[AQUARIUS] Mattel Aquarius Multi-Cart

[bennybingo]

I just received my cart...testing it out this weekend when I can give it my undivided attention (as it well deserves!). It looks beautiful Jay. Incredible craftsmanship. Thank you again!

[psquare75]

 

I think this is the message you're referring to:

 

 

After the diagnostic tests are complete, the program displays the results and halts the computer. This message is simply telling you that, if you have an LED connected to the HALT output pin of the Z80 processor (which is something a technician might do during troubleshooting), the LED should be on at that point. It doesn't indicate a problem with the Aquarius. I should have mentioned this in the "trivia file", because it can be confusing.

 

 

 

Thats exactly it! Thanks for the clarification.

[marcfrick2112]

well, it seems the cart works 100% with the official 16K RAM module.

 

So far, programs not compatible with the official 32K module:

 

Biorhythms (Jay's Y2K hack, original cart. does work)

Extended BASIC + the bonus 1541 DOS

Shark!

FileForm

FinForm

 

I have tried Bio. and Fileform using original carts. as well, as a 'control' .. the original carts. work with my 32K RAM.

 

I thought my RAM might be bad, but I get the correct memory amount in built-in BASIC.

 

Anyway, just a head's up for Jay, and anyone else....

Now, if you'll excuse me... I see a Dragon King that needs a little 'attitude adjustment' ..

[jaybird3rd]

Thanks for testing these, Marc. From what you've said, it definitely sounds like an issue with the original 32K module hardware. I've tested each of those cartridges with my new 32K modules (particularly FileForm and FinForm and the two versions of Extended BASIC), and they all work and report the correct amount of RAM, so I'm certain the software can handle the extra memory without a problem.

 

I point this out because I don't want people to get the impression from these reports that the Aquaricart "doesn't work with extra RAM modules" or anything of that sort. This is something that will not affect most Aquarius owners at all, because very few of them own an original 32K module like yours. I'll definitely provide a workalike 32K module which is compatible with your Aquaricart, and I'll try to make that an option for others as well. I'd hate to see you continue to use your original module anyway; given its rarity, that thing really belongs in a museum.

[jaybird3rd]

Jay, just a thought.. once you have your website going, it would be awesome if you could put ALL relevant Aquarius info on it as well... pinout of the cassette interface, etc.

Believe me, I've got lots of other plans for my Aquarius website (programming tutorials and resources, technical information, etc.), but for now, I want to stay focused on the Aquaricart. In the meantime, a lot of the information you mention is already available on Martin v.d. Steenoven's website, which was a valuable resource to me as I was developing the Aquaricart.

 

 

And, uhh... I don't want to open a can of (virtual) worms up.... but someone like you should come up with an affordable hard drive/floppy drive for the Aquarius... but, I doubt Ext. BASIC could ever be used with it... UNless you can do a little more MODding, Jay!

Here's my thinking about this: the Aquarius definitely needs a new storage solution, but I don't see any reason to limit myself to old-fashioned floppy disks and mechanical hard drives. I think flash memory would be a much better choice, and fortunately, lots of work has already been done to develop flash storage products for other Z80 machines. It should be possible to adapt one of these designs--or elements of several designs--to the Aquarius. But again, I'm focused on getting the Aquaricart out there first.

[marcfrick2112]

 

I point this out because I don't want people to get the impression from these reports that the Aquaricart "doesn't work with extra RAM modules" or anything of that sort. This is something that will not affect most Aquarius owners at all, because very few of them own an original 32K module like yours. I'll definitely provide a workalike 32K module which is compatible with your Aquaricart, and I'll try to make that an option for others as well. I'd hate to see you continue to use your original module anyway; given its rarity, that thing really belongs in a museum.

 

OK, I am sorry.. I never wanted to give the indication that Aquaricart doesn't work with RAM modules. So, for the record, all programs on the Aquaricart work fine with a 16K RAM cart.

[jaybird3rd]

OK, I am sorry.. I never wanted to give the indication that Aquaricart doesn't work with RAM modules. So, for the record, all programs on the Aquaricart work fine with a 16K RAM cart.

No apology necessary, and again, thanks for all the detailed information! As I said earlier, I'm delighted to see the first Aquaricart users looking it over so closely. It will help shake out any remaining bugs before I go into a general release.

[marcfrick2112]

Oh, I had to add... While the Aquarius may have a small fan base, it's quite a tight-knit, very helpful group.

