Patch Mockingboard speech titles to use SAM software speech

[roughana]

Can we patch TR titles that have Mockingboard speech to use SAM software speech instead?
Memory may preclude this on standard system but perhaps it could be a IIgs only patch.

[peterferrie]

If you can provide a code-sample that does it, then we can consider it.

[tomcw]

Slightly off topic: I mentioned a similar idea on the Slack #totalreplay channel: Crime Wave (and Spy Strikes Back) both use the older Mockingboard w/Votrax SC-01 speech chip only.

You could patch the games to use the newer SSI263 speech chip instead. In fact this is how AppleWin supports this SC-01 speech chip (by just translating the SC-01 to SSI263 phonemes on the fly). You'd also need to patch the setup & IRQ support. So it's a fair amount of effort just for 2 games.

Taken further you could go the other way, and support older SC-01 based chips, by patching in the reverse direction! (Requires patching 3 games: Bejeweled, Berzap, Rescue Raiders). But does anyone even have one of these older Mockingboards?

...and then a step further would be to add speech support for games that never had it! IMO this goes beyond what TR is about, but for completeness I thought I'd mentioned it :-)

[roughana]

A port of SAM engine into C and some modern resources including a wiki for the phonemes: https://github.com/s-macke/SAM
Software only version of SAM:
https://archive.org/details/3d0g_373b_Sam_Talks
While this works, the 66 sector binary is full of junk and appears to be a pirate rip. Therefore not recommended as a starting point unless there is no other option. I remember having a disk which was more like an SDK. I'll keep looking.

[roughana]

Apple II disassembly of SAM and RECITER programs from the SAM hardware SDK.
https://github.com/robjustice/Apple3SAM/tree/master/A2SAMdisassembly

Discussion about the usage of the SAM software SDK
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/comp.sys.apple2/WpWA9qPUGpw/discussion

Documentation for SAM (Hat tip to Antoine Vignau)
http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/Apple%20II%20Documentation%20Project/Interface%20Cards/Speech/Don%27t%20Ask%20Software%20Automated%20Mouth/

[roughana]

In theory, if the games are using phonemes then only the SAM program would be necessary.
Some tweaking of the phonemes may be necessary to obtain similar output.
If the gameplay continues during Mockingboard speech then the SAM output would provide a different experience because the software output will require dedicated CPU while the output is happening.

[roughana]

Speech usage observed during a brief investigation using AppleWin:
Berzap uses speech during the gameplay (various). The end of life "Ha Ha Ha" and end of game sequence (??) would not interfere with gameplay.
Crimewave uses speech during the gameplay ("Danger"). The beginning and end of play sequences ("Crime wave 1", "Game Over", "Enter your initials") would not interfere with gameplay.
Bejeweled - The beginning and end of play sequences ("Ready", "Go", "Game Over") would not interfere with gameplay. There is speech during gameplay ("Good", "Excellent", "Incredible"), but it sounded broken up as the jewels moved. Perhaps a better experience to play the whole word before the screen redraws?
Rescue Raiders uses speech at the beginning of the game - would not interfere with gameplay.

[tomcw]

Bejeweled - crash to monitor in TR4a1 during load

Using AppleWin, I was able to reproduce this crash too (Enhanced //e) or hang with unenhanced //e.

Bug in TR4a1?
As the a2bejwld 2.6 release .dsk version works fine:
https://github.com/jeremysrand/a2bejwld/releases/tag/2.6

[roughana]

It is a bug in TR4a1 which has since been fixed.

…

On 18 Jul 2020, at 8:18 am, TomCh ***@***.***> wrote:  Bejeweled - crash to monitor in TR4a1 during load Using AppleWin, I was able to reproduce this crash too (Enhanced //e) or hang with unenhanced //e. Bug in TR4a1? As the a2bejwld 2.6 release .dsk version works fine: https://github.com/jeremysrand/a2bejwld/releases/tag/2.6 — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[roughana]

Potentially, just target the 64k games - in which case the speech code could be added to AUX memory and then the //e users could also benefit from this.

I have disassembled the SAM software engine enough to understand the differences from the hardware version. They are very similar. Potentially, the hardware version could be loaded for those who have the SAM hardware. I believe that the hardware audio output should be easier to understand than the software audio output, but I haven't tested this myself.

Going for lowest common denominator, loading the software version into AUX memory for //e and //gs users would give the most bang for the buck.

[roughana]

I need to understand each game's usage of the Mockingboard speech output to be able to patch in the SAM usage instead.

Bejewelled source code is available which makes this a great starting point.
https://github.com/jeremysrand/a2bejwld/blob/master/a2bejwld/sound.c

[roughana]

Using the games' own Mockingboard phonemes for SAM output is probably not possible - unless it turns out that they are related.
The SAM phonemes can be obtained by entering the text phrases from the games into the SAM reciter program and then looking at the phoneme buffer that the SAM program used to produce the output. Using phoneme's will make the SAM output stage quicker as it skips the reciter text -> phoneme interpretation steps.

[roughana]

Bejewelled's precondition for speech output relies on the presence of a Mockingboard which will have to be changed to be independent. gMockingBoardSpeechEnabled is used to configure the speaker settings for mockingboard sounds.
Lets assume that the patch needs to add speech where none was possible before.
We can reuse the global flag for speech, but any use of that flag by other code should be checked.
The MB speech output checks to ensure there is nothing in progress before starting to speak a new phrase. This is because there is an interrupt routine set to process the output of the phrase as the mainline code keeps going.
For the speaker output, the entire phrase will be output before the routine returns.

SAM Phonemes for Bejewelled:
READY: REHDIY
GO: GOW
GOOD: GUH5D
EXCELLENT: EHKSSEHLEHNT
INCREDIBLE: INKREHDIHBUL
LEVELCOMPLETE: LEHVEHL KAHMPLIY4T
NOMOREMOVES: NOW MAOR MUW4VZ

[roughana]

We need an assembled version of SAM software for AUX mem space with an aux -> main return routine.
SAM uses a lot of zero page space. If this can be used in AUX ZP instead of main ZP then the save and restore routines could be avoided which would speed up the output.
We need a method of calling the SAM code in AUX from main mem.
We need a method of putting the SAM phonemes for the phrase to be spoken into the AUX mem buffer from main mem.
We need to patch the Bejewelled speech output routines to move the phoneme into the buffer and call SAM.
We need a loader to retrieve all these pieces from disk and to place them in the correct location.

For investigation: ProRWTS, AUX memory soft switches and control passing from main->AUX and AUX->main.

[roughana]

Ciderpress was unable to add SAM to the Bejewelled disk image. I'm off on a tangent to provide a reproducible use case to Andy McFadden.
fadden/ciderpress#32
And bingo! a new release of Ciderpress 4.0.4 - Thanks Andy!

[roughana]

After the SAM software speech code is put into auxmem, the games that have Mockingboard speech need to be patched to use SAM instead.
TR Prelaunch can apply patches and ProRWTS can load SAM into auxmem - Refer to Berzap prelaunch (thanks Qkumba).
I don’t think I can expect code loaded into auxmem during Init will still be there after any 128k game is run. Do we always reboot after 128k games?