Currah, the people who brought you the Spectrum Microspeech speech synthesiser, has now released one for the Commodore 64.

Speech 64 was developed in conjunction with General Instruments. On installation and switching on the unit announces every keypress (including cursor up and clear screen) and, using the SAY command, says whatever phrase follows.

In addition, two voice depths (high and low), and two intonations are available (using upper and lower case). The sounds are produced using the allophone system allowing letters to be interpreted directly, and indeed most words.

For £29.95 the Speech 64 is a small brown cartridge and a lead that plugs into the video socket. C64 users who use a monitor to allow them to connect a monitor as well.

Currah says that Speech 64 will be available in most high street shops for Christmas and obviously hopes to make a killing.