Speech Plug-In (V1.5) In Development

[loadman]

[EDIT] This Plug-in is now being updated. See this post (and Beyond)http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=59589.msg664148#msg664148


Here is a plug-in I quickly made just for fun.   

MaLa Speech Plug-In

It reminds me of the Voice on the game 'BEZERK'

My windows XP has the speech feature installed by default.

 If your windows has not maybe you could download the package from the folowing link:
http://www.microsoft.com/reader/developers/downloads/tts.asp

[youki]

 

Really good idea that things.  Should be funny. 

 

[loadman]

Really good idea that things.  Should be funny. 

 

You could try it with Atomic if you want...  Very Easy 

uses
  SysUtils,
  Classes,
  Comobj;

var
  voice: OLEVariant;
begin
  voice := CreateOLEObject('SAPI.SpVoice');
  voice.Speak('Maa. Laa', 0);

[youki]

You could try it with Atomic if you want...  Very Easy 

uses
  SysUtils,
  Classes,
  Comobj;

var
  voice: OLEVariant;
begin
  voice := CreateOLEObject('SAPI.SpVoice');
  voice.Speak('Maa. Laa', 0);

There is a big bug in your program...  on the last row...   

[headkaze]

Great idea loadman! I like cool things like this

How does it work exactly? Does it say the name of the game when you run it? Can you configure different voices?

[loadman]

Great idea loadman! I like cool things like this

How does it work exactly? Does it say the name of the game when you run it? Can you configure different voices?

It uses 'text to speech' built in XP (not sure about 2000) either way it looks like you can download it from MS for other versions. And yes you can change voices languages via windows control panel it seems.

At the moment it is very simple
* It says MaLa on start
* It says the game name on launch
* It says (NOT TELLING) On MaLa quit/shutdown. You will have to try it

:-)

[headkaze]

* It says (NOT TELLING) On MaLa quit/shutdown. You will have to try it

Can I take a guess? "All your base are belong to us"?

[loadman]

* It says (NOT TELLING) On MaLa quit/shutdown. You will have to try it

Can I take a guess? "All your base are belong to us"?

   I'm not that creative. (good idea though..Attitude)
  Think American

[headkaze]

Okay I cheated and had a look in a hex editor 

[loadman]

Okay I cheated and had a look in a hex editor 

You are just scared you will like MaLa  (Joke) 

[diverdown]

Will add it tonight



And the cabs still going great guns thanks 

[loadman]

Will add it tonight



And the cabs still going great guns thanks 

cool... and as i said  I am open to any fun ideas for the final version, but my opinion is 'less is more'   

[headkaze]

You can download more Text-to-Speech Engines for SAPI5.Microsoft Mary, Mike and Sam 5.0 (68MB). I'm pretty sure they should work with this plugin.

One thing I would add to your plugin would be a button to open the Speech Properties window from Control Panel. The command line to launch it is:

Code: [Select]

rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Speech\sapi.cpl",Speech

[loadman]

You can download more Text-to-Speech Engines for SAPI5.Microsoft Mary, Mike and Sam 5.0 (68MB). I'm pretty sure they should work with this plugin.

Thanks.. I will try those

One thing I would add to your plugin would be a button to open the Speech Properties window from Control Panel. The command line to launch it is:

Good Idea,   The Plug-in only gets triggered when appropriate on certain evens so I doubt I would add that to it when MaLa can do it anyway...EG
You can launch things from MaLa with a user set-key. I have mine to bring up control panel if I hit the letter 'P'.   

[loadman]

The MaLa Speech Plugin is finished

I sent it to Swindus so it should be available for download from the MaLa Website ...soonish.

Speech activated on:
MaLa Start (Custom)
Game Start (Will say launched game name)
MaLa Quit (Custom)

It has a separate ini file that you can edit to customise it for your cab for MaLa Start and MaLa Quit. This file needs to be in the plugin directory. Just edit it with notepad.

eg
[Settings]
MaLa_Start=THE MAME TABLE IS ALIVE
MaLa_Quit=PUT YOUR EMPTY BEER BOTTLE IN THE TRASH

[swindus]

Can be downloaded from the plugin page:
http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/plugins.html#Speech

[edge]

Nice job, loadman.  You are a plugin-in machine now. 

