Aquarius Acquired: Now What?

[+sixersfan105]

The below-pictured Aquarius is on its way to me, woo hoo! It's one of the "Computer & Game System" bundles. Seems pristine. Owner says they never even took it out of the box (other than to take some pics), and based on all of the pictures she sent me (more than what I have attached here), I believe it. All packing material, etc. Got what I think was a fair deal ($120 including shipping). Btw, what's up with the 4-game package being cut to one game plus 4K memory? Pretty funny that Mattel just crossed off "4" preceding "Game Cartridges" with a Sharpie and only included one game on some of these bundles. Was that as they were winding down production and running out of games or something? I know it's not just my box because I saw a few listings on eBay with the same modifications to the boxes.

 

Once my Aquarius arrives on my doorstep, I'd like to maximize my enjoyment of this little machine. It seems like @jaybird3rd's Aquaricart is a must, and probably the 32K RAM expansion cart, too. Will likely have him make me a BLBird cart, too. Ideally, I would like to be able to play all of the cartridge and cassette games available for the system (including homebrews), as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Has there been any talk of adding all of the third-party cassette titles to a future version of the Aquaricart (beyond the 6-game demo cassette that I see is included already)? I'm guessing that would require some converting of the .CAQ images? I did come across something about converting .CAQ files to .WAV so that cassette games can be played on real hardware but that process seemed really tedious. Aquaricart 2.0 seems like the best idea, am I right?  

 

I've also come across mentions of the MicroExpander, but it seems like a DIY project and I don't have the skills for it. Also saw something about having to remove the AY from the MicroExpander if using it in a Mini Expander, which, again, well beyond my skill set. I like the idea of removable media (USB stick) so that you can add files to it, but what files will it work with "out of the box," if you will? Just .BIN and .ROM, therefore running into the same issues with .CAQ files for cassette games?

 

Lots of newbie questions, here, I know. Please excuse my ignorance. Cheers.

[jaybird3rd]

5 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

Btw, what's up with the 4-game package being cut to one game plus 4K memory? Pretty funny that Mattel just crossed off "4" preceding "Game Cartridges" with a Sharpie and only included one game on some of these bundles. Was that as they were winding down production and running out of games or something? I know it's not just my box because I saw a few listings on eBay with the same modifications to the boxes.

Congratulations!  Yes, I've seen a few of these modified "Computer & Game System" bundles, too.  These bundles were a way to liquidate Aquarius stock, so I'm sure they did indeed piece them together using whatever they had left on hand at the time.

 

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Once my Aquarius arrives on my doorstep, I'd like to maximize my enjoyment of this little machine. It seems like @jaybird3rd's Aquaricart is a must, and probably the 32K RAM expansion cart, too. Will likely have him make me a BLBird cart, too. Ideally, I would like to be able to play all of the cartridge and cassette games available for the system (including homebrews), as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Has there been any talk of adding all of the third-party cassette titles to a future version of the Aquaricart (beyond the 6-game demo cassette that I see is included already)? I'm guessing that would require some converting of the .CAQ images?

Certainly, if you'd like an Aquaricart and/or a 32K RAM module, just send me a PM here and I'd be glad to hook you up!  I'm sure I can put together a BLBird cartridge, too.  Collecting cassette releases into an "Aquaricart Volume 2" is an idea I've bounced around for years, but it would require modifying the games to run from ROM instead of RAM.  I've been too busy with work and other things in recent years to make progress on any of my Aquarius projects, unfortunately, but I'm hoping to finally dust them off and make some long-deferred progress on them this year.

 

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I did come across something about converting .CAQ files to .WAV so that cassette games can be played on real hardware but that process seemed really tedious. Aquaricart 2.0 seems like the best idea, am I right?  

I provided a brief walkthrough of the process of loading cassette images, both into the Virtual Aquarius emulator and a real Aquarius (via a PC sound card), in this post in the 32K RAM module thread.  It is a bit tedious, because you're still dealing with loading the games from a slow storage device, which is one of the things that would certainly be alleviated with an "Aquaricart Volume 2."

 

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Lots of newbie questions, here, I know. Please excuse my ignorance. Cheers.

No worries!  Let us know if you have any more questions!

