"Talking" IF
Edan Harel
Hmm... I've just looked through a copy of an Amiga package of The Pawn
which I recieved (anyone have a PC version they could copy for me so
I could play it on my computer?) And it states that the game had a speech
mode so that you could hear the text.
Twilight's Ransom (for the PC) also mentions something about
speech, but it requires some sort of sound card from the parent company.
Seems surprising to me that later text games dont have voice.
Anyone know why? (Was the sound quality really bad, perhaps?)
--
*********Edan Harel******edh...@remus.rutgers.edu*****AKA Bozzie************
Math & CS Major * http://remus.rutgers.edu/~edharel * Computer Consultant
"Structure is the essence of matter, and the essence of structure
is mathematics." - The Monitor [_Doctor Who: Logopolis_]
Paul David Doherty
In article <5ddj2p$h...@romulus.rutgers.edu>,
Edan Harel <edh...@romulus.rutgers.edu> wrote:
>Hmm... I've just looked through a copy of an Amiga package of The Pawn
>which I recieved (anyone have a PC version they could copy for me so
>I could play it on my computer?) And it states that the game had a speech
>mode so that you could hear the text.
> Twilight's Ransom (for the PC) also mentions something about
>speech, but it requires some sort of sound card from the parent company.
> Seems surprising to me that later text games dont have voice.
>Anyone know why? (Was the sound quality really bad, perhaps?)
The Amiga OS had built-in speech support -- sending text to the
speech port was as easy as sending text to the printer. Supporting
this Amiga feature was a piece of cake, and that's why many
adventure games did it (not because the games required it).
-- Dave
Daryl McCullough
Actually, I wonder whether there is any demand for interactive
fiction for the blind? And how difficult would it be to convert
an existing game so that the output was spoken? Hmm.
Daryl McCullough
CoGenTex, Inc.
Ithaca, NY
Carl Muckenhoupt
Daryl McCullough <da...@cogentex.com> writes:
>Actually, I wonder whether there is any demand for interactive
>fiction for the blind? And how difficult would it be to convert
>an existing game so that the output was spoken? Hmm.
For the most part, there's no need to convert anything. There
are already programs that will pronounce the textual output
from other programs. There are only a few cases where this won't
work: games that actually draw their own text using graphics (such
as the graphical text adventures from Legend Entertainment), and
games that use text characters for purposes other than words (such
as Jigsaw).
--
Carl Muckenhoupt | Text Adventures are not dead!
b...@tiac.net | Read rec.[arts|games].int-fiction to see
http://www.tiac.net/users/baf | what you're missing!
Eli the Bearded
Carl Muckenhoupt <b...@max.tiac.net> wrote:
>Daryl McCullough <da...@cogentex.com> writes:
>>Actually, I wonder whether there is any demand for interactive
>>fiction for the blind? And how difficult would it be to convert
>>an existing game so that the output was spoken? Hmm.
>For the most part, there's no need to convert anything. There
>are already programs that will pronounce the textual output
>from other programs. There are only a few cases where this won't
>work: games that actually draw their own text using graphics (such
To judge from the blind users participating in the Lynx developer's
list, there are a couple of other things which will work poorly
with reader software. Nasty forms like Beuacracy has will be
nightmarish (this actually might be a plus for that game :^).
Robots and freefal are right out, of course. In general any timed
input games could cause real problems. Status line based feed
back on game progress could be annoying too. The "Your score has
gone up" type response might be less intrusive for this case.
I am not blind and I have not tried the software, but this case
does get reasonably heavy consideration by Lynx developers.
Elijah
------
lynx hacker
Edan Harel
h014...@joker.rz.hu-berlin.de (Paul David Doherty) writes:
>The Amiga OS had built-in speech support -- sending text to the
>speech port was as easy as sending text to the printer. Supporting
>this Amiga feature was a piece of cake, and that's why many
>adventure games did it (not because the games required it).
Ahh, ok. Hmm. Since I know I've seen speech support for the mac, is it
possible to make text adventure's for the mac that use this feature? (I'm
just curious. Not planning on actually doing it. I just think it would be
kinda neat to play a text adventure via talking, as apposed to typing/watching
the monitor. Oh wait. That's role playing, isn't it? ;-)
Bill Hoggett
On 07-Feb-97 Edan Harel wrote:
>Hmm... I've just looked through a copy of an Amiga package of The Pawn
>which I recieved (anyone have a PC version they could copy for me so
>I could play it on my computer?) And it states that the game had a speech
>mode so that you could hear the text.
> Twilight's Ransom (for the PC) also mentions something about
>speech, but it requires some sort of sound card from the parent company.
> Seems surprising to me that later text games dont have voice.
>Anyone know why? (Was the sound quality really bad, perhaps?)
Dunno about the PC game, but the Amiga version of The Pawn only supported
speech through the in-built "say" coomand which was part of early Amiga
OS'. It was later excluded because it was horribly crude and inevitably
sounded like a dalek, even when it didn't say "exterminate"!
There were probably two main reasons why real narration was not
incorporated. The first is space - full sampled sound would occupy
a lot of it and it would have meant distributing loads of floppies,
which would have added to the second reason, cost. Hiring actors to
record the soundtrack would have added significantly to the cost in
those days and not hiring actors to do it would have just resulted
in a nasty mess! Nowadays, of course, you not only get a soundtrack
but lovely graphics too. You never know, they might add gameplay
next!!!
---
Bill Hoggett (aka BeeJay) <mas.su...@easynet.co.uk>
IF GOD IS LIFE'S SERVICE PROVIDER WHY HAVEN'T I GOT HIS I.P. NUMBER ?
-
Daryl McCullough wrote:
>
> Actually, I wonder whether there is any demand for interactive
> fiction for the blind? And how difficult would it be to convert
> an existing game so that the output was spoken? Hmm.
>
> CoGenTex, Inc.
> Ithaca, NY
the function being built into the programs (eg Creative Lab's 'Text
Assist' has a gizmo for speaking the text in any window, though Windows
obviously isn't ideal for the blind). (Or I guess they'd have a braille
terminal). In fact I _think_ quite a few blind people do play IF,
because games like Doom or Myst are obviously out of the question :).
--
Nicholas Daley
<mailto:dal...@ihug.co.nz>
Everyone agreed it was a splendid funeral, but no one enjoyed it more
than the deceased himself.
--Pt1 C11 Red Dwarf Grant Naylor
Branko Collin
- (dal...@ihug.co.nz) wrote:
: Daryl McCullough wrote:
: >
: > Actually, I wonder whether there is any demand for interactive
: > fiction for the blind? And how difficult would it be to convert
: > an existing game so that the output was spoken? Hmm.
: I think most blind people's computers would be set up to speak without
: the function being built into the programs (eg Creative Lab's 'Text
: Assist' has a gizmo for speaking the text in any window, though Windows
: obviously isn't ideal for the blind). (Or I guess they'd have a braille
: terminal). In fact I _think_ quite a few blind people do play IF,
: because games like Doom or Myst are obviously out of the question :).
Well, one could always make a game with 3D sound, I guess that such a Doom
might even be more exciting than the graphical variant.
-----
Branko Collin http://www.xs4all.nl/~collin
col...@xs4all.nl http://www.kun.nl/undans/members/branko.htm
"Erm... Erm... should I say something interesting now?"
- Branko Collin -