When did you first hear your computer speak?

[ColonelK]

My mate had an Apricot, I think, and he had a game that I think involved going around a maze. When the baddies caught you, this screechy voice shouted "Weeee Gatcha!" That was about 1981-ish, and we were both absolutely amazed.

A year or so later, I got a currah microspeech for my speccy. Using this fab device, you could make your computer say ANYTHING that you wanted it to! It could even swear, providing you spelt everything phonetically, and put brackets around letters that needed to be said together, like "(sh)ut up."

Then, maybe the year after, I got Ghostbusters for the speccy. This masterpiece didn't even NEED the currah microspeech. IT JUST TALKED!

I know nowadays speech comes as standard on games, even on handheld titles, but what was your first experience of a computer talking?

[felgekarp]

For some reason my mate and myself took great delight in getting my Spectrum to say 'slash' courtesy of the currah microspeach, we were easily pleased back then

[RetroKingSimon]

Hahaha! The first time I heard a home computer talk was when a friend of mine showed me his Currah Microspeech. Naturally, he demonstrated it with swear words! I can't remember the first time I actually heard my own computer talk. I never had any gadgets like the Microspeech for my Speccy, so it would've been a game. Maybe Fantasy World Dizzy or Chase HQ.

[JetSetWilly]

my Amiga back when i first got it, found out i had 'speak' on workbench, loaded it up and promptly typed 'i have big hairy b0ll0cks' on it

[Sureshot]

'WELCOME TO REPTON 3, FROM SUPERIOR SOFTWARE'.

[SirClive]

Not sure which was first, but the ones that stood out were 180 Darts - 'SSSCCCCWWWWWWWOOOOOOONNNNNSSSSSHHHHHHHUUUUUNNNNNDDDDDRRRREEEDDDDEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTYY'

and Ghostbusters (both on the Speccy).

But another that blew me away was a sample of Kung Fu Fighting on the C64.

[Matt_B]

The first I heard was Meteor Storm on the Spectrum in '82. It was a bit too distorted to hear what it was saying clearly, but it was definitely speech.

[liveinabin]

Not really 'the computer speaking' per se, but the (frankly crap) speech sample at the start of Ghostbusters just blew my mind. I had to have a Spectrum.

That said, even a Speccy's beep was amazing compared to the output of my ZX81.

Star Wars in the arcade was also a landmark. I remember the car ride home from the sports centre (all the arcade machines I played in my youth were played there after swimming) after playing it for the first time, I was just buzzing from the experience.

[KW]

Impossible Mission- Stay a while, stay forever

[woody.cool]

The first computer speech I heard was from Super Robin Hood on the Amstrad CPC, after that, it wasn't till I got my Amiga 500+ and was messing about with the Say utility on the Workbench 2.0 disk.

[RetroKingSimon]

Did Gauntlet on the Speccy try to do the speech? I can't remember...

"Eat the food, don't shoot it!"

[Katzkatz]

On the C64 on A View to a Kill (the game of the dreadful Bond film and a naff game as well). Hearing "Bond, James Bond" strain the poor old SID chip inside the C64 to near breaking point! Then on the Amiga's say utility on Workbench. Great fun hearing it swear!!!!

[boggyb68]

Mattel Electronics Presents - B17 Bomber....

B.

PS: Ghostbusters was also a first on 64, listen to the music, watch the lyric ball and press "space" at the right time...

[Bub&Bob]

The first was Tales of the Arabian Nights on C64.

But the one that sticks in the mind (not for good reasons) is:

"Peter Shilton's Handball Maradonna"

"Goalllll"
"Shave"

Sounded like Steven Hawkins with asthma

[TMR]

i think the first time i heard speech was a Vectrex running Spike... "oh no! Molly!"