Exploring 80s Home Computer Speech Synthesizers

[@asmodioussatos4805]

That's awesome a new generation playing with machines I grew up on ...... I loved my TI/99 4A growing up .... The voice synthesizer was so awesome Alpiner was a favorite for the "Uh oh nooooooo" sound when you fell lol

[@fruitloop831]

Yer its awesome to see

[@DJKav]

I like to support British content creators. Especially, those who are too young to have been in the golden era of microcomputing. Learning and understanding the humble origins of the bedroom coder scene, who ended up establishing some of the big developers of the modern times. Like people say, she's straight to the point, no waffle or fillers and she keeps her audience engaged. Well done Kari, keep up the great work.

[@patrickmiskell1301]

Mark my words, this channel is going to grow fast! these voices remind me of Sinistar! "I am Sinistar" "beware I live" along with the rest of its menacing phrases are some of the most terrifying moments in my gaming career.

[@Hermas_360]

Common, where is the trick? She is cute, she likes games, she enjoys tech, she repairs tech, and she even programmed on the channel. You must admit that there is something fishy.

[@MrLondonGo]

Gorf had the voice in arcade, the c64 cartridge was a fantastic conversation

[@MrLondonGo]

@@Hermas_360i think her brother’s techie too

[@stickaround]

@@Hermas_360 You are overthinking it. I think the best thing about the vids is that they are under 10 minutes. I don't have time to sit and watch 20 minute videos full of bloated waffling. Kari's vids are short, punchy, straight to the point, and only show what is relevent; which is the most important thing for me. And of course, I like the tech involved.

[@Hermas_360]

@@MrLondonGo well that explains a lot of questions!

[@simonhandley1105]

I remember impossible mission game voice, "Stay awhiie, STAY FOREVER ha ha ha" same as gorf sound. Was mind blowing in early 80s when my neighbour had one.

[@JohnGotts]

Kari, you would like the Odyssey 2 and the voice module. Sold as the Philips Videopac G7000 in Europe. Also I think you would enjoy SAM (Software Automatic Mouth) for the Commodore 64. You're on such an exciting journey, and you're gonna love every minute of it!

[@AutoPilate]

I had an Odyssey 2 growing up, but I didn’t have the voice module.

[@raifield]

I remember when my parents bought a Soundblaster for our 386. The "therapy" program it shipped with was called Dr.Sbaitso, and would fully speak to you like a psychiatrist. You could also tell the software to speak what you typed, which led to all sorts of mischief!

[@mbirth]

Oh those memories... "Tell me about your problems"

[@RaleighTSakers-r9p]

ah yes, i can still hear dr. sbaitso's voice as my friends and i try to get him to say the rudest possible things

[@EdmundSampson-pd7vi]

I had a Dr Sbaitso program on a more modern computer from about 16 years ago , you got samples / colour photos of animals or you could load photos of your own , you could type in a caption and it would make the image move and talk to what you typed

[@rogerlundstrom6926]

Yeah; This really brings me back. Just to say; The Speech synthesizer program was separate from Dr. SBaitso, Dr. SBaitso just utilized a program that you could actually use for a lot of things, so you could do a LOT of mischief without bothering about the Dr. SBaitso program.. Just saying; I LOVED goofing with Dr. Sabaitso. I especially loved the first time he responded with "I am in love with a math coprocessor".

[@johnroberts2905]

Memories!

[@lurkerrekrul]

I didn't have any of these, but back in the 80s, I had a copy of SAM, the Software Automatic Mouth, an entirely software base speech synthesizer for the C64. Once it was loaded, you could use a command (I think it was SAY) to make it speak anything you wanted. You could use other commands to change the pitch and speed, and you could use phonetic spelling to improve the pronunciation. You could use the commands in BASIC programs as well. Back then I would sometimes type in programs from magazines, and often, they would have large sections of data, which would be prone to typing errors. At first, the magazines didn't have any kind of proofreading program, so I made my own for the data parts. When run it would ask for a starting address, and would then use SAM to read the number at that address and speak it as a three digit number, such as "1-4-9" or "2-0-5". I made it joystick controlled so that I could step through memory addresses, repeat the current address, or go back one address. Combined with a joystick extension cable, I could lie on my bed with the magazine and use the joystick to have SAM read out the numbers as I followed along in the listing.

