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Library • Museum • Blind Gaming
 

The Game Center

The Game Center by Telesensory Systems Inc. (TSI) from 1978. A light blue aluminium box with number pad, two vertical sliders either side of the box and various other controls. Braille and printed game list from 0-7.

TSI Game Center Model E1A (1977)

Telesensory Systems Inc was a legendary Californian Assistive Technology company focussed on blind accessibility. Formed in 1970 around their first product, the portable Optacon text and image scanner. The Optacon was the first device to enable blind users to play text based computer games independently.

TSI went on to produce TSI Speech+ the world's first commercial talking calculator around 1975/76. This was no doubt used alongside an Optacon and Calculator Game books.

In 1977 on the shoulders of TSI Speech+, Pong, video game popularity but lack of access for blind people, came The Game Center.

This dedicated games machine played a range of eight action, memory and skill games. Of note, Paddleball is the earliest audio-game aimed at blind players to use stereo sound found to date (2-2024). 

Learn more via the links and videos below.


Instructions Downloads

The Game Center (TSI) manual.
Audio cassette manual. Side A and Side B (the games).


TSI The Game Center model E1A guide. Explained in full in the audio-cassette download SIDE B.Games lists from 0-7 each game with it's own highly 1970s font. Paddleball, Craps, Skeet-Shoot, Tic-Tac-Toe, The Chain Game, Black Jack, Tug O War, Number Run.Artwork of a set of headphones. Out of both cups a hand holding a table-tennis bat. A ball in the middle. Text reads TSI Paddleball.

Credits: Manuals on tape and PDF courtesy of The Dot Experience at APH Musuem - Accession Number: 1992.96a-c

Thanks to Ian Hamilton for the original link after a discussion on BBC Micro audio games. Also to Brian  Etherbrian Brasher for the Pong headset art refresh of Martha Vaughan's Disabled USA original.

More Links

Side view showing that the TSI Game Center unit was quite bulky and deep.

 
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