Speak & Spell (toy)
An American 1979-model Speak & Spell with chiclet keyboard | |
| Type | Electronic handheld |
|---|---|
| Company | Texas Instruments, Basic Fun |
| Availability | 1978–1992, 2019–present |
| Materials | Plastic |
The Speak & Spell line is a series of electronic hand-held child computers by Texas Instruments that consisted of a TMC0280 linear predictive coding speech synthesizer, a keyboard, and a receptor slot to receive one of a collection of ROM game library modules. The first Speak & Spell was introduced at the summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1978, making it one of the earliest handheld electronic devices with a visual display to use interchangeable game cartridges. The company Basic Fun brought back a variant of the second-gen classic Speak & Spell in 2019 with a newly recorded voice and other minor changes.
The Speak & Spell was named an IEEE Milestone in 2009.