Saved an Aquarius from a hipster

[Chuck D. Head]

Nice score! And I agree, if you don't want to keep it, get it to Jaybird3rd. When I first got into Aquarius, he very generously helped me get a beautiful system and games for next to nothing and has been a champion for the lovable underdog all along. Can't wait to see the site.

[orion1052003]

What's the attraction to the Aquarius? (A question, not a put-down) The only BASIC I know is TI-99/4A as well, my first computer too. Is it nostalgia? Or that it appears to be simpler than some other computers? Sounds like its not the games?

[EdgeOfPortal]

20 minutes ago, orion1052003 said:

What's the attraction to the Aquarius? (A question, not a put-down) The only BASIC I know is TI-99/4A as well, my first computer too. Is it nostalgia? Or that it appears to be simpler than some other computers? Sounds like its not the games?

For some it’s nostalgia, for some it’s the collectiblity, for some it’s the close relation to the Intellivision. Personally for me, I didn’t own an Aquarius when they were new. I collect it because it hits many of my personal favorite “collecting points”.

Its obscure, it has quite a hunt involved with it, the games and hardware are interesting, and it was released in my focused game-collecting era. 1975 - 1984.

[Chuck D. Head]

In addition to all the reasons EdgeOfPortal mentioned above, I love the industrial design of the system, carts and packages. I bring it to local computer club meetings and it usually gets a good amount of interest as most people have never touched one IRL.

[orion1052003]

[orion1052003]

[EdgeOfPortal]

4 minutes ago, orion1052003 said:

Nice, can’t seem to get videos to play on mobile though, am I missing something or are they just processing?

[jaybird3rd]

Very cool!  Happy exploring!  By the way, here's my high score on Aquarius TRON Deadly Discs ...

 

[EdgeOfPortal]

Just now, jaybird3rd said:

Very cool!  Happy exploring!  By the way, here's my high score on Aquarius TRON Deadly Discs ...

 

I really ought to step up my Aquarius High-Score game. I will say though I’ve spent plenty of time playing Stalactites both on cassette and Aquaricart.

[orion1052003]

Typed these in from the simplified instruction booklet. The keyboard rather sucks, in my opinion. Cant get used to the space button on the left and keep wanting to mess up by hitting the other key next to it. I wonder if its just from age, but the main drawback is typing and having a lot of missing letters, like you can't type lightly. I couldn't tell if you can fire and move simultaneously in TRON. Intellivision you can't run and fire at the same time.

[EdgeOfPortal]

Just now, orion1052003 said:

Typed these in from the simplified instruction booklet. The keyboard rather sucks, in my opinion. Cant get used to the space button on the left and keep wanting to mess up by hitting the other key next to it. I wonder if its just from age, but the main drawback is typing and having a lot of missing letters, like you can't type lightly. I couldn't tell if you can fire and move simultaneously in TRON. Intellivision you can't run and fire at the same time.

Yeah, the keyboard isn’t exactly my favorite part of the computer, but it’s a nice system to mess with. Did you test the 16K ram rather than just the on-board ram as well?

[orion1052003]

RESPECT on the high score!!

[orion1052003]

1724 is what I got with the 16k ram in the expander.

[EdgeOfPortal]

Just now, orion1052003 said:

1724 is what I got with the 16k ram in the expander.

That’s defective RAM then. Wonder why so many have been failing lately. Also, you’ve got the second version of Aquarius Basic. You can tell by the “S2” at the top of the screen. Has bug fixes and possibly an extra command or two if I remember correctly.

[jaybird3rd]

9 minutes ago, orion1052003 said:

1724 is what I got with the 16k ram in the expander.

Hmmm ... did you try it in the "Memory" or "Program" slot?  If it doesn't seem to work in either one, try it in the Aquarius console without the Mini Expander.  If that doesn't work, it could just need a cleaning, or it could have some other problem.

 

The 16K RAM Module is a fragile design.  I seem to recall mentioning this elsewhere recently, but it contains eight surface-mounted 2K SRAM chips plus some chip select logic, sandwiched between two boards that are connected with a ribbon cable.  Lots to go wrong, especially after all these years.  My new 32K RAM Module uses a single SRAM and two other chips on a single board, so it's much more reliable.

[EdgeOfPortal]

9 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

Hmmm ... did you try it in the "Memory" or "Program" slot?  If it doesn't seem to work in either one, try it in the Aquarius console without the Mini Expander.  If that doesn't work, it could just need a cleaning, or it could have some other problem.

