In today’s gaming climate a microphone is practically just as standard as a controller, but it’s usually used for conversations between players. But one goal has always been for verbal interaction, where players could actually speak their commands into voice controller, which would eliminate the need for a hand controller once and for all.
The idea of parsing dialog, breaking down the spoken word, reflects back to an earlier time of text adventures when the computer parsed text that was entered through a keyboard. But as the parsers became more sophisticated, players hoped that one day they could toss away their keyboards and speak their commands directly into the game.
But voice recognition isn’t new. It has a heritage going back 35 years. And while games that used voice recognition have always been unique for that sole reason, they have rarely been successful. The first console to use voice recognition technology was Milton Bradley’s MBX Expansion System for the Texas Instrument TI-99/4A Home Computer, which was released in the fall of 1983. No, that wasn’t an error, calling it a console and a computer peripheral in the same sentence. Originally, it was supposed to be a console, but after Coleco released the ColecoVision in 1982, Milton Bradley decided that there wasn’t any room in the marketplace for more than two gaming consoles. So they redesigned their system to work with the TI-99/4A. – Read the rest of this article on page 35 by clicking here!
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