Hello! And welcome back to the 8-Bit Guy. In this episode we’re going to have a look
at the Speak and Spell. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re going to say “But David,
didn’t you already do an episode on the Speak and Spell?” Well, actually I did,
several years ago. So why am I doing another one? Well, it turns out that at the end of
2019, they actually released a new Speak and Spell. And I went ahead and ordered one on
Amazon and well, here we go! So, apparently this has been on the market for just a little
bit over a year, and I thought why don’t we have a look at it and see how it compares
with the originals.
So let’s have a look at the packaging here. The box is actually nothing like the original.
The original was completely enclosed like this. But still, that’s not a big deal and
I’m certainly not going to hold it against them. Now, I noticed that it says “classic
80s design.” That’s sort of true but sort of not. And that’s because the original
design came out in the 1970s. However, to be fair the 1970s design has raised buttons
like this. And this is the kind you would have seen in the classic movie ET as part
of his intergalactic phone. However, they redesigned the Speak and Spell in the 1980s
and made it look like this one. And clearly this is what they were going for with the
re-make, so in that regard I guess I’ll give them a pass on the “classic 80s remake.”
It also says here to “TRY ME” by pressing GO. However, that doesn’t seem to do anything.
Neither does ON. I’m guessing the batteries have died.
So, let’s take this thing out of the package. It’s attached to the back of the box with
these plastic things.
One thing of note is that they both have the Speak and Spell logo. But the modern version
is missing this tiny text here that says copyright TI 1978. And in fact, its missing the Texas
Instruments logo completely. Also the round speaker is a little bit more pronounced and
visible on the original unit.
On the side, you can see the new one is missing the headphone and power jacks completely.
They are nowhere to be found on the unit at all.
And let’s have a look at the back. The removable tab is obviously unique to the modern unit
and probably designed so it has a demo mode. And the battery compartment is also different.
Which isn’t surprising considering it appears this thing runs on 3 double A batteries. I’m
not sure what sort of batteries these are, but I”m going to make a wild guess they
are probably junk. OK, so let’s put some good batteries in there.
Oddly enough, I still don’t get any activity from this thing. So I guess I’ll go ahead
and remove the little tag. And well, now it seems to work.
SPELL LEVEL A. PRESS GO TO BEGIN.
OK, the first thing I notice is the screen. It’s a backlit LCD screen. But it has a
really narrow viewing angle. You have to look at it just right to see the text. And I think
the text is larger. I’m also not convinced this is the same voice either.
Well, what we need to do is put some batteries in the original version so we can make a comparison.
The original takes 4 of these C cell batteries. And once I get them in I can immediately tell
a big difference in the weight of these. It’s probably mostly the batteries.
So let’s power them both up.
SPELL LEVEL A. PRESS GO TO BEGIN.
So, the original unit doesn’t speak at all when you first turn it on. Let’s compare
how they sound.
SPELL HEALTH. SPELL DOES. H E A L T H THAT IS RIGHT. NOW TRY GUESS. WRONG TRY AGAIN.
DOES. D O E S. THAT IS CORRECT. NOW SPELL FOUR AS IN FOUR WOLVES.
OK, so they definitely sound different. The modern one has a bit higher fidelity but does
try to mimic the older sound to some degree.
Looking at the screen, the original definitely has smaller text. But it’s way easier to
read being a vacuum fluorescent display. You can read the new one in the dark, but again
you need to be at just the right angle. As you can see a slight tilt and all of the segments
appear lit. The original unit can be read at any angle.
Another difference I noticed is the labelling of the number sign, or pound key. The new
unit says VOLUME where the old unit says module select. That key is designed to select your
expansion module that went in behind the battery compartment in the original. It’s safe to
say the modern versions don’t have this, so I guess they decided to make it a volume
control. You just keep pressing it and it cycles between 3 or 4 different volume levels.
