15 replies to this topic

[RevEng]

 spellandspeak.NTSC.20110509.bin   4K   115 downloads
 spellandspeak.PAL60.20110509.bin   4K   86 downloads

It's a text-to-speech program for the 2600. Type in some words - the swearing variety or not - and it will say them when you hit the SPEAK button.

The S buttons save your phrase in 1 of 4 slots, the L buttons load it. Left/Right arrows slow/speed up the speech, up/down arrows raise or lower the pitch.

The text-to-speech converter is phonetics-based, so sometimes you'll need to add or change a few letters to get it to pronounce correctly.

It should be obvious from the name, but I'll say it anyway - this requires an AtariVox.

Enjoy!

[killersquirel]

Does anybody know if they are ever going to do another run of the atari vox?

-mike

[RevEng]

the.golden.ax is going to be producing more of them.

[Philsan]

Mike, would you please make a PAL60 version when AtariVox will be available?

[RevEng]

For sure, Phil - a PAL 60 version is definitely on my radar!

[RevEng]

The interface is meant to pay homage to a Speak&Spell toy, which is kinda reddish-orange. For NTSC I went a bit more orange and used $39.

For PAL colors, do you think the pinkish-red ($69) works better, or the yellowish-orange? ($49)



I'm leaning toward $49, I think, for the same reason I picked NTSC $39. The red looks too pinkish.

Looking at the comparison photos, maybe I'll go darker with both NTSC and PAL too.

[Philsan]

If you leave NTSC version unchanged, I agree that PAL $48 (maybe $46 or $44) is OK.
In some photos Speak&Spell seems bright red, in other dark red, in other orange...

Have you tested NTSC $42 and PAL $62?

[RevEng]

Philsan, on Mon May 9, 2011 8:13 AM, said:

If you leave NTSC version unchanged, I agree that PAL $48 (maybe $46 or $44) is OK.
In some photos Speak&Spell seems bright red, in other dark red, in other orange...

Have you tested NTSC $42 and PAL $62?

Yeah, I think the manufacturing color control was pretty weak for these things. I always remembered them as being more orange than the one I pictured, but maybe it was a regional thing.

I really try to avoid the $#2 registers - on my CRT at default settings, $#0 is black for any color and $#2 is way darker than stella shows. I don't think I'm unique in that either, as I've heard yuppicide and others make the same comment.

I tried NTSC $44...



...and PAL $64...



...a bit of a cherry undertone with both, but better than the pink at the higher luminance values.

[lapetino]

I really like this last round, especially the NTSC colors.

RevEng, on Mon May 9, 2011 8:48 AM, said:

Philsan, on Mon May 9, 2011 8:13 AM, said:

If you leave NTSC version unchanged, I agree that PAL $48 (maybe $46 or $44) is OK.
In some photos Speak&Spell seems bright red, in other dark red, in other orange...

Have you tested NTSC $42 and PAL $62?

Yeah, I think the manufacturing color control was pretty weak for these things. I always remembered them as being more orange than the one I pictured, but maybe it was a regional thing.

I really try to avoid the $#2 registers - on my CRT at default settings, $#0 is black for any color and $#2 is way darker than stella shows. I don't think it's unique in that either, as I've heard yuppicide and others make the same comment.

I tried NTSC $44...



...and PAL $64...



...a bit of a cherry undertone with both, but better than the pink at the higher luminance values.

[RevEng]

lapetino, on Mon May 9, 2011 9:06 AM, said:

I really like this last round, especially the NTSC colors.

Sounds good, lapetino - I've updated the first post with the NTSC and PAL reds.

Phil, let me know if the PAL colors work for you.

The version in the first post also fixes a scanline bump that happened with some phrases.

[Philsan]

NTSC color's perfect.
PAL color is ugly on emulator but good on my Sony Trinitron CRT!
I can't hear anything!
the.golden.ax, hurry up!

[RevEng]

I'll be glad when he spins up production too. My breadvox is good enough for development, but I'd prefer to have a nice self-enclosed unit that I could swap between my laptop and the 2600.

Anyway, thanks for checking it out on real hardware, Phil!

[Philsan]

You're always welcome Mike!
Now you have to update your avatar!

[RevEng]

And done!

[Keatah]

Can this be made to work with any emulators?

[RevEng]

It will work in Stella, but only if you have an AtariVox plugged into a TTL level serial port on your PC.