Aquarius owners: a question

[jaybird3rd]

Wow, I must have missed or forgotten about this thread!

I didn't grow up with the Aquarius, but I did grow up with other similar computers that targeted the same price point, since that was all my family could afford at the time. My very first computer was a TI 99/4A, purchased when they were on clearance for $50, and we also had a Timex/Sinclair 1000 (aka ZX81) as a secondary "toy computer." My grandfather happened to have the same two computers; since he lived far away at the time, we would sometimes mail each other printed listings for BASIC programs we'd written.

So, I have a lot of affection for the budget-priced computers of the early 80s. I had an Atari 2600, and occasional access to the Atari 800, but it was the budget-priced computers I had at home that first opened up the world of programming to me. When I first saw the Aquarius, I recognized it as one of these, although I mistook it at the time as a ZX81 clone, since I'd encountered others (like these) not long before. It wasn't until years later, after I branched out to Intellivision collecting, that I learned what the Aquarius really was. But there was still that sense of "recognition," and perhaps this predisposed me to develop a fondness for the Aquarius despite its limitations. The Aquarius was eventually the catalyst for my exploration of electronics; this in turn lead to the Aquaricart project, which originated right here on AtariAge.

Given all of that, I'm certain the Aquarius is a computer that I would have liked as a kid. As someone accustomed to the ZX81, I would have noticed first that the Aquarius had COLOR and SOUND, and a keyboard that wasn't completely flat! Later, I would have noticed that the memory wasn't as severely limited as the ZX81, and that it had a more capable version of BASIC, making it easier to adapt programs written for more popular computers (I already had long experience with that on the TI 99/4A). The lack of reprogrammable graphics would have disappointed me, and eventually I would have exhausted its stock ~1.7K of RAM, but I can easily see myself getting many hours of use out of the Aquarius, especially if I had any of its cartridge games.

Viewed from today's context, I still very much enjoy working with the Aquarius, but for different reasons. It's a beautifully simple and minimalist architecture, so it's a wonderful playground for anyone wanting to gain experience designing simple computer upgrades and add-ons. For anyone interested in assembly-language programming, its Z80 processor is a pleasure to use, and its character-oriented graphics make it easy to get something on the screen without the complexities of dedicated graphics chips. It's admittedly a very constrained system, especially without a Mini Expander and a set of hand controllers, but those very restrictions serve to spur my imagination, and I often find myself thinking about game ideas which would fit within the range of what the Aquarius can do.

(I regret that I haven't had the time to bring those ideas into reality, but I hope to finally change that later this year, once the school year is over and I have the summer off for the first time in a long time.)

[+x=usr(1536)]

Partial necroposting and probably old knowledge to some of you, but I just read about the Dragon MSX, a prototype machine from Dragon Data (who made the Dragon 32, a home computer very similar to the TRS-80 CoCo). This MSX computer was designed by ... drum roll ... Radofin in some time before Dragon Data under the control of General Electric Company (GEC) went into receivership in 1984 and was sold to Spanish startup Eurohard.

 

Would this Dragon MSX design possibly match either Aquarius II or III, or just one more of many Radofin designs?

 

From what I recall, the Dragon MSX was essentially a last-ditch effort by Dragon to save the company from going under. The Dragon 32 and 64 were moderately-successful, but never really took the mass market by storm (and even then, were really only known in the UK); the company wanted something that might be able to compete outside of that market, particularly on the Continent.

 

FWIW, I can remember fairly well what the computer market in the UK looked like in that timeframe. It wasn't completely dissimilar to the one in the US: lots of choice in terms of platforms (and arguably too many choices), but with different platforms compared to the US. Homegrown designs generally did well there (Sinclair, Amstrad, the BBC micro and its relatives), though Commodore also found success. The Dragon line and the SAM Coupé are notable exceptions to that, however, along with a few others, but Dragon and SAM did manage to produce about 20,000 or so machines between them.

 

As for Atari, Apple, Tandy, Oric, the MSX, and others... They were there, but never really major players. Having grown up close to that part of the world as an Atari owner, if you had something that wasn't a Spectrum or a Commodore, you were headed for the fringes. That's not to say there weren't other users out there, just that there weren't anywhere near as many.

[schuwalker]

Thought I mentioned this before... must've been another thread.

 

Aquarius is one of those *nostalgic* consoles for me. Never really got into the programming side of this thing - mostly gaming.

 

We picked up our Aquarius @ K&B circa '83ish on one of their discounted so many times, we just want it outta here sales. Can't recall the price, it was really cheap though.

 

We picked up all the software they had at the time, Burgertime being the last one. Looks like I have all the software from '82 including Logo, Finform and Fileform. Now '83, I have zilch. Don't ever recall seeing any software available from '83 at any store. Probably explains why I had (have) a helluva time, now and then, locating Melody Chase which is my favorite out of the Aquarius library.