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History
Like Coleco, Tandy started as a leather company. It was founded in 1919 under the name Hinckley-Tandy Leather Company. Tandy started to expand and acquired the American Handicrafts Company in the 1950s, adding hobby-related products to its leather stores. By 1962, it had bought Radio Shack, which was close to bankruptcy at the time.
By the mid-1970s, it was clear to Tandy that the computer and video game industries were here to stay, and it decided to invest heavily in them. In 1977, Tandy released the TRS-80 computer under the Radio Shack brand, as well as the TV Scoreboard. Aside from the Tandyvision One in 1982, which was a rebranding of the Intellivision, Tandy stayed out of the video game business for almost a decade. But in 1989, Tandy started working with Microsoft on a new CD-based console. The goal was to fill the gap between video games and personal computers.
The project was code-named Project 513. Although all of Tandy’s R&D projects used numbers as project names, some projects also had a “pet name” within the development team. As such, Project 513 was also known within the team as Project Gryphon.
The work on the Gryphon was primarily done by Frank Durda and Paul T. Schreiber. Frank oversaw the software design and was the primary liaison between Tandy and Microsoft, while Paul was in charge of the system architecture, the audio, the CD-ROM and the memory card, and managed the bill of materials (BOM) and procurement. Other staff members included Steve Erickson, who worked on the infrared controller; Carl Wakeland, who was in charge of the video; Rick Thompson, who was responsible for the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC); and Dale Chatham, who was the overall project manager.
For the occasion, Microsoft developed a new version of Windows called Windows Modular (code-named Haiku). Based on Windows 3.1, the OS would ensure that developers could easily port existing games from Windows 3.1 to the VIS in a matter of weeks. A total of 150 software titles were planned for the original rollout, but only around 80 were ready at launch. By comparison, the CD-i had only 50 after two years in production.
Tandy also partnered with Zenith, which would provide support for the console. Zenith also had a deal to release the console under its own brand, as it wanted to include the VIS as part of a delivery mechanism for large-format televisions.
Tandy claimed that its built-in sales channels, including more than 5,000 Radio Shack stores and the thousands of Tandy Name Brand retail chains, would place VIS boxes within 10 minutes of 90 percent of the U.S. population. Tandy put VIS kiosks at the front of its stores and equipped them with demonstration discs that showed off a wide range of titles, to get consumers “hooked” on the technology. With 35,000 consoles ready to be sold, Tandy was ready to enter the video game console ring once again.
Around August or September of 1992, as the VIS project approached completion, Microsoft, which was still developing Modular Windows, realized that the minimum hardware requirements for its new OS were too low. On a system with the minimum requirements, programs were sluggish and too slow for consumer acceptance for just about any application. Microsoft had no choice but to raise the minimum from a 12 MHz 286 to a 16 MHz 386SX and to double the RAM and ROM requirements to 2 MB each, which effectively doubled the hardware cost of the processor and associated components at that point in time.
But for Tandy, it was far too late to change the initial VIS hardware platform. Some of the gate array semiconductors were already in fabrication, and all the parts for the machines were already arriving. Tandy decided to stay the course and start working on a VIS-2 that would meet these new requirements.
Release
The Visual Information System (VIS) was finally released in November 1992 under the Memorex brand (a brand that belonged to Tandy). It was sold exclusively in Radio Shack and Tandy stores and retailed for $699 USD. Although the price point was fairly high, it was still cheaper than the Philips CD-i, which sold for about $1,000 USD. Tandy tried to boost sales by announcing that 20,000 units had shipped. This was technically true, as every store it owned would receive at least two units, one for demonstration purposes and one for sale. Sadly, the announcement was not able to convince anyone, as only 255 VIS systems were sold during the 1992 holiday season. To add insult to injury, the January sales of the VIS were negative, as some of those 255 units came back.
Demise
Although an interesting concept, the VIS was already outdated by the time of its release. The 486 processor had been introduced in 1989, and the Pentium processor was just around the corner. Nearly three generations behind, the VIS failed to entice any computer enthusiast. Like the CD-i, the VIS was marketed as an edutainment system, and just like the CD-i, it failed to deliver a decent experience. Educational software did not look its best on a television, and the lack of action-paced titles drove away any potential gamers. Radio Shack was unable to sell the first production batch of the VIS, and the company was stuck with about 50,000 devices. With sales going nowhere, it had to liquidate them through fire-sale venues such as the Home Shopping Club, where the VIS was sold for $399. In the end, the system was sold for $99, bundled with 20 titles.
