AON, project in progress (Page 2 of 2)

Got yet another unit, nothing to show really, but it is an old large Z80 board build with one of the oldest firmwares - Arctur 36. Tried to find this one on the webs, and alas, all dumps is now gone. So I dumped it (it is very different from all others), the ROM was unstable, so I had to stare to the hex compare quite a bit. This way I figured that I may seek for hidden messages in firmwares. And there is indeed some! Here is the list for your digital Indiana Jones pleasure.

Fortuna
Fortuna. (C) Copyright 1995.....Digital voice from version "Selena", special thanx !....Illegal copying is strictly prohibited !!!....Hacker - Alex Taran 2:461/256.11 @FidoNet....Phone number (0572) 62-32-79 (24h)

Arctur 36
(p) S.Batalov 095-939.75.05: Improvements, settling to 2764, voice adjusted.

Ravel19f
Corrected by FALCON inc. 7-095-404-6807

Rus7
KMON-U-Overlay read error

Rus13p
Thanx 2 Selena8!

Rus19e
(c) 1995 by RAVEL

Rus20c
(c) 1995 by PASHA. Tel:(095)-251-17-80

Rus20e
(c) 1991-1995 by PASHA, SERGEY. Tel:(095)-251-17-80

Rus20f
(c) 1991-1996 by PASHA, SERGEY. Tel: (095) 268-22-81, 268-28-74

Rus22c
(c) 1991-1996 by PASHA, SERGEY. Tel: (095) 268-09-33

Rus23c (transliterated from Russian)
(c) 1991-97 Pavel Sukhodolsky, Sergey Kosov Tel:(095)2680933  Moscow

Julia25pr
JULIA-25  (C) Copyright Alex Serov (Nj/VIMS), 1993-96.....  FidoNet: 2:461/256.111 (Aka 2:461/144.11)....Digital voice from version "Selena", special thanx !....Special thanx to Alex Taran, 2:461/256.11 @FidoNet

Julia27dp
JULIA-27 d  (C) Copyright Alex Serov (Nj/VIMS), 1993-97.....FidoNet: 2:461/60.1....Digital voice from version "Selena", special thanx !....Special thanx to Alex Taran, 2:461/60 @FidoNet

Julia27f
JULIA-27 F  (C) Copyright Alex Serov (Nj/VIMS), 1993-98.....FidoNet: 2:461/60.1, E-Mail: heiki@iName.com....Digital voice from version "Selena", special thanx !....Special thanx to Alex Taran, FidoNet: 2:461/60, E-Mail: alex@dnp.ukrpack.net....Very big thanx to PS Design, Kharkov

Julia27lp
JULIA-27 L  (C) Copyright Alex Serov (Nj/VIMS), 1993-99. <Nin_Alex@email.com>....For all questions about distributing, future versions, hardware..please refer to Boris (PS Design, Kharkov). E-Mail: <maxlab@kharkov.com>

Another fun fact gained by the means of digital archeology. I was messing up with the firmwares that featured the sampled speech stuff, attempting to make a sample decoder. They use different formats, I did only one (4-bit samples at 5000 Hz), other ones is well distorted, but recognizeable. I learned that there was the first version to feature voice, it had male voice that only spelled a few numbers and short messages, then there was the second one (Selena), it had best quality female voice. Latter has been ripped, downgraded, and reused all across other firmwares. Derivative versions has varying sample set, some say tens and hundreds, and extra messages, some not.

The fun fact is that one of the firmwares, the only one (of those I checked so far, at least) that features good quality female voice, also has an angry male voice clip in the middle of the data: FUCK OFF! (in Russian)

That made me remember that an urban legend circulated at the time, that if you enter some secret code, you can blacklist a number with such a message played to the caller. Turns out it wasn't really a legend.

Thanks! At least some real outcome of messing around and flooding this thread with this stuff. Also helped to improve the emulator. Also my first 'full' demo since 1997 when I first learned what a 'demo' is.

Thank you, guys.

Should note that this was a side step related to the original intents. I did not use any software 1-bit synthesis in this demo, it is just the plain single channel 8253 music (very much like classic PC Speaker), created with PCSPE. Truly 1-bit and truly monophonic, though.

Still going to do a music sequencing, or a performing software perhaps, using this platform, with a custom 1-bit engine.

Also thinking on creating a cut down replica version of the schematics, omiting all phone line related stuff, and a PCB layout, so more people can get the thing without relying on buying old hardware overseas. The device is quite easy to assemble, and does not need rare parts (the obscure single piece LED display obviously has to be replaced with some modern ones).