d@alice.UucP (Daniel Rosenberg) (04/07/86)
It seems as if I'm reviewing something. Scary. Fabulous. Perhaps
Tinkerbell murdered Jerry Falwell and then talked about murderously
murdering. Appalling. Next question.
I just went out and bought my first Amiga game. No graphics, no
music, and the speech synthesis was, well, mediocre. The price
was not cheap - ~ $40 U.S. I suppose it would be less mail order,
but I needed a quick fix, and I had taken a four hour trip all
the way out to Mahwah, NJ to get _something._
And so I bought Racter. There have been articles about this
program in everything from scientific journals to the _New
York Times_, and they all think it's very weird. Well, it is.
Racter is supposed to simulate conversation. You converse
with the computer. Of course, it isn't totally coherent, so
the author latched onto the idea of "Artificial Insanity," it
seems, and promoted his product that way.
Amiga _Racter_ is distributed by Mindscape, and is mildly
copy-protected ( - nothing that Marauder won't take care of, by
the way. The disk makes ominous grinding sounds, so I only work
with the backup copy.)
Racter is derived from the French _raconteur_, or one-who-tells-stories.
Every once in a while, Racter will pipe up, in the middle of no
where, "It's time for a story, isn't it?" If you answer "no,"
or "No thanks!" or "Not again!" or something else negative, Racter
usually spares you. If you answer yes, or it doesn't understand
your "no," Racter will launch into a treatise about half a page to
two pages long about nothing and everything in particular. It doesn't
make a whole lot of sense unless you are in a particularly weird
state of mind.
Racter is able to "continue" previous conversations, sort of. It
never really stays on one track. It would be accurate to say that
the program simulates a person in the advanced stages of schizophrenia.
Racter is good for amusing your friends. It isn't flashy, but it
doesn't get as boring as quickly as arcade games. Racter doesn't
exactly get repetitive, but it does fall into a sort of routine.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cost me about $40. Worth about $20.
Should you buy it? If it sounds like you'd like it. I like it.
Scale of 1 to 10: 7.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
############# Dan Rosenberg ### CE @# AT&T Bell Labs, Murray^Hill ##########
# [ These opinions are necessarily mine, not my emp/o\yer's. ] #
## UUCP: {ihnp4 || research || allegra}!alice!d #AT&T: 201/582\9428 (work)##