The Mattel Children's Discovery System is an early electronic educational toy product released by Mattel in 1981. The Children's Discovery System was targeted toward children aged 6 to 11 and mimicked the look of a contemporary consumer-grade computer.
Contents
Specifications
The Children's Discovery System used a 16-by-48 matrix LCD screen and was powered by six size AA alkaline batteries. The screen was much wider than it was tall, therefore only a grid of 8-by-2 text was possible, allowing for a maximum of 16 characters on-screen at any given moment.
The unit came preprogrammed with three modes: Art mode, Music mode and Type mode. The Discovery System came with a specially laid-out membrane keyboard to better accommodate the built-in modes and also made use of keyboard overlays for use with expansion modules. Also included with the unit was a large activity book with over 100 suggested learning activities specially-tailored for the Discovery System.