[jrdres]

It runs, but it would be very slow on actual hardware.

I tried on a cycle-accurate emulator of a TRS-80 Model I with Omikron CP/M mapper. Most Z-80 machines of the time were 4MHz, but the TRS-80 was only 1.77 MHz.

1. Type "GUESS", get question prompt.

2. User types: "Are you an animal?", ENTER key

3. Wait 25 seconds

4. Program prints "N"

5. Wait 20 seconds

6. Program prints "O"

7. Wait 23 seconds

8. Program prints linefeed, returns to question prompt

Total time to return 2-char answer to user's question: 1 min 9 sec or so. I bet a longer answer would take proportionally longer.

"The wonder isn't that it does it well, it's a wonder it does it at all."

[gp2000]

Though it'll still be kinda slow on a Model I, I've written an about 9 times faster Z-80 code for the network evaluation. I imagine the pull request will end up in the main depot but for now you can find it in https://github.com/gp48k/z80ai

I think I can do a little bit better; maybe 10% faster.

[gp2000]

Well, I was pessimistic. Just pushed an update that slightly more than doubles the execution speed with a PR to the main depot pending. It is very close to 20 times faster than the original.