Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Tandy's Memorex Video Information System is the subject of a lot of speculation. In this series, I'm going to do a deep dive into the VIS: What it was, its fate, how software looked, and what it takes to write software for it.
In Part 1 of the series, I'll dive into the system's history, some basic specs, and do a demo of the included Sampler Disc (including the game Spacenuts), as well as demonstrate the following titles: Just Grandma and Me, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. 1, and Activision's The Manhole.
There was a little reverb and mic whine in there that I attempted to attenuate. Hopefully I was successful. The scenes w/ the VIS playing audio will drown out my voice; the VIS levels were too high. Sorry. :)
Music/SFX (in order):
"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Links:
Tandy Showcase's Main Site - tandyshowcase.com
Tandy Showcase's Tandy VIS site - tandyvis.com
2019 Tandy Assembly Keynote - Paul Schreiber - youtu.be/w2Tb8IOa5VQ?si=Ug8UJQYBvx6k1nFp
Tandy Assembly Website: tandyassembly.com
Facebook: Tandy/Memorex VIS Group - facebook.com/groups/1346365442409160
Chapters:
Series Intro (0:00)
Why Care About VIS? (1:57)
What Is The VIS? (3:10)
VIS Sells Itself (6:42)
Resources & Acknowledgements (11:42)
VIS Hardware Specs (15:30)
What Happened to VIS? (18:48)
VIS Sampler Disc / Spacenuts (20:30)
Just Grandma And Me (35:31)
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. 1 (43:23)
Funny VIS Title Names & The Manhole (49:31)
Outro / What's Next (56:09)
I do these videos unscripted, so I apologize if the in-the-moment descriptions of things aren't as cohesive as you would like. If you have any questions/comments about this video, you can find me in any of these fine locations:
The Tandy Discord Server
The CoCo Nation Discord Server
The TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) group on Facebook
The CoCo Crew Podcast group on Facebook
On the Vintage Computer Forums (vcfed.org)
The TRS-80 Models I-4/4P Group on Facebook
Tandy / Radio Shack Model II /12 / 16 / 16B / 6000 Owner's Group on Facebook
X (I'm TJBChris there...)
Mastadon: TJBChris@mastadon.social
The Level29 BBS (I'm TJBChris there, too.)
Particles BBS (Guess who I am here? Yeah, TJBChris.)
Thanks for watching!
Tandy's Memorex Video Information System is the subject of a lot of speculation. In this series, I'm going to do a deep dive into the VIS: What it was, its fate, how software looked, and what it takes to write software for it.
In Part 1 of the series, I'll dive into the system's history, some basic specs, and do a demo of the included Sampler Disc (including the game Spacenuts), as well as demonstrate the following titles: Just Grandma and Me, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. 1, and Activision's The Manhole.
There was a little reverb and mic whine in there that I attempted to attenuate. Hopefully I was successful. The scenes w/ the VIS playing audio will drown out my voice; the VIS levels were too high. Sorry. :)
Music/SFX (in order):
"BossaBossa" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Links:
Tandy Showcase's Main Site - tandyshowcase.com
Tandy Showcase's Tandy VIS site - tandyvis.com
2019 Tandy Assembly Keynote - Paul Schreiber - youtu.be/w2Tb8IOa5VQ?si=Ug8UJQYBvx6k1nFp
Tandy Assembly Website: tandyassembly.com
Facebook: Tandy/Memorex VIS Group - facebook.com/groups/1346365442409160
Chapters:
Series Intro (0:00)
Why Care About VIS? (1:57)
What Is The VIS? (3:10)
VIS Sells Itself (6:42)
Resources & Acknowledgements (11:42)
VIS Hardware Specs (15:30)
What Happened to VIS? (18:48)
VIS Sampler Disc / Spacenuts (20:30)
Just Grandma And Me (35:31)
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. 1 (43:23)
Funny VIS Title Names & The Manhole (49:31)
Outro / What's Next (56:09)
I do these videos unscripted, so I apologize if the in-the-moment descriptions of things aren't as cohesive as you would like. If you have any questions/comments about this video, you can find me in any of these fine locations:
The Tandy Discord Server
The CoCo Nation Discord Server
The TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) group on Facebook
The CoCo Crew Podcast group on Facebook
On the Vintage Computer Forums (vcfed.org)
The TRS-80 Models I-4/4P Group on Facebook
Tandy / Radio Shack Model II /12 / 16 / 16B / 6000 Owner's Group on Facebook
X (I'm TJBChris there...)
Mastadon: TJBChris@mastadon.social
The Level29 BBS (I'm TJBChris there, too.)
Particles BBS (Guess who I am here? Yeah, TJBChris.)
Thanks for watching!
