TALKING MATH WIZARD
BY MATTHEW RATCLIFF

Math Wizard, my arcade-style
arithmetic practice program for
schoolchildren, was published in the
April, 1984 issue of Antic.  This
month's Super Disk Bonus is the
Covox-enhanced sequel -- Talking
Math Wizard.

   When you zap a correct answer,
Talking Math Wizard speaks the
complete equation.  For example, if
a 27 is at the top of the screen and
you zap "11+16," the program would
say: "Eleven plus sixteen equals
twenty-seven."

   Helping me program this magic was
the $39.95 Covox Voice Master
Junior.  However, you do not need a
Covox or any other special equipment
to play Talking Math Wizard  -- only
the MATHWIZ.BAS, MATH.SYS and
WIZTALK.SPK files from this month's
Antic Disk.  But if you own a
Covox Voice Master or Voice Master
Junior, you can can get rid of my
voice from the file and put in your
own voice -- or any other sound you
choose.

   When you RUN Talking Math Wizard
from the Side B main menu of the
Antic Disk, you'll see a game
options menu.  By fine-tuning these
options, you can change the type and
difficulty of the problems.  Plug a
joystick into port 1.  Move the
stick up and down to put the
flashing cursor next to the item you
want to change.  Push the stick left
or right to change the value of that
option.  Options include:

   1. Minimum starting number (MIN):
The smallest value used in the math
problems.

   2. Maximum starting number (MAX):
The largest value used in the
problems.  This value must exceed
MIN by at least five.

   3. Percent Correct to Advance:
Each round has six problems.  To go
to the next round, in which both MIN
and MAX increase, your score must
match or beat this value.

   4. Difficulty Increment: The
number by which MAX will increase
after each round.

   5. Rounds per game.

   6. Problem type: Select addition,
subtraction or multiplication.

   The high score, most recent score
and type of math problem for the
high-score game are displayed near
the top of the menu screen.

   Press the joystick button to
begin the game.  The number of the
current round, the problem number
and your percentage of correct
answers appear at the far right.
The current problem type appears at
the top of the screen.  The answer
box is below.

   As the round begins, six problems
scroll toward the bottom of the
screen, where you are stationed with
a number blaster (flashing cursor).
An answer to one of the problems is
selected at random, spoken and
displayed at the top of the screen.
Move the cursor under the problem
whose answer corresponds to the one
displayed above.  Press the joystick
button to select the matching
problem.  If more than one problem
has the indicated solution, choose
the one nearest the cursor to save
time and earn more bonus points at
the end of the round.

   If your answer is correct, the
problem is blasted back to the top
of the screen.  The correct answer
is displayed beneath it, and then
the entire problem is spoken.  Then
the next answer is displayed and
spoken, and the scrolling continues.
If you blast an incorrect answer, it
is ignored except for a lowering of
your success percentage.

   If a problem reaches the bottom
of the screen before you can answer
it, it will scroll back to the top
of the screen.  There, the correct
answer will be displayed and the
entire problem will spoken.

   If your percentage of correct
answers is below the minimum, you
must repeat the round.  If your
percentage is high enough, you will
receive a bonus for speed and
accuracy.

   When all rounds are complete, the
main menu comes up again and the
high score is displayed.  At this
point you may press [ESCAPE] to exit
to BASIC, or select new options and
play another game.

INSERT YOUR VOICE

   For Covox owners who want to
insert new speech data, here's how
to do it.  First load the Voice
Master software, version VM800 for
the Atari 800.  The XL/XE versions
will not work properly with Talking
Math Wizard II.

   Note the USR calls in lines 50,
110, 190 and 210.  With VM800
loaded, simply enter what you see in
the REM portion of each line.  The
VM800 "wedge" software automatically
translates those commands into the
proper USR calls for you.  Note that
you may get an error with the SSAVE
command.  My version of VM800 has
trouble parsing it, but the syntax
is easily corrected.

   RUN WIZTALK.BAS from this month's
Antic Disk.  Put a joystick in port
1 and the Voice Master microphone
plugged into port 2.  WIZTALK will
prompt you for each word it needs to
learn.  Speak the word distinctly
and quickly.  After the program
learns the word, it is played back
for you immediately.  If the word
sounds all right to you, press the
trigger to move on to the next word.
Otherwise, pull back on the joystick
to say that word again.

   After each word is learned, total
size of the current speech data is
displayed.  Keep a close eye on
this: It must not exceed 12,000
bytes or it will be too large to fit
in Talking Math Wizard.  You may
need to run WIZTALK a few times
before you get a feel for how fast
to talk.

   Once you're done, copy
MATHWIZ.BAS (the main program),
MATH.SYS (which contains data for
three assembly language routines)
and WIZTALK.SPK to another disk and
RUN "D:MATHWIZ.BAS".

---

Back to previous page