💾 Archived View for mirrors.apple2.org.za › archive › ground.icaen.uiowa.edu › apple8 › Edu › PRO.A2… captured on 2023-01-29 at 10:48:56.
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Pro Apple ][ (Pro A2) is a Tutor-Tech stack that I wrote to convince my site principal (Ted) to invest into the Apple II some of the new technology money coming to the school. It is the first Tutor-Tech stack that I wrote myself and is more of a talking slide show format, with only one branching question. It was written on a weekend on an Apple IIe using Techware's Tutor-Tech program (which they no longer develop, BUT STILL SUPPORT!) and an RC System's DoubleTalk card (which is still sold). Information on how to reach them is mentioned later. Keep reading. I tried to figure out how to get my principal to listen to the idea of investing money in our old Apple IIs; after all, plenty of them weren't even plugged in around the school (I've "fixed" more Apple IIs around the district just by plugging in the monitor or connecting the computer to the monitor. Sheesh! These people can barely handle a light switch and they want Windows98? Get ready to send out a search party!). I decided to let the Apple II speak for itself. I borrowed a DoubleTalk card and wrote a simple pitch in BASIC in six hours by just using PRINT commands. It worked fine, but ... what if I grabbed his attention with pictures! Pretty amazed with myself for learning how to use the DoubleTalk in such a short time, I set to work with Tutor-Tech and finished it that weekend. The program works with just the keyboard, but will recognize a mouse, joystick, touch window, Muppet keyboard and just about anything else that you want. Just activate what you want to use (ie: move the mouse) when the program is first booting up (not this stack, but the actual Tutor-Tech Student program) and you're set to use it. You'll need a 128K Apple II, the Tutor-Tech Student Disk or Tutor-Tech Demo Disk (Free from Techware as a zipped PC download (www.techware.com/ techware/software/tt.html) or call for the actual disk (1-888-TECHWARE)) to open the stack, and some sort of speech synthesis card _INSTALLEDINSLOT#2_ that has it's own phonetic rules built into the hardware (an RC Systems' DoubleTalk or SlotBuster II with the speech synthesizer chip installed for example (www.rcsys.com/apple2.htm), and not a Street Electronics' Echo II or Cricket). Tutor-Tech does use the Echo II-style as well, but you have to work from a limited, pre-existing vocabulary bank and I just didn't have that many words to work with back then. You can still run the program without it, but it will just be pictures and here's why... I asked Ted, my principal, to stop by my classroom before school started. When he arrived, I made an excuse to leave, saying that I'd be right back. As I exited, I flipped on the power to the Apple II and closed the door. It booted and started addressing him with "Is he gone now? ...Hhuh!...Uh--Uh-Ummmmmm... Now is my BIG chance... Good Day, Mr. Smith." And they had fun from there. Once the Apple II told him that he was a beautiful person, it had his attention. I hope that you enjoy this and maybe it will give you some ideas of your own to promote your school's usage of Apple II computers. Oh, the results? All of the Apple II's on site are now working and being used, in fact we have 29 more! The principal later sprang for a site license for BeagleWrite to give the Apple II computers a more user-friendly interface and it's still being used in the classrooms today. See? A little Apple II magic goes a long ways! Jay Edwards -------------------------------------------------------------------- GS WorldView Editor Notes: These Docs are also available in AppleWorks WP format with some really cute ASCII Art in them, from within the ShrinkIt archive, PROA2.DOCS.SHK.