Kind of an overkill chip, but does a great job. I've got a few from arcade games, think there is something similar in Commodore computers as well. Yeah, kind of an old chip.
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I haven't messed with them in decades, but remember that you could get some pretty interesting and realistic sounds out of it. Like mentioned earlier, you need more than a 9 volt battery to make it loud. So, you kind of need to decide what you want, and make a few trade offs.
SAW 3 DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER | AllElectronics.com Smallish circuit board, 30 seconds recording, but not particularly loud either. But for $2.00, it's not a bad little toy (have several, 10/$1.50 each special...).
The amplifier and speakers are going to be the tough choice, since they'll kind of dictate power requirements and size. Depend on how load you need. Have seen some fairly loud, but compact MP3 speakers/amplifiers, which couldn't possibly be powered by more than 2 or three AA batteries. Not sure how much you want to build from scratch, and how much off the shelf you want to use. I prefer to avoid re-inventing the wheel, since I seldom do as well, and seldom save much money on parts for many things.