Example: less than 3 hours after I asked Martin about programming the Aquarius sound chip, he PM'd me here, and gave TONS of programming links and info.

 

Also, to Jay, when you start official production of the Aquaricart, maybe I could put in a few ads in classic computing 'Marketplace' sub-forums, if that would help you at all...

 

Further cart. testing is a little delayed, as I have been playing AD&D all day! *soo embarassed.. my first game today, I got killed on only the 3rd level.. boo!*

 

So nice to see some love for the little Aquarius.... I just always have loved it, even with its' quirks..

 

Now, if I can only find a printer....and a Master Expansion Module

[jaybird3rd]

Further cart. testing is a little delayed, as I have been playing AD&D all day! *soo embarassed.. my first game today, I got killed on only the 3rd level.. boo!*

But playing AD&D is testing the cartridge!

 

That was probably the game that I played the least when I tried them all. Some of the old Aquarius cartridges "accidentally" triggered a bank switch (usually because of programming mistakes) and needed to be fixed to be compatible with the Aquaricart, as I've said. Fortunately, it seems that AD&D isn't one of them: I couldn't get it to crash myself, and if you've made it all the way to the third level without encountering any problems, I think it'll be fine.

 

 

Oh, I had to add... While the Aquarius may have a small fan base, it's quite a tight-knit, very helpful group. Example: less than 3 hours after I asked Martin about programming the Aquarius sound chip, he PM'd me here, and gave TONS of programming links and info.

 

Also, to Jay, when you start official production of the Aquaricart, maybe I could put in a few ads in classic computing 'Marketplace' sub-forums, if that would help you at all...

 

So nice to see some love for the little Aquarius.... I just always have loved it, even with its' quirks..

 

Now, if I can only find a printer....and a Master Expansion Module

I've gotten to like the Aquarius community, too, in the short time I've been involved with it. It reminds me of "the old days" of homebrew, back when it was new and relatively small, and of course the machine itself is very interesting to me.

 

Thanks for the offer to help promote the Aquaricart. I haven't thought much about a "release strategy", beyond simply announcing it here and on the Aquarius newsgroup. I still think the audience for it is pretty small, so I'm trying not to indulge any illusions about how much demand there will be, but we'll see how it goes.

[+MattelAquarius]

Yesterday, I was finally able to dig out an Aquarius from storage and fire up my Aquaricart. Now, I'm able to tear myself away from it for a bit to share some experiences.

 

I absolutely love this cart. Jay has a real winner, here. The whole product just screams dedication and attention to detail. Reading the project history file from the cart was a real treat. It was written very well, and gives some fun background to Jay's destiny to develop for the Aquarius.

 

The printed manual is a superb recreation of the original Aquarius manuals. In fact it is better in ways that don't damage its nostalgic qualities. The printing and graphics are sharper than the originals.

 

For the first time since I was kid, the Aquarius is hooked up to the main living room television. This presented a bit of a problem, since my modern LCD tv doesn't always like the Aquarius output. Occasionally, the screen will turn black and white, depending on which colors/graphics are depicted. Some titles stay in color, others don't. I thought I may need to dig out a vcr or dvd recorder as a go-between for my Aquarius and tv, but I found another work-around. Fortunately, I can force the tv back to color by switching the tuner type back and forth from cable to antenna. I don't know why it works, but it does.

 

I want to clarify that these display issues have nothing to do with the Aquaricart. It's simply the result of an interaction between the Aquarius unit itself, and my LCD tv.

 

It has been great fun going through all the titles with my two sons. I am still the reigning champion in every game, except Chess. (The 11 year old is a Chess master.) They say it's not fair, because I've been playing these games "forever", which is kind of true.

 

Still, the SNAFU competitions, Utopia wars, and Chess matches have been a lot of fun. Playing pilot and gunner in Night Stalker is also a great time.

 

The user interface if very slick and functional. (Though I can't seem to figure out the click-wheel feature. I'm probably doing something wrong.)

 

I haven't found any problems with the cart or titles.

 

Once in a while, the cart will boot-up with a random title (as explained in the manual), because I power cycle too quickly. Our standing rule is whenever that happens we play whatever game pops up. If it's not a game (such as FileForm/Extended Basic) we either play around with it or reset, depending on the mood. It's like Aquarius roulette! Maybe a random load option could be implemented in the future?

