VHS tapes
A box of VHS video tapes dug out from the attic. (Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire)

Be kind, and rewind your memory to appreciate this one: the last-known company still manufacturing video cassette recorders, or VCRs, has announced that it will no longer do so.

The New York Times pointed to a report in the Japanese newspaper Nikkei in which Funai Corporation of Japan said it would stop making VCRs at the end of this month, mainly because of “difficulty acquiring parts.”

The Times references a statement in which the company said, “We are the last manufacturer” of VCRs “in all of the world.” Apparently, 750,000 units were sold worldwide in 2015, down from millions decades earlier.

For a generation that has grown up with streaming technology that brings movies and TV shows straight to TVs, tablets and smartphones, the news is unlikely to trigger any sort of nostalgic pang. Others, perhaps still clinging to DVDs, at least have a passing knowledge of the bulky hardware that was first introduced in the 1950s and became widely popular in American homes in the 1980s.

After hearing the news, I went straight to a box that I knew was tucked in a corner of my home’s attic. In it I found and looked through dozens of VHS tapes (I was never a Betamax guy) accumulated in the ’80s and ’90s.

VHS tapes
Remember when it was cool to own physical copies of movies? (Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire)

I used to use the same tape to record and then record over “Late Night with David Letterman” every night. I had my mom record movies — “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Jaws,” etc. — from premium cable channels. I bought used copies of many of my favorite films — so much De Niro! — from Blockbuster.

I remember how technically savvy I thought anyone was who could set the clock or timer on a VCR. And the machine created, for the first time, this sense of freedom from the TV schedule where we knew we didn’t have to be home at a certain time to watch something. And the idea of re-watching a great show or sporting event was so revolutionary.

The VCR worked overtime, recording and playing back film favorites and home movies. (Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire)
The VCR worked overtime, recording and playing back film favorites and home movies. (Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire)

I can hear the whir of a machine that we owned whose sole purpose was to rewind tapes. Remember what it was like to get up from the couch to eject a movie? It was like the Pokémon Go of 1987 — so much physical movement!

My 1995 wedding tape was in the box, and a recording of a documentary on the 9/11 attacks. Certainly those with precious home movies on the old format got wise to transferring them to DVD or digital technology long before the end of the VCR became officially apparent.

I was done taping sometime after 2002, because there’s nothing new after that in the box. Along came my obsession with DVDs (another box).

But as the Times points out, less than a decade after DVDs began their reign, streaming video signaled yet another technological advancement.

Sadly, for those of us into physical media, and nostalgia in general, there won’t be any box to pull out full of streaming memories.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.