Re: Apple II Sound

[dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel)]

In article <333e0f4a.1509652@news.magna.com.au>,
Dave <deth@magna.com.au> wrote:

>Just wondering if anyone apart from me ever had a speech card with a
>program called S.A.M.?? You could full on type whole sentences in and
>SAM would say the words. Sorta like the computer in WarGames.

I dimly recall ads for the card you mention.  I played with a version of
S.A.M. though.  ("A version" because I didn't know its history, people had
hacked around with it rather crudely, and therefore it didn't work completely
-- maybe a bad crack?)

S.A.M. actually works without any card whatever, just software.  I was very
impressed to find that that's possible.  It sounds grainy but understandable.

Didn't I read in c.s.a2 that the card was pretty worthless?

And I think there was a Commodore 64 version.  Has anyone ever used that?

Some synthesized announcements used by cheap pay phone companies actually
sound MORE grainy than S.A.M. -- that is, the component "slices" of sound
change less often -- a feat requiring truly low standards. :)

-- Derek