as T:ME Salvo on all builds. Stella supports the SaveKey functionality, but not the voice output. This will most likely not change anytime soon, since the speak output chip is still copyrighted. Which includes the data used for speech generation. But since 2600+ unfortunately is based on RetroArch/Libretro and these support only limited functionality of Stella, the SaveKey will not work too. Same with other controllers, like keypad/touchpad or trackballs. If that will ever change is completely open, because that's mostly up the RetroArch/Libretro developers. Alternatively Atari/Plaion could decide to use Stella directly. Then all controllers (again except AtariVox speak) would be supported by Stella. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 8 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: Stella supports the SaveKey functionality, but not the voice output. This will most likely not change anytime soon, since the speak output chip is still copyrighted. Which includes the data used for speech generation. I think there should be a point of clarification for those not as familiar with the AtariVox and Stella: While Stella can't internally generate AtariVox voices, Stella can drive an actual AtariVox plugged into an interface like a re-flashed 2600-dapter II (you can order them already flashed for the AtariVox). You still need to plug an external speaker into the AtariVox to hear the voices, but it will work fine. I use this setup with Stella on my Mac all the time. Whether the 2600+ could eventually drive an AtariVox is a different question. So Stella does support the AtariVox, but it cannot emulate it. As an aside, the SpeakJet chip used in the AtariVox is no longer in production. However, according to this post (confirmed here by the SpeakJet's developer), the SpeakJet is internally a PIC18F1320 which is still in production. So more chips could certainly be made (I don't know if this is an issue or not - I'm unaware of what sort of stockpile AtariAge has). The SpeakJet is one of those IPs I'd love to see Atari acquire so that the AtariVox could (potentially?) be emulated, and have them (or Plaion) design and sell a new AtariVox that has its own built-in (magnetically shielded) speaker, designed to aesthetically to go with the 2600+ (and of course, original 2600s). 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 4 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: However, according to this post (confirmed here by the SpeakJet's developer), the SpeakJet is internally a PIC18F1320 which is still in production. So more chips could certainly be made (I don't know if this is an issue or not - I'm unaware of what sort of stockpile AtariAge has). The problem is the configuration data (The SpeakJet is pre-configured with 72 speech elements (allophones), 43 sound effects, and 12 DTMF Touch Tones.). I am sure Stella could emulate the chip, but we cannot use the original data. So we cannot faithfully recreate the output. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 1 hour ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: The problem is the configuration data (The SpeakJet is pre-configured with 72 speech elements (allophones), 43 sound effects, and 12 DTMF Touch Tones.). I am sure Stella could emulate the chip, but we cannot use the original data. So we cannot faithfully recreate the output. But if the data were licensed or purchased by Atari and made available to the Stella team, could you recreate the output then? (Yes - this is all hypothetical, and yes - it has a snowball's chance in Arizona of actually happening, but just wondering out loud, in case Atari is looking to make a magnanimous gesture towards the homebrew community. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 2 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: it has a snowball's chance in Arizona of actually happening It does snow in Arizona, so... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KainXavier Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 (edited) 6 hours ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: The problem is the configuration data (The SpeakJet is pre-configured with 72 speech elements (allophones), 43 sound effects, and 12 DTMF Touch Tones.). I am sure Stella could emulate the chip, but we cannot use the original data. So we cannot faithfully recreate the output. Just out of curiosity, would you and the rest of the Stella team be opposed to using a different solution to generate speech? Edit: By that I mean feeding the data to some kind of cross-platform, open-source API. 2 hours ago, OLD CS1 said: It does snow in Arizona, so... It also rains mud! It's pretty wild. Edited March 30 by KainXavier Clarification. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 6 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: But if the data were licensed or purchased by Atari and made available to the Stella team, could you recreate the output then? (Yes - this is all hypothetical, and yes - it has a snowball's chance in Arizona of actually happening, but just wondering out loud, in case Atari is looking to make a magnanimous gesture towards the homebrew community. ) Yes, I suppose we could. And then we would. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 2 hours ago, KainXavier said: Just out of curiosity, would you and the rest of the Stella team be opposed to using a different solution to generate speech? Edit: By that I mean feeding the data to some kind of cross-platform, open-source API I don't think this would work well. Stella would have wrong emulation, making the AtariVox games sound bad. Or, IMO even worse, people might develop for/based on Stella's wrong emulation. IIRC @JetSetIlly experimented with this for Gopher2600. Maybe he can provide some details. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetSetIlly Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 45 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: I don't think this would work well. Stella would have wrong emulation, making the AtariVox games sound bad. Or, IMO even worse, people might develop for/based on Stella's wrong emulation. IIRC @JetSetIlly experimented with this for Gopher2600. Maybe he can provide some details. Yes. I have an interface to the Festival speech synthesis system. It's not perfect and I've not dealt with a lot of the SpeakJet features, but it works as proof of concept. My view is that if the cartridge is attempting to communicate with the AtariVox then it's reasonable for the emulation to do something with that, even if it's not perfect. I take your point about people developing to the emulation rather than to the hardware but I also think it's useful to give the developer a sense of whether the code is working at all. Short example video of the speech in Man Goes Down, produced by Festival simplescreenrecorder-2024-03-30_08.31.40.mp4 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Will there be for a regular update release a more convenient way to install it. I don’t have a Win 10/11 system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreev0 Posted Sunday at 01:48 PM Share Posted Sunday at 01:48 PM Is 1.1 ever going to come out of beta? I sure would like an official release (maybe with an installer). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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