Talking Moose
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| Talking Moose | |
|---|---|
| Original author | Steven Halls |
| Initial release | 1986 |
| Stable release | 3.5.7 (Uli's Moose)
|
| Operating system | Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X |
| Type | Novelty |
| Website | talkingmoose |
Talking Moose is an animated talking utility for the Apple Macintosh. It was created in 1986 by Canadian programmer Steven Halls.[1] It is the first animated talking agent on a personal computer. The program featured a moose that would appear at periodic intervals to tell a joke or witticism.[2] The moose would also comment on system events and user actions.[2]
According to Halls, the original purpose of Talking Moose was to make use of the Mac's Macintalk text-to-speech engine in a novel manner. The first version of Macintalk was famously used for the original "Never trust a computer you can't lift" speech at the Macintosh launch in 1984; Apple's development of Macintalk had since slowed down, and they granted Halls permission to use, and continue refining, the software for free.
Halls gave the titular moose character a library of comedic observations and wisecracks which gave it a distinctive character. The software drew inspiration from a Doonesbury strip in which the characters were commented on by a talking computer. Halls found that a moose head with antlers was recognizable even on low-resolution computer screens.[1]
Talking Moose was the first facially animated talking agent with lip synchronization. It served as the inspiration for future digital assistant programs with speech capabilities, such as the Office Assistant in Microsoft Office,[1] BonziBuddy, and Prody Parrot from MindMaker.
Around 1990, a version of the Talking Moose software was commercially published by Baseline Publishing.[2] This commercial release of the Talking Moose included color graphics and additional software that allowed users to create and edit phrases to be spoken.[3] A stripped-down version of the Baseline release of Talking Moose was distributed with the Bob LeVitus book Stupid Mac Tricks in 1989.[2][4]
In the 1990s, Talking Moose was rewritten by Uli Kusterer under the name Uli's Moose - for which he later obtained Steve Halls' blessing. Uli's Moose was included in Bob LeVitus' iMac (and iBook) book "I Didn't Know You Could Do That".