an electronic talking picture machine is presented which permits human operators to cause speech or sound accompaniment and branching story lines which affect the outcome of a story . in a preferred embodiment , the speech , sound and branching story line information is enclosed as a bar code printed on a picture story belt . the picture story belt is enclosed in a cartridge which contains a mechanism to &# 34 ; roll &# 34 ; the belt from one spool to another so that a sequence of pictures may be viewed . the bar code contains information as to speech , such as conversation narration , questions and answers and sound . the information on the bar coded picture story belt is entered into the electronic talking picture machine by inserting the cartridge into a cartridge holding area containing conventional photo optical sensors which &# 34 ; reads &# 34 ; the code when the belt is moved to expose the next picture in the sequence . the electronic talking picture machine has a plurality of controls to allow the human reader to advance the story , control branching , story lines , answer questions and to make certain pictured characters speak to make sounds .