EchoCollection

GS WorldView: February MM

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The Echo II Card Software Collection
.

Status: Freeware - for non-commercial use only!

The following gives a general review of the ShrinkIt archives you will find within the
EchoCollection.zip archive here and as separate .sdk disk archives on ACN Florida.
The individual disks are also available on Asimov as ShrinkIt and .dsk disk image files.

ECHO1.SDK (/ECHO1) contains the following:

ECHOINFO.TXT = this text file.

PHRASES.TXT = a text file I compiled listing of all of the 110 (#0 through
109) phrases on that 800K extended vocabulary disk that you sent me. Now,
folks can find what they're looking for almost as easily as point and
clicking in the standard vocabulary files.

VOC1.STK and VOC2.STK = A couple of Tutor-Tech stacks that are set up so that
the 110 Echo Phrases from the extended vocabulary disk can be easily tried
out for clarity. It does take some time to pick out each phrase and paste it
into a stack, so this makes browsing through the phrases quick and easy.
There are two stacks that cover all 110 phrases and a couple of other words
that are thrown into the phrases file. Tutor-Tech Demo, Teacher and Student
disk version 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 all support this high quality speech.

CIRCUS.STK and EZCIRCUS.STK = are just a couple of my early Tutor-Tech stacks
that I came across that have nothing to do with the Echo. They're basically
the same stack, CIRCUS, but ezCIRCUS has a simplified vocabulary. CIRCUS is
a choose your own adventure type of story that I had actually forgot all
about.

_________________

ECHO2C.SDK (/ECHO) = The Apple IIc basic Echo II disk. When I bought my
first Echo ][, I bought it through the catalog or through Street Electronics
directly (I don't remember any more) at full price, but it took four tries
and four months before I receive the Apple IIe version. They sent me an Echo
for the Macintosh, for IBM and the Apple IIc before they finally ran out of
options. I tried the disk, read the manual and discovered that they hadn't
sent what I bought the Echo for: to use with Tutor-Tech to import the
speech. After contacting them, I received disks containing the sides of
numbers 2, 3, 4 & 5 (included in this collection).

_________________

ECHO2E.SDK (/ECHO) = The Apple IIe basic Echo II disk

_________________

MANUAL.SDK (/MANUAL.FILES) = The text files that make up the on-disk manual.

_________________

RDCOMPBOOT.SDK (/RC2BCORNER) and RDCOMPSTORY.SDK (/RC2SCORNER) =
sides one and two of a commercial reading program that uses the Echo. The programs
can be bit copied and I found out today that they will shrink and expand without
any trouble. I made a copy of it to see if I could and to give you something
else to try. Now, I'm wondering what other copyprotected software will
shrink and expand. I just got an Alaska card on eBay that is suppose to do
something similiar, I think.

I don't have the manual to this reading series, but I've poked around enough
to know that there are options, at least in the high reading level versions
of this, that allow the teacher to preselect whether the programs doesn't
speak, speaks only key words, or speaks everything. If you or anyone else
can figure out what needs to be done to access these options, I'd be
interested. I seem to remember that they also contain letters to parents,
record keeping and so on. I keep a master set untouched so if a record
keeping directory decides not to let another student log on until the teacher
downloads the current directories scores to make room, I can just recopy the
disk (since I don't know how to access the records, let alone delete any of
them.

_________________

TEXTALKDOS3.SDK = The DOS 3.3 version of Textalker. This program is loaded
into memory before your application software so that text (not hi-res
equivalents) will be recognized from your programs and spoken aloud. I've
always thought that this would make a great companion for typing in a long,
long Nibble program from the magazine.

_________________

TEXTALKPDOS.SDK (/TEXTALKER) = ProDOS version of Textalker

_________________

WORDEDIT.SDK (/WORDS) = This allows a menu of preselected words and phrases
to be drawn from. It also includes the smaller version of the high quality,
prerecorded, female speech that the 800K extended vocabulary disk contains,
but this one runs on a 5.25" floppy.

_________________

So, now you have available the entire Echo card software collection plus a
few nice extras too.

That's All Folks -- Enjoy!

MacProbrer, GS WorldView Editor

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Echo Collection on Asimov

Note: All file names for this collection on Asimov begin

with "ECHO" (not "Echo", "ECHO.", or "A2.ECHO").

This make the files easier to locate in Asimov's listing.

Go to Asimov for downloads

Collection Info, Phrases, and Stacks
ECHO1.DSK (/ECHO1)
ECHO1.SDK (/ECHO1)

Apple IIc basic Echo II disk
ECHO2C.DSK (/ECHO)
ECHO2C.SDK (/ECHO)