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Child Guidance/Playskool Talk 'n Play

The Talk 'n Play book-on-tape system was a children's cassette recorder with several specific features like being able to play any of the four audio tracks recorded on a cassette in any combination at once, allowing for basic interactivity using a similar principal to the earlier 8-track based 2-XL. The Talk 'n Play system was first marketed by CBS Toys under the Child Guidance name in 1984 and 1985 with Hasbro bought CBS toys. Hasbro used the Child Guidance name in 1986 before rebranding the series under the Playskool name going forward, releasing a later redesigned model that was cross-compatible.

A copy of the instructions for the original style Talk 'n Play can still be found on the Hasbro website (archived).

Child Guidance Talk 'n Play

The main Talk 'n Play unit measures approximately by 280mm by 390mm and is slanted upwards on top. It weighs about 1820 grams without batteries or books. The left portion of the machine houses a mechanical shoebox-style cassette mechanism with large control keys. The right side has a large open portion where the books can be read and flipped through when in use, and a latch opens the cover to reveal the battery compartment and storage room for several books and tapes. At the bottom is the pause button, microphone, and volume slider and to the right are four colored buttons which change between playing the four different audio tracks on a cassette.

As the presence of the four buttons and four-track functionality would suggest, this machine uses a four-track record/play head, with the colored buttons on the front mixing each track's output into the amplifier and out the single speaker. Normally, most books have only one button held down at the same time, but any combination of any number of tracks can be played at any time - on a "normal" commercial cassette, this means the "rear" tracks will be played in reverse, but any cassettes designed for this system as well as any recordings it makes (as well as those for or from "tracker"-type four-track cassette decks) will play properly. The speaker is housed in the angled grey portion of the casing above the rear of the cassette mechanism. This particular example is dated 1986 and Playskool and is still marked Child Guidance. These later Child Guidance-branded machines can be externally identified by the small plug above the T in Talk that can be taken out to adjust the head azimuth. Later Playskool releases in this original form-factor had the Child Guidance name below the cassette door replaced by a Playskool sticker.

Playing Talk 'n Play Books

As a sticker originally stuck over the cassette door indicated, starting a Talk 'n Play book tape involves putting the tape in the machine and pressing the ON/PLAY button along with any of the colored "answer" buttons. The books have the main intro narration recorded across all four tracks, with branching paths appearing and reconvening as the tape goes on.

The tapes have audio instructing when to turn the page as well as asking questions or otherwise prompting the player to select one of the colored buttons to change the audio track to the accompanying answer.

Playing Regular Cassettes

As outlined on the inside of the storage compartment door, regular cassettes can be played by pressing down the red and blue buttons. The four colored buttons correspond to the four tracks recorded on the tape.

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If you want to play the "B" side of a tape properly, it must be flipped over - pressing the green and yellow buttons will play the "bottom" side of the tape, but on commercial tapes the recordings will be played backwards as they expect the reels to be turning the opposite direction. This does let you listen to any hidden satanic messages, I guess, and if the rumors about the quadraphonic eight track release of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music are to believed (allegedly, the rear channels just had the album recorded backwards on them) you could simulate a mono mix of what it would sound like by pressing all four buttons while playing it on cassette in this machine.