[@axelvetter]

I remember S. A. M. and its application Reciter. We played around with it and were surprised how good it sounded. One demo program that came with it called "S. A. M. sings" showed off what you could do by changing the four variables speed, pitch, throat and mouth. We made up words that sounded German when pronounced in English as the software was only capable of English phonemes.

[@DevinGanger]

Was just coming here to mention SAM. My friends and I used to use it to create crank calls

[@nkronert]

Bizarrely I used it for exactly the same thing - read DATA lines to me, using the joystick fire button as a trigger. How did you do the repeat and back one address functions?

[@lurkerrekrul]

@@nkronert I don't remember exactly how I had it set up, but I think it was right on the joystick to go to the next address, left to go to the previous address, maybe the button to repeat the same address. It was all just reading the joystick functions and adding or subtracting from the variable that contained the current memory address. As I recall, the harder part was getting it to read the digits separately, like "Two zero five, one seven nine, zero four three".

[@woo545]

I think SAM had a demo where it goes through some samples of what it can do. The one thing that always stuck with me was when it said, "Oh wow wee, that was a toughie"

[@kenneth6731]

I don't see a TI-99/4A on your channel. I hope to see one someday!

[@MrRuralJuror]

I had no idea that speech synthesizers were even a thing on the Commodore 64! 😮 I was just impressed at the time by the speech included in the Ghostbusters game.

[@axemanracing6222]

SAM is a great software speech synth for the C64. There are lots of things to adjust.

[@LordHasenpfeffer]

I was going to recommend S.A.M. if no one else already had. :) Software-based too. Not hardware. I remember having fun with that back in '88 when I first got my first C64. Fun times!

[@KabukiKid]

@@LordHasenpfeffer Oh yeah... SAM was great. It could say anything, if you tinkered with it a bit for trickier words. You could tinker with its pitch, speed, all sort of things. Pretty excellent software speech synthesis for the time. It also had an amusing accent. I also have the C64 version and had fun toying around with it. :-)

[@willard73]

My first computer was Texas Instruments TI-99 4/A. I didn’t have the speech synthesiser but saw it demoed in the shop on Parsec (a game). Amazing!

[@launchpadmcquack9305]

Windows 3.1 had a speech synthesizer with Soundblaster. My brother and I had endless laughs making it say all sorts of rude things to eachother.

[@PintaoLoko]

I used sound blaster features to replace the original sound of a keyboard with fart and burp sounds to listen to my country national anthem and kids songs. I laughed my ass off for moths.

[@Mr_Top_Hat_Jones]

Same! Damn, I forgot about that. Endless hours of fun! 😂

[@fruitloop831]

Haha, good times

[@sjoer]

@@PintaoLoko that was just MIDI, you can still easily do that!

[@CrewJackets]

The War Games reference at the end made me laugh out loud! Awesome stuff!

[@evlkenevl2721]

I'll never forget the first time I saw a Gorf arcade machine. It was the first time I'd ever heard synthesized speech. Walked into a Dairy Queen and heard "Spah-eees cah-det". Absolutely floored me.

[@jasonGreenVw]

I had a TI 99 and it's speech synthesizer. It was my first computer some time in the mid 1980s. I with I still had it.

[@star_man]

I remember getting a Currah 64 for my Commodore 64 for Christmas in the 80s when I was about 12, I absolutely loved it. Really happy to see a new generation discovering and enjoying the C64.

[@Beebeedoobeee]

Just discovered this channel yesterday, and your content is absolutely awesome?? Instant subscribe right there

[@JerrySpann-fn4kw]

Hopefully, she will make more videos.

[@jasonuk8333]

I had a speech synthesiser for my old C64 called the Adman Speech Maker. It worked like the second one tested in the video, where you could get it to say anything. Had lots of fun getting it to swear!

