in areas of the screen with color one line at a time; it is not known whether this is an effect employed for the student's enjoyment or if it is due to the slow processing time of the system. There is also a latency between user input and system responses. Response times do not seem to be affected by the presence or absence of the voice cartridge. List of Socrates games There are titles known to have been released. Hardware The standard system includes a wireless full keyboard with two wired-on controllers. The keyboard sends infrared signals to a receiver on the main console. Consoles vary in their effectiveness in receiving the signals; some can receive signals from up to twelve feet away, while others require the user to maintain a close and direct line with the receiver. The Mouse and Touch Pad peripherals – for the CAD Professor and Touch Pad cartridges respectively – also use infrared signals to communicate with the main system, but similar signal receiving issues may hamper the usefulness of these add-ons. Price and phase-out The system was quite expensive upon its initial release; most consoles saw prices of up to $130. The cost put it at odds with other educational toys and even VTech's other products, including the Whiz Kid systems. The system was released as the third generation of video game consoles – including the Sega Master System and the Nintendo Entertainment System – were on the way out. Because of the Socrates' limited games library and slow speeds, it quickly became obsolete among growing expectations regarding speed, graphics, and engagement, even among educational titles. The Socrates was phased out after a few years. Today, it is considered rare, although attempts to emulate the system proceed as part of the MESS project. A small amount of hobbyist interest in the Socrates has risen in the past decade, as past users have shared more information about it on the Internet. References External links VTech Socrates games playable for free in the browser at the Internet Archive Console Living Room 20th Century Retro Games entry (Gallery page for various VTech Socrates models) Third-generation video game consoles Products introduced in 1988 VTech Educational toys Z80-based home computers