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Texas Instruments - Speak & Spell - 1. Edition
1978 -
Here you find other
vintage computer collectors items.
The SpeakandSpell also known as La Dictee Magique by
Texas Instruments was a popular and revolutionary electronic
toy consisting of a speech synthesizer and a keyboard.
The Speak & Spell consists of a pushbutton keyboard,
microprocessor, display, ROM (contains speech data),
voice synthesizer, and loudspeaker. Your child can learn
just like you did back in the 80's. There is 5 different
games included with it. Mystery, Secret, Letter, Say
It and Spell It. Great for everyone that deals with
electronic music. As used by Kraftwerk or in the Film
E.T. Good working condition, runs with batteries or
power supply (both not included).
The idea with the Speak & Spell was that it would
'speak' words at random and the child would then be
required to spell it using the 'keyboard' - if the child
got it right, he/she would be told - otherwise "ERROR".
For the time, it was actually quite a sophisticated
little mini-computer with a a large vocabulary of stored
words, letters and numbers that were replayed in truly
glorious lo-fi 8-bit through a rather crappy on-board
speaker.
Background
The Speak and Spell 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 the United States,
Canada, 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 orangish-red with yellow color
scheme with a light blue border around the membrane
keyboard. The early Speak & Spell units were sold
in 1978. Variants included the Speak & Read, which
was yellow with blue and green accents and focused on
reading comprehension, and the Speak and Math (Maths
in the UK), grey with blue and orange and centered on
mathematics. A French Speak & Spell, La Dictee Magique,
was sold primarily in Canada.
Electronics
The unit could use either 4 "C" batteries
or 6 volt DC power adapter with positive tip polarity.
The display was a vacuum fluorescent 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. A variant of this chip with
a very similar voice would eventually go on to annoy
drivers of Chrysler vehicles in the 1980's as the Electronic
Voice Alert.
Games included
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. One such expansion
module was a tie-in for the toy's notable appearance
in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and asked young
spellers to try their hand at such words as "geranium"
and "extraterrestrial".
Download the Speak
& Spell Manual - 606KB PDF format
See the Speak
& Spell Video - A vintage Speak & Spell
TV commercial from the 80's featuring Bill Cosby.
External links:
Texas Instruments - Speak and Spell
- 1. Edition 1978 - 
Hier finden Sie meine anderen
Computer Sammlerstücke.
Die erste Ausgabe des Sprachcomputers von Texas Instruments
- Speak & Spell. In sehr gutem Zustand, getestet.
Mit diesem Computer hat die deutsche Gruppe Kraftwerk
einige Ihrer berühmtesten Tracks programmiert,
ua: We are the Robots und Numbers ! Ein Sammlerstück
erster Güte, das auch heute noch Verwendung findet
in vielen Techno- und Elektrotracks. Dies ist die seltene
Ausgabe mit Folientastatur und Modulschacht, jedoch
ohne Audio-out - man muß entweder per Mikrophon
aufnehmen oder durch Anzapfen der Lautsprecherkabel.
Photos
The TI Speak & Spell - in great condition, tested
- 1. Edition build in 1978
Das TI Speak & Spell - in super Zustand, getestet
- 1. Ausgabe aus dem Jahre 1978
Battery door IS present and still functional
Die Batteriefachabdeckung hält noch sehr gut
The Speak and Spell has the optional module port in
the battery case
Das Speak and Spell hat den optionalen Modulport im
Batteriefach
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