Speak & Spell (game)

:For the Depeche Mode album of the same name see Speak & Spell (album)

Related Topics:
Depeche Mode - Speak & Spell (album)

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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.

Related Topics:
Electronic - Toy - Speech synthesizer - Texas Instruments - 1970s - Educational toy - Speak & Read - Speak & Math - United States - Europe - Membrane keyboard

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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.

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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.

Related Topics:
1978 - DC - Vacuum fluorescent display - LED - Linear predictive coding

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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.

Related Topics:
Musician - Kraftwerk - Aphex Twin - Moog Cookbook - Darren Emerson - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

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