[+stupus]

Very nice looking set for a nice price! Congrats!

Much much better deal than the other you considered

[+sixersfan105]

Thanks, @jaybird3rd. All of your info is really helpful. I'll be sending you a PM shortly. 
 

What does everyone think of the MicroExpander? Worth picking up or is it more for those that are the tinkering type? Seems pretty open source, which is cool, just not sure if it's for me or not. 

[jaybird3rd]

51 minutes ago, sixersfan105 said:

What does everyone think of the MicroExpander? Worth picking up or is it more for those that are the tinkering type? Seems pretty open source, which is cool, just not sure if it's for me or not. 

The Micro Expander is a very interesting device, but in my opinion it was always intended to be more of a DIY/hobbyist project.

[+sixersfan105]

47 minutes ago, jaybird3rd said:

The Micro Expander is a very interesting device, but in my opinion it was always intended to be more of a DIY/hobbyist project.

Cool, thanks for your take. I wonder if there's a market out there to sell completed (full board) MicroExpanders with a 3D case and such; you know, provide a bit of polish to it. Not sure myself, just thinking out loud. 

[EdgeOfPortal]

First off, welcome to the Aquarius community! It's great to see new people interested in the system, as it gets so little attention.

 

I don't personally own a micro expander, and I have no intention to purchase one as I have a majority of the worldwide carts and a good number of cassettes, however as a new owner it may be in your interest. Most of the harder to find Aquarius stock is in collector's hands now, and what isn't is very expensive, so I'd really recommend Jay's Aquaricart and his 32K memory cartridge to go with it. I've got both, and they're excellently made. The 32K cartridge is what I use at all times, and the Aquaricart is an excellent catalog of software. I believe he said at one point he was interested in making a version 2 of the Aquaricart with cassettes on it, but I could be mistaken.

I'd recommend getting a Data Recorder to go with your Aquarius and mini expander. It'll come in handy later on, and you'll be able to load cassettes from your pc using it's cable.

Now, to go into the collecting side of things. A full Mattel set won't be too hard to accomplish. BurgerTime is the biggest challenge for the Mattel made carts, unless you include the modem, which I'd personally say is a bit harder to find. The full worldwide set is where things get difficult. The big 5 (Extended Basic, Melody Chase, Space Speller, Chess, and Zero-In) are all extraordinarily difficult to find.  Many of us have been searching for years for them. They'll require a great deal of patience, and your wallet will hate you. I know mine does. Still, if you're up for the worldwide hunt it's very enjoyable to track them down. The cassettes range in difficulty, but some of them come up pretty frequently. You'll have the most luck with the hard carts and cassettes on eBay UK and Italy. Now there's also plenty of variants and such but if I put down everything I have to say about it, we'll be here for ages. I'll end this bit with a list I made of all known Aquarius Cassettes and Carts.

 

I hope this helped! Enjoy your new Aquarius and welcome to the community!

Aquarius Computer Collecting List 2.0.xlsx

[+sixersfan105]

Thanks, @EdgeOfPortal. I'm definitely going to reach out to Jay to purchase his Aquaricart and 32K RAM cart. I'll look into a Data Recorder. Is the cable proprietary or would any generic cassette player do?

 

Thanks for the insight on the collecting side of things and I'll definitely keep my eye out for the real cassettes and such. Your Excel spreadsheet will come in handy, too - just downloaded it.

[+sixersfan105]

A few q's: 

 

1) What would you say are the top 5 cassette games for the Aquarius? Top 5 meaning 5 most fun to play (in your opinion).

 

2) What ever came of @the-topdog's "Project OverAqu," the reproduction overlay project for Aquarius games, both keyboard and hand controller? I came across this thread from 2010-2011 and haven't seen anything since. I could definitely see them being popular, especially when used in conjunction with an Aquaricart. 
 

3) I've seen lots of old threads here mention (and link to) the Aquarius Yahoo Group. I recall Yahoo shutting down all of its groups a month or so ago. Was all of the info and files on there archived in some way or otherwise moved to a new platform? Hope so. 

[+MattelAquarius]

13 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

A few q's: 

 

1) What would you say are the top 5 cassette games for the Aquarius? Top 5 meaning 5 most fun to play (in your opinion).

