I frequently find myself talking to my micro and rarely
does it answer back. When it does, it's likely to be those
unhelpful "Failed at line so and so ..." or "Missing". Occasionally,
it's so cheerful it calls me silly!
Talkback, from Acornsoft, is what I've been waiting for. At
last I've the chance to have an intellectual conversation with
the computer.
At least I can pretend to be intellectual.
The program allows you to hold conversations between
characters that you've developed yourself.
The personalities ofthe people created are determined by a
series of Keywords, Responses and Starters for each character.
The conversations are generated from a collection of
Keywords and Responses.
If a Keyword is mentioned then the Response is made.
Good dialogues are created by developing several Responses
to a single Keyword and through making one character's Respon
ses contain Keywords of the other character.
You can watch, printout or even join in the conversations on
the screen.
Characters can be saved at any stage and reloaded for
further development later.
This package is both a home entertainment program and an
educational tool.
Conversations can be created by experimentation and the use
of novel language. They can develop from careful attention to
the structure of language to achieve controlled results. Either
way the results are very impressive.
The program is available on disc and tape, for both the
Electron and BBC computers. With it is a comprehensive
manual that describes the techniques for developing conversations.
With practice those techniques can be applied to both real
and imagined situations.
Possibilities include dialogue drawn from life - interviews,
complaints, proposals and such like.
The manual suggests many more imaginative dialogues
including a car and a horse, stomach and mouth, or a close
encounter with an alien.
The whole program is menu driven - pressing Escape always
returns you to the Choice Page.
Within the options are creating, altering, saving and loading characters.
Two characters are included with the program - they're Astro
and Bomb inspired by the concluding part ofthe film Dark
Star. By running their conversations and joining in with them
the techniques and potential of the program can be more easily
seen.
I can thoroughly recommend this program. I've ordered a
copy for my own classroom as I'm certain of its educational
value. I'm equally certain that it can be an entertaining program
for the home.