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Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 9:05 pm
by PROSM
I've been wanting to do some messing around with the Currah µSpeech unit for some time. I have a real unit for testing, but obviously there's not much point writing software for it if there are no emulators that actually support it.

All I've been able to find so far are:
  • ZX Spin (quite old and has glitchy audio output on my PC)
  • Spectaculator (I'm too much of a tightwad to pay for it :mrgreen:)
  • WinZ80 (requires Windows 3.1, so it won't run on 64-bit operating systems)
There seemed to be an effort to add µSpeech emulation to Fuse a few years ago, but nothing has been done with it since, as far as I am aware.
Does anyone know of any more emulators with support for the µSpeech? If I can't find any good ones, I might just have to leave this on the back-burner (or I might think about diving into the code of that years-old patch for Fuse :D).

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 9:56 pm
by djnzx48
InkSpector 2 supports the µSpeech. It also has support for a similar device, the Fuller Orator, which is apparently more convenient to use in software (it doesn't seem to require a buffer).

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 10:04 pm
by djnzx48
By the way, you can still run Windows 3.1 programs in 64-bit Windows. See here: https://github.com/otya128/winevdm

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2019 10:14 pm
by PROSM
djnzx48 wrote: Mon Dec 02, 2019 9:56 pm InkSpector 2 supports the µSpeech. It also has support for a similar device, the Fuller Orator, which is apparently more convenient to use in software (it doesn't seem to require a buffer).
That's a great find, thanks!
djnzx48 wrote: Mon Dec 02, 2019 10:04 pm By the way, you can still run Windows 3.1 programs in 64-bit Windows. See here: https://github.com/otya128/winevdm
I've already got that installed; it's a pretty handy program! Sadly though, the frame rate with WinZ80 is pretty variable on my system, which probably has to do with it emulating a 386, which in turn is emulating a Z80.

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:57 pm
by WhatHoSnorkers
Spectaculator apparently does, but I can't get it to do anything. I ticked the button and everything and was trying out the Currah program and it said nothing. You can try it free for 30 days as well, I think.

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 8:15 pm
by Ast A. Moore
Though not particularly popular, zxsp supports it, too.

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 10:34 pm
by djnzx48
WhatHoSnorkers wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:57 pm Spectaculator apparently does, but I can't get it to do anything. I ticked the button and everything and was trying out the Currah program and it said nothing. You can try it free for 30 days as well, I think.
Which Spectrum model did you have activated? The µSpeech doesn't work with 128K Spectrums, only 16K/48K.

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 11:03 pm
by ZXDunny
SpecEMU emulates the uSpeech too.

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 6:32 am
by WhatHoSnorkers
djnzx48 wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2019 10:34 pm
WhatHoSnorkers wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:57 pm Spectaculator apparently does, but I can't get it to do anything. I ticked the button and everything and was trying out the Currah program and it said nothing. You can try it free for 30 days as well, I think.
Which Spectrum model did you have activated? The µSpeech doesn't work with 128K Spectrums, only 16K/48K.
Oooh! I had the 128K I think. I'll try it with the other versions!

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 7:15 pm
by PROSM
Thanks for all the suggestions, I'm going to try downloading them all tonight and fiddling with them. zxsp looks especially interesting with its memory watch feature, but unfortunately it is Mac only.

Also, I downloaded a free trial of Spectaculator yesterday. I was so impressed with the features (and the accurate Currah emulation) that I registered it after just a half-hour of playing with it. It's a great piece of software; I wish I'd bought it earlier! :D

Re: Currah µSpeech support in emulators?

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 9:37 pm
by Ast A. Moore
PROSM wrote: Wed Dec 11, 2019 7:15 pm zxsp looks especially interesting with its memory watch feature
Oh, yeah. It’s pretty neat. You should see the havoc some commercial tape loaders wreak in memory. The show is quite spectacular. :D