click for full article

click for larger image

In 1983, Coleco created an interesting accessory for the Atari 2600: the Kid Vid Voice Module. This accessory connects to the second controller port of the Atari 2600 and allows games to play audio from cassette tapes in sync with the action on the screen. The Kid Vid Voice Module also doubles as a portable cassette player, "portable" being relative to when it was introduced. Only two games were ever released that took advantage of the Kid Vid: Smurfs Save The Day (included with the Kid Vid) and Berenstain Bears (sold separately).

The only way to experience the Kid Vid games as Coleco intended is to use the z26 emulator with the audio files below. To use these files with z26, first make sure you have at least version 1.54 of z26 installed. Then download the audio files and place them into the same directory as z26. You can then launch Berenstain Bears and Smurfs Save the Day and experience them with the original audio. To select a tape to play, press 1, 2, or 3. To rewind a tape, press F1.

If you'd like to try a game without downloading all the audio, you can download just the KVSHARED.ZIP and one of the game-specific files. If you decide you like what you hear, you can then download the remaining files. We have zipped all the files together into one large (20MB) file, or you can download them individually.

Audio Files

Complete set of all seven audio files:

KidVidAudio.zip (19.37MB)

Shared Audio (required by both games):

KVSHARED.ZIP (1.69MB)

Berenstain Bears Audio:

KBV1.ZIP (2.25MB)
KVB2.ZIP (5.60MB)
KVB3.ZIP (4.20MB)

Smurfs Save the Day Audio:

KVS1.ZIP (2.11MB)
KVS2.ZIP (1.34MB)
KVS3.ZIP (2.20MB)

Special thanks to Lee Krueger for making the Kid Vid music available, and thanks to Eckhard Stolberg and Thomas Jentzsch for the Kid Vid software support. Thanks also to Franklin Cruz for providing us with the Hard Sell Videogames magazine article. You can learn more about the Kid Vid Voice Module at Sly DC's Atari 2600 Kid Vid Page.