18 Mar
1997
18 Mar
'97
6:01 a.m.
On 20-Mar-97, classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu wrote:
There were many "Speech Synthesizer" modules
released. Most of them had to
do with entertainment packages, but there also many for education as well.
Education packages included the Scott, Foresman series were the computer
would say the numbers and letters to children, and for entertainment, there
was Alpiner, Parsec, M*A*S*H, Star Trek, Microsurgeon, and many, many others.
Actually, I was referring to the modules that were to plug into the Speech
Synthesizer itself, beneath the flip-top. Numerous references mention them,
and though on my Synthesizer, there isn't a connector in it for the module, I
was wondering if maybe some early examples were shipped with one. Even the
Speech Synthesizer manual mentions the cartridges.
There are more than 373 words to choose from. In fact,
with the Terminal
Emulator II cartridge, you have unlimited "text-to-speech" capability.
Literally anything you type in can be spoken. Sometimes you would have to
make the the pronunciation spellings different in order for this to work, but
mostly, it was fine. Extended BASIC was the only cartridge that limited
"text-to-speech", but even then TI later released a "text-to-speech"
diskette
which would allow the user to type in anything (much like the Terminal
Emulator II, and Speech Editor).
I got the 373 word limit from the Synthesizer manual, though I've not
counted up the words in the list it shows. I plan on playing with TE-II once
I recieive the RS232 board for my PEBox. It'd be interesting having it speak
the ascii data as it came across!
I just picked up a Speech Editor cartridge for $20 from
someone who was
selling it along with other old TI stuff. Expect to pay this, or more for it
- as it is rare. I just got it, and I can't even use it because I don't have
the manual.
That's fine with me...BTW, here's another question regarding the GROM
cartridges. When did Atari begin making the arcade game cartridges for the
TI-99/4A? Most people admit that TI didn't allow much 3rd party software to
be produced initially, yet here is one of their competitors writing programs
for it. I have the Donkey Kong and Pac Man cartridges, and they are both
dated 1983.
Jeff jeffh(a)eleventh.com
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Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Atari 800, Atari 800XL, Atari Mega-ST/2, Commodore
C-128, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore VIC-20, Kaypro 2X, Mattel
Aquarius, Osbourne Executive, Sinclair ZX-81, TI-99/4A, Timex-
Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color Computer-3, and a TRS-80 Model 4.
Plus Atari SuperPong and Atari 2600VCS game consoles.