519 replies to this topic

[Jay Silverheels]

marcfrick2112, on Mon Sep 5, 2011 6:35 PM, said:

I have gotten to level 22 before, yet, during Aquaricart testing, I can barely get past level 4!


Sorry, I guess I am an AD&D addict... *I do have Intelly version, but I have been playing the Aquarius version longer... *

Sounds like you are starting at one of the harder levels. Just a friendly reminder that you can hit "3" at the title screen for "easy".

I too am an Aquarius AD&D addict. Ever since I first played it as a kid, I've been often buried in the game for several hours on end. Even on the emulator, I sometimes lose myself. I now instinctively know all the keyboard control keys without an overlay. Same with the controller on the real hardware.

I'm sure you're the same way.

[marcfrick2112]

Jay Silverheels, on Mon Sep 5, 2011 6:44 PM, said:

marcfrick2112, on Mon Sep 5, 2011 6:35 PM, said:

I have gotten to level 22 before, yet, during Aquaricart testing, I can barely get past level 4!


Sorry, I guess I am an AD&D addict... *I do have Intelly version, but I have been playing the Aquarius version longer... *

Sounds like you are starting at one of the harder levels. Just a friendly reminder that you can hit "3" at the title screen for "easy".

I too am an Aquarius AD&D addict. Ever since I first played it as a kid, I've been often buried in the game for several hours on end. Even on the emulator, I sometimes lose myself. I now instinctively know all the keyboard control keys without an overlay. Same with the controller on the real hardware.

I'm sure you're the same way.

Jay Silverheels, the sad thing was... I have to admit, not using my Aquarius much before the Aquaricart... Been a couple of years since I had a 'serious' game of AD+D...
I was playing on the easy level... *sigh* ... but, I could find no ladders, no food, no good weapons....LOTS of monsters, tho...

About the overlays... LOL!! Yea, I do wish I could find my Night Stalker overlays, but for AD+D ? Nah, don't need 'em....
Found a ladder? '4 , 1 , 4' on the hand controller keypad... also, oddly, my area code, LOL!
The odd thing about AD+D is, