Tandy Video Information System

Tandy Video Information System File:Vis.gif A crappier version of the CD-i! Developer: Tandy Release Date: 1992 Competitors: Philips CD-i CDTV Generation: Fourth Generation

The Tandy Video Information System (VIS for short) was an interactive, multimedia CD-based console released in 1992 by Tandy and was influenced by the Philips CD-i and CDTV, but mostly the latter.

Why It Flopped

1. Basically, it's a crappy rip-off of the CD-i and the CDTV.
2. Virtually no games, save for Links: the Challenge of Golf and Search for the Sea.
3. Underpowered. Even though it ran on CDs, it had a 286 CPU, and it ran on a variation of Windows 3.1.
4. It was only sold at Radio Shack.
5. It was insanely expensive at $699 (nearly tying with the 3DO and the CD-i in terms of price). Though when sold under the Memorex brand, the price was lowered to $399 (sold catalog only). Even with that, it still didn't sell well, with around 11,000 units sold during its retail lifespan. Radio Shack employees jokingly referred the system as "Virtually Impossible to Sell".
6. Awful advertising.
7. Only twenty games got released for it, and a quarter of them is Playing with Language games, a line of educational games to learn languages.

The Only Redeeming Quality

1. Its startup sequence is decent, just like the CD-i's and CDTV's.

Reception

The Tandy Video Information System was a critical commercial failure, as it only sold 11,000 units before being discontinued in early 1994. Its high price and exclusivity on Radio Shack were a major factor of the system's extremely low sales.

All remaining units of the VIS were sold to liquidators after its aforementioned discontinuation.

Trivia

• A special edition of Microsoft's Windows 3.1, Modular Windows, was designed to run on the Video Information System. Microsoft intended Modular Windows to be an embedded operating system for various devices, especially those designed to be connected to televisions. However, the VIS is the only known product that actually used this Windows version.
  • It was also claimed that Microsoft released a newer version of Modular Windows, baptized "1.1", shortly after the VIS shipped. No products are known to have actually used Modular Windows 1.1.

External link

Wikipedia article

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