 

 

The cart is so good, the only "problems" I can point out are complete nitpicks. I list these not to be negative, but to be thorough. Perhaps Jay will want to make these extremely minor fixes. I want to be clear that I LOVE my Aquaricart in believe it is an outstanding achievement by Jay.

 

"Problems"

 

1) AD&D Manual: Helmet depicted has uneven base, and does not match in-game graphic. Chalice depicted seems wider than in-game graphic.

 

2) Utopia Manual: Last page says "Select your skill level and begin play again." This may have been a mistake in the original manual (I don't have mine handy), but there are no skill levels in Utopia. It should say something along the lines of "Select Term of Office and length of round to begin play again."

 

3) 1541 Trivia: "Aquarius's primary" should be "Aquarius' primary"

 

 

Suggestions

 

Finform manual: show an example of a formula in cell.

 

Fileform manual: show how to block text for copy/paste with ### and cursor.

 

 

Non-Issues

 

While trying to use the click-wheel feature, I realized I could hold up/down to scroll through the titles, then press and hold a controller button, then release the wheel, and the selector would continue to move until I released the button. This is not an issue at all, I just found it interesting. Either it has something to do with the "gray codes" system, or Jay's program only checks for "any" controller signal after the initial direction is determined. Obviously, that is not a problem.

 

 

 

Back to playing Chess with my son.

 

 

I'll report more as I go.

 

Thanks again Jay for the ultimate Aquarius revival cart.

[+MattelAquarius]

I forgot to mention how great it was to finally see the mystical X-10 interface, if only for the novelty. The Mini-Expander diagnostic cart is also a nice Aquarius specimen to finally examine.

 

I just realized that this was the first time I ever played Zero-In on the real hardware (actually my son played it, mostly).

[jaybird3rd]

Wow, thanks so much for your feedback, Jason! I'm so glad to know that people are having fun with the Aquaricart. I'd encourage everyone again to chime in with their comments, and please, don't be nervous about posting questions or issues, no matter how small they may seem to be! I'd love to iron out as many of them as possible, because after all, it's the little things that make the difference between an "okay" product and a great one.

 

Regarding the issues that you mentioned:

 

The Chalice graphic in the AD&D manual: Yep, I'm sure this is different from the in-game graphic. You may recall that you sent me a list of screenshots containing specific in-game items that I requested (thanks again for sending me those!). Unfortunately, I forgot to ask you for a picture of the Chalice! I didn't have the time to play through the game and find one myself, so to finally get those screens finished, I "fudged" it based on the illustration in the original manual.

 

The Helmet graphic in the AD&D manual: I'll have to check my screenshots again, but I think the "brim" of the helmet actually looks like that in the original game also (unless the inaccuracies of the character set in Virtual Aquarius were playing tricks on me again). EDIT: you were right, the graphics are incorrect. I'll fix this.

 

The Utopia manual: The last page of the original manual (Page 16) does indeed say "Then select skill level and begin play again". There were all kinds of little mistakes in the original manuals that I had to go back and fix, and this is definitely one that I should have spotted. I must have been too busy checking for typos!

 

The 1541 OS Trivia: Strictly speaking, "Aquarius's" is actually the correct form for a singular possessive of a noun ending in "s", even though it looks funny. There is some variation in the way this rule is applied in practice, though, and it probably would have been fine either way.

 

The original FileForm and FinForm manuals were very long, and at the time I transcribed them, I didn't know how much space I would have left for all the other materials. These two applications in particular were ones that I didn't think anyone would spend a lot of time with (beyond a curious glance or two), so they were pretty low on my priority list. I probably could have fit more of the original material in, but at least the users will have the full manuals on the website to refer to. That would probably be the most convenient option, anyway, since it isn't possible to view the electronic manuals while using the cartridges.

 

The "click wheel" functionality seems to work better with some controllers than others, depending on what condition they're in, which is one reason I left it as an "undocumented feature". To use it, you'd simply hold the disc DOWN or UP, wait for a moment (perhaps long enough for it to start repeating), and then spin the disc either clockwise or counterclockwise without releasing it. You're correct about how the hand controller logic works: once it detects an input, it checks for subsequent changes until the disc is released, and then repeats the previous action with each new input. I did it this way for the "click wheel", to allow the spin of the disc to register as repeated presses in one direction. It works well enough, but it can sometimes result in anomalies like the one you described.

