Software Automatic Mouth

Software Automatic Mouth

Software Automatic Mouth, or SAM, was a speech synthesis program for the early personal computers; developed and sold by Don’t Ask Software and a distant ancestor of PlainTalk found in Mac OS 9. The program was available for Apple computers (including the Apple II, and the Lisa), various Atari models and the Commodore 64. Prices ranged from about USD$50 to $200. The Apple version required additional hardware that contained DACs, although the Apple version could also use the computer's one-bit audio output (with the addition of much distortion) if the card was not present. The Atari made use of the embedded POKEY audio chip. Speech playback on the Atari normally disabled interrupt requests and shut down the ANTIC chip during vocal output. The audible output is extremely distorted speech when the screen is on. The Commodore 64 made use of the 64's embedded SID audio chip.

SAM, released in 1982, was the first commercial all software voice synthesis program.

SAM was featured in the recent online game Peasant's Quest, a parody of 1980s adventure games, where it was used to produce the speech of the ending boss Trogdor.

External links

* [http://www.text2speech.com/welcome.html SoftVoice, Inc.] — corporate web site.
* [http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/davies/mvatappl.html Speech Synthesizers for Atari and Apple] — magazine review.
* [http://www.cyberroach.com/analog/an22/spelling_sam.htm Spelling.SAM] — A BASIC spelling program for Atari.
* [http://www.retrobits.net/atari/sam.shtml SAM manual] — reproduction of the manual for the Atari version.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • PlainTalk — is the collective name for several speech synthesis (MacInTalk) and speech recognition technologies developed by Apple, Inc.In 1990, Apple invested a lot of work and money into speech recognition technology, hiring many respected researchers in… …   Wikipedia

  • Sam — may be:;Used as a name: * Male given names (U.S. Census Bureau statistics 1990): [U.S. Census Bureau [http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.male.first U.S. List of male names] , 1990] **Samuel (0.306%) **Sam (0.092%) **Sammy (0.025%)… …   Wikipedia

  • John Fekner — Infobox Artist name = John Fekner imagesize = |thumb|240px birthname = John Anthony Fekner birthdate = October 6 1950 location = New York City, NY, US field = Street Art, Poetry, Music, Video training = New York Institute of Technology Lehman… …   Wikipedia

  • Economic Affairs — ▪ 2006 Introduction In 2005 rising U.S. deficits, tight monetary policies, and higher oil prices triggered by hurricane damage in the Gulf of Mexico were moderating influences on the world economy and on U.S. stock markets, but some other… …   Universalium

  • India — /in dee euh/, n. 1. Hindi, Bharat. a republic in S Asia: a union comprising 25 states and 7 union territories; formerly a British colony; gained independence Aug. 15, 1947; became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations Jan. 26, 1950.… …   Universalium

  • Paintball marker — A paintball marker, also known as a paintball gun, is the central or main piece of equipment in the sport of paintball. Markers make use of an expanding gas such as carbon dioxide, compressed air or nitrogen dioxide to propel paintballs through… …   Wikipedia

  • marketing — /mahr ki ting/, n. 1. the act of buying or selling in a market. 2. the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling. [1555 65;… …   Universalium

  • Copy protection — Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy obstruction, copy prevention and copy restriction, refer to techniques used for preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyright reasons.[1]… …   Wikipedia

  • List of Chinese inventions — A bronze Chinese crossbow mechanism with a buttplate (the wooden components have …   Wikipedia

  • Winston Smith Project — (in Italian Progetto Winston Smith , or PWS) is the name of an informational and operational project for the defence of human rights on the internet and in the digital era. It was started in 1999 as an anonymous association and it is… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”