Rev Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 (edited) Right now on ebay, this looks like the best deal on an Aquarius if someone is looking for one. (79.00)eBay Auction -- Item Number: 170598906528 But if you look at completed listings for Aquarius, a loose one recently sold for 8.00. Someone got a good deal. I bet once the Aquaricart is available, the demand for The Aquarius will go up. Edited February 5, 2011 by revolutionika Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psquare75 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Thanks for the update Jay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Well, I got my mini-expander, 4k cart and extra Aquarius today (the one revolutionika mentioned in post 276!), but the Night Stalker it came with doesn't work. So now I still have nothing to play on the Aquarius's (Aquarii?). So, here's a bump to root this project on! Go Jay, go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Well, I got my mini-expander, 4k cart and extra Aquarius today (the one revolutionika mentioned in post 276!), but the Night Stalker it came with doesn't work. So now I still have nothing to play on the Aquarius's (Aquarii?). So, here's a bump to root this project on! Go Jay, go! Still plugging away at it. I recently created a set of standard cartridge headers, which was a big step forward. If your Night Stalker cartridge is broken, I can send you a replacement board for it (I've got plenty); all you'd have to do it pop open your cartridge and slip it in. PM me if you're interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 It's been nearly a month since my previous update, and I have to apologize for that: I've had to contend with two very busy "part-time" jobs, a week of being sick, ongoing construction on my house, and just recently, a leaking roof which caused some water damage in my room. Nevertheless, I've been pounding away at the Aquaricart whenever I could find the time, and I've FINALLY completed the meticulous and time-consuming task of converting and formatting the manuals, trivia files, quick reference screens, and other static screen data. All together, it amounts to roughly 400 screens' worth of content, all of which had to be individually typed, "painted", and proofread, and many of which include reconstructions of in-game graphics, representations of the keyboard and hand controller overlays, and other artwork: Overall, I'm pleased with how these have turned out, but getting them finished was a much longer process than I anticipated, and I'm glad to finally have it done. Once I test these screens on the real hardware and make whatever "tweaks" I need to make, the only remaining development task will be to quickly polish up the Aquaricart menu and screen viewer software. There is only one feature that I'd like to add at this point: the ability to jump to any page number in a manual. The need for this became obvious once I started working with the longer manuals, like Extended BASIC and Logo, and those who have seen earlier screenshots I've posted will notice that I have now added "page numbers." This addition required the creation of a Table of Contents for each manual (which most of the originals did not have), and integrating the "jump" feature into the viewer will add some development time, but I think it will make the manuals much easier to navigate. I hope to take advantage of Spring Break to finish the development phase before the end of this week. Beyond that, I still need to create an Aquaricart manual and cartridge label (shouldn't take too long), and I need to get some input from the more experienced hardware engineers on a non-critical but annoying compatibility problem I've discovered with certain hardware (I'll probably create a separate thread about that subject so those discussions don't clutter this one). Many thanks to everyone who has continued to follow this project, and I especially appreciate the patience of those who preordered late last year. I'm working hard to make the final product worth the long wait, so bear with me for just a little longer, because I'm getting very close to completion! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Wow Jay, this is just looking better and better, congrats to you, take all the time you need. Rev is going to regret selling his AQ I'd say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Wow Jay, this is just looking better and better, congrats to you, take all the time you need. Rev is going to regret selling his AQ I'd say. after seeing this i might change my mind. espescially no one really seems interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Jay, It looks incredible. I can see all the painstaking effort in those screenshots. Thanks for the great update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Wow Jay, this is just looking better and better, congrats to you, take all the time you need. Rev is going to regret selling his AQ I'd say. after seeing this i might change my mind. espescially no one really seems interested. Clearly the universe is telling you something.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coyo5050 Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Thanks for the update, looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincyAtarian Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 I just went out to my cart of old video items an found all of my Aquaris "stuff" Will be hooking it up tomorrow, Can't wait to get the multi-cart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 I just went out to my cart of old video items an found all of my Aquaris "stuff" Will be hooking it up tomorrow, Can't wait to get the multi-cart post pics of your aquarius stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck D. Head Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Whew! I was sweating for a second! I have been away from my second home (AtariAge) for almost a month now and just had a horrible premonition that the multicart had come out and sold out while I was asleep at the wheel. Morgan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Whew! I was sweating for a second! I have been away from my second home (AtariAge) for almost a month now and just had a horrible premonition that the multicart had come out and sold out while I was asleep at the wheel. Morgan lol, take it easy. but this does raise the question, jay, when the time is right are you going to make an official pre order thread or something like that? even though i sold my aquarius, doesnt mean i dont want to buy one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Just a quick update to let everyone know that I've finally completed my work on the programming