 

The "random selection on powerup" bug is an unfortunate consequence of the technology that I chose for the bankswitching circuitry. It isn't an issue at all when the cartridge is used in "8K mode" (as it will be for most new homebrew releases), but it crops up from time to time in "16K mode" (which is what the original cartridges required). I found ways to make it happen as rarely as possible, but it's still a flaw in the hardware design that seems to be more of an issue on some Aquarius computers than others. Fortunately, all that is usually needed to fix it is an extra cycle of the power, so it's more of an annoyance than anything else. If anyone experiences significant difficulty with this, let me know and I'll be glad to help you troubleshoot it. There are some changes that I'll be making to the final release cartridges to mitigate it even further.

 

By the way, since you mentioned Chess: this is by far the cartridge I have used the most out of all the ones in the Aquaricart collection. It was especially useful when I was designing the cartridge hardware: one of my "stress tests" was to leave Chess running at a high skill level for several days at a time, mainly because the computer could play itself and because it didn't blank out the screen like most other Aquarius titles. I've gotten to know that game very well because of that, despite its rarity.

 

Thanks again for your feedback, and I'll see what I can do about fixing the issues you mentioned.

[jaybird3rd]

I forgot to mention how great it was to finally see the mystical X-10 interface, if only for the novelty. The Mini-Expander diagnostic cart is also a nice Aquarius specimen to finally examine.

Yes! I had read about these, but I didn't know they still existed until I actually had the prototypes in my hands, and I was very glad to have the opportunity to include them in the Aquaricart. You can thank AtariAge member ianoid for that: he heard about this project and loaned me his prototypes of both of these cartridges (as far as I know, they were the only existing copies at the time I dumped them!), along with the Chess manual that I scanned and transcribed. All three were enormously important contributions to the project.

[+MattelAquarius]

 

The Helmet graphic in the AD&D manual: I'll have to check my screenshots again, but I think the "brim" of the helmet actually looks like that in the original game also (unless the inaccuracies of the character set in Virtual Aquarius were playing tricks on me again).

 

 

The 1541 OS Trivia: Strictly speaking, "Aquarius's" is actually the correct form for a singular possessive of a noun ending in "s", even though it looks funny. There is some variation in the way this rule is applied in practice, though, and it probably would have been fine either way.

 

 

 

Re: grammar. Shows what I know. I'm actually laughing at myself for being sure I knew what I was talking about there.

 

 

Re: helmet. It is definitely supposed to be even.

 

The random selection on power-up happens rarely, and is always due to a too-quick power cycle. The cart behaves itself, nicely.

 

Again, these are extremely minor things. The Aquaricart is already an outstanding product, and far from "okay".

screenshot_0012.bmp

screenshot_0013.bmp

Edited September 4, 2011 by Jay Silverheels

[jaybird3rd]

Re: helmet. It is definitely supposed to be even.

Ah, I see it now. Thanks for the screenshots. It must have been an issue with my emulator's character set, or more likely, a mistake in my notes (I sketched out the character/color maps for the AD&D objects on graph paper). Fortunately, the Helmet and Chalice graphics will be easy ones to fix.

[the-topdog]

I forgot to mention how great it was to finally see the mystical X-10 interface, if only for the novelty.

Yes! I had read about these, but I didn't know they still existed until I actually had the prototypes in my hands, and I was very glad to have the opportunity to include them in the Aquaricart. You can thank AtariAge user ianoid for that: he heard about this project and loaned me his prototypes of both of these cartridges (as far as I know, they were the only existing copies at the time I dumped them!)

 

I have the Tandy X-10 unit which was actually the Aquarius unit cannibalized to work with the Tandy (it is shaped just like the Aquarius). I hope that someday, someone much smarter than me will figure out how to make my unit work with the Aquarius so I can use the X-10 cartridge to do what it was designed to do and turn a light on for me

Edited September 4, 2011 by the-topdog

[jaybird3rd]

I have the Tandy X-10 unit which was actually the Aquarius unit cannibalized to work with the Tandy (it is shaped just like the Aquarius). I hope that someday, someone much smarter than me will figure out how to make my unit work with the Aquarius so I can use the X-10 cartridge to do what it was designed to do and turn a light on for me

Well, as I mention in the "trivia file" for that cartridge, that was exactly my hope when I added it to the Aquaricart collection. I have no idea what kind of interface the original Aquarius module used (the cassette port or the printer port?), but if someone out there figures out how to retrofit it for the Aquarius again, the Aquaricart will give them the software they'll need to make it work. I don't think the interface was built into the cartridge, like the QuickDisk interface, because the prototype I dumped was an ordinary ROM board:

 

 

(As an aside, I wonder why Radofin didn't pursue this system further with Pico Electronics after they re-acquired the Aquarius? It seems that bundling the Aquarius with the X10 controller and modules as an integrated solution would have guaranteed them a decent number of sales.)

