🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <63...@wpi.wpi.edu> nort...@wpi.wpi.edu (Jim Northrup) writes:
> In article <951@bbx.UUCP> usenet@bbx.UUCP (USENET manager it's really me: Russ)
>> In article <YZVK1x600...@andrew.cmu.edu> cf...@andrew.cmu.edu (Craig 
>> F. Everhart) writes about generating musical tones using hardware not really

> I recall a program for the TRS-80 Model I that performed a nice trick.  Unlike
> the VIC's and C-64's, the TRS-80's would use a regular casette tape player
> for storing programs.  The speaker and microphone in your tape player were,
> of course, extraneous.  This program, however, would "click" the speaker
> and listen for "clicks" on the microphone --- sonar!  You could hold your
> tape player near a wall, and see a bar graph on the computer screen showing
> how far away from the wall your tape player was!  As I recall, it worked well
> for distances up to about four inches.

Ah yes, the Model I.  My first machine.  As I recall, one October,
the magazine '80 Micro printed a program which would generate a
Talking Pumpkin; the Pumpkin's mouth would open and close depending
on the volume of the cassette input.

Another Fun Casette Trick (TM) was to turn the motor on and off from
software, and record something from a real microphone.  Since the
microphone input included an enable switch, you could do just that.
A voice recorded in the manner would give an eerie warbling sound.

One Halloween, I combined these two effects, the former for the
visuals, the latter for audio, to great, spooky effect.  In fact,
the little kids from the neighbourhood were so freaked that
I was asked by their parents not to do it the next year!
-- 
        ___         Stephen White       standard_disclaimer()
 ______/__	    sfw...@watcgl.waterloo.edu  
<___   |  \  /\  /  "I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like.."
 ___>  |   \/  \/  	- Syd