sam007 Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Hi, Can anyone tell me if it was possible to learn coding on a Mattel Aquarius computer 1983 ? Thanking you in advance Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 From what I am reading, "yes", with scarequotes. It has a form of MS Basic on it, but not a lot of memory free afterward. No storage medium to save the programs to. The system bombed bigtime at market, and never got peripherals. I do not know if there is an enthusiast support group or not-- If so, it would be your only real bet at getting it into an actually useful microcomputer state. In theory, yes, you could learn MS BASIC with it. That would teach you about loops, conditionals, operators, and other components of writing software. There might be some modest crossover with MS VisualBasic (and its variations in .net) that might be somewhat useful today. I would suggest a different micro to do that with though. Say, A C64. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krebizfan Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 The Aquarius could store to tape but the tape cable has a different pinout than the similar 5-pin tape connector for the TRS-80. How well equipped is the Aquarius? To do something beyond the absolute simplest BASIC program requires memory expansion and those will be very difficult to find these days. There are websites that show how to make the various cables for the Aquarius like the cassette cable and a cable to connect the Aquarius printer port to a PC serial port. The Aquarius keyboard is better than the T/S 1000 keyboard. Both are about equally useful when memory expansion is added. The problem is getting the Aquarius to the point of achieving mediocrity is going to prove much more difficult than with nearly any other system sold in the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frozone212 Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 I'm with the other guys, the Aquarius was a flop even when it was released. Had it been 1977 or earlier then maybe. To my knowledge, there is no user groups for it and even archive.org's manuals and stuff is sparse. you're better off with a C64 or even better, a 128 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Eh, what's wrong with the combined Intellivision and Aquarius forum? In particular in the programming subsection, there is a reasonable amount of content. There also are some people on Twitter who are quite active developers for the Aquarius so it definitely has modern day support. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 (edited) The Aquarius came built-in with a full 8k Microsoft BASIC. Limitations might be how comfortable its keyboard might be for typing. If the default RAM isn't enough it can be expanded. Here's the pinout for the cassette interface. https://www.vdsteenoven.com/aquarius/casscable.html So yes, in the early 1980s you could learn BASIC programming on an Aquarius. If you want to learn coding today I'd start with something modern. Edited February 25, 2022 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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