Speak & Spell

[Justin]

Did anybody else have a Speak & Spell growing up? Texas Instruments found a tremendously clever use of their speech synthesis chip. The Speak & Spell was introduced in June, 1978 at the Summer CES, making it one of the very first handheld electronic devices with a visual display. Speak & Spell enjoyed a very similar lifespan to that of the Atari 2600, retailing from 1978-1992.

[DeLorean]

Wasn't that E.T.'s Phone? 

[DeLorean]

And, if yes, wouldn't that mean assembling the Speak & Spell is the entire objective of the E.T. game on 2600?

[DeLorean]

[RetroVideoGameNerd]

E.T. Spell Words! AHAHAHAHAHAA
Yeah, I had one, and it scarred me. IT sounded really demonic.

[RickR]

I didn't have one, but wanted one.  I remember it wouldn't say "bad" words, but if you spelled them more cleverly, you could get close.  Now THAT'S learning, folks. 

[RickR]

I just learned that Commodore made a speech module for the VIC-20 and C64 called "Magic Voice" that used the same chip/design as the Speak and Spell.  I guess the Scott Adams adventure games used it, as well as others like Gorf. 

[Yo-Yo]

Speak and Spell was so cool! It was kinda a big deal for a baby's toy to have speech synth in 1980. I'd love to see more on this.

[Arenafoot]

I have that same phonograph!!!!!!!

[StormSurge]

I loved my Speak & Spell. Great toy.

[Mcorleonep]

I remember that well.  The must fun part about it was pressing the # button, then it would malfunction and the speech synthesis would produce some very interesting and hilarious garbled speech sound effects...

Edited October 19, 2017 by Mcorleonep