Mattell Aquarius (was: Re: VIC-20 Programmer's Aid

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Mon Mar 31 18:43:40 1997

On Sun, 30 Mar 1997, hellige wrote:

> On 30-Mar-97, classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu wrote:
>
> >> Mattel Aquarius, Osbourne Executive, Sinclair ZX-81, TI-99/4A,
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> I've actually got two...One under the Mattel name, the other under the
> Radofin name. Same machine though, as Radofin was the actual manufacturer of
> it I believe. It's a pretty simple machine, but interesting. I've played
> with the Basic somewhat, but haven't tried to do much. What all do you have
> for the Aquarius?

This was my very first computer. I still miss it to this day. I harbor
few regrets in my life but one of them is selling this system with my
atari 2600 to buy my first apple. The 2600 I've since replaced (ten
fold) and I'm sure someday I'll run into another aquarius and will have
it too, but I can never replace the programming I did on it. I had a
comic book inventory database program and I wrote seevral simple arcade
games. My setup was the aquarius with an expansion box that plugged into
the expansion slot that allowed two carthridges to be plugged in
simultaneously. This allowed a 4K memory expansion card to be plugged in
along with other game carthridges which required the increased memory. I
had a 4K mem carthridge, a couple games, keypad controllers, a thermal
printer, and two tape drives. What a fun little system. Some day I will
recoup all this gear. I just hope the kid I sold it too got as much use
out of it as I did.

Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Mon Mar 31 1997 - 18:43:40 BST