undocumented call on CX5M gives short speech in japanese

By panzerboy

Supporter (2)

panzerboy's picture

11-09-2010, 15:53

I don't remember if it was a simple MSX OS call or wether I needed the 'Music Macro' cartridge but by trying different numbers I came across a functions that would give a short speech in a female japanese voice. Was this a MSX 'easter egg' or was this peculiar to the CX5M?

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By Jipe

Paragon (1594)

Jipe's picture

11-09-2010, 17:36

required SFG01 or SFG05 with the Music macro cartridge and work on all MSX

By panzerboy

Supporter (2)

panzerboy's picture

11-09-2010, 18:07

Thanks Jipe, I always wondered what she was saying.

By Jipe

Paragon (1594)

Jipe's picture

11-09-2010, 19:31

YRM-104 FM Music macro speech synthesis (Japanese language)
Published by: MSX Club België/Nederland Nr. 39

FM-Basic Commands
CALL INIT
Initialises the speech synthesis. After this you can pass speech commands with the following command:

CALL SAY(1,<string>;)
Apart from the phonemes below, the string can contain the following parameters to control the way the sentence is being pronounced:
V - volume (1-8)
P - Pitch (1-24)
S - Speed (1-8)
> - Pitch up
< - Pitch down

Th following table shows the phoneme combinations which you can make:

A E I O U N Q X
A + + + + + + + +
B + + + + +
C + +
D + + + + +
E + + + + + + + +
F + + + + +
G + + + + +
H + + + + +
I + + + + + + + +
J + + + + +
K + + + + +
L + + + + +
M + + + + +
N + + + + + + + +
O + + + + + + + +
P + + + + +
Q + + + + +
R + + + + +
S + + + + +
T + + + + +
U + + + + + + + +
V + + + + +
W + + + + +
X + + + + + + + +
Y + + + + +
Z + + + + +

Example:
CALL SAY(1,"V8P3S8,<HAS8>ROO")
Since the speech synthesis is aimed at the Japanese language it can be difficult getting the right pronouncation. In addition to these combinations above it's also possible to combine the following three letters: CHA CHI CHO CHU