[@bobbuilder3748]

I spent many hours playing with Superior Software "Speech!" on the BBC Master Compact. I distinctly remember going to the store and asking if there was any software that could make the computer talk. I was not disappointed.

[@TVsHasselhoff]

You gotta mess around with the Speach Synthesizer for the TI-99/4a. Had a blast as a kid finding new things for it to say.

[@chrismifsud7154]

As a kid I used to love playing with text to speech on my Amiga. Used to do entire stories full of swearing lol

[@chironbramberger]

Haha love it! I was hoping to see a BBC Micro with the voice chip for comparison. Thanks for the great videos!

[@markallison8108]

I think the speech synthesizer for the Ti994-A was pretty good for its time.

[@RebelCowboysRVs]

I have that Texas Interment one somewhere, assuming the girls didn't trash it in their quest to clean my house. Seems like it did all the sound for it.

[@fakshen1973]

So.. as a kid in the 70's and the 80's. The first home video game I know of that had speech in it was Intellivision's B17 bomber with the "Intellivoice" module added on. For the Commodore C64 the first major game with speech in my recollection was "Ghost Busters" with the line "he slimed me!" in very low bit, low sample rate audio. There may have been something earlier... possibly... but that's the one that was the big deal in gaming. There was no external hardware needed in the C64 version.

[@jamesb1717]

Wow. My Commodore 16 fully boxed went to the dump recently. Didn't want to, but had to clear it from my old house. Still got one of those joysticks though. Brilliant channel.😊

[@intrepidis1]

My mate brought around his synthesiser and plugged it into my ZX Spectrum in the late 80's. I thought the future had arrived! 😅 I'd love to see that again. 🥰

[@clauscombat418]

SAM was a great software speech synthesis, even better than any hardware solution. Games like "Arabian Nights" used it to tell whole storylines 😮

[@Warlock_UK]

Wargames was one of the movies that got me into programming weird stuff (Also Explorers). I had a hardware C64 speech synth cart, might've been a Currah 64. It was interesting seeing everything broken down into phonemes as you start doing the voice.

[@awnordma]

I had no idea that these types of addons were so ubiquitous. I've only ever messed with an Intellivision Intellivoice module and a copy of B-17 Bomber. That was only a few years ago when a neighbor gave me a box of old games. Very impressive tech for the early 80s.

[@cabbitkisser2620]

i remember as a kid back in the 80s. we have a trs-80 coco 2. my dad bought a speech synthesizer for our computer. only a few games we had used it.

[@johnellison3030]

I grew up with all the things you work with. It's very nice to see someone, especially a young female like you, work with all this old technology. This is what hacking was to us back then. Not what it has become today. Keep up the excellent work.

[@toddkingsberry7153]

What an awesome channel. You're bringing back some old memories. Thank you.

[@Folkor]

These have been really bringing me back to my Vic-20 days, when I first learned basic programming.

[@realityrenderedstudi]

Thanks, for the memories, back then I made my own speech pc card, it could say anything. I used to write C-64 assembly code in my sleep. I even made Custome system ROMS back then. I still have the C-64 Bible somewhere. I saw War Games and maybe a week later I made the hardware and software to do the same thing and it fully worked. I even split the computer apart and put the keyboard on a long cable. I even made a board for the disc drive that had a huge memory in it. I was basically a C-64 GOD. I can't just get to it, but it set sitting there, decades later ready to be turned back on.

[@brendanstorey7005]

I'm impressed, anything 80s 💖

[@richardtwyning]

The ultimate test sentence that they used as a test on BBC Micro Live was "power mowers are thoroughly tough though" and the TI-99 handled it perfectly 😁

[@timmooney7528]

Back in the 80's Texas Instruments had a device called a Speak 'n Spell. It would say a word, then you'd type it in. It also had a non-game function where you could type in words for it to say. I got the impression every kid who had one tried at least once to make it say swear words.

[@danerd8978]

It couldn't say the words though. It was pre programed EPROM and add on Modules. If you rewrite the EPROM now with an EPROM writter yes you could get it to say other words. Someone named Furtek was able to.