 

2) What ever came of @the-topdog's "Project OverAqu," the reproduction overlay project for Aquarius games, both keyboard and hand controller? I came across this thread from 2010-2011 and haven't seen anything since. I could definitely see them being popular, especially when used in conjunction with an Aquaricart. 
 

3) I've seen lots of old threads here mention (and link to) the Aquarius Yahoo Group. I recall Yahoo shutting down all of its groups a month or so ago. Was all of the info and files on there archived in some way or otherwise moved to a new platform? Hope so. 

 

1)  I'm about to leave for work, so I'll have to answer this later...

2) The last I remember was that his machine was just not precise enough to have consistent exacting results, so he had to abandon the project.

3) Yes!  Everything has been migrated:  https://groups.io/g/mattelaquarius/   

Group Email Addresses

• Post: mattelaquarius<is at>groups.io
• Subscribe: mattelaquarius+subscribe<is at>groups.io
• Unsubscribe: mattelaquarius+unsubscribe<is at>groups.io
• Group Owner: mattelaquarius+owner<is at>groups.io
• Help: mattelaquarius+help<is at>groups.io

 

Note:  Replace <is at> with @ .

 

 

BTW, here's a humorous Modem auction:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/373435696803?ul_noapp=true

 

If anyone really NEEDS or wants a Modem, I do have a few extra sealed NOS.  I'd be open to trades and/or reasonable offers (like half off the auction BIN price!  LOL)

 

[+MattelAquarius]

As for the "best" cassette software... I can only go by the titles I've played, of course.  Some I haven't fired up in many years, and if I didn't make a YouTube video for it, I don't remember it well enough to include it.

 

So, going only off my YouTube vids, I'd rank them as follows:

 

1) Fall of the Eastern Blocks* (Tetris clone done in pure Aquarius BASIC)

2) 3D Battlezone  -- Gameplay is repetitive, but the presentation is beautiful and the music is great!)

3) Disco Fever -- Gameplay is repetitive, but fun, and the music is great here too.)

4) Chess (cassette version)  -- Apparently it has the king/queen pieces reversed, but you can "fix" that with the table edit option.

5) Breakout (There 2 versions of the same program.  One with music, the other without).  It's not perfect due to the character graphic limitations, and lack of paddle control, but I still find fun with it.  Also, I like the music.

6) D-fender -- Turn down the volume and give it a go!

7) Both Space Invader clones (each has their pros and cons)

 

Not that I think of it, I need to dust off some other titles I have that I remember being fun to play, and make some more videos.  Mower-Man and Postman-Pot come to mind.

 

 

*Warning:  Strong author bias may not accurately reflect the quality of the title. 

[+sixersfan105]

Thanks, @MattelAquarius! I just joined the groups.io group. I've played some but not all of these, so I've got to get my gaming on! Haha with respect to your disclaimer, did you write Fall of the Eastern Blocks? I've really been enjoying Disco Fever but when playing it in Virtual Aquarius (I'm still waiting on my real Aquarius to arrive), once I get to about 20 dancers on the dance floor, the game freezes. This isn't an isolated occurrence; it happens every time. Curious if it's an issue with the .VAQ file itself or the emulator. Have you experienced this? If not, would you mind sharing your Disco Fever files here or via PM? I got mine from the Virtual Aquarius package.

[+MattelAquarius]

Yes, I humbly wrote FOTEB. 

 

 

I don't recall having any issues with Disco Fever.  Since I normally played it on real hardware, I probably never put much time with it on the emulator.

 

I'll try the emulator version tonight.  If it's corrupt for me too, I'll try to upload a new version (or at least a .wav) unless someone else beats me to it.

 

 

[+sixersfan105]

5 minutes ago, MattelAquarius said:

Yes, I humbly wrote FOTEB. 

 

 

I don't recall having any issues with Disco Fever.  Since I normally played it on real hardware, I probably never put much time with it on the emulator.

 

I'll try the emulator version tonight.  If it's corrupt for me too, I'll try to upload a new version (or at least a .wav) unless someone else beats me to it.

 

 

Nice man! Got any new games coming down the pike? I'll surely have to give FOTEB a try. Ok that would be great re Disco Fever. Appreciate it.