[marcfrick2112]

I did some 'burn-in' tests today, both with chess, and with AD+D for over 12 hours. My Aquarius was on with the Aquaricart the whole time. Zero Problems.. nothing at all...

'click wheel' works, I get no random programs. Perfect for me.

 

Only problem.. man, sometimes in D+D, they just Won't ever give you any food!!!

[jaybird3rd]

I did some 'burn-in' tests today, both with chess, and with AD+D for over 12 hours. My Aquarius was on with the Aquaricart the whole time. Zero Problems.. nothing at all...

'click wheel' works, I get no random programs. Perfect for me.

 

Only problem.. man, sometimes in D+D, they just Won't ever give you any food!!!

Thanks, Marc, I really appreciate that. Releasing a new piece of hardware like the SuperCart I is always a nervous-making thing, especially on funny old machines like the Aquarius, but it sounds like it's holding up pretty well on lots of different systems, which is wonderful.

 

What's really exciting to me is that this same cartridge hardware, and all the "field testing" that's gone into it, will also be reusable for future homebrew projects, so it will help to make even greater things possible.

 

I really need to sit down and get some serious practice with AD&D myself one of these days ... I've dabbled in it, but it's a deep game that takes time to learn.

[+MattelAquarius]

Okay, I think I found another mistake in the original Night Stalker manual that was duplicated on the Aquaricart.

 

The manual says "Twin bats hanging upside down, awaken and wing their way through the pathways of the maze."

 

I always considered that artistic license. However, later in the manual, under Game Strategy, it says "Knock off sleeping bats for quick points."

 

Then I realized this language is a holdover from the Intellivision version of the game, where the bats do start off still, then begin flapping (and each time after they die).

 

As far as I've ever seen in the Aquarius version, the bats are always flapping.

 

Still, I could be reading too much into it.

 

 

Also, I have another tidbit for the Burgertime trivia page. You can play "Fast Food Burgertime" if you pause the game, using 1 & 6, then restart the gameplay by pressing and holding the disc in one direction. After the gameplay resumes, do NOT lift your thumb off the disc, but keep applying pressure as you spin the disc to control the chef. Until you either die or let your finger off the disc, the game will play at turbo speed with no music of sfx. I've accidentally done this plenty of times over the years, but never studied the exact steps to duplicate it, until now. It's a real challenge staying alive at that speed!

 

Also, nice touch Jay with the invisible robot in the digital manual. I noticed a slight phosphorescent glow in the "empty" space, and was able to reveal the robot by flipping pages rapidly. Did you use black on black or black on dark gray for that?

 

Still having no success with the click-wheel, which is not a problem, since it's just an undocumented cool extra. My discs are in great shape, and show smooth direction control using the diagnostic cart.

 

As a note, I am using a pre-S2 Aquarius for testing, if that matters. Perhaps I'll dig out another Aquarius, or even my AqII.

 

 

Still having a blast with the Aquaricart....

 

-Jason

 

 

PS, can someone confirm that the original LOGO cart generates odd graphic characters in insert mode when using the Ctrl+<many keys> ? If not, I'll try to dig out my Logo cart and try it. It most likely does really work that strangely on the original cart, since they probably ran out of rom/ram space for thorough error trapping.

Edited September 5, 2011 by Jay Silverheels

[the-topdog]

or even my AqII.

 

What's that you say? You are shipping your Aquarius II to my house for "storage"? Why sure!

[jaybird3rd]

Okay, I think I found another mistake in the original Night Stalker manual that was duplicated on the Aquaricart.

 

The manual says "Twin bats hanging upside down, awaken and wing their way through the pathways of the maze."

 

I always considered that artistic license. However, later in the manual, under Game Strategy, it says "Knock off sleeping bats for quick points."

 

Then I realized this language is a holdover from the Intellivision version of the game, where the bats do start off still, then begin flapping (and each time after they die).

 

As far as I've ever seen in the Aquarius version, the bats are always flapping.

 

Still, I could be reading too much into it.