 

The 16K RAM Module is a fragile design.  I seem to recall mentioning this elsewhere recently, but it contains eight surface-mounted 2K SRAM chips plus some chip select logic, sandwiched between two boards that are connected with a ribbon cable.  Lots to go wrong, especially after all these years.  My new 32K RAM Module uses a single SRAM and two other chips on a single board, so it's much more reliable.

Yes, your 32K Ram saved me from buying a duplicate Postman Pot Cassette. Wouldn’t load onto my seemingly functional 16K cart (print fre(0) showed full amount of ram) but loaded onto your 32K cart. Don’t know what that was about. Saved me a lot of time and money there.

[jaybird3rd]

2 minutes ago, EdgeOfPortal said:

Yes, your 32K Ram saved me from buying a duplicate Postman Pot Cassette. Wouldn’t load onto my seemingly functional 16K cart (print fre(0) showed full amount of ram) but loaded onto your 32K cart. Don’t know what that was about. Saved me a lot of time and money there.

Excellent!  There must have been some intermittent failure in your 16K module.  The Mini Expander Diagnostic utility in the Aquaricart could probably pinpoint the problem; it puts the RAM to a more exhaustive test than the simple memory scan that BASIC does on startup.

[EdgeOfPortal]

1 minute ago, jaybird3rd said:

Excellent!  There must have been some intermittent failure in your 16K module.  The Mini Expander Diagnostic utility in the Aquaricart could probably pinpoint the problem; it puts the RAM to a more exhaustive test than the simple memory scan that BASIC does on startup.

That’s good to know. I’ll try that. Give me a minute, I’ll see what it can tell me.

[EdgeOfPortal]

5 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

Excellent!  There must have been some intermittent failure in your 16K module.  The Mini Expander Diagnostic utility in the Aquaricart could probably pinpoint the problem; it puts the RAM to a more exhaustive test than the simple memory scan that BASIC does on startup.

Well now this is certainly interesting.

[jaybird3rd]

Hmmm ... I'd be curious to know if it still passes the tests after being plugged in for an extended period.  (Not that you have to try it, of course.)

[EdgeOfPortal]

Just now, jaybird3rd said:

Hmmm ... I'd be curious to know if it still passes the tests after being plugged in for an extended period.  (Not that you have to try it, of course.)

That could be something. The cassettes do take a while to load, so possibly it fails midway through the operation? I’ve got a loose 16K from someone on here on the way though, so it’s not really an issue but it’s certainly interesting.

[EdgeOfPortal]

7 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

Hmmm ... I'd be curious to know if it still passes the tests after being plugged in for an extended period.  (Not that you have to try it, of course.)

Ok, so I loaded the mini-expander diagnostic and let the 16K sit for 5 or 6 minutes, which I believe is a good amount of time comparative to cassette loading. Still got no error. It was just sitting on the title screen though, no data was being loaded to it. Perhaps it is more likely to fail when data is being loaded?

[jaybird3rd]

1 minute ago, EdgeOfPortal said:

Ok, so I loaded the mini-expander diagnostic and let the 16K sit for 5 or 6 minutes, which I believe is a good amount of time comparative to cassette loading. Still got no error. It was just sitting on the title screen though, no data was being loaded to it. Perhaps it is more likely to fail when data is being loaded?

That's a possibility.  Bad RAM, bad logic chip(s), a touchy wire on the internal ribbon cable, or a dirty contact in the cartridge slot ... there are several things that could go wrong.

[EdgeOfPortal]

Just now, jaybird3rd said:

That's a possibility.  Bad RAM, bad logic chip(s), a touchy wire on the internal ribbon cable, or a dirty contact in the cartridge slot ... there are several things that could go wrong.

Alright. Makes sense. Here’s what I got from loading a 16K cassette with it (on mobile, sorry if formatting is strange):

Found Postie (Postman Pot)

OK

[stops data recorder]
RUN

SN Error in 2 (maybe 02, don’t remember).

 

So looking at that, I’m not really good with the errors and actual programming. Did something obvious happen based on that SN Error?

[jaybird3rd]

"SN Error" is a syntax error.  When I got errors of this kind after loading a program from tape, it was usually because a flaw in the tape resulted in a garbled or scrambled program instruction.  If the tape loads and runs properly with the 32K RAM module, the program might somehow be getting scrambled after it has been loaded into RAM.

 

Line number 2 is pretty early in the program, so perhaps when data is loaded into one of the RAM chips higher up in the memory map, something in the cartridge is somehow causing previously-loaded data in one of the lower RAM chips to be damaged.  That might also explain why the module also appears to be passing the diagnostic test: as I recall, that particular test is linear, testing each RAM chip in isolation.