Shortly thereafter, Microsoft publicly denied that Modular Windows was ever a product, claiming it was just a “concept”, and dropped the development of Windows Modular. In January 1993, all work on the VIS-II system was cancelled, and many of the people working on the
project were let go.
Tandy lost $75 million on the VIS as of July 1, 1993.
One of the major problems was the underlying Windows architecture. For example, when Windows 3.x starts, it opens, reads and closes the SYSTEM.INI file 75 separate times. The big improvement between Windows 3.0 and 3.1 was the addition of SMARTDRV, which cached SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI to make these rereads faster. Now, if you put SYSTEM.INI on a CD-ROM and you have no hardware cache in the drive and no SMARTDRV buffering, things get really slow. This problem prevented popular titles from being ported to Windows Modular. For example, in the port of King’s Quest V to Windows Modular, it took exactly five minutes from the disc insertion until the point where the game asked, “Have you played this game before?” The lack of Windows blockbusters of the time, such as Space Quest IV, King’s Quest V and Lemmings, put the final nail in the VIS’s coffin.
Compatibility
While VIS applications run on Windows 3.1, the results can be unexpected, as there is usually no way to modify the control scheme of these applications. Simple applications that require only one button (especially DOS-based applications) might already work with a mouse instead of the controller, while others will not be mapped correctly or will not even load.
Technical Specification
- CPU: 12 MHz AMD 80286 (N80L286-12/S) on a local bus (not ISA), running with 0 wait states. Equivalent PC performance is somewhere around that of a 386SX-16 or 386SX-20.
- ROM: contains a minimal MS-DOS 3.x, a few drivers and the fabled Modular Windows™.
- Built-in application: an audio CD player, written in Modular Windows.
- RAM: 1 MB in a conventional PC layout (640 KB + 384 KB).
- CD-ROM drive: Mitsumi, 150 KB/s with a 16-bit interface, 800 ms access time (1,300 ms worst case). It is CD+G capable but not Photo CD compatible, and has a 5,000-hour MTBF.
- Infrared interface: supports up to two IR transmitters (hand controllers) operating at the same time.
- PS/2 port: accepts a mouse or keyboard (either can be connected and is generally recognized by applications). A wired hand controller could also be connected to this port, for locations where the wireless controller was not practical, or used together with one wireless controller.
- Outputs: RCA line left/right, composite video, RF video and S-Video (NTSC video).
- Storage: Dallas Semiconductor plug-in CyberCard, a removable non-volatile storage card available in sizes up to 512 KB (big money for 512 KB at the time). The system comes with a 32 KB unit.
- Audio: the onboard audio is the same as in the Tandy Sensation I: AdLib Gold compatible, not Sound Blaster compatible.
- Video: uses the ADAC-1 chip found in the Tandy Sensation I and supports YUV and several high-quality color modes. It also supports some TV-specific features for handling overscan.
Peripherals
- The same modem card used in the Tandy Sensation could also be installed in the VIS (2400 baud data, 4800 baud send-only fax).
- RS-232 serial board for debugging purposes. These were sold for $500.
