Gorgar

Gorgar is a 1979 <a href="/facts/Pinball/woBqmMfo">pinball</a> machine designed by Barry Oursler and released by <a href="/facts/WMS_Industries/kfVWKka5">Williams Electronics</a>. It was the first <a href="/facts/Speech_synthesis/ceTczTv9">speech-synthesized</a> ("talking") pinball machine, containing a vocabulary of seven words ("Gorgar", "speaks", "beat", "you", "me", "hurt", "got") that were combined to form varying broken-English phrases, such as "Gorgar speaks" and "Me got you". The pinball machine also has a heartbeat sound effect that increases in speed during longer gameplay.
According to the game's programmer, Paul Dussault, "the voice was <a href="/facts/John_Doremus/SXJzzf5t">John Doremus</a>, an announcer in Chicago that we recorded and then digitized his voice. He was the voice of the in flight audio for various airlines. We had tried in house voices but weren’t getting the bass effect we wanted to make Gorgar sound menacing."
Also a promotional record for the machine titled Gorgar Speaks was produced by Bud Solk & Associates and recorded at Zenith Cinema Service Studios. <a href="/facts/John_Doremus/SXJzzf5t">John Doremus</a> was the announcer, Tom Erhart portrayed Gorgar, Phyllis L. Fineberg wrote the script, and Ron Crouse directed.

Gorgar open-in-new

Gorgar