Well in
1982 Mattel decided to enter the already crowded home
computer market with the Aquarius. The Aquarius was
intended to be a home computer and gaming system. Mattel
around the same time came out with a computer keyboard
attachment for their successful home entertainment system
the Intellivision. (I know very little of this keyboard
attachment system).
The
Aquarius features are the following:
Processor:
Z80A
Clock
Speed:
? MHz
Internal
RAM:
4K (externally
expandable to 20K)
Internal
ROM:
8K
Built
in Basic:
A subset of
Microsoft Basic.
Video
Output:
Text mode - 40
character x 24 line
Graphics mode --
80 x 72 pixels (claimed, may be higher)
Keyboard:
49-keys with shift
and control keys
Sound:
1 sound channel (3
with Mini Expander)
Expansion
Slot:
For program
cartridges and Mini Expander Size: 13.5 x
6 x 2 inches
Released
Hardware and Software
Hardware
Options:
Mini
Expander - was an expansion system that made
(Released) game playing more exciting and easier.
Came with 2 detachable 6 key 16 position disk
hand controllers (similar to Intellivision
controllers but with 6 keys instead of 12 and no
side fire buttons). The unit added 2 additional
sound channels. Had two cartridge slots one for a
memory cartridge and the other for a program
cartridge.
Data
Recorder - A sequential file medium cassette
player to store data and programs.
Printer
- 40 column thermal printer. 80 cps in
upper/lower case text and 20 graphic lines per
second.
300
Baud Modem with originate/answer capability to
allow upload/download ability.
Extra RAM
Carts:
4K
RAM Cartridge (Released) 16K RAM Cartridge
Software
Available:
LOGO
- allowed you to do graphics programming with
Turtle Graphics.(Released)
FINFORM
- is a 63 column by 255 row spread sheet=20
program.
FILEFORM
- is a database / word processing program.
Game
Cartridges:
Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons Treasures of Tarmin
(Released)
Astrosmash
Biorhythms
Burger
Time
Night
Stalker
Reversi
Snafu
Tron
Deadly Discs
Utopia
Not
Released or Unconfirmed
Extra RAM
Carts:
32K
RAM Cartridge
Hardware
Options:
Master
Expansion Module - was a large expansion box that
had two floppy disk drives. It would allow you to
use floppies on the Aquarius and allow you to
boot CP/M.
Software:
Extended
Microsoft Basic - would give you most if not all
the remaining commands of MBasic. With this you
were also able to access the Mini Expanders
controllers to write games to use them.
Hints
From Heloise - Was to be a Question and answer
program with helpful hints for common household
questions. Heloise is an author of a popular
newspaper column and an authority on
housekeeping.
Game
Cartridges:
Chess
Lock
'N' Chase
Melody
Chase
Sea
Battle
Is the
Aquarius Public Domain?
Is the
Aquarius equipment/software Public Domain like the
Vectrex system? This I don't know yet. In 1984 Mattel was
reported to have sold the marketing rights to Radofin
Electronics the producer of the system. I am in the
process of trying to find out the status of the Aquarius.
If it is most software was on cartridges which means that
they would have to be burned into Eproms to use the them.
Unless someone was able to write a copy program and
transfer cartridges to tape/disk and be run from that
medium like the ADAM.
Help for
this FAQ file
If you
have any info or find something on this list to be in
error please contact me via E-mail on the internet at ap748@cleveland.freenet.edu or by mail/phone:
Fred
Horvat
P.O. Box 493
Chesterland, OH 44026
216-729-0761
Fred
Horvat
Free-Net Atari Portfolio Sigop
Atari Classic Gamer
And Let's Not Forget an ADAMite!
