Children's Discovery System Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Children's Discovery System

Manufacturer	Mattel
Generation	Second generation
Release date	September 1981 (1981-09)
Discontinued	1984
Media	Learning Module ROM cartridges
Memory	2k RAM
Display	LCD 16x48
Input	Membrane keyboard

The Mattel Children's Discovery System was a cool electronic toy from Mattel that came out in 1981. It was made for kids aged 6 to 11. This system looked a lot like the computers people used back then. It was designed to help kids learn while having fun!

How the Discovery System Worked

The Children's Discovery System had a special screen called an LCD. This screen was 16 pixels tall and 48 pixels wide. It ran on six AA batteries. Because the screen was much wider than it was tall, it could only show a small amount of text at once. You could see about 16 characters on the screen at any time.

The system came with three built-in ways to play:

Art mode: For drawing and creating pictures.
Music mode: For making and playing music.
Type mode: For practicing typing and words.

It had a unique membrane keyboard that was perfect for these activities. The system also came with a big activity book. This book had over 100 fun learning ideas just for the Discovery System.

Learning Modules and Games

Besides the built-in modes, you could buy extra game cartridges. These were called "Learning Modules." Each module had different games and activities. They were numbered from 1 to 21. Each one had a name like "Discoveries in Math I Learning Fun Module."

Each module had several different games inside. They also had an age range to show which kids would enjoy them most. Even though Mattel advertised 21 modules from the start, not all of them were ready right away. Many were released later. Some modules might not have been released at all.

The boxes for these modules were all different colors. If you collected them, their spines would create a cool color pattern! The front of each box also showed pictures of different children.

The background color shows the box color and number on the spine of each game.

#	Code	Age Range	Fun Module	Game Modes Listed in the Box
1	1606	6-11	Math I	Calculator Flash Cards Math Quiz Metric/U.S. Conversions
2	3349	6-11	Arcade Action I	Racers Golf Push Off
3	1607	6-8	Words I	Computerized word games with 4 fun ways to play!
4	1609	6-11	Art	Pixturir Quik Pix Copy That Art Alive Lock-N-Key
5	1608	6-11	Music	Create, play and learn music with a fun, computerized sound!
6	3346	9-11	Words II	Word games for the older child with 4 fun ways to play!
7	3731	6-11	Arcade Action II	Target action exitement in 4 computer arcade games.
8	3733	6-11	Memory And Logic	Secret Code Memory Match Patterns
9	3732	6-11	Geography I	Mystery Nation Geo-Facts Odd Nation Out Info-Nations
10	3734	6-11	Foods	Pick A Food Four Of A Kind Peanut Butter Poker Calories Count
11	5165	6-8	Fractions I	Fraction Counting Name That Fraction Action Fractions Pinpoint The Fraction
12	3347	9-11	Fractions II
13	3350	9-11	Science I	Planets Space Weights Rocket Lander
14	3835	6-11	Presidents	Presidential Facts Mystery President Presidential Order Pick A President
15
16	5329		Computer Programming
17
18	5328	9-13	Spelling Fun	Word Gin 2-Player Word Gin Secret Word 2-Player Secret Word
19
20
21

Some other games that were planned or released include:

Math Quiz/Calculator
Nutrition
US Cities
History
Sports

Children's Discovery System facts for kids

How the Discovery System Worked

Learning Modules and Games

See also