I'm on a miserable dialup, so's I can't watch your YouTube video. But, I've had quite a few copies of the good Doctor packaged with several of my older CLI sound cards. IIRC they were all the same.

Heh, I used to get a "PARITY ERROR!!!" all the time 😉 🤣!

(edit) A side note: The "Sound and Graphics Upgrade" for Flight Simulator v4.0b used a modified version of the SBTalker "BLASTER.DRV" (that's what Dr. Sbaitso uses for the speech synth) that allowed for spoken speech-synthesized air traffic control communications within the sim. One problem is that it really made FS4's framerate quite choppy and to stutter.

Decades ago, I found that it was a simple matter of a hex-edit to the "BLASTER.DRV" file to force the driver to not utilize expanded memory... that solved the framerate and stuttering problems 😀

The engine is from Firstbyte, there's a slightly improved version of it in Kid Works 2 for Windows, but the mac 68k version of that is just a straight port of the same Dr. Sbaitso voice.

Early 90's text to speech systems intrigue me. Willowpond's is always a favorite for many, being the AYBABTU one and all, and with 'singing'. Later versions had 'spanish mode' too. The willowpond system was used in SB16 windows bundle stuff that was 'talking'.

leileilol wrote:

but the mac 68k version of that is just a straight port of the same Dr. Sbaitso voice.

I've recently been playing around with the Basilisk II Mac emulator (setup as a Mac Quadra 650, with OS 7), and I thought those voices sounded familiar! One thing though, I don't remember the DOS SBTALKER engine being able to "sing" as nice as what I've been hearing in Basilisk II (e.g. the "Pipe Organ" and "Cello" voices, etc...).

leileilol wrote:

The willowpond system was used in SB16 windows bundle stuff that was 'talking'.

Ahhh... I didn't know the name of that speech-synth engine. That would be the "Text to Speech" apps that shipped with the SB16 Windows software and drivers? That one I _do_ remember "singing" fairly nicely 😀

rfnagel wrote:

I don't remember the DOS SBTALKER engine being able to "sing" as nice as what I've been hearing in Basilisk II (e.g. the "Pipe Organ" and "Cello" voices, etc...).

Apple's voice isn't Firstbyte's. I was referring to the Mac port of Kid Works 2 (why didn't they use apple's voice engine instead anyway? 🤣 )

rfnagel wrote:

leileilol wrote:

The willowpond system was used in SB16 windows bundle stuff that was 'talking'.

Ahhh... I didn't know the name of that speech-synth engine. That would be the "Text to Speech" apps that shipped with the SB16 Windows software and drivers? That one I _do_ remember "singing" fairly nicely 😀

Yep though they're not called Willowpond anymore, but SoftVoice. The page has never been updated 😀

I have 2.1 from sound blaster 2.0 disks and I found sound blaster 1.0 disks images here.

thanks for the post