[@joshcarter-com]

Huge 80’s flashbacks! I had a TI-994/A but I didn’t have the speech box-but my best friend did. We met in junior high and, as the only two people in school with TI computers, we became best friends. Still are 35+ years later. It’s so cool seeing this era of tech again.

[@KeritechElectronics]

"Greeings, Professor Falken. A strange game... The only winning move is not to play."

[@Vassilika1]

I love it! I remember playing chess on the Amiga 2000, and the thing saying: "I am the chess master"! Very impressive!

[@Wenlocktvdx]

I used Speech Systems Super Voice and Tandy Speech and Sound pak on my Tandy Color Computer in the 80s. Speech and sound pak sounded robotic but Super Voice had pitch and vocal tract filter settings that allowed it to sound male or female and even sing. It came with a demo program that sang “The Star Spangled Banner”.

[@interghost]

I had that one on the Speccy and yes, we did used to just make it swear too! lol There were a couple of games for it, but we ever could afford them!

[@jean-michelgilbert8136]

I remember having one for the C64 that could say anything but that had a better voice than the second one. Didn't have it for long though. I was a kid at the time and my dad didn't always keep every gadget he bought.

[@rowlandspear4061]

Cool. I had/have a speech synthesizer for my TI, but wasn't aware they had them for the Commodore.

[@RyanMercer]

🤘🤘

[@mindyourown472]

I have a BBC Micro and bought a Cheetah speech synth, it plugs into a port, and you make up the speech by adding together sounds like ‘ch’ ‘ee’ ‘th’ etc. loved it

[@user82938]

I had the TI one as a child. I loved it.

[@phil2768]

The native speech on the Amiga 500 was very good

[@KurtPedersen-tg7jc]

Not really

[@robertwatsonbath]

I remember building a Maplin VIC-20 Talk-Back kit in the 1980s. Like several other allophone based ones it used the General Instruments SP0256-AL2 chip. I remember the first time I heard it say "Maplin Speech Synthesizer", I was totally blow away.

[@justinsheppherd1806]

This brings back so many memories of using the built-in voice synth in AmigaOS, way back in the 80's. And yes, I did use it to make my Amiga swear ;)

[@biscuitsmitten]

Wow, I remember trying to get my ZX Spectrum to sing using the Currah uSpeech, & I have such a clear memory of the voices from the D&D game on the Currah demo tape. Hearing the C64 one do the lines from Wargames here was a delight😊

[@larsmuldjord9907]

I like these little videos. Nothing fancy, just going over and demonstrating some cool old tech.

[@paulpkae]

Brilliant! I had a ZX81, a VIC20 and then a C64 when I was younger. I recall getting hold of some speech synth software for the C64 and thought it was so amazing and futuristic at the time. Nobody else had anything like it. Nowadays, computer simulated speech is so realistic and features everywhere.. Progress has unfortunately taken out all the fun of this sort of tech stuff.

[@TRONMAGNUM2099]

Great video. The TI was probably the one I was most familiar with. Yes, would love to see the other ones in the future. Your channel is going to blow up!

[@davexmit]

Text to speech synthesisers were possibly the most mind blowing tech I ever used as a kid, before 3D.

[@JCCyC]

The TRS-80 Color Computer had the Speech-Sound Pak which had the same functionality of the Currah, although I remember it sounded a bit more accurate. We had lots of fun trying to make it say Portuguese profanity.

[@CubeHsiao]

I am another one who join this channel. I am from Taiwan who is 46 now but still love to contact those info of computer whether new or vantage. Be like a child! Haha!

[@pltuck1]

OMG Gorf! This channel is an 80s kids nostalgia dream.

[@paulgillie5868]

Im really enjoying this channel. I only discovered it a few days ago. I look forward to more videos.

[@SirWolf404]

Thanks for a terrific video! :P That Magic voice in Gorf voice reminded me a lot of the Cylon centurion voice from the original Battlestar Galactica show!

[@TwoTubesADV]

I am so glad i was young teenager in the early 80s when the home computer era started. It kick started my whole career :)

[@DrMarkMadScientist]

I had the Magic Voice for the C64 when it was first released. I wrote a war game in BASIC that used it. I also had the Gorf and Wizard of Wor game cartridges that supported its voice functions.

