National Semiconductor
Quiz Kid Electronic Game
physical object
Identifier
2017.10.6
Description
This electronic game tests children on the basic operations of arithmetic. It has
an off-white plastic case, and a paper sticker attached under the keyboard and
display. The sticker is decorated with a drawing of an owl. The device has
eighteen rectangular plastic keys. These include ten digit keys, a decimal point
key, a clear key, four function keys, a total key and a question mark key. The
on/off switch is at the center of the top row of keys. The display consists of
two lights that serve as eyes for the owl, one green and the other red.
Children playing the game entered both a problem and their answer to it. If the
answer was correct, the green light flashed reinforcement. If not, the red eye
lit up.
A mark at the back of the sticker reads: National Semiconductor (/) Quiz Kid (/)
Pat Pending. A socket for a power adapter is on the left side.
The back has a compartment for a battery. Text at the bottom of the back
reads: MADE IN HONG KONG.
According to a trademark registration filed by National Semiconductor
Corporation in September 1977 and registered August 14, 1979, the company
first used the term Quiz Kid in commerce in April 1975. It was introduced at
the Consumer Electronics Show held in Chicago in June 1975. The company
sold a similar toy in its Novus line of calculators as the Novus Quiz Kid. An
advertisement published in The New York Times just before Christmas in 1975
proclaimed “the Novus ‘Quiz Kid’ might just make a Whiz Kid out of Jr.” The
toy sold for $15. An article from May 1976 indicated that by then roughly
600,000 of the toys had been shipped. Advertisements for the toy appeared at
least as late as 1981.