SprachBox is the German translated version of Voice Box II by the AlienGroup, a programmable speech synthesizer for Atari 400/ 800 computers.
The voicebox is the same as in the US but without the game / demo floppy.
Inside it uses a SC-01-A speech synthesizer chip (see picture) to speak and sing.
On a 800XL, it needs an external +9V – 100mA (at least) power adapter (ie works with any 2600 power adapter).
Developer : Uncredited on the German release. Jerry White for the tools disk (Basic programms and graphics) and “Stud Poker”, John G.Wilson for “Concentration/Green Goblins/Acey Deucey”, Ron Kramer for “Spelling”. Date : 1983 according to booklet. Distributed by : ATARI Elektronik Vertriebs GmbH – Bebelallee 10 – 2000 Hamburg 60 Dump: Download – Source : Atarinside for the .Pro format – Boot without « Option » key. (Includes the US version of the tool disk and the game disk (thanks to Nir Dary)). Notes:
SPK.BAS, VBSING.BAS contains : “1 REM 5/83 G-VERSION 1.1 BY J.S.”
The German version has one more file “TOBIAS.DIC”.
On the German version the “*.BLS” files were renamed as “*.LST”.
English manual : https://archive.org/details/AlienGroupVoiceBoxIIManual
30/03/2020 : John Wilson about Green Goblins/Acey Deucey/Concentration :
When the VoiceBox II came out they had put out a request for people to submit games that used it. I took one of my games I had been developing and added the voice lines and changed a few other things. I also took a couple other games I had in my library and did the same. I was lucky that they accepted my work for inclusion with their demo disk. A friend and I also started a small software house called Unicorn Software (back then that is how a lot of software was published) and Green Goblins was one of the pieces that we put out. Most of the other games was published by Pretelland Software. We also started a disc based magazine called Prism but unfortunately it was at the end of the Atari 8 bit computers life as the Amiga and Atari ST were introduced. I went with the Amiga (which actually was Atari 800’s big brother developed by the same team and had similar architecture. I did all this as a hobby and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately Prism is lost.
Now let’s see what it can do : When you think about voice synthesizer, you obviously think to “Joshua” in Wargames (1983). According to Imsai.net the voice in the movie was the voice of John Wood (Falken). Just for fun, I wanted to see if the VoiceBox was able to talk almost the same way and…well, it’s not perfect but rather interesting 🙂
Any volunteer to do the same with Knight Rider ? 😀
