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TRS-80 VoxBox

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wheagy

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2010
Messages
101
Does anyone know where I could get a copy of the Voxbox software for the TRS-80? Specifically, I'm looking for the SP16 and demo programs on cassette. I have a complete Voxbox, still in the box, but I am unable to load the cassette software to try it. I don't have a floppy for my TRS-80 model 1. If you have a working copy that you would be willing to copy, I'll pay all expenses.

Thanks,

Win
 
wheagy said:
Does anyone know where I could get a copy of the Voxbox software for the TRS-80? Specifically, I'm looking for the SP16 and demo programs on cassette. I have a complete Voxbox, still in the box, but I am unable to load the cassette software to try it. I don't have a floppy for my TRS-80 model 1. If you have a working copy that you would be willing to copy, I'll pay all expenses.

Thanks,

Win
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Try this one: http://oldcomputers.net/trs80i.html
 
Must be an intrest in that little gadget; somebody scooped that little baby up from eBay very shortly after I posted that last comment I left. I always wondered why Tandy did not continue making that thing for the other models. I believe it ONLY works on a Model 1 though I may be wrong;I have never had a Model 1; I was living on a submarine when that model came on the market and didn't have much room for xtra toys like that in my bunk pan.
 
Knuckledragger said:
Must be an intrest in that little gadget; somebody scooped that little baby up from eBay very shortly after I posted that last comment I left. I always wondered why Tandy did not continue making that thing for the other models. I believe it ONLY works on a Model 1 though I may be wrong;I have never had a Model 1; I was living on a submarine when that model came on the market and didn't have much room for xtra toys like that in my bunk pan.
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Yeah, I noticed that. The description was all wrong though. He gave the description of the TRS-80 Voice Synthesizer.
 
I am curios and would like to learn precisely what does the Voxbox allow one to do? I realize it is a voice explicator of sorts so what I suppose I actually mean is; does it sort of do something like Mathew Broderick was doing in WarGames back in the day when he was talking to the WOPR via his IMSAI 8080 and acoustic coupler. Of course I have enough common sense to realize that its nothing to that degree; you are probably still talking high-end software and equipment even today. But that brings up another question I would love to know the answer to; what was Mathew supposedly using to talk to the WOPR via his IMSAI 8080 and acoustic coupler? From what I saw of that Tandy wooden synthesizer box it does not have the vocabulary to output a full blown conversation. From the photos I have seen I know the Voxbox has a microphone that connects to it so I was wondering if it takes what you speak into the mic and posts it on screen or can you add that into a program you could write in BASIC? I found a Youtube video of a guy using that wooden synthesizer box that retailed for $399 and I was not impressed at all. If the Voxbox does not do any more than what it did in the film clip I do not see what the point is but I guess it could be a cute little toy for a while; however, it would probably get boring real quick due to the fact that from what I could ascertain from the Youtube clip the synthesizer only had a few responses it would put out regardless of what you type into it. In any event I still think it is a cool device; especially for it's day. Anybody like to enlighten an old man on this thing? As I said, I would LOVE to know the straight dope on it; I have googled until I am blue and mostly I just pull up old ads for the thing and excerpts from Tandy attempting to sell it. Geez, that one box at $399 was a weeks paycheck for a majority of the working stiffs in the good ole USA back then and probably a months pay for more than a few; the minimum wage back in 79' when I was still in the navy was a little less than $3 per hour if my memory serves me correctly; and then you had sales tax; of course they were not 9 and 10 percent like they are most places nowadays.
Cheers & Thanks to All. Gordon
 
Was it my video you were watching? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RJQrJGivlw

I suppose I should point out that the Voice Synth came with no software per se, just information on how to program the phenomes (sp?) to incorporate the device into your own programs....

The program I was running is called "Eliza", its a talking version of the early Eliza conversant/response AI concept, but uses the Voice Synth. Most people who bought the Eliza tape didn't know they had the talking versaion on the other side. Yes you are right there is a very limited response set from Eliza, but its not digitally stored sound grabs, the speech is produced using the phenomes stored in the Votrax chip.

As to why Tandy made a voice synth and voice recognition device for the m1 but not subsequent TRS-80s, I can only imagine that they weren't big sellers and had very limited application, esp. among those who just want to buy a device+software, plug it in and go.

Hope this helps.

Ian.
 
Was it my video you were watching?
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In fact it was; I came back to read this and there you are asking me about the video; I actually went back and watched it again. BTW-thanks for the advice on the Model 4,my old rear-end is going to need all of the help I can get on this one. Anyway, yea I thought that voice box was cool but it would be out of my league to try and program stuff for it. In fact that is what got me into this TRS-80 fetish I am in. I had always wanted to learn to program so I decided that at my age I don't have a whole lot of time to waste. I have always been a Radio Shack fan and Fort Worth is about 60 miles from where I lived growing up. I had this HUGE red 8 Track AM-FM box I toted all over the place with me while in the navy going over seas to places. I wanted to get one of the Model 1 systems when they came out; my chief on the boat I was on said "are you out of your freakin mind we ain't got no room for crap like that onboard here boy!" Then when I got out, got married, had kids and all of that there was just no time. It just got put off 30 years I suppose butI'm learning and HAVIN A GOOD TIME!!
Anyway, thanks for the VID & the info on it. I did enjoy it.
Gordon
 
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Knuckledragger said:
I am curios and would like to learn precisely what does the Voxbox allow one to do?, From the photos I have seen I know the Voxbox has a microphone that connects to it so I was wondering if it takes what you speak into the mic and posts it on screen or can you add that into a program you could write in BASIC?, If the Voxbox does not do any more than what it did in the film clip I do not see what the point is but I guess it could be a cute little toy for a while;
Cheers & Thanks to All. Gordon
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You have guessed correctly, the VOXBOX was for voice recognition, I never owned one but I imagine it was a primitive device, with a limited number of words and poor accuracy, like all such devices.
 
That's pretty much it. I have still got mine and it does pretty much what you say. However if you speak clearly and pronounce words well it does in fact work with reasonable accuracy. It was limited by the 48K memory of the Model 1 so it couldn't store very many digitized voice samples.

If you want to "hear" what the model 1 hears, find one of those old Big5 arcade games which has the voice recordings in it to enhance game play, saying things like "Player 1" and "Game Over". Those were recorded by the Big5 programmers using a Voxbox.

To my minds one of the biggest drawbacks of the Voice Synth/Voxbox combo was they both used the same port, so setting up a proper interactive spoken word/spoken response environment was not possible.

Ian.
 
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