This game was donated in 1978 to the Museum by Selchow & Righter. It was one of the first production models donated about six months before it went on the market. Although Sensor was developed and produced by the company that manufactured Scrabble, Sensor really wasn't an electronic version of Scrabble. It was a sleek hand-held version of the long-time popular paper and pencil word-game HANGMAN. Sensor had little competition from other electronic games in 1978 and was selling for between $50 and $75 in the United States.
Sensor is for one or two players. A 9 volt battery or ac adapter operates it. It's memory contains from 3 to 7 letter words. One of seven red LEDs on the face glows when a player guesses a correct letter in the correct place in the chosen word. The keyboard is a touch sensitive pad for the 26 painted letters of the English alphabet. There are four command "buttons" - clear, space, auto, enter. When a player guesses the correct word, all the LEDs blink and audible musical "beeps" are produced. There is no information about the number of permanent words maintained in Sensor's memory. The base back is 20.5cm long x 11.5cm wide x 3.8cm high, and the front is 20.5cm long x 11.5cm wide x 2.5cm high. The screen is 8.8cm long at the bottom and 7.7cm long at the top and is 6.3cm high. The case is a die cast white plastic housing wiring, a computer chip, the screen, and a touch sensitive keyboard. The words Scrabble Band Sensor (TM) Electronic Word Game is printed on the top of the case. Other printing on the case includes the word Letters to the left of the first row of 7 LEDs, and the word Position to the left of the second row of 7 LEDs. Below these LEDs are two more LEDs with the words Player One and Player Two. On the base is an on/off switch and a 1-player/2-player switch. Four additional gray keys on the base are marked Clear, Space, Auto, Enter. Included with the game is a 24 sheet printed score pad.
For a copy of the detailed instructions to play the game of Sensor Click Here.
Meanwhile S&R continued to try to develop an electronic version of Scrabble.
In 1980, they began to market Lexor, a $125 hand-held electronic game that had Scrabble-like features for 2 players.
This elliptical die cast white plastic case is 20.7cm long x 3.8cm to 11.5cm high and 17.4cm at its widest point. It has a slanted oval top and a flat bottom. The indented keyboard on the top has embossed letters and command words. In addition to an on/off switch on the base, there is a built in 6cm x 2cm display window toward the top. The game could be played using 4 C-cell batteries or with an electric current adapter.
However, as owner's quickly discovered - Lexor functioned best as a score keeper for the regular Scrabble boardgame.
By 1981, as competition for hand-held electronic games grew, Sensor was discontinued and withdrawn from the marketplace. Shortly thereafter, Lexor was also withdrawn. In 1992 a microcomputer MS-Windows version of Scrabble was made available by Virgin Games and the Milton Bradley Company.
Complete Guide to Electronic Games (GV1469.2B57.1981; ISBN: 0452252687)
Last update March 22, 2010