Deskbots

DeskBots is a shareware Mac desktop companion that puts a wisecracking, talking robot on your screen using Apple's PlainTalk Text-to-Speech. The bots greet you by name, dispense "helpful" advice, warn of impending doom, and generally do everything they can to distract you from real work.

Cast of bots

The base DeskBots 1.6.1 release ships with a core lineup of animated personalities, and the line was extended through free add-on bots for registered users such as CoDi-1 and NEMO. Each bot has its own art, voice, and library of canned remarks, and the family was actively expanded by the developer into the late 1990s.

What it does on your desktop

Once installed, a DeskBot loiters on the screen and speaks aloud at intervals or in response to system events. It refers to you, your friends, and your family by name, comments on what it can see of "the universe" of your Mac, and reels off jokes and observations - billed by the author as "artificial artificial-intelligence." Speakers and a thousands-of-colors monitor are recommended but not required.

Heritage and reception

DeskBots sits squarely in the lineage of Steven Halls' Talking Moose (1986), the pioneering animated, lip-synced Mac desktop companion that helped invent the whole genre of chatty on-screen agents. The author explicitly invokes that heritage, calling DeskBots a mix of "the HAL 9000, some Talking Moose, a little Bugs Bunny, a Stooge or three, plus a whole lot of attitude." It earned a five-mouse rating from ZDNet's Macdownload.com during its run.

System requirements

DeskBots 1.6.1 needs a 68030 or faster processor, Mac OS 7.5 or higher, and Apple's PlainTalk Text-to-Speech extension installed. Registration was USD 15. A companion utility, DeskBots Phrase Editor, lets registered users author and import their own tagged phrase libraries - including MadLibs-style fill-in games to play with the bot.