portion of the Aquaricart project. It was necessary to go back and refactor my prototype code in order to clean it up and integrate the new features that I wanted, which was a more extensive process than I anticipated, but everything is finally in and working. I have some more testing to do on the real hardware, and I might make a few more tweaks here and there, but otherwise the software is pretty much locked. The second screenshot illustrates one of the new features: the "jump to page" functionality of the instruction manual viewer. Now, by pressing the "J" key, you can jump to a specific page number simply by typing the number at the prompt (the green box at the top of the screen) and pressing RTN. This makes it especially easy to navigate the very long manuals, such as those for Logo and Extended BASIC. I added a table of contents to all of the manuals so you'll know which page numbers correspond to which sections. I'm also very happy with the way the "quick boot" feature turned out: on powerup, you can hold down the keyboard key corresponding to the cartridge you want, and after you release the key, the Aquaricart will jump right to your selection and bypass the menu completely. Starting after the key is released was the trick to making this feature work, especially for the games: if the key is still held down when the selected cartridge starts, the title screen will register it as a new keystroke and the game will begin immediately, leaving you without the opportunity to press a specific key to select the level of difficulty. So ... what remains is for me to bring all the content together, to organize it inside the cartridge ROM, and to give it all one final look-over to see if there are any last-minute tweaks I need to make. I also have some revisions to the hardware that I still need to work out and test, particularly for the benefit of those who are using older, non-"S2" Aquarius computers. Beyond that, I'll need to write a manual, design a cartridge label, and arrange to have them printed, and then the project will be complete. With the semester (finally!) winding down, my teaching schedule will be clear by the end of next week, and I'll have time to finally get this thing finished before too long. In answer to Rev's question: yes, I'll start a new thread for the finished product when the time comes, and I'll also have a website devoted to it (for "extras" such as full scans of the manuals, up-to-date ordering information, and so forth). The site isn't on line yet, but it will be permanently available at the URL listed on the "credits" screen above. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Great news Jay, it looks like you've created a real labour of love and a work of art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Looking forward to this!!!!!!!!!! A lot of excitement here about a computer I knew almost nothing about a few months ago! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MattelAquarius Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 Too excited for words. Thanks for the update, Jay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psquare75 Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 I enjoy how it reads "VOLUME 1". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-topdog Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 **passes out smiling** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coyo5050 Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Any more sexy screenshots? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I'm sorry, I'm long overdue for an update (yet again!). The tornadoes that swept through our area about two weeks ago left us without power and water for nearly four days, and of course I was in the middle of moving all my files to a new workstation when all that was going on, so my work on just about everything was badly disrupted. But I have been showing my most recent Aquaricart prototypes to some friends (I have an Aquarius set up in my office at my university), and watching them use it gave me some great ideas for a few last-minute additions. For instance, after seeing a colleague trying to remember how to write a line-numbered BASIC program for the first time in years, I realized that it didn't make much sense to have documentation in the cartridge for the extensions added by Extended BASIC, but none for the core commands in Regular BASIC (the built-in version of BASIC on the Aquarius). So, I decided to add an abridged version of the Aquarius Guide to Home Computing to the cartridge. That was another 82 screens' worth of data that had to be typed, edited, proofread, and formatted, but I think it was a worthwhile addition. I also realized that, while it's useful to be able to view all this electronic documentation on the screen from the main menu, it would be even more useful to be able to print it out so that the users can refer to it after they've selected a cartridge. This lead me to add a simple print feature to the viewer: just press "P", and it dumps the current page directly to the printer. It only works one page at a time (since it would usually be wasteful to print the entire manual), but perhaps it will finally give Aquarius owners the chance to make good use of their thermal printers. I'm currently working on integrating the new features and content into a new version of the prototype, and I hope to have that finished in a few days. I'll post another update (and perhaps some more screenshots, if you'd really like to see them) toward the end of this week ... along with some pictures of the final Aquaricart logo and cartridge label! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck D. Head Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I also realized that, while it's useful to be able to view all this electronic documentation on the screen from the main menu, it would be even more useful to be able to print it out so that the users can refer to it after they've selected a cartridge. This lead me to add a simple print feature to the viewer: just press "P", and it dumps the current page directly to the printer. It only works one page at a time (since it would usually be wasteful to print the entire manual), but perhaps it will finally give Aquarius owners the chance to make good use of their thermal printers. More and more awesome! Now I need a printer...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the-topdog Posted May 11, 2011 Author Share Posted May 11, 2011 This is getting waaaaay too cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present ... the Aquaricart logo and cartridge label! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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