Released Software
Software released for the VIS had an initial order of 6,000 copies. This number could go up to 10,000 if Tandy was particularly enthusiastic about a specific title
- American Heritage – Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary (1992)(Xiphias)
- American Vista – The Multimedia U.S. Atlas (1992)(Applied Optical Media Corporation)
- Americans in Space (1992)(Multicom Publishing)
- America’s National Parks (1992)(Multicom Publishing)
- Astrology Source (1992)(Multicom Publishing)
- Atlas of U.S. Presidents (1992)(Applied Optical Media Corporation)
- Awesome Adventures of Victor Vector & Yondo, The – Adventure No. 1 – The Vampire’s
- Better Homes and Gardens – Healthy Cooking – CD Cookbook (1992)(Multicom Publishing)
- Better Not Get Wet, Jesse Bear (1992)(Macmillan New Media)
- Bible Lands, Bible Stories (1992)(Context Systems)
- Compton’s Multimedia Encyclopedia VIS Edition – 1992 Edition v1.10VIS (1992)(Compton’s NewMedia)
- December 24th. Story and Pictures by Denys Cazet (1992)(Macmillan New Media)(US)
- Fitness Partner – For Men and Women v1.0 (1993)(Computer Directions)
- Great Lives Series: Interactive Biographies of American Heroes Vol. 1 (1992)(JLR Group)
- Henry and Mudge – In The Sparkle Days (1992)(Macmillan New Media)
- Henry and Mudge The First Book (1992)(Macmillan New Media) (Story by Cynthia Rylant, Pictures by Sucie Stevenson)
- Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? v1.0 (1992)(Macmillan New Media)
- Kid-Fun (1992)(Radio Shack)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – A Long Hard Day on the Ranch (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – Aesop’s Fables (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – Cinderella – The Original Fairy Tale (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – Heather Hits her First Home Run (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – Moving Gives Me A Stomach Ache (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – Mud Puddle (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – Scary Poems for Rotten Kids (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – The Cask of Amontillado (Discus, Nov. 92)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – The Necklace (1992)(Discus)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – The Night Before Christmas (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – The Paper Bag Princess (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1992)(Discis)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – The Tell-Tale Heart (Discus, Nov. 92)
- Kids Can Read Discis Books! – Thomas’ Snowsuit (1992)(Discis)
- Learn To Play Guitar: Vol #1 (with Sting: Every Breath You Take/Message In A Bottle) (1993)(Parallax Publishing)
- Links – The Challenge of Golf (1992)(Access Software)
- Living Books – Just Grandma and Me
- Meeting of Minds Series, The – Interactive Games of History, Art, Music, and Ideas with Steve Allen (1992)(JLR Group)
- Mosaic Magic (1993)(Kinder Magic Software)
- Multimedia Animals Encyclopedia
- Mutanoid Math Challenge (1992)(Legacy Software)
- Mutanoid Word Challenge (1992)(Legacy Software)
- My Paint (1992)(Saddleback Graphics)
- New Basics Electronic Cookbook, The – With Recipes from the Acclaimed Silver Palate Series (1992)(Xiphias)
- Our House – featuring The Family Circus (1992)(Context Systems)
- Peter and the Wolf – A Multimedia Storybook (1992)(Ebook)
- Playing With Language – Games In English (1992)(Syracuse Language Systems)
- Playing With Language – Games In French (1992)(Syracuse Language Systems)
- Playing With Language – Games In German (1992)(Syracuse Language Systems)
- Playing With Language – Games In Japanese (1992)(Syracuse Language Systems)
- Playing With Language – Games In Spanish (1992)(Syracuse Language Systems)
- Race the Clock (1992)(Mindplay, Methods & Solutions)
- Rainbow & Snowflake’s Search for the Sea (1992)(Multicom Publishing)
- Rick Ribbit – Adventures in Early Learning (1992)(Tadpole Productions)
- Rodney’s Funscreen (1992)(Activision)
- Sail With Columbus (1992)(Parallax Publishing)
- Secrets of Hosea Freeman, The – An Environmental Mystery (1992)(Top Ten Software)
- Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective – Volume I (1992)(ICOM)
- Sherlock Holmes – Consulting Detective – Volume II (1992)(ICOM)
- SmartKids Challenge ONE (1992)(ARKEO)
- Stepping Stones – Talking Bonus Pack – Level I and Level II (1992)(Compu-Teach)
- Survey of Western Art, A – The Electronic Library of Art (1992)(Ebook)
- The Manhole (Activision)
- Time Almanac (1992)(Compact Publishing)
- Time Table of History – Arts and Entertainment – 1993 Edition (1992)(Xiphias)
- Time Table of History – Business, Politics & Media – 1993 Edition (1992)(Xiphias)
- Time Table of History – Science and Innovation – 1993 Edition (1992)(Xiphias)
- Title Sampler (1992)(Tandy)
- Video Movie Guide 1993 (Advanced Multimedia)
- Vision Multimedia Bible – For the Entire Family (1992)(Candlelight Publishing)
- What Is That? WILD Animals! (1992)(GTE ImagiTrek)
- World Vista (1992)(Applied Optical Media Corporation)
Cancelled Games:
- Bake & Taste
- Easy Street
- Eco Quest: Search for Cetus
- Inspector Gadget!
- Jones in the Fast Lane
- King’s Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart go Yonder!
- Laura Bow: The Dagger of Amon Ra
- Lemmings
- Loom
- Mixed-Up Mother Goose
- Spacenuts
- Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers
- The Sleeping Beauty
Reference
Most of the information comes directly from Frank Durda IV, Senior Project Software Engineer at Tandy, who worked on the VIS.