Devin Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Well, yes of course I know the Aquarius doesn't have programmable graphics. Still, the graphics characters used in Tron are a far cry from ASCII art. That's where my allusion to your exaggeration comes in. It *is* ASCII art - its just a tad more picturesque than what the IBM could do. The "sprites" can only move 8 pixels at a time (since they are characters). It makes Aquarius games graphically poor and jerky. Here, enjoy the fear, and horror, of the demon! "Oh noes, I haz planes for feets!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Well, yes of course I know the Aquarius doesn't have programmable graphics. Still, the graphics characters used in Tron are a far cry from ASCII art. That's where my allusion to your exaggeration comes in. It *is* ASCII art - its just a tad more picturesque than what the IBM could do. The "sprites" can only move 8 pixels at a time (since they are characters). It makes Aquarius games graphically poor and jerky. Here, enjoy the fear, and horror, of the demon! "Oh noes, I haz planes for feets!" It is no secret. This was no secret to me when I was a ten year old playing Aquarius AD&D. This just a semantics argument, but words mean what most people think they mean. When you say ASCII art, people think this: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 [quote name='Jay Silverheels' date='Sat Feb 12, 2011 2:32 PM' timestamp='1297549951' post='2208453' It is no secret. This was no secret to me when I was a ten year old playing Aquarius AD&D. This just a semantics argument, but words mean what most people think they mean. When you say ASCII art, people think this: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/ I haven't seen that in eons. Truly epic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 (edited) I haven't seen that in eons. Truly epic! Same here. This discussion made me look it up. Edited February 12, 2011 by Jay Silverheels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 I agree that it's technically not ASCII art because it doesn't consist only of the ASCII character set. It's an extended character set. What it is, is character-based graphics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 (edited) I agree that it's technically not ASCII art because it doesn't consist only of the ASCII character set. It's an extended character set. What it is, is character-based graphics. Extended-ASCII art. It is the same as the old, old DOS games that made use of the smiley face, lines segments, etc.... to get "sprites". So, the Aquarius has basically the same graphics and sound functionality as the 1981 CGA PC in text mode (which gave 16 color characters). the only difference is the Aquarius extended-ASCII characters were designed for games; PC was not. Still, the card symbols are much better done on PC than the Aquarius. The "club" never looked like a club to me. And, to make matters worse, the Aquarius doesn't have a spade. I guess they though developers could use the plane. The PCs extended ASCII art has much better lines. The PC's extended-ASCII version of Pac-Man is far superior than anything the Aquarius can pull off. But, the PC could hardly get as good TRON: Deadly Discs. But back on subject. When you say ASCII art, people think this: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/ Most people don't know computer tech at all - that I realize. They don't know a byte from a nibble - nor the use of "hacker" vs. "cracker". Edited February 13, 2011 by Devin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Here's a picture of IBM PC Extended ASCII. It has much better lines - and scientific symbols. But, obviously, wasn't designed to be a console. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 When you say ASCII art, people think this: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/ Most people don't know computer tech at all - that I realize. They don't know a byte from a nibble - nor the use of "hacker" vs. "cracker". The people who would be reading about Aquarius Tron would be familiar with the term ASCII art, and would assume "ASCII TRON" means letters, numbers, punctuation, etc (like the Star Wars video). If you simply said "non-programmable character graphics" instead of ASCII Tron, we wouldn't have to continue belaboring the point. It would be clear. That's really all I have to say about this very interesting topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 (edited) The people who would be reading about Aquarius Tron would be familiar with the term ASCII art, and would assume "ASCII TRON" means letters, numbers, punctuation, etc (like the Star Wars video). If you simply said "non-programmable character graphics" instead of ASCII Tron, we wouldn't have to continue belaboring the point. It would be clear. That's really all I have to say about this very interesting topic. Fair enough. Needless to say, we all can agree that the Aquarius is - without a doubt - poor in the graphics department.... and the programming.... and the keyboard layout.... and... Edited February 13, 2011 by Devin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 The people who would be reading about Aquarius Tron would be familiar with the term ASCII art, and would assume "ASCII TRON" means letters, numbers, punctuation, etc (like the Star Wars video). If you simply said "non-programmable character graphics" instead of ASCII Tron, we wouldn't have to continue belaboring the point. It would be clear. That's really all I have to say about this very interesting topic. Fair enough. Needless to say, we all can agree that the Aquarius is - without a doubt - poor in the graphics department.... and the programming.... and the keyboard layout.... and... I didn't realize that was the topic at hand, but sure. I thought that was already established. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 I agree that it's technically not ASCII art because it doesn't consist only of the ASCII character set. It's an extended character set. What it is, is character-based graphics. Extended-ASCII art. It is the same as the old, old DOS games that made use of the smiley face, lines segments, etc.... to get "sprites". So, the Aquarius has basically the same graphics and sound functionality as the 1981 CGA PC in text mode (which gave 16 color characters). the only difference is the Aquarius extended-ASCII characters were designed for games; PC was not. Still, the card symbols are much better done on PC than the Aquarius. The "club" never looked like a club to me. And, to make matters worse, the Aquarius doesn't have a spade. I guess they though developers could use the plane. The PCs extended ASCII art has much better lines. The PC's extended-ASCII version of Pac-Man is far superior than anything the Aquarius can pull off. But, the PC could hardly get as good TRON: Deadly Discs. But back on subject. When you say ASCII art, people think this: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/ Most people don't know computer tech at all - that I realize. They don't know a byte from a nibble - nor the use of "hacker" vs. "cracker". Yes, I suppose you could say extended-ASCII art, because it's beyond the ASCII character set. ASCII is a standard. It's a standard set of characters. Anything beyond that is extended. If you want to say extended-ASCII or character-based, it's exactly the same thing. It's beyond the standard ASCII character set. http://www.asciitable.com/ Agreed, this is belaboring the point, and is a matter of semantics at this point, but to say it's strictly ASCII-art is not true. But. Back to the Aquarius! I think one thing most or all of us see is that sometimes limited is interesting. Otherwise, none of us would be interested in old computers at all, and would throw them all out and only focus on the most powerful of modern computers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Fair enough. Needless to say, we all can agree that the Aquarius is - without a doubt - poor in the graphics department.... and the programming.... and the keyboard layout.... and... BUT ... on the positive side, you can display characters using any combination of colors that you want, with as many different colors on a line as you want, which is something that several other computers and consoles of the time could not do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRaider Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Just purchased a nice bundle last week, hoping it arrives safely by weeks end. I will definitely post up some pics this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius... age of Aquarius..." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Finally I made a few photo´s of my Aquarius collection. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 Wow Mike! Pretty cool stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 Pac Mr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Oops! I missed this topic. I got an Aquarius specifically for jaybird3rds creations. Bought the multi-cart. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColorComputerStore Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 I've thought about replacing those 'graphical characters' with my own custom set for improved range of games that can be created. Hmmm Carlos Aquarius Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/aquariuscomputer/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaman Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 I've thought about replacing those 'graphical characters' with my own custom set for improved range of games that can be created. Hmmm Carlos Aquarius Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/aquariuscomputer/ http://atariage.com/forums/topic/233221-aquarius-320x200-bitmap-graphics-hack/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColorComputerStore Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Very cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 I still have plans for a character generator upgrade also. Much to my frustration, I've had to set aside my Aquarius projects for the longest time now because of career obligations, but I refuse to let this year go by without reviving at least one of them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BBWW Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 I gave a complete system away for postage to someone here. I just knew I was "Not going there!" with the Aquarius. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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