Jump to content
IGNORED

[AQUARIUS] Mattel Aquarius Multi-Cart


Recommended Posts

OK, I'd definitely be interested in one of these, no matter how the menu system is implemented. But, as another posted said, software menus are hot! :cool: I don't really want to buy a 'common' Aquarius game just to use the shell, but it seems like the best option. Honestly, if I had more cash, I'd get 2 ... (My beloved father, 70 years old, also has an Aquarius.....)

 

 

Please keep us up to date on your progress....

 

Marc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

If we want new Aquarius cases then I can make them. I use this stuff called Alumilite. http://www.alumilite.com/

 

I can take an aquarius case and make a silicone rubber mold to make a copy of each side of the case. I've used it many times to make things I can't find but want more of. Drive rails for example.

 

post-20571-127328523533_thumb.jpg

 

Anyway, it's like $2 in material for the plastic and then like $30 to make the mold, so if we made a batch of 30 then the material costs would be like $3 per case. Let me know if you want me to do this. Also, if we want to machine the mold and put in a notch for the dip switches then you could do that and send it to me and I could copy it. Or if you told me the exact mold measurements and notch distances, then I could dremel it out and copy that. Let me know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, that's very interesting! I'll certainly keep that option in mind. Given how unusual the Aquarius cartridge design is, and considering how (relatively) rare they are, a process like this will probably be the best option besides recycling shells from old cartridges. We've lined up a limited number of donors, but once those are gone, we'll probably need something just like this.

 

Thanks to GroovyBee's input, I've actually moved away from the idea of using microswitches to select the game, so there won't be any need to include the holes (or to drill them in old cases). My first prototypes used switches, but I've started working on adapting the Atari 7800 bankswitching circuitry to create a bankswitched multi-cart. If I do it right, I'll be able to come up with a versatile design that can be used for a 256K multi-cart, for a single large bankswitched game of up to 256K in size, or for standard 8K/16K cartridges. It will take more time to work out the design, but the results will be so much better that I think it will be worth it. The new multi-cart I have in mind will be menu-driven, and I might even be able to borrow a great idea from the Cuttle Cart 3 and include a simple manual/overlay viewer as well.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have Aquarius carts to copy and I could do it. I actually enjoy the work so just let me know. Not asking you to buy them, just letting you know that if I make them all I'd want is the material cost back, my time is free. Maybe I'll just make one up to send to you so you can see it in action. Just want to make sure that you are actually going to finish the multicart! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have Aquarius carts to copy and I could do it. I actually enjoy the work so just let me know. Not asking you to buy them, just letting you know that if I make them all I'd want is the material cost back, my time is free. Maybe I'll just make one up to send to you so you can see it in action. Just want to make sure that you are actually going to finish the multicart! :)

I'd love to see what you can do with this! And yes, I definitely intend to finish the multi-cart; I've put too much time and thinking into it already to abandon the project. In fact, I was looking over the schematic last night, and I can't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to bump it up to a 512K cartridge, which would make it possible to do a 32-in-1 multi-cart design.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd love to see what you can do with this! And yes, I definitely intend to finish the multi-cart; I've put too much time and thinking into it already to abandon the project. In fact, I was looking over the schematic last night, and I can't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to bump it up to a 512K cartridge, which would make it possible to do a 32-in-1 multi-cart design.

 

It gets better and better!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Don't worry, it's coming. I've completed a simple design for a new board which will allow Aquarius cartridges of up to a megabyte in size (the original cartridges were all 8K or 16K), using a variety of bankswitching modes. It will support up to a 64-in-1 multi-cart (minus a few slots for the menu system and other goodies), single-game bankswitched cartridges from 32K to one megabyte, or standard 16K cartridges.

 

I've also decided to borrow a great idea from the Cuttle Cart 3: built-in documentation. In addition to the applications and games, I plan to add an option to the menu system to view the text of the original Aquarius manuals and keyboard/controller overlays on the screen. I'll need a few extra ROM slots to hold all that text, but since I already have more space in the cartridge than I'll need for the entire library of Aquarius cartridges and tapes, this hardly matters. I should also mention that I'm including as much cassette tape software as I can convert to cartridge format (which will not include software written in BASIC).

 

The design is pretty much finished, except for a few tweaks based on some feedback from more experienced hardware designers, and I've begun breadboarding it for testing on a real Aquarius:

 

breadboard.jpg

 

(Sorry about the mess.)

 

This already works for 16K cartridges; I'm currently writing some software to test the bankswitching logic. Once I've completed testing, the next step will be to design the circuit boards and to have some prototypes built. I'll post updates here as they become available.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I forget: was the Aquarius compatable with the Intellivision Computer module add-on?

It's a totally different system. When Mattel licensed the Aquarius design from Radofin, they made some additions to it to strengthen its game-playing capabilities: they expanded the built-in character set to include some general-purpose game characters, and they created the Mini-Expander, which included the sound chip and hand controllers from the Intellivision (although the hand controllers are a bit different). This made the Aquarius more "Intellivision-like", and it got some ports of the more popular Intellivision games, but it doesn't have anything in common with the Intellivision otherwise.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I forget: was the Aquarius compatable with the Intellivision Computer module add-on?

It's a totally different system. When Mattel licensed the Aquarius design from Radofin, they made some additions to it to strengthen its game-playing capabilities: they expanded the built-in character set to include some general-purpose game characters, and they created the Mini-Expander, which included the sound chip and hand controllers from the Intellivision (although the hand controllers are a bit different). This made the Aquarius more "Intellivision-like", and it got some ports of the more popular Intellivision games, but it doesn't have anything in common with the Intellivision otherwise.

 

Thanks for the info. I just youtube'd the aquarius version of Night Stalker...WOW, much worse than even the 2600 version. Weren't such graphics apalling for a home computer at that time?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info. I just youtube'd the aquarius version of Night Stalker...WOW, much worse than even the 2600 version. Weren't such graphics apalling for a home computer at that time?

In my opinion, the Aquarius's character-based graphics (specifically, the fact that there wasn't any way to change the graphics) was its greatest weakness. Even at the time it was released, this was rightly seen as a rather serious omission for a game-oriented home computer. Reprogrammable characters was really something that the Aquarius should have had from the beginning, which is what lead me to create my SuperFont upgrade. I think it will provide a badly-needed corrective in this area when I get it finished, after the multi-cart project is out of the way.

 

To me, the biggest disappointment with Night Stalker is that it did not use the excellent sound effects from the Intellivision version. I suppose they were trying to accommodate Aquarius owners who did not have a Mini-Expander, but other games were able to use the Mini-Expander sound if it was available or the built-in sound when it was not, and Night Stalker should have done the same, even though this might have pushed the game to 16K. Using the same colors as the Intellivision version might have been better, too. The animation is a little clunky, since movements are limited to the character boundaries, but it isn't too bad in the case of Night Stalker because the player and the robot will (ideally) stay far away from each other. BurgerTime suffers much more from the Aquarius's limited movement resolution because, in that game, the player and the enemies often have to move very close together without touching, and the Aquarius display isn't well-suited for that.

 

Overall, I wouldn't exactly call Night Stalker a bad port, but I think that games such as Astrosmash, Utopia, and Snafu were much more successful on the Aquarius.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Welcome to AtariAge, ccatalyst!

 

I'm still working on the board design and on collecting material for the multi-cart. Real life (which unfortunately included being sick) has gotten in the way this past week, but I'm making progress, and I've made one last-minute addition that I think will make the multi-cart much more useful.

 

As I've stated, I hope to include cartridge conversions of machine-language cassette programs, but it suddenly occurred to me last week that many Aquarius owners do not have the 16K memory expansion module that these programs require. I'd hate to ship a multi-cart that is half-filled with software that only a few people will be able to use, so I put together a simple design for a 32K memory expansion module (32K being the most RAM that can be added to the Aquarius without using bankswitching).

 

Mattel had prototype for a very bulky 32K module, but they only produced it in limited quantities: I've read that there are only three or four of them in existence. My new module is much more efficient; in fact, if I can find enough room for the added components on the new board, I might be able to integrate the 32K of RAM and the multi-cart into one package. This would give you the 16K you will need for the cassette conversions, as well as the full 32K for use with Extended BASIC and other applications, all in a single cartridge (which will not require the Mini-Expander). For those Aquarius owners who have a Mini-Expander and would rather have the 32K of RAM separately from the multi-cart, I will also make it available as a standalone cartridge which can be used as a drop-in upgrade for the original 4K/16K modules.

 

I'll keep you posted.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No reason to sugarcoat it, swlovinist... It's hardly a misunderstood system--it pretty much deserved all the criticism it got, but that' doesn't make it any less interesting!

I'm not entirely sure why, but the Aquarius has become a very interesting system to me in the brief time I've had it; I keep coming up with new game ideas for it. Its graphics capabilities are pretty weak, but I've found ways to help remedy that, and with the addition of the Mini-Expander, the system actually becomes a pretty nice little game-oriented computer: you've got Intellivision-like sound and controllers, a popular processor, and a simple but functional keyboard with a built-in overlay system.

 

Most importantly, you've got a pair of cartridge slots which can be used for a number of different upgrades, such as bankswitched RAM or flash-based persistent storage. On other computers, these would require internal modifications, but on the Aquarius, it can all be completely plug-and-play. With enough time and effort, I think the system has the potential to be an appealing homebrew platform, one that can offer something different for classic gamers than more carbon-copy arcade ports on the 2600 or 7800, so I'm excited by the possibilities.

 

An update on the multi-cart: I've completed the design and am working on the board layout right now. I was able to fit a surface-mounted 32K RAM underneath the ROM, but one challenge I'm facing now is finding enough room for all the traces! The Aquarius cartridges are bulky, but there isn't much surface area on the board itself, and I've already got a lot of hardware crammed onto it. If I can't find enough room for the extra RAM, I might end up simplifying the board design so that it can be either a ROM cartridge or a 32K RAM cartridge, but not both at the same time. That's a more desirable option to me than designing a board that can't fit inside the old cartridge shells. If it comes to making separate cartridges, I'll be able to make the RAM cartridge available very cheaply for those who need it, so one way or another, expanded RAM will be an option.

 

I should have the board finished and sent off for prototyping early next week.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...