Texas Instruments Speak & Spell Retro Educational Handheld Game Toy

Kids in the 80’s not only had the power of 8-bit gaming to access, they also had handheld games and educational toys. One of the most popular educational toy was the Speak and Spell line of talking devices made by Texas Instruments, first introduced to the public in 1978.

It’s interesting to me that the Speak and Spell line was a result of work done way back in 1976 by TI on building a speech synthesizer that would use solid state electronics rather than using a recording of human speech. This work would also end up benefiting the TI-99/4A personal computer lineup, with the release of a Speech Synthesizer module to make your PC more cool.

With 153 words already programmed into the unit, and the ability to add additional solid-state expansion cartridges into an expansion slot located inside the battery cabinet, this toy lived up to the promise on the front of the box: Texas Instruments Speak & Spell Makes Spelling What It Should Be – Fun!

Check out this classic piece of retro tech in action!

Christmas ReBlog: The 12 Days of Retro Gaming

I just read a wonderful Christmas-related retrogaming post from 2011 that I hadn’t seen before, all thanks to the magic of google! It’s called 12 Days of Retro Gaming, and it’s worth a read!

In 1994 my father decided that it was high time to replace that old Commodore 64 (which wasn’t even considered a PC anymore) with a brand new Pentium 90 mhz PC.  I remember coming downstairs on Christmas morning and there it was, a beautiful boxy white machine with a VGA monitor, printer, and took up all the space our wide oak desk could spare.  CD-ROM was brand new and this bad boy came equipped with it and a few initial CDs, including Myst and an Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia.  At that time, however, not every game came in the CD version and many PC gamers were selling off their floppy disc versions of games to upgrade.  It was at this time that I became enamoured with PC gaming and began stopping by the used PC game shop near my part-time job and blowing my money on classics.

Read more by clicking the link HERE

Another Happy Retrogamer: Unboxing a Memory!

Part of the joy of being a purveyor of retrogaming goodness is knowing the impact of reuniting gamers with their lost gaming memories, and the happiness that brings.  Usually that happiness is conveyed by a brief email from a buyer, or, more often than not, no contact whatsoever until their next purchase.  It is unheard of to ever see the unpacking of the shipping box and the first reaction when finding what’s inside…until now!

Recently Jorge, Editor-in-Chief of oldschooljunkie.com, purchased an original Atari AC power adapter for his Atari 2600 game console.   (Incidentally, if you aren’t visiting oldschooljunkie.com for the Retro Energy Shots, Lost Intros, First Rounds, and other features, you’re missing out!)  Being the video junkie that he is, Jorge filmed the event and posted it on his website.  Check it out by clicking on the banner below!: