Phoney – Psion Series 3a spoof voice calling from 1996

“Hello….?”

Originally written in 1996 in Psion OPL…

At the time I was using a Psion Series 3a along with the Vodafone “Telenote” app to send/receive SMS messages from the Psion via an attached Nokia GSM/PCN phone. I created this app as a prank to fool my colleagues at the time that I could also make/receive voice calls via the Psion/Nokia combo.

The app pretends to connect to the attached mobile network, allows the user to enter a number and uses the built-in tone generator to play dial/MF/ringing tones. The app then plays a sound file (Psion .WVE format) that sounds like someone has picked up/answered the call. This file can be re-recorded/customised so you can have whoever/whatever you like answering your fake call 😀

Only tested by me on a Series 3a – for Series 3c/mx YMMV!

Disclaimer:

The code is available on github – in a clone of the complete PHONEY folder that I found backed-up on a floppy (yes, an actual floppy disk!) and is stored for archival purposes only. If you wish to translate your own version you’ll need to be familiar with intermediate/advanced programming in OPL for SIBO/EPOC16 computers.

Also contained therein are some of the (DOS) tools used to create the code on a PC:

• S3ATRAN.EXE Psion’s PC-based OPL translator,
• WSPCX.EXE Psion’s PIC-format bitmap converter/combiner,
• AKA.EXE OPL code obfuscator and
• Jezar’s help compiler for OPL.

ENJOY!