Mr SQL Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 The Graphics in this Chess game are awesome Andrew! Really nice feel. Played a fast round - some feedback to help the engine, it let me advance on the Knight with a pawn, and then let me keep pushing the pawn to take a Rook: Also it moves really fast - Video Chess takes a lot longer but protects against those moves. I'm enjoying this one as a player because I really like Chess and not looking closely at the engine design just the performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 8 minutes ago, Mr SQL said: The Graphics in this Chess game are awesome Andrew! Really nice feel. Played a fast round - some feedback to help the engine, it let me advance on the Knight with a pawn, and then let me keep pushing the pawn to take a Rook: Also it moves really fast - Video Chess takes a lot longer but protects against those moves. I'm enjoying this one as a player because I really like Chess and not looking closely at the engine design just the performance. Thank you for your kind comments. In fact, this is NOT playing chess against you. It is merely choosing a completely random move. Just you wait until there's actual "AI" in there. Oh, and speech, because it's going to cuss a lot. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr SQL Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Very cool I can't wait to play!! I may turn the volume down depending what friends are over Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mksmith Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 6 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said: Oh, and speech, because it's going to cuss a lot. ? ? ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 Just now, mksmith said: ? ? ? Have been tentatively thinking of calling it "Tourette Chess" so... be warned. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 8 hours ago, Andrew Davie said: Have been tentatively thinking of calling it "Tourette Chess" so... be warned. Maybe the difficulty switches can be used to select the level of profanity? ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 34 minutes ago, Karl G said: Maybe the difficulty switches can be used to select the level of profanity? ? I'm a bit of a rebel with regard to political correctness and peoples' delicate sensibilities. I might have a bit of fun with the speech. You can always just not connect the AtariVox. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 1 minute ago, Andrew Davie said: I'm a bit of a rebel with regard to political correctness and peoples' delicate sensibilities. I might have a bit of fun with the speech. You can always just not connect the AtariVox. I will say that the market for profane chess games is probably under tapped. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 I just became aware of Chess for the Fairchild Channel F. The move selection/display is almost identical. Not a bad effort. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voxel Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 I like how the Channel F, shows the notation too. It would be nice to have an option to step through a finished game to study the game played, or to have an ability to store the played game or a log of the moves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 20, 2020 Author Share Posted March 20, 2020 7 hours ago, Voxel said: I like how the Channel F, shows the notation too. It would be nice to have an option to step through a finished game to study the game played, or to have an ability to store the played game or a log of the moves. I agree. I may use the PlusCart capability for this. Upload move/game to a web server where you can see/view the games you (or others) have played. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 20, 2020 Author Share Posted March 20, 2020 (edited) Well, my AtariVox has arrived. Thanks @Albert. I guess I'll have to find some speakers and figure out how to use it. I wonder if I can plug my headphones into it. I'm needing to get it working on my MacBook, for development... mmh... Edited March 20, 2020 by Andrew Davie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 1 hour ago, Andrew Davie said: Well, my AtariVox has arrived. Thanks @Albert. I guess I'll have to find some speakers and figure out how to use it. I wonder if I can plug my headphones into it. I'm needing to get it working on my MacBook, for development... mmh... Awesome, glad to hear it arrived safely. Hope you have some fun with it! Yes, you can plug headphones into it, however, it is mono output, so you may only hear audio on one side. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 I'd highly recommend you turn the volume down before using it. AtariVox's default to being very loud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 The good news is the AtariVox works, and it swears like a trooper. The bad news is, that it doesn't work when connected via my USB-serial connectors on MacOS I checked to see the serial port is there. I also tried connecting via 19200 baud, and I did get some bogus chars back in terminal. But the AtariVox itself doesn't boot up and say whatever it's supposed to say at the start. So, that's going to make development a bit of a pain. I wonder, has anyone else used AtariVox on MacOS - and if so, what were you using? Ta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Karl G Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 17 hours ago, Andrew Davie said: I wonder, has anyone else used AtariVox on MacOS - and if so, what were you using? I have. I used a 2600-daptor II flashed with special firmware specifically to access the AtariVOX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 (edited) Looking through my boxes of electronics, I found a few of these items... Now those (YP-05) are supposed to be USB-Serial converters. I'm hoping I might be in luck with this. Just need to hook up TX, RX, GND, V+. ...? .. and switch the jumper to 5V ...? What can possibly go wrong? Edited March 21, 2020 by Andrew Davie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 I'm thinking I can't do this. It looks from the below that AtariVox is using I2C (SDA/SCL) I need to get from USB to I2C, basically, on a DB9 pinout.