The William Tell Overture as performed by an Epson Equity I+ Computer

[blazerlover25]

hahaha whoever said time travel aint possible was wrong because watching this video made me go back to the 80's when computer makers had a sense of humour lol this was just too funny to watch and now I have seen it all.. a computer that can sing..lol

[uxwbill]

@blazerlover25 That is one of the things I really miss. These days, most computer programs and their creators are just way too serious.

[MyJonny25]

@uxwbill some of this song is heard in my Favorite movie Twister

[michelinman8592]

That brought me great amusement!!! X-D

[naterade21]

and here i thought epson only made printers

[michelinman8592]

@naterade21 Besides printers and this computer, they made computer monitors for a short time. I grew up with one :-)

[ForgetfulCollector]

I have the same song programmed in QBASIC.

[OlegKostoglatov]

Hi Ho Silver Away!!!

[TheSpazModic]

Elementary school 80's flashback!

[V8Jagnut]

lol i remember ye could make the old floppy drives play that tune.lol

[uxwbill]

@V8Jagnut IBM's PS/2 floppy diskette diagnostic test kicks out some pretty interesting rhythms...so much so that my dad said "you could make electronic music with that" while the test program was running.

Perhaps one day I should try it.

[welldontdothat]

@uxwbill Do it, sir!

[mattluvsvox]

but can i be programmed to play eddie van halen solos?

[uxwbill]

@mattluvsvox I don't know if *you* can be programmed to do that (yes, I know that's a bad joke). ;-) The computer certainly could, and you can get some "grungy" sounds out of the PC speaker if you play your cards right.

[mattluvsvox]

@uxwbill haha typo. thats too cool man, nice machine

[wattswrite]

For what personal reasons did you choose GW-BASIC, Bill?

[uxwbill]

@wattswrite I had no particular reason for using GW-BASIC. It was simply the available software, so that is what I used.

[ThisGuyFrritz]

I can remember those one-note-at-a-time sounds from IBM PC's like that. It was one of the reasons why I would rather get a Commodore 64. Then again, if I had enough money (and enough room) I would have gotten an IBM along with my Commodore stuff.

[itouchhacker241]

I should get one of these computers and make it play some lil wayne , just cause i can

[fortyfiveplayer]

oh no... I have time traveled back to 1982.... 

[uxwbill]

@fortyfiveplayer At least the fridge might be in better shape! (Yeah, that's my lousy effort at continuing the previous jokes.)

I don't see anything so bad about going back to the early 80s...well, maybe other than the fashions! 1982 was a pretty good year, after all! ;-)

[Lachlant1984]

I've owned a few cheap Chinese made calculator/clocks over the past 9 years, most of which have had this melody as one of their alarms, the renditions I've had are usually pretty mediocre at best, one is particular bad as it doesn't have any real time signature that it follows.

[ncrdisabled]

That the one thing I like about the old IBM pc I have a few old ones that when there on drive or floppy in the drive it goes right to basic. I learned basic many years ago when I had my Packard bell it did the same thing boot to basic.

[joshua25fm]

You could make music via Qbasic in say dos 5.0. It is very easy. I remember some games played voices via the pc speaker. There was a constant high pitch sound when the sound played but I am assuming the voices kinda like piggy backed on the high pitch stream. I remember some Access adventure games used this technology.

[ashleycox432]

@uxwbill Sounds interesting - I'll have to investigate it further. I've heard of

(even started using at one point) visual basic, but have never heard of

power basic - I'll check that one out! Thanks!

[727JeffN]

Bravo! Bravo!  (Gives standing ovation!)

[ashleycox432]

I'd love to learn how to program these tunes. :-)

[uxwbill]

@ashleycox432 The good news is that doing so would not have to be terribly difficult. You could look into programming such things in the BASIC language. Even though it is an old language, the concepts it teaches are still relevant and it was very popular in the 70s/80s/early 90s, so lots of good references exist.

Most BASIC interpreters will also run on modern computers fairly well.

Derivatives and dialects of BASIC are around even today...Visual Basic and PowerBASIC are two.

[uxwbill]

@uxwbill Despite BASIC's name and its being directed at those new to computer programming, it can be a powerful programming language.

If you don't want to program, I have seen some simplistic programs that read a text file with notes or simple scripting/tone/timing info to be played back on the speaker. PC Magazine had such a utility, they called it "play". There are probably countless others.

[themaritimeman]

This must be an older version of my Epson Apex Plus. What kind of a sound setup is on that machine? Mine has a full-range speaker with a plastic cone that plugs into the motherboard.

[uxwbill]

@themaritimeman There is a paper-cone 3" speaker mounted to one side of the disk drive framework. It plugs into the motherboard.

[bright41]

awsome sound form the good old days uxwbill

[crogeek]

This is via motherboard speakers?

[uxwbill]

@crogeek Yes, you are hearing the "PC speaker" sound. A 3" speaker is plugged into the motherboard and mounted inside the computer case.

Newer motherboards have a piezoelectric "squeaker can" or terminals for a speaker, if they bother at all.

[TheChipmunk2008]

Interesting artefacts in the video make it look like the border has colour. Till I remembered it's a mono monitor LOL :-)

[TheVideoMastr]

Thats what todays technology lacks, just cool thing

[TroyFoxxin]

I started to think about something other while this was going on i turned back to it and suddenly a old DOS game during a certain part to the music made it come into mind, Treasure Mountain. It was like the 1st computer game i played as a kid.

[uxwbill]

@TroyFoxxin One of my favorite computer game musical scores is that from The Secret of Monkey Island. Although that game supports a sound card, I actually like the PC speaker rendition of its tunes better!

[fedorauser1003]

Hearing this reminds me of BASIC.

[uxwbill]

@fedorauser1003 This is a BASIC program, running in the GW-BASIC interpreter.

[fedorauser1003]

@uxwbill

Oh the memories and the fun I had with that program.

[yamahonkawazuki]

LMAO this brings back memories lol

[CavemanPerson]

I had no idea that the Equity I+ could play SACDs. :P

[wobblyman2000]

this is why i loved my Amiga back in the day great sound and 4096 colours

[mikeycomputer]

They got pretty lazy at the end there...

[uxwbill]

@mikeycomputer True that...of course, even more disappointingly, the art department didn't do much to contribute!

[maddmaxx636]

i just woke up to see this crap was over!

[uxwbill]

@maddmaxx636 Falling asleep in three minutes could be "narcolepsy". Perhaps you should see a doctor?

[coyle102]

@uxwbill hahahahahha that was genious

[talldude123]

This would make a perfect ringtone if people were still using a Motorola StarTac!

[vwestlife]

The "PCCHECK" diagnostic program also plays this as its PC speaker test, although I don't know if they programmed in the whole song. And I see that monitor has quite a long-persistence phosphor, just like the original IBM 5151 monitor.

[Fuzy2K]

Heh. "The IBM Philharmonic Computer" :P

[walkingfreak]

this is amusing XD

[mikeluscher159]

LOL, this is quite entertaining

[iToasterman]

@mikeluscher159 beet me to first and wtf ;O singing ibms?!