System Overload: Aquarius

[BassGuitari]

System Overload: Aquarius

My long-awaited review of the Aquarius has arrived!

(Awaited by me...to finish it after X months... )

[JamesD]

Nice review but I don't know about the shortest lived comment. I know many sites say that but I'm not sure how true it is.
It was certainly in the running for that honor but it was produced longer than 4 months if you also count under the Radofin name.

The Panasonic JR-200, VTEC VZ-200 and NEC TREK all came out at about the same time in the US as the Aquarius and all disappeared from the US within a few months.
Outside the US all three outlived the Aquarius though.
But then outside the US you had several other machines that were short lived.

The Camputers Lynx for example only lasted around 6 months total before the company folded and it was never re-released even though the rights were sold.
If the Aquarius sold even a few months under the Radofin name it probably lasted longer than that.

[jaybird3rd]

Excellent article! Thanks for posting it, and thanks especially for mentioning the Aquaricart (which is still available, by the way, for anyone still interested).

[BassGuitari]

Nice review but I don't know about the shortest lived comment. I know many sites say that but I'm not sure how true it is.

It was certainly in the running for that honor but it was produced longer than 4 months if you also count under the Radofin name.

The Panasonic JR-200, VTEC VZ-200 and NEC TREK all came out at about the same time in the US as the Aquarius and all disappeared from the US within a few months.

Outside the US all three outlived the Aquarius though.

But then outside the US you had several other machines that were short lived.

The Camputers Lynx for example only lasted around 6 months total before the company folded and it was never re-released even though the rights were sold.

If the Aquarius sold even a few months under the Radofin name it probably lasted longer than that.

Fair enough! Edited to say "one of the shortest-lived..."

[BassGuitari]

Excellent article! Thanks for posting it, and thanks especially for mentioning the Aquaricart (which is still available, by the way, for anyone still interested).

How could I NOT mention the Aquaricart?

[+BBWW]

Very cool, never heard of the Aquarius 2!

[mvdsteenoven]

The information regarding the Aquarius II is not correct. I am the lucky owner of the Aquarius II system (see: http://www.vdsteenoven.com/aquarius/aquarius2.html) and I just started my system to double-check if I am not mistaking; but the Aquarius II does not come with 16K RAM build-in. The system has 4K just like the standard Aquarius I system. There was a complimentory 16K RAM cartridge bundled with the Aquarius II system.

Also makes sense, it allowed the II-buyers to get a 32K cartridge.

 

Kind regards,

Martin

Edited May 15, 2014 by mvdsteenoven

[BassGuitari]

The information regarding the Aquarius II is not correct. I am the lucky owner of the Aquarius II system (see: http://www.vdsteenoven.com/aquarius/aquarius2.html) and I just started my system to double-check if I am not mistaking; but the Aquarius II does not come with 16K RAM build-in. The system has 4K just like the standard Aquarius I system. There was a complimentory 16K RAM cartridge bundled with the Aquarius II system.

Also makes sense, it allowed the II-buyers to get a 32K cartridge.

 

Kind regards,

Martin

Thank you, I'll correct that later this evening! Does the Aquarius II have Extended BASIC in ROM at least?

[jaybird3rd]

Thank you, I'll correct that later this evening! Does the Aquarius II have Extended BASIC in ROM at least?

Yes, the Aquarius II has Extended BASIC in a 4K region of ROM which is empty in the original Aquarius. As far as I can tell, the Aquarius II version of Extended BASIC is identical to the Extended BASIC cartridge for the original Aquarius; the only difference is that it's built in.

[mvdsteenoven]

As answered by Jay. The Extended Basic cartridge and build-in E.B. are both 4k, and seems to be the same.

 

Regs,

Martin

[jaybird3rd]

As answered by Jay. The Extended Basic cartridge and build-in E.B. are both 4k, and seems to be the same.

Thanks, Martin. (I just wasn't sure you'd be back on at this late hour!)

 

One other thing about the Aquarius II: it seems to be a common belief that the Aquarius II was to include reprogrammable character graphics, but this was not the case. It's pretty much the same as the original Aquarius internally; the full-stroke keyboard and integrated Extended BASIC were the biggest changes.

[+MattelAquarius]

I enjoyed the review! Thank you for the time and effort you put into it.

 

Aquarius is trending!

[BassGuitari]

I enjoyed the review! Thank you for the time and effort you put into it.

Thanks for reading!

[Nebulon]

Wow. Yet another Z80 offering to the market (at a time when there were tons of them).

 

Starving the machine for RAM was a bit of a killer.

 

Of course, now that I've seen the keyboard... yikes!

 

And my rabbit would be happy to make short work of the hard-wired external power supply.

 

What were they thinking?!?

 

 

It seems that Mattel and Coleco were never meant to make home computers.

[jaybird3rd]

Viewed from today's perspective, entering the home computer market may have seemed like a strange move by Mattel, but this interesting post by catsfolly from another thread helps to put the Aquarius, and Mattel's decision to release it, in context:

It's easy in hindsight to laugh at the Aquarius and wonder why Mattel released such a lame machine.

But, in January 1982, when Mattel conceived of the project, it made sense.

At that time, there were two home computers on the market for less than 300 dollars.

The Timex/Sinclair 1000 for $100, with 2k ram, black and white video, and a flat keyboard.
The Vic 20, for $239, with 5k of ram, color graphics, and a full travel keyboard.

So, Mattel thought the Radofin designed Aquarius would fit neatly into the gap between the 2 machines -

The Timex/Sinclair 1000 for $100, with 2k ram, black and white video, and a flat keyboard.
The Aquarius for $150, with 4k of ram, color video, and a rubber keyboard.
The Vic 20, for $239, with 5k of ram, color graphics, and a full travel keyboard.

Ti planned a similar machine, the TI 99/2, and Radio shack started designing the "Micro Color Computer" for the same market.

Unfortunately, Mattel didn't start shipping Aquarius computers in January 1982. At the time, since the world wide web hadn't been invented yet,
people were unclear as to why they might want or need a home computer. So Mattel thought it should have a complete eco-system of games, applications, accessories, etc in place before it shipped the computers. This took time...

In the meantime, TI got tired of missing out on the sales in the low end of the market, so it came out with a $100 rebate for the TI 99/4a, effectively reducing the price to $199. Commodore responded by lowering the price of the Vic-20, and the price wars began.

By January 1983, the Vic 20 was selling for $125 dollars, and the Ti 99/4a followed suit, even though Ti lost money on the machines at that price.
By the time the Aquarius came out, better machines were out for the same or less money, so it didn't have a chance...

[Aquaman]

In my opinion the only major fault of the Aquarius was the lack of programmable graphics. Otherwise with the help of the mini-expander (better sound and controllers) and the additional RAM cartridge, it would probably have made it even a better choice than for example the ZX-Spectrum 16K and VIC-20. Although due to these upgrades the price advantage was gone, it would have at least lasted much longer as a serious gaming computer (with the help of software houses of course). Because if you look at it, most of the initial problems were solved with the Aquarius II. It got Extended Basic, a proper keyboard and it was sold with an extra 16K of RAM. The only thing still lacking (announced but never incorporated) were programmable graphics.