[@ulysees321]

we need to see a workshop tour and your collection of old skool computers, also the 3d printing 🙂

[@JackieSmalls]

I imagine it’s a lot about nostalgia, but I still love the old Intellivision speech add on. It was super Lofi , but amazing back in the day. I feel like it may have used the same guts as Speak-n-Spell.

[@CountScarlioni]

Had an intelevision back in the 80s but only ever read about the intellivoice or hears others speak about it, like it was some sort of incredible mythical artefact! Even decades later the only one I've ever seen was behind a display case in a museum, although now there's KZbin so I can hear what it sounded like. The "B-17 Bomber" line has become rather infamous!

[@CountScarlioni]

One amusing use of speech synthesis for the C64 (I think it was Commodore SAM) that I've always remembered was on an old techno record, "Das Boot" by U 96. It was basically a dance remix of a movie theme with random phrases like "Attention water pumps!" plastered over it. Even in 1991 when that came out I think that synthesised speech would have already had a gritty retro charm to it. It was certainly markedly more primitive than the speech synthesis on my Amiga at the time.

[@TheREALJosephTurner]

I still have my Currah module from when I was a kid in the 80s. I don't know if they all do it, but with mine, when running the speech detect on the keyboard, the programmers forgot to put the R at the end when you push the "Function Four" key. it says "Function Fo." And yes- I caught your War Games movie reference there at the end!

[@deanallenjones]

We had a voice module for the Sharp Mz700 in the V early 80s. But the first time I heard speech in a game was on the BBC game "Citadel". No plug in hard wear needed. I did like how in War Games Mathew Brodick actually says that the machine isn't talking, it's just sounds that replicate speech. It's touches like that which made the movie feel more real to me . Awesome Video, V impressed with your research skills

[@jupreindeer]

Sound is very strange. After all, looking back at it with nostalgia, I am thinking about the ancient film projector and it's little section of two wavey dark zones that let light pass through it in various amounts. And, without a single chip, THAT produced all the sounds, speech, music and more in the movie. It doesn't even seem possible. And yet... it worked.

[@richardtwyning]

Please do the TI-99/4A. I got my speech synthesiser for it aged 12, before WarGames was released. If you get the Terminal Emulator 2 cartridge you'll get full Text To Speech from TI-BASIC and it was the best speech of any machine of the time

[@OriginalGrasshopper]

I had the speech synthesizer for my TI-99/4A in the early 80’s. And yep, I aways made it say swear words! 😁🤷‍♂️

[@Urko2005]

ahhhh the Currah , i owned one of those (for Spectrum), was groundbreaking speech in its day.

[@Sonicstillpoint83]

I had Apple II GS with speech software that would read everything in the system. Very cool memories. Only in recent years have I even been able to work out a quasi accessible terminal. The fact that the software synthesizers that were used in a windows environment, conflicted with so much school software is the reason I started tinkering with computers. School IT staff would just throw up their hands, give me the keys to the kingdom, and then tell me to figure it out. Crazy to think of the systems had an auto login user accounts back then.

[@elyuw]

Great vid, you packed a lot onto a little time. Would love to see the other speech synths tried out in a future video.

[@bazza5699]

hmm just typed out a comment and it was lost to infinity.. new subscriber, great video. brought back so many memories of having the currah speech on my speccy back in the 80's.. you're so right, me and my mates would spend hours getting it to say naughty words.. lol

[@marcosalves4890]

Heh the world is advocating for more and more women in tech, I'm advocating for more women in retro-tech! This channel is going places, not only because Kari is a woman, but for the simplicity and to-the-point videos. For me it's all of the above, but the british accent and the way the talks thru her hands makes it for me. Instant sub.

[@onlineamiga]

Would love to see the speech synthesizer on the ZX Spectrum. As a kid I had great fun with the built in "Say" program on the Amiga. And yes.. I of course was getting it to say rude words and it happily would :P

[@domramsey]

I *loved* speech synthesisers as a kid. It still amuses me that you can just open a terminal on any Mac and type the same "say the Apple computer is terrific!" and it works exactly the same.