Well, it’s time to take this thing apart. Holy cow! I mean, I was expecting it to have
a small board, but not that small. Just a refresher as to what the original looks like
inside. It has a full circuit board with separate processors, RAM, ROM, etc. This modern sucker
has the screen on one side of the board, and everything else is in this epoxy blob on the
back of the board. That’s cost reduction for you. I’m actually really disappointed
as I was hoping it would be at least somewhat hackable. But there’s just not much here.
OK, so what are my final thoughts on the modern speak and spell? Well, I’ve been trying
to think of something objective and something good to say about this product, but believe
it or not I’m having a bit of a problem thinking of anything. I think it boils down
to two problem. The first problem is that if you go back to 1978 or even the early 80s,
when I was a kid. You know, I actually did not own one of these. But several of my friends
did. And I thought they were really cool. And so did they. In fact, most kids thought
these were pretty cool. Now, when I say kids, we’re talking kids 10 years old, you know,
9, 10, 11 years old. We thought these were cool. And the reason we thought these were
cool was because they could talk. And they’re kind of like a one-trick pony. That was really
the only thing exciting about them. I mean, the actual games that you play on this, to
be honest, are not that exciting. Right? So the only thing cool about it was the fact
that they could talk. And today, let’s be honest, any kid that owns an iPad or an iPhone
or whatever is not going to be excited about a product that talks. Because, they’re already
used to it. It’s normal. Back in 1978, it was extremely rare to find any item that could
talk. It seemed extremely futuristic, almost magical, that it could talk. But today, that’s
just not a selling feature. So, I think that’s the problem. I don’t think that there’s
any kid out there today that’s going to see this in the store and there going to be
like “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! I want the speak and spell!” Because, they probably already
tablet or phone or something like that, and they’re just not going to get excited about
the talking aspect. And like I said the games on here in and of themselves are not compelling
enough. Spelling things is just not that exciting. OK, so that’s problem number 1. So, problem
number 2 is that means the people these are being marketed towards are not your modern
day kids. They’re being marketed towards people of my age who are seeing the nostalgia
in this and wanting to buy it for their kids. So that their kids can be bored with it. But
anyway. The point is. So if they are marketing this product to me as a nostalgia, and not
as a good product in and of itself, then I think that it’s not that great because the
screen is terrible. And it also doesn’t completely mimic the behavior of the original.
Admittedly, it looks really good. I mean, it looks, in fact I keep getting them mixed
up here between the original and the new one. So, admittedly it looks really good. But the
screen. It’s a real disappointment. And I understand, this is vastly cost reduced
from the original model. I mean I think I paid $29 bucks for this. And the original
model, especially accounting for inflation, would be probably a couple hundred bucks.
So, I understand it’s vastly cost reduced. And there’s no way they’re going to get
a vacuum fluorescent in there. But, they could have at least put a segmented LED screen.
And I think that would have given the same look and appearance as the old one. Or, if
they had to use an LCD screen, they could have at least opted to spend an extra 30 cents
more and gotten a screen with a better contrast ratio, a better viewing angle on it. And that
would have made a big difference as well. So, again, I think they cost reduced the screen
just way too much. So yeah, I’m not terribly thrilled with this. And I kind of think it
is cool. It’s a cool idea to bring back a vintage product like this. But let’s face
it. There’s a reason. There’s a reason why the speak and spell was discontinued.
And that’s because it was no longer relevant in the market place. I think this product
is quite literally being sold as nostalgia and I don’t think it offers anything else
beyond that. So if you want something to put on your shelf you could get one, but the reality
is you can get the original ones. They’re not that expensive. There were so many of
these made. You can get them on ebay for little to nothing. So again, it kind of makes me
wonder if you just wanted it for nostalgia, and you wanted to put it on your shelf, why
not just get an original? So anyway, I hope that’s not too much of a downer. But that’s
all I can think to say about it. So anyway I guess that wraps up this episode, and I’ll
quit rambling. So as always, thanks for watching!