Hello,
The file doesn't contain gibberish. It is working correctly.
Several years ago, Zabaware obtained volunteer dialogue from its web site visitors to help prime Hal's early databases. Some of the volunteer-contributed dialogue was vulgar, but the decision was made to use the widest variety of material possible, and I think that it was arguably a good decision.
Since vulgar dialogue would not likely be spoken by Hal unless the user steered Hal in that direction, it didn't pose much of a problem. However, if the database were readable "in the clear" on any word processor, the database itself might be read by easily-offended people. (The database doesn't contain anything rougher than what people hear on television and movies.)
To minimize the problem, Zabaware embedded an algorithm into one of its DLL's to do an encryption/decryption to render the database not-easily-readable. Since high-security wasn't the goal, it was a simple character-shift.
Move the letters back one space in the alphabet and you can easily read the insult "ZPV BSF B NPSPO" (from your posting above) which is indicative of some of the material from that early database.
Later databases were contributed by writers under more controlled conditions, with spell-checking and avoidance of vulgarity, plus routines that allowed Hal to select words and phrases to create completely new sentences some of the time. Hal works with about 40 databases now, and contains at least 100 times more dialogue than "Gone With the Wind" right out of the box. So the converse.brn database doesn't come into play nearly as often as in the earlier days.
I hope this bit of history enhances your enjoyment of UltraHal!
Sincerely,
Don