I can't wait to get back home to try out all this new stuff.  (I am still away for training.  )

[loadman]

Nice job, loadman.  You are a plugin-in machine now. 

I can't wait to get back home to try out all this new stuff.  (I am still away for training.  )

ta , That one was very easy

But hurry up and be trained already, I need your help, although it is forcing me to learn more Delphi

[BULL]

It tells me that speech.ini file not found, it reads the games allright but startup and quit doesn´t work.

any ideas?

[loadman]

It tells me that speech.ini file not found, it reads the games allright but startup and quit doesn´t work.

any ideas?

That was a 'cute' idea of mine for it to 'say' the error rather than a pop-up window.

It will do that if the ini file is not in the mala 'plug-in' directory with the speech plug-in. A base ini file is provided with the plug-in. The plug-in does not create it

Let me know if that does not fix it

[BULL]

it is a "cute" idea 

the ini is in the plugin dir.

 

[loadman]

it is a "cute" idea 

the ini is in the plugin dir.

 

OK.. If you have changed the ini file can you post the text here?
Also What OS are you using etc

I want to try and re-create the problem

[BULL]

Solved, I was starting MaLa from a shortcut and thats why it didn´t work.
It works perfectly when I start direcly from the exe file.

thanks

BULL

[loadman]

Solved, I was starting MaLa from a shortcut and thats why it didn´t work.
It works perfectly when I start direcly from the exe file.

thanks

BULL

Thanks for letting me know.

Try putting the path to mala in the 'start in' section of your short-cut properties (the same as in target bit but without '\mala.exe' at the end

[BULL]

yep, that fixed it


thanks

BULL

[loadman]

yep, that fixed it


thanks

BULL

[CM]

haha fun little plugin.     Dr. Sbaitso meets really difficult to pronounce ROM titles 

[loadman]

Try putting the path to mala in the 'start in' section of your short-cut properties (the same as in target bit but without '\mala.exe' at the end

yep, that fixed it
thanks
BULL

Bull,
Would you mind trying the following version 'without' having anything in the 'start-in' section of your shortcut please? I think I fixed it
HERE

Replace your existing plug-in file with this one but keep your existing 'speech.ini' file ..  as you know both files need to be in the plugins directory.

Thanks for testing

[BULL]

it works but it plays the speech twice.

BULL

[loadman]

it works but it plays the speech twice.
BULL

Thanks Bull

I just downloaded that version to make sure I did not make a mistake.

It does not so that for me.  The only thing I changed in the Plugin was how it searches for the Ini file

What and how many *.mplugin files do you have in the Plugins directory?

Is it possible you have two (one renamed?) and effectively it is running two speech-plugins?

[BULL]

sorry, didnt think. yes i renamed the first file, so mala played both files.
now that i removed the old plugin it works as it should.

thanks

BULL

[loadman]

sorry, didnt think. yes i renamed the first file, so mala played both files.
now that i removed the old plugin it works as it should.

thanks

BULL

Thanks for testing Bull. 

I will send the Plug-in to Swindus to replace the one on the MaLa Website

[EDIT] This is now on the MaLa website  HERE

[Neilyboy]

very cool plug loadman. ill have to try it when i get mala up and running..

Neil

[Timoe]

Oooh dang!  I just found this.  Thanks guys!

[papaschtroumpf]

sounds like fun!
I use the windows text to speech in Unreal Tournament 2004 (not a cab game) to read the chat text from other players.
This sounds like a nice feature to have.

I need to give Mala a try (yeah more cab work, this thing will never ever be finished).

[loadman]

This sounds like a nice feature to have.

This very simple Plug-in can give your Cab a early '80's  feel

[Space Fractal]

This is a very sweet plugin, and like it.

It do have one problem:
Try to run Q*Bert, wich say it very funny (Q Astrerix Bert). All other chars than letters should been removing before speeching that.

[loadman]

This is a very sweet plugin, and like it.

It do have one problem:
Try to run Q*Bert, wich say it very funny (Q Astrerix Bert). All other chars than letters should been removing before speeching that.

He he . I will 'Astrerix' fix that 'Astrerix' up for the next 'Astrerix' version  which is a couple of weeks away 

[Space Fractal]

sorry for the spelling, but I guess you known I was talk about. It just diddent like *.

[loadman]

sorry for the spelling, but I guess you known I was talk about. It just diddent like *.

COOL