OFF TOPIC: I Beg everyone to read! Please Read!

  • From: "Beto Escobar III" <betoescobar3@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "JFW List Serve" <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 02:19:38 -0600

Hello List Serve-- 
This is off topic in regards to JFW, but I feel it is **extremely** important 
for the blind community.  A man by the name of W. Scott Dillman has updated the 
most current version of the WinFrotzTTS2002 Interpreter which was created to 
allow people, like us, to play text adventure games such as Zork I, II, III etc 
like what we played when we had PC's running under the MS DOS environment.  The 
version of the WinFrotzTTS2002, Scott picked-up and began to update, was, in 
it's beginnings suppose to work for the blind gamer, hence the TTS (Text To 
Speech) in it's name.  Unfortunately, however, it was not to be.  We do, 
however, have a man now who decided to pick-up where the previous programmer 
left off, and believe it or not, he, W. Scott Dillman, got it to work!  Here 
are the links, plural, below to download the most current and updated 
WinFrotzTTS2002 Interpreter with a second link that has over 300 public domain 
text adventures, coded to work specifically with this most recent 
WinFrotzTTS2002 Interpreter!  Let me continue after the links below...  

The Interpreter:
http://www.binaryrevelations.com/talkback/WinFrotzTTS2002_setup.exe

Public domain games:
http://www.binaryrevelations.com/talkback/ifarchive_setup.exe

Now, in all sincerity, the blind gamer does not need JAWS to play this most 
update version of the WinFrotzTTS2002 Interpreter.  The reason being is that 
Scott, included in the code, Microsoft's Speech Engine which is a SAPI 4,5 
application.  What does this mean?  Well, lets say we all go see our parents 
over the Thanksgiving Holiday.  We do not need to take a copy of our JAWS to 
install in mom's PC so we can amuse ourselves after dinner, but we can get 
someone to download this Interpreter, and it speaks on it's own!  We will not 
need JAWS to play.  I will let you know however, as I made mention already, 
that MS Speech Engine is a SAPI 4,5 Speech Engine, we can purchase the AT&T's 
Natural Voices to use with this game.  The aT&T's Natural Voices is a SAPI 4,5 
speech engine as well.  I purchased it just for this program, and everytime I 
click on the WinFrotzTTS2002 Interpreter icon, the female U.K. voice comes on.  
"Yes", Eloquence or DECTalk Express, or whatever speech engine you have running 
for JAWS will be on, but it will not interfere with the game.  I know, because 
I was one of the beta tester since the beginning.  The JAWS speech engine will 
speak during the game selection, along with the at&T's Natural Voices, but once 
the game starts, it's just you and MS speech Engine or the AT&T's Natural 
Voices!  Let's move on, and let me explain a little more about other things in 
this wonderful interpreter for the blind community...  

Another thing that Scott did was code the WinFrotzTTS2002 Interpreter so that 
when you play a game, and save a position, the saved game file resides in a 
specific folder specific to that game only.  "Yes", I am not joking!  For 
Example, in my beta release, I had seven saved game files for one game, five 
for another, and three for another, and none of the saved game files for any of 
these games were mixed together.  That is correct, all three games were saved 
in their specific folder!  Yeah!  Louder YEAH!!  

Look, there are many more updates,but you will see for yourself when you start 
playing.  The only thing I ask is that you just drop an E-mail to Scott and 
thank him, for all he has done for the blind community!  His E-mail address is 
sdillman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  Let him know of ideas you may have to further 
improve what he has already done.  I believe, for example, he is working on a 
utility with will allow the PC user to import other games into the 
WinFrotzTTS2002 Interpreter.  If you have suggestions like this, send him an 
E-mail and let him know....  
The only thing I ask of everyone is to inform everyone else who is visually 
impaired to go to Scott's website, and download these two files.  Have fun 
everybody!  
Your friend from the JFW List Serve, 
Beto Escobar III, LMSW 
betoescobar3@xxxxxxxxxxx 
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