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Speak & Spell Hacking For Fun And Profit
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Jan 15, 2003 05:59 PM
from the good-thing-it's-pre-drm dept.
from the good-thing-it's-pre-drm dept.
Bowie J. Poag writes "Pete Casper has created a number of truly bizarre Speak & Spell hacks, and case mods (!) suitable for live performances. The highly modified Speak & Spell can be controlled either by the membrane keypad or using an Atari joystick of all things. Tons of photographs and MP3 samples included.. I want one. Now."
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Speak & Spell Hacking For Fun And Profit
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Please stop the elitism (Score:5, Funny)
Now Slashdot is only linking to images captured in the infrared spectrum? Great, now I'm going to have to spend the dough to update to the PowerBook with the face-burning screen, in addition to the penis-scorching base.
Re:Oh, come on. (Score:5, Funny)
Speak & Spell (Score:5, Funny)
Speak n' Spell glitches (Score:5, Funny)
SnS: Now spell: "Erkngwhkfzgnkil".
Me:[A] [P] [P] [L] [E] [Enter]
SnS: Incorrect. Please try again.
Me:[M] [O] [N] [K] [E] [Y] [Enter]
SnS: Incorrect. Please try again.
Me:[S] [T] [U] [P] [I] [D] [Enter]
SnS: Incorrect. The correct spelling of "Erkngwhkfzgnkil" is: S A U C E R.
It was great! Sadly, it sounds nothing like the "Random Noise" or "Glitch" mp3s. I'm disappointed.
I made some sounds like this (Score:5, Interesting)
All I can say is (Score:3, Funny)
hotograph? (Score:5, Funny)
My browser doesn't seem to have hotograph viewer support. Is that one of those new 3-D hologram thingies?
Re:hotograph? (Score:4, Funny)
Oops, nevermind - I thought you said hottiegraph.
what I dont get is..... (Score:3, Insightful)
MAME... (Score:5, Funny)
Do I need an original Speak & Spell to apply the mod patch?
Will the Speak & Spell manufacturer put a stop and desist order for mod chips?
Will we? Will we?
How long until we kill this invention?
Speak and Spell? WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
Plenty of toys become hits, but only a select few make history. One of the finest examples in the historical arena is Speak & Spell. Not only did this toy educate its users, it spoke to them using brand-new computer technology. Simply put, this toy managed to pack a computer's worth of top-flight technology into a plastic shell that was small enough to conveniently fit in a backpack. As a result, it became a favorite with kids and one of the most successful educational toys of all time.
Texas Instruments, a company best known at the time for its calculators, introduced Speak & Spell in 1978. This electronic marvel was design to teach its users spelling skills with vocalized lessons. What made this toy impressive was that it pulled this off without using a tape recorder or other conventional recording device. Speak & Spell created convincing speech sounds through a method called digital speech synthesis. In other words, it used computerized circuits to create a replica of the human vocal tract that would synthetically "speak" words aloud when prompted. This was the first use of this kind of technology, making Speak & Spell a toy for the history books.
Speak & Spell offered five different spelling games to occupy the user. For the most part, these games revolved around Speak & Spell's saying a word aloud for the user to spell. This was accomplished by punching in the proper combination of letters on the toy's alphabetical keypad. As each letter was pressed, Speak & Spell would say it aloud so the l'il speller could hear his choice. Other buttons allowed the user to hear a word repeated, retype the answer before entering it, or even receive a clue.
Another nice thing about Speak & Spell was that its electronic brain could be expanded to keep up with its users as they grew older. Speak & Spell pulled this off through new learning modules--little cartridges inserted in the back of the machine that could add new words to the games to increase the level of learning up to an 8th grade level.
Speak & Spell's unique combination of technology and fun made it an instant hit with kids. Its popularity with its target audience was given a further boost when a certain adorable alien used it to help him "phone home" in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Both parents and educators appreciated its value as a teaching tool, and their combined seals of approval made Speak & Spell a common sight in homes and schools alike. Its popularity also led to sequel electronic games for other areas of learning like Speak & Math and Speak & Read.
Speak & Spells are not made today, but their popularity continues to live on. It has become a popular possession for Generation X adults who want to relive their youth, and musicians often sample Speak & Spell's vocal sounds to create trippy yet oddly familiar effects in their music. Having already outlived its own shelf life, there is no doubt that Speak & Spell will long occupy a place in the hearts of the grownups it once educated.
Re:Speak and Spell? WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
They were available outside the States. I remember seeing a TV commercial for it in England in the mid-80s. The funny part of the commercial was the word chosen...it went something like this
They localized it for that market...IIRC, it spoke with a somewhat Brit accent. I don't know if it was sold in any non-English-speaking countries, though I'd think that the type of speech synthesis employed ought to work at least for most Western languages.
Stephen Hawking, my spelling teacher (Score:5, Funny)
I keep waiting for him to in the middle of some physics lecture or interview say, "spell Schwarzschild radius."
SASS (Score:5, Informative)
Wasn't this done? (Score:5, Funny)
Hmm (Score:3, Funny)
More interesting examples... (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone who can turn a Pikachu doll into something even more disturbing should get a medal.
Also known as Circuit Bending (Score:5, Interesting)
Critique of the Speak N Spell Music (Score:5, Funny)
Here's my take on the tracks presented:
1. Slow Melodic - Between the deep "bong" noises (bong noises, indeed), you can hear the faint cry of an abused robotic child. They have tortured the soul of this Speak N Spell.
2. Rhythmic Loops - This is almost too short to care.
3. Loop N Pitch - This has an enjoyable mid-eighties video game flare to it. If I didn't know better, I'd think that this came from a mutilated Atari.
4. Slow Loop N Pitch - It's the same as #3.
5. Rythmic Loop 4 - Is neither. It sounds like an abused telegraph.
6. Glitch Pitch - probably the most interesting of the collection, I'd imagine that this is similar to a robotic death.
7. Rythmic Loop 1 - This track has the annoying qualities of an alarm clock coupled with the repetative nature of your boss. Not recommended for those with heart conditions.
8. Random Noise - Sounds EXACTLY like the intro to Metroid Prime. It's scary.
9. Glitch - Sucks. Nuff said.
10, Rythmic Loop 2 - is the closest thing to outputting something worthy. This has coffee edge with 9-volt-battery-on-toungue power.
11. Loop w / Randomize - I think this is the sound my bathtub makes when emptied.
12. Distortion - SATAN has possessed the Speak N Spell. It's actually pronouncing things - but in this case, at best, it sounds like a smoker that has a tube cut in their throats.
My end analysis:
WHAT DID THESE TOYS EVER DO TO YOU, MAN?!? Poor things.
Here's two other sites about modding S&S and o (Score:4, Informative)
Anti-theory [anti-theory.com]
Both sites are way cooler than the story's link and have sound samples and howto guides on circuit bending. Enjoy!
Bleep Beep Boop! (Score:5, Funny)
Now spell...
WTF?? (Score:4, Funny)
Still make stuff like it (Score:3, Funny)
Especially funny since he actually pronounced it that way until we corrected him. Never let a child use one of these things unsupervised!
-WS
Re:what? (Score:4, Funny)