[+MattelAquarius]

39 minutes ago, sixersfan105 said:

Nice man! Got any new games coming down the pike? I'll surely have to give FOTEB a try. Ok that would be great re Disco Fever. Appreciate it.

 

I always wanted to get into Z80A assembly programming for the Aquarius, but never knew just how to get started.  Once I can get to the point where I can tinker, I can start learning.  Alas, it may never be.  On a slightly related note, I just started reading the 7800basic guide.  That would be some fun to try out too.

[Aquaman]

17 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

A few q's: 

 

1) What would you say are the top 5 cassette games for the Aquarius? Top 5 meaning 5 most fun to play (in your opinion).

 

 

I also like Space Ram and Millypede

[ed1475]

18 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

A few q's: 

 

1) What would you say are the top 5 cassette games for the Aquarius? Top 5 meaning 5 most fun to play (in your opinion).

My Top 5 cassette games (alphabetical order):

 

D-Fender

Grid Bug

Millypede

N-Vaders

Pac Mr.

Edited January 22, 2021 by ed1475

[+sixersfan105]

Been enjoying the cassette game suggestions on Virtual Aquarius; thanks for the suggestions! Does anyone have a spare Data Recorder, by chance? I'd like to be able to play cassette games on real hardware. Cheers!

[+sixersfan105]

On 1/22/2021 at 1:22 PM, MattelAquarius said:

Yes, I humbly wrote FOTEB. 

 

 

I don't recall having any issues with Disco Fever.  Since I normally played it on real hardware, I probably never put much time with it on the emulator.

 

I'll try the emulator version tonight.  If it's corrupt for me too, I'll try to upload a new version (or at least a .wav) unless someone else beats me to it.

 

 

Have you had a chance to check out Disco Fever? Curious to hear your findings. Thanks!

[+MattelAquarius]

Apologies for not reporting.  I realized I can skip the emulator test after you and JayBird3rd mentioned the misplaced dancer.  That made me remember that issue.

 

So now, I'm digging through my boxes looking for the original tape(s).  Some of my Aquarius collection is still "lost" in moving-box-hell, but I think I know where to look.  I found an old CD I burned of a bunch of software titles, but it doesn't include Disco Fever.     I have one of those old walkman style CD players that I connect directly to the Data Recorder input.

 

Hopefully, this weekend I can make some progress.

[+sixersfan105]

Sounds great. Thank you!

[+x=usr(1536)]

This is almost the exact same bundle mine came in, right down to Night Stalker being the only included game and the sharpie job done to the number '4'.  Only difference is that mine had the 16K memory expansion rather than thee 4K, but it's otherwise identical.

 

Do you know if this system was originally sold / acquired in California, by any chance?

Edited January 26, 2021 by x=usr(1536)

[+sixersfan105]

2 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

This is almost the exact same bundle mine came in, right down to Night Stalker being the only included game and the sharpie job done to the number '4'.  Only difference is that mine had the 16K memory expansion rather than thee 4K, but it's otherwise identical.

 

Do you know if this system was originally sold / acquired in California, by any chance?

Very cool! I purchased it from an older woman in the San Diego suburbs and I have a feeling she was the original owner, so yep - California!

[+MattelAquarius]

Follow up for Disco Fever.

 

I didn't find my original cassettes yet.  However, I did find two tapes marked "Consolidated 1"  and 2.  I believe these are tapes I made by recording several of the originals to a single cassette.  It jogged my memory, and I think that Disco Fever should be on tape 2.

 

This has been good for me, though.  Finally going through a bunch of untouched moving boxes, and finding collection items that were in mislabeled boxes.  Still can't find my original version 1 AquariCart.      I should hit pay dirt soon on the original cassettes, if the consolidated tapes bear no Disco Fever fruit.

 

Off topic I DID (re)find my 1541 adapter card.  Anyone know of a modern 1541 SD drive that might be plug and play with it? 

 

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 1/26/2021 at 11:17 AM, sixersfan105 said:

Very cool! I purchased it from an older woman in the San Diego suburbs and I have a feeling she was the original owner, so yep - California!

 

Interesting.  I'm wondering if she wasn't one of the people who got one for attending a timeshare presentation - that was how my parents got mine.