This wouldn't surprise me. It seems as if the Aquarius manuals were mostly "borrowed" from the Intellivision originals, and they weren't always as careful about updating them for the Aquarius as they should have been. This will be easy to fix; I'll probably reword it to "knock off bats for quick points" or something similar.

 

 

Also, I have another tidbit for the Burgertime trivia page. You can play "Fast Food Burgertime" if you pause the game, using 1 & 6, then restart the gameplay by pressing and holding the disc in one direction. After the gameplay resumes, do NOT lift your thumb off the disc, but keep applying pressure as you spin the disc to control the chef. Until you either die or let your finger off the disc, the game will play at turbo speed with no music of sfx. I've accidentally done this plenty of times over the years, but never studied the exact steps to duplicate it, until now. It's a real challenge staying alive at that speed!

Sounds cool! I'll give it a try and will make another entry to the trivia file.

 

 

Also, nice touch Jay with the invisible robot in the digital manual. I noticed a slight phosphorescent glow in the "empty" space, and was able to reveal the robot by flipping pages rapidly. Did you use black on black or black on dark gray for that?

I appreciate that you noticed that! Yes, it was black on a dark gray background (the default background color for all the manual pages). When the Viewer displays a new page, it prints all the characters using a single color--usually white on dark gray--and then "paints" the characters that need to be a different color. So, if you look closely, you can indeed see all the characters in white in the instant before they're repainted.

 

 

As a note, I am using a pre-S2 Aquarius for testing, if that matters. Perhaps I'll dig out another Aquarius, or even my AqII.

 

Still having a blast with the Aquaricart....

That's good to know. I test the cartridges on four systems: one "S1" system and three "S2" systems, with and without Mini Expanders. It would be cool to know that it works with an Aquarius II as well, since I'm not lucky enough to own one.

 

 

PS, can someone confirm that the original LOGO cart generates odd graphic characters in insert mode when using the Ctrl+ ? If not, I'll try to dig out my Logo cart and try it. It most likely does really work that strangely on the original cart, since they probably ran out of rom/ram space for thorough error trapping.

I've got a few Logo carts, so I'll see if I can get one out to test this on. Aquarius Logo seems to have been ported from some other system and then modified for the Aquarius, so it may not be using the keyboard decoding routines in the Aquarius OS.

[+MattelAquarius]

or even my AqII.

 

What's that you say? You are shipping your Aquarius II to my house for "storage"? Why sure!

 

 

I'm sorry, but that won't be possible. Here is what happens when the AqII is removed from its shrine.

[marcfrick2112]

Oh, BTW, Jay ... my Aquarius is an S1 system. Lol, all the reports and I miss that one tiny little fact... ugh!!

[marcfrick2112]

I did some 'burn-in' tests today, both with chess, and with AD+D for over 12 hours. My Aquarius was on with the Aquaricart the whole time. Zero Problems.. nothing at all...

'click wheel' works, I get no random programs. Perfect for me.

 

Only problem.. man, sometimes in D+D, they just Won't ever give you any food!!!

Thanks, Marc, I really appreciate that. Releasing a new piece of hardware like the SuperCart I is always a nervous-making thing, especially on funny old machines like the Aquarius, but it sounds like it's holding up pretty well on lots of different systems, which is wonderful.

 

What's really exciting to me is that this same cartridge hardware, and all the "field testing" that's gone into it, will also be reusable for future homebrew projects, so it will help to make even greater things possible.

 

I really need to sit down and get some serious practice with AD&D myself one of these days ... I've dabbled in it, but it's a deep game that takes time to learn.

 

Oh, it's quick to learn the game, just takes a long time to actually beat it... LOL!

Truthfully, tho, a lot has to do with what weapons/supplies the randomiser sets you up with...

 

Example: the first time I ever found a white crossbow in AD+D, I went right to the Dragon King, fired, it it exploded after the first shot! *sadly, the Dragon King did NOT explode..*

 

I have gotten to level 22 before, yet, during Aquaricart testing, I can barely get past level 4!

 

Jay, anyone have the source code for AD+D? Wouldn't it be COOL if someone could make a new version with different mazes, etc?? (Another thing, I never made it to level 99, but after than it supposedly warps back to level 90, how about warping to a random level? Or a random level start?)

*hint, hint to anyone thinking of Aquarius home-brews... *

 

Sorry, I guess I am an AD&D addict... *I do have Intelly version, but I have been playing the Aquarius version longer... *

 

*hint, hint to anyone thinking of doing homebrews for the Aquarius!..*