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 I'm confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 Could it be this pinout is handling two different protocols..../? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 Aha! Found this... http://7800.8bitdev.org/index.php/AtariVox_for_the_7800#AtariVox_Pinout So, there are in fact two communication protocols going on. EEPROM using I2C and SpeakJet, using ... well, a two-pin comms system... "The SpeakJet receives speech data via asynchronous serial interface, pre-configured to operate at 19,200 baud (8n1, inverted). The DATA line is connected to pin 1 of the 2nd joystick socket (bit 0 of SWCHA) and the READY line is connected to pin 2 (bit 1 of SWCHA). The READY line may be read to detect whether the SpeakJet is able receive data. If this reads 0 then the chip is not ready (i.e. the input buffer is full) and data should not be sent at this time. The data is sent in 8n1 format (1 start bit, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit) but is inverted compared to normal RS-232. The DATA line should be held high whilst idle (between data transmissions) either by setting the pin to input mode, or to output 1 (same thing). To transmit a byte, each bit (1 start bit, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit) are output on the DATA line at intervals of 1/19,200th of a second. For the Atari 2600, an interval of 62 CPU clock cycles is a close enough match. First is the start bit, which is always 0. Then the 8 data bits, least significant bit first. And lastly the stop bit which is always 1 (returning the DATA line to idle). The stop bit must be present on the DATA line for at least 62 cycles." I'm tending towards, now, thinking I only need to connect pin 1 and 2 on the DB9 (+GND +VCC of course) To what.... well, still thinking about that. Still confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 14 hours ago, Andrew Davie said: The good news is the AtariVox works, and it swears like a trooper. The bad news is, that it doesn't work when connected via my USB-serial connectors on MacOS I checked to see the serial port is there. I also tried connecting via 19200 baud, and I did get some bogus chars back in terminal. But the AtariVox itself doesn't boot up and say whatever it's supposed to say at the start. So, that's going to make development a bit of a pain. I wonder, has anyone else used AtariVox on MacOS - and if so, what were you using? I got a USB interface from Richard H.: https://atariage.com/forums/blogs/entry/5503-homebreviews-part-26/ He'd be the one to ask, but my understanding is that most USB to serial converters will work if they use an FTDI chip. You have to download and install the latest driver for it. One issue I've found with it (I blame Apple) is that if I unplug the USB adaptor then plug it back in, the computer will no longer recognize it unless I restart my Mac. Unplugging it apparently unloads the driver, and it doesn't automatically re-load it when the device is reconnected. Oddly enough, the System Report will see it: But terminal will not (using ls /dev/tty.*). It only sees Bluetooth: After a restart though, it shows up: Then Stella can be configured to use it: You have to assign it to the P1 controller for the ROM you're running: Reload the ROM, and it should work. There's one glitch with it currently though. On really long phrases, the AtariVox won't play the entire phrase from Stella (or Speakalator - more on that in a minute). It will garble the last words of it: AtariVox-Stella-Gorf.mp3 However, the exact same binary works perfectly fine on real hardware: AtariVox-2600-Gorf.mp3 John Champeau is submitting a bug report about it. Onto Speakalator. Phrase-a-lator is the official Windows AtariVox phrase and sound building tool. Unfortunately, its was last update 12 years ago, and only runs on Windows. RevEng made a Unix version called Speakalator. Recently he ported it over to the Mac so I could work on the voices for Gorf. He hasn't publicly posted it yet, and it could still use some polishing. But I was able to plow through all of the phrases for Gorf in a weekend with it, so it's certainly usable. I just set up an AtariVox Club here on AtariAge, so we can have a dumping ground single repository for all things AtariVox. Nothing's there yet, but I'll work on adding some things this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 22, 2020 Author Share Posted March 22, 2020 Thanks @Nathan Strum for the reply and all the info. My current USB-serial dongles do show up on MacOS under /dev/tty.* and /dev/cp.* when I plug them in and out. What's not happening is the AtariVox powering up when connected to them. I'm thinking of bridging the 5V line from the USB input to the DB9 VCC pin, to see if it's just a power issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Andrew Davie Posted March 22, 2020 Author Share Posted March 22, 2020 ... but then I get to looking at the pinout on the AtariVox DB9 and wonder if the pin usage is in any way compatible anyway with the "standard" R/TX lines...? Sill confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 I also have the original USB interface. It is extremely simple. (I have the schematic somewhere if you need it.) One thing that held me up a long time was: In MacOS, the FTDI drivers are already there. Installing from the website broke operation. It was not until I uninstalled the website drivers that the AtariVOX+ started to work. And then after that, I was using Windows under a virtual machine to drive the VOX with Windows software and Windows Stella. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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