[@garfythecat]

Love it! Like others here I didn't experience TTS until the Soundblaster days in the 90s but I swear it's taken until AI in recent years for it to finally sound like real human speech.

[@SRDhain]

I had access to the currah years ago and can remember laughing my head off at the rendered speech, which improves as you use phoentics. There was a game called Tales Of The Arabian nights on the 64 which had built in rendered speech using some currah like sonic qualities. The commodore module is pretty rare, and i can remember looking for one just so i could hear the speech in the game Wizard Of Wor.

[@alan_wood]

Many years ago, I built a speech synth for my Spectrum. I used an SPO256-AL2 chip and a big bit of Veroboard. I've still got it in a box somewhere, I must dig it out...

[@MSHarvey_Lyricsmith]

I had the Fuller Master Unit which contained the Orator chip on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. I used the same phonemes as the Currah Micro-speech but required the use of POKEs to play the individual phonemes. I preferred the software-based speech software which came with the Amiga Workbench on the Commodore Amiga. It used the narrator library.

[@deang5622]

Gorf originated as an arcade game in a full sided vertical arcade cabinet. It was pretty cool. I think it was the first ever video arcade game with speech.

[@riseofthethorax]

The commodore 64 Ghostbusters game said Ghostbusters when spacebar was hit. To make the C64 talk it only requires modulating the volume of the sid playback, cause sound is just compression and decompression of air..

[@Toylympics]

Yes please. Love to hear the others.

[@Dom_Mason]

Very cool. Had a C64 when I was a kid. It was my first computer. Was so cool to eventually get a 5 1/4 floppy drive for it and played some of my first games. Wasteland 1988. Sub'd and liked great video!

[@RobA500]

I had the Cheetah speech module for the Spectrum and also played around a lot with the say command on AmigaOS, that was a bit more configurable allowing the voice to be changed as well.

[@hydorah]

I'm supposed to be listening to computers talking but I'm finding it quite intriguing trying to place your accent. UK? Aussie? Southern East UK I guess. maybe Kent? but I heard bits and bobs from all over. Well done for collecting all these cool old gadgets and thanks for showing them off so skilfully

[@00Skyfox]

Best of luck with your new retro channel. Keep up the good work!

[@excitedpixelsmedia]

We had a cururah speech which was supposed to be supported more than it was. Loved them on the C64.

[@putonghua73]

First time I heard speech was Impossible Mission

[@johnh2602]

Came here to say the same thing! kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2LCl3etjZaJjLs

[@penguinpeko]

I remember that there was a software speech synth for ZX Spectrum. Had a lot of fun trying to make it pronounce Russian sentences, it sounded so broken. It came on a pirated cassette with lots of other software, fun times.

[@HalfmoonsPicks]

I remember "Say it Sam" that was a cool voice program for c64.

[@jasperdiscovers]

Yeah I like her and I like that a person like 20 years younger than I am, brings me back to a time when I first discovered computers.

[@andresmendez6870]

Your lab is so cool! I'm an electronics and programming newbie, I hope one day to have a place like yours, it would be a dream come true.

[@Bubblestheghost]

I love your channel so much, this is all so cool!

[@6581punk]

I remember having the Currah speech on the C64. We bought it after I'd been to the dentist and my mouth was numb, so I couldn't speak well. It came in handy for that day.

[@emp0rt]

i was about 5 years old when my parents bought a c64 for me and my brother. i didn't know it had a speech synthesizer accessory. great video. =)

[@kcreeves199]

I remember SAM (Software Automatic Mouth). It was always fun to type in gibberish and see what it said.

[@maggoty]

Thought you might have covered SAM. That’s what I had for my C64 back in the day. The great thing about that was it was completely software based. No hardware required.

[@peterpereira3653]

When i owned a Sinclair ZX Spectrum+, I bought a Currah MicroSpeech unit for it. Forgot the game that i used it for but at the time it seemed a good idea.

[@jamesinteractive]

The TI99/4A speech module is pretty cool, but youll need Terminal Emulator II to get any good use out of it.