jaybird3rd Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 yup still looks good. i love the whole retro look with a newer style use of black. my only dislike about old games is most of the time they never properly utilized black boxes. and always mixed some other color like gold or silver on half the box. this is a very clean look. One of my early designs actually had a silver-gray background instead, but I agree that black looks much better; it should really make the colors and the artwork "pop." I ended up combining a few different ideas: the blue bar with the centered white title was modeled after Atari's 5200 boxes, and as it happens, it seems to fit nicely with the Imagic-style decorations and with the Aquarius logo colors. I'll take a fresh look at it after I get back the week after next, but I think this is very close to what the final design will be. I'm looking forward to seeing it on a real gatefold box, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 One of my early designs actually had a silver-gray background instead, but I agree that black looks much better; it should really make the colors and the artwork "pop." I ended up combining a few different ideas: the blue bar with the centered white title was modeled after Atari's 5200 boxes, and as it happens, it seems to fit nicely with the Imagic-style decorations and with the Aquarius logo colors. I'll take a fresh look at it after I get back the week after next, but I think this is very close to what the final design will be. I'm looking forward to seeing it on a real gatefold box, too! yeah when i saw it i thought this is what imagic shoulda done. also i am not a fan of foil boxes cause they are always shitty quality materials and crush and curl easy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 yeah when i saw it i thought this is what imagic shoulda done. also i am not a fan of foil boxes cause they are always shitty quality materials and crush and curl easy I believe Imagic actually did use black boxes for some of their secondary platforms (Atari 800, etc), but that may have been as much of a cost-cutting move as a stylistic choice: their silver foil boxes were very striking, but they were probably very expensive to produce as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 I believe Imagic actually did use black boxes for some of their secondary platforms (Atari 800, etc), but that may have been as much of a cost-cutting move as a stylistic choice: their silver foil boxes were very striking, but they were probably very expensive to produce as well. yeah im sure they were expensive, hence why i think they made them too thin and shitty imo. it was probably cheaper to use the vaccum formed plastic and no top and bottom on the box Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 yeah im sure they were expensive, hence why i think they made them too thin and shitty imo. it was probably cheaper to use the vaccum formed plastic and no top and bottom on the box Yes. That may be why I've always found it hard to find silver Imagic boxes that are still in good shape, aside for NOS sealed games. The shiny silver only makes any damage to the boxes look worse. The sliding plastic tray also has thin ridges sticking out near the top and bottom edges, and these can fray the box fairly quickly without careful handling. Mattel's gatefold box design for the Intellivision has a lot more reinforcement and seems to hold up much better over time, so I'm delighted that I have the chance to use it as the basis for my Aquarius boxes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvdsteenoven Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 I have Zero in, Space Speller and Melody Chase, but I don't have Chess?!?! Hold on! You have Zero in !? Is it complete? Jay searched everywhere to find a collector with this game for his multicard and here is another one You are now official the second known owner of this rare cart. Do you wanna swap it for my chess cart Regs, Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Just an interesting Aquarius note...... I am no fan of the Aquarius, but not only do I find myself printing the Aquarius boxes, (well, having them printed) but Elektronite is having an Intellivision graphics creation tool being developed. The author has seen fit to include the Aquarius character set in the program. So, it can be used for Aquarius screen graphics developement as well. I like the new Aquarius box in that it looks attractive 'as is' and doesn't absolutely need a custom sticker set. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schuwalker Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 As an aside, Chess was actually released on the Aquarius right? I have Zero in, Space Speller and Melody Chase, but I don't have Chess?!?! Cmart, where did you get some of those heavy hitters for the Aquarius? I had know you won the Melody Chase on Ebay - you outbid me! I 'thought' Topdog won the other one (Space Speller) though??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Hold on! You have Zero in !? Is it complete? Jay searched everywhere to find a collector with this game for his multicard and here is another one You are now official the second known owner of this rare cart. Do you wanna swap it for my chess cart Regs, Martin Hi Martin, sadly it's loose, not CIB. I believe Topdog told me there were 3 known copies. I don't think any are complete are they? Cheers, Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Cmart, where did you get some of those heavy hitters for the Aquarius? I had know you won the Melody Chase on Ebay - you outbid me! I 'thought' Topdog won the other one (Space Speller) though??? Sorry about the Melody Chase. Lol! I actually ended up buying Space Speller from Erik, and got Zero In as a BIN on eBay last year. I almost crapped myself as I quickly bid on it. I honestly think it was up for 1-2 minutes. No would somebody sell me Chess already! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvdsteenoven Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 Hi Martin, sadly it's loose, not CIB. I believe Topdog told me there were 3 known copies. I don't think any are complete are they? I thought the cartridge that Jay borrowed to make a copy was complete, but Jay can answer that. Regs, Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted June 17, 2013 Author Share Posted June 17, 2013 I thought the cartridge that Jay borrowed to make a copy was complete, but Jay can answer that. Yes, we (Topdog and I) actually found a German collector in mid-2010 who had a complete Zero In, and who was kind enough to scan the manual for us. As far as we know, he is the only collector who has a complete Zero In. He had pictures of his collection on his website at one point, but it appears to be offline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psquare75 Posted June 24, 2013 Share Posted June 24, 2013 While I haven't been around as of late, I am very interested in this.. and I too like the latest/last box design. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 1, 2013 Author Share Posted July 1, 2013 Okay, I'm back from vacation and have revisited this box design one last time, and I've finished what I hope to be the final revisions. Here's how it looks: It isn't that much different from my previous one. I decided that I didn't like using a different color scheme for the stripes on the bottom front, so I filled that area out a bit with a fourth stripe and used the four colors from inside the Aquarius roundel instead. I'm still open to last-minute suggestions, of course, but this will likely be the final design. I think it should work well for my purposes; it will accommodate stickers/decals nicely, and as Willy said earlier, it still looks "complete" even without them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 1, 2013 Author Share Posted July 1, 2013 So, now that I've got a new box designed, and a reliable supply of new cartridge shells and boards, it's time to turn my attention back to making some games! Before I start on my own original games, though, I'm actually thinking of reviving my Aquaricart Volume II idea (a cartridge-based collection of the best third-party Aquarius cassette games). That would be a nice one to finish as one of my "Aquarius 30th Anniversary" projects. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted July 1, 2013 Share Posted July 1, 2013 Would the Aquaricart II come in that pretty box? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted July 1, 2013 Share Posted July 1, 2013 Looks good to me! Now just get around to filling them with games. Volume 2 sounds cool, I must admit I know very little about the 3rd party cassette games so I'm curious to hear what that might include. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 1, 2013 Author Share Posted July 1, 2013 Would the Aquaricart II come in that pretty box? I'm actually hoping that the Aquaricart II will help to pay for those boxes, assuming that it is successful (that was another motivation for choosing it as my next project, in fact). I haven't made up my mind yet, but I think I'd rather reserve the boxes for my own original productions, since my quantities will be somewhat limited. Besides, the first Aquaricart didn't come with its own box, so offering one for the second might be confusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 1, 2013 Author Share Posted July 1, 2013 Looks good to me! Now just get around to filling them with games. Volume 2 sounds cool, I must admit I know very little about the 3rd party cassette games so I'm curious to hear what that might include. Thanks! The Aquarius got some pretty good cassette games: clones of popular arcade games (Defender, Breakout, Centipede, Pac-Man, etc), along with a few compilations of four to six "mini-games" each. They're a bit different from the style of games that Mattel produced, which were mostly Intellivision ports. Martin's website includes lots of good screenshots and descriptions. There were also some cheapie games written in BASIC, but I'll probably weed these out in favor of the better machine-language games. Aside for the fact that they took a long time to load from tape, one of the problems with these games is that they usually required either 4K or 16K of extra RAM, which relatively few Aquarius owners have (or have the means to get these days). Since cartridges have no load times, I can solve the first problem easily, and if I can rework the games to run entirely from the cartridge, it might even be possible for the first time to play them on a stock Aquarius, with no extra RAM at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted July 1, 2013 Share Posted July 1, 2013 oooh, those games sound cool...I'm in. Put me down for #1 please, I don't mind prepaying. By the way, you could always offer up a box for the ACart 1 and ACart 2.....just sayin. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaman Posted July 1, 2013 Share Posted July 1, 2013 There were also some cheapie games written in BASIC, but I'll probably weed these out in favor of the better machine-language games. Yes please leave out those rushed out games and hopefully some of the more rare to be found games or even home-brews will find it's way to your Aquaricart II! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquaman Posted July 1, 2013 Share Posted July 1, 2013 Okay, I'm back from vacation and have revisited this box design one last time, and I've finished what I hope to be the final revisions. Here's how it looks: I'm still open to last-minute suggestions, of course, but this will likely be the final design. I think it should work well for my purposes; it will accommodate stickers/decals nicely, and as Willy said earlier, it still looks "complete" even without them. It really looks great as it is now 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pimpmaul69 Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 It really looks great as it is now ditto 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mvdsteenoven Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 Aside for the fact that they took a long time to load from tape, one of the problems with these games is that they usually required either 4K or 16K of extra RAM, which relatively few Aquarius owners have (or have the means to get these days). Since cartridges have no load times, I can solve the first problem easily, and if I can rework the games to run entirely from the cartridge, it might even be possible for the first time to play them on a stock Aquarius, with no extra RAM at all. Reworking those games will be a huge task. Are you going to dissassemble the games and recompile them, or just replace everything that looks like memory address? As a suggestion, you could also add 16k of RAM on the card and internally copy the game from rom to ram. Regs, Martin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 Well, if no one buys my Aquarius setup by release, I'll have to get an AquariCart 2 also! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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