Having watched ET with Moonbase Junior we checked out some You Tubery of Speak and Spell, the toy reading device that ET uses to phone home.
Junior was fascinated and since he can't read yet it may actually be a useful thing to have in the house.
Checking Amazon for new products - I thought it might have been re-retroed and re-released - there aren't any new Speak and Spells. Ebay on the other hand has a handful in the UK and around £40 would bag one I reckon, although that's quite dear.
I shall have to keep my eye open at car boots this summer!
Anyways, I was intrigued by the claim on You Tube that it was the first household PC. Is it a PC? Can its operation be classed as computing?
Wiki says when it came out in June 1978 it was "one of the earliest handheld electronic devices with a visual display to use interchangeable game cartridges".
Is that a PC?
What do you think?
Wouldn't say it was a PC, but it was certainly a 'computer', as were electronic calculators and digital watches from earlier in the 70s.
ReplyDeleteI loved big casio calculators back then Mish and I wish I'd have got a chunky Casio watch too but never did.
DeleteI had a Speak and Spell and A Speak and Number or whatever, the blue version, which I picked up at car boots years ago for the kids and for the possible ET connection. Id hesitate to call it a 'computer' as it doesn't actually run any calculations, just vocalises whats hard wired onto the chips. I spent ages trying to get it to swear, but it was pretty limited. They have been used in music too, I think Orchestral Manoevres used them in some of their early work, which may also have prompted me to buy one!
ReplyDeleteGot it to swear! Were you 9 Wote? I bet you still write GOOLIES when you get hold of a calculator! My daughter had a VTECH computer, which was marketed as My First Computer.
DeleteYes and no.
ReplyDeleteIf you read Wikis definition of a computer then yes. It would also be classed as a PC as thats simply a computer for a single user.
However Timmy Toad says that a computer should be able to be programmed by the end user. This would mean it is not a computer. It does still mean that my programmable calculator from 1980 (TI 57) still qualifies.
Maybe it should be able to be able to run and be programmed with programmes of high complexity? That would disqualify my calculator , but allow all the computers I have used since 1980 to be called computers (from my schools RM350Z they got in 1980, Speccy, Fortran77 and Basic programming on uni minicomputers, gw-basic on a 286 pc, quickbasic on 386sx upwards to C++ on a Pentium pc).
Smartphones are PCs, Games consoles can be PCs (the PS/3 for certain).
Interesting insights guys. Thanks.
ReplyDelete