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What if Tandy made a console.. What would it be?


ryoder

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I loved Tandy computers and wonder what their Amiga CDTV like system would be.

Would it be cartridge based or run CDs? Would it have a MT32 inside and play Sierra games off of bootable CDs?

Would they build blitter chips and tile based graphics modes or at least have the type of scroll registers in the EGA chip to allow for platform games?

Why didnt they become the juggernaut they could have?

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The Color Computer is probably the closest thing to what wed call video game console that Tandy designed and produced.

 

Tandy licensed several dedicated video games in the 70s, and of course the Tandyvision. The handheld TV Scoreboard systems units seem to be unique to Tandy, but I dont know if they actually designed it.

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Tandy flirted with making a deal with Mattel regarding the future of Intellivision, but that never got past the meeting/memo stage before the Crash. If you want to count it - and you probably should - their Memorex VIS was a console. Not a very good console - or even multimedia device as it was positioned - but a console nonetheless.

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The handheld TV Scoreboard systems units seem to be unique to Tandy, but I dont know if they actually designed it.

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Tandy/index.html

 

Claims to have every Tandy handheld listed. Based on RadioShack's old catalogs.

 

 

If you want to count it - and you probably should - their Memorex VIS was a console. Not a very good console - or even multimedia device as it was positioned - but a console nonetheless.

Wondered this for awhile, why didn't Tandy license the CD-I instead of developing their own system?

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While they did no re-brand it as their own, here in Canada, for a few years in the early-1990s, Radio Shack sold the Turbo Graphics-16 console.

 

I doubt that it was a big seller. For many years afterwards, some local stores were still trying to clearance piles of dusty accessories -- despite the consoles having long been discontinued.

 

I am not certain if we received the Memorex VIS; I do not recall having seen it in stores, and I owned a Tandy PC at the time.

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While they did no re-brand it as their own, here in Canada, for a few years in the early-1990s, Radio Shack sold the Turbo Graphics-16 console.

 

I doubt that it was a big seller. For many years afterwards, some local stores were still trying to clearance piles of dusty accessories -- despite the consoles having long been discontinued.

 

I am not certain if we received the Memorex VIS; I do not recall having seen it in stores, and I owned a Tandy PC at the time.

 

No doubt it sat there for so long--their pricing of TG16 gear was attrocious. I loved my TG16, but I refused to buy any of my stuff from RS and instead did a lot of mail-order stuff.

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No, not those. This:

 

post-13896-0-87053700-1384748160.jpg

That looks nice! Old-Computers.com does list a few similar models from other companies:

 

Here's Tandy's: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=3&c=719

Here's one by Universum: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=3&c=1104

Another by Hanimex: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=3&c=682

And another by Hanimex: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=3&c=683

 

Don't know if these are the same internally or if they just look similar. If they are the same I don't know who came up with the design.

Edited by pacman000
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Good catch!

 

Given that Radio Shack and Hanimex were selling in completely different markets (North America vs. Western Europe), it is entirely likely that both models may have come from the same original manufacturer, presumably located somewhere in Asia.

 

For another example, look at how Emerson Electronics licensed (and rebranded) existing hardware into their Arcadia 2001 console.

https://www.digitpress.com/faq/arc2001.htm#wallstreet

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