Speak & Spell (game)
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- For the Depeche Mode album of the same name see Speak & Spell (album)
The Speak & Spell was a popular and revolutionary electronic toy consisting of a speech synthesizer and a keyboard. It was created by Texas Instruments during the late 1970s. Speak & Spell was the first of a three-part talking educational toy series that also included Speak & Read and Speak & Math. The Speak & Spell was sold in both the United States and in Europe; it was originally advertised as a tool for helping young children to become literate, learn to spell and learn the alphabet. The Speak & Spell had a distinct reddish-orange with yellow color scheme with a light blue border around the membrane keyboard.
Speak & Spell had five distinct learning games: Spell, Say It, Secret Letter, Mystery Code, and Word. Spell is the classic word spelling game where the participant must spell ten words to the best of their ability. The Speak & Spell also had the ability to expand its vocabulary using expansion modules that plugged into a slot near the battery compartment.
The early Speak & Spell units were sold in 1978. The unit could utilize either 4 "C" batteries or 6 volt DC power adapter. The display resembled a vacuum fluorescent display, not unlike an LED display. The original Speak & Spells had raised hard-plastic keys while later units had a membrane keyboard. The Speak & Spell used the first single-chip voice synthesizer, the TI TMC 0280, which utilized a 10th-order linear predictive coding model.
Some musicians have used the Speak & Spell in their compositions, including Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, Moog Cookbook and Darren Emerson. The Speak & Spell also made a notable appearance in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
External links
- Texas Instrument's June 11, 1978 press release announcing Speak & Spell (http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/company/history/pmos.shtml)
- The Texas Instruments Speak & Spell page (http://www.99er.net/spkspell.html)
- Web-based Speak & Spell simulator (http://www.speaknspell.co.uk/)
- The Chip Collection at the Smithsonian - TI Speak & Spell Learning Aid (http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/texas/t_074.htm)