[Coco] Speech & Sound Pack alternatives or emulation?

[Steve Strowbridge]

As I am going through the journey of rediscovering my favorite CoCo games
and putting them on YouTube, I'm running into several games that supported
the Speech Sound Pack that I can't fully demonstrate.

I'm wondering, in all the years, and with all the brilliant minds out
there, has no one either cloned or emulated this device?

It seems to me, the only way I can demo these games is going to be to find
a multi-pack interface and sound pack both off eBay (which I haven't seen
in my 2+ month obsession) and this is going to be a costly, and bulky
solution.

Has anybody emulated the board? I don't know how to make emulators, but it
seems just about any hardware can be emulated these days.

Has anybody made, or considered making a hardware clone? Again, being as an
MPI would be required to use it, my great idea/suggestion would be to make
something like a CoCo SDC with built in sound card to negate the need for
an MPI.

I would also say that I'd gladly pay $100 for such a device plus shipping,
since buying an MPI and sound pack (if I could find one) would easily cost
$200 off "the bay"

That being said, if I can come across a real MPI and sound pack, I'll
certainly pick them up to have in my collection, but I'd love to have a
single product that would allow me to play real CoCo games to their full
potential, love to hear what other people's thoughts on this are.

Happy New Year and long live the CoCo!

Steve Strowbridge, aka
The Original Gamer Stevie Strow
http://ogsteviestrow.com
ogsteviestrow at gmail.com