Back-Talk V1.0 © 1994 Almo Enterprises This is my first Shareware ever published. It is freely distribultable, as long as all files remain intact. The run-time stuff in the l directory is © Absoft. If you like it, or have comments, send e-mail to almo@plains.uwyo.edu or Snail Mail to Ethan Larson 2143 Garfield #7 Laramie, WY 82070 Ethan Larson 1506 Phillips Brownwood, TX 76801 (if later than June 1995) **Blurb from the author** If you would like to support future developments, or see additions to this program, please send $5(US) to the above address. This fee is mainly an encouragement factor for me to continue working through the Shareware concept. However, there may be no interest in THIS program. I have converted my old C64 chess-style game to the Amiga. It is like chess in that you take turns moving, and pieces capture simply by landing in the same square as another piece. However, the pieces are different in their movement capabilities, and you can collect chips to buy more pieces. You will be able to find this game under game/2play on Aminet. Please download this and let me know what you think. The name of the game is "Tactrix!" **End of blurb from the author** What Is Back-Talk? BackTalk is a compiled AmigaBASIC program that runs in the background. It has low processor overhead, unless it is actually in the process of saying something. You can create your own Talk files using Creator, a menu driven file maker. Every few seconds, Back-Talk speaks, and says something chosen randomly from the current Talk file. How do I use Back-Talk? Double click the Back-Talk icon, and you will be prompted for the name of the Talk file to be used. Enter it, including df0: or ram: or whatever device it is in. It will then ask for workbench, or wherever your libs: and devs: directories are. Then it runs in the background, saying things every so often. The "l" directory contains the Absoft AC/BASIC Compiler Run-Time libraries. It should be kept in the directory where the Back-Talk and Creator icons are, if running from floppy. For hard drive use, drop all the files into a directory. Then copy the stuff in the l directory to l: Make sure you still have translator.library in libs: and narrator.device in devs: How do I use Creator? Double click the Creator icon, and it will ask for the disk containing libs: and devs: Then select new, edit or quit from the project menu. New is for new files, edit is for previously existing files. If you select edit, the edit menu becomes active. Select add, change or delete from the edit menu depending on what you want to do. With delete or change, it displays a list of the sayings in the file. Only 9 fit on the screen at once, so cursor up and down pages through them. push the number of the one you want to change or delete, or 0 to exit change or delete mode. When entering sayings, it will say what you typed, the ask, "is this okay? (y/n/r) y = yes, n = no, r = repeat. Push r, and the computer will repeat the saying. Don't use commas in a saying, as the BASIC INPUT statement uses commas to split up different strings of input. For the same inflection a comma would give, a period usually works. One problem with this program is that is uses the translate.library to translate your sayings into phonemes that the say statement understands. It does a pretty good job, but some words don't come out right unless spelled wrong. Like "Weirdos" needs to be spelled "weerdoes". With the "n" and "r" options in the saying entering routine, you can experiment. A future version would have a "just experiment" option. The program is fairly self explanitory, the above instructions cover only what I deemed to possibly need explanation. If you have trouble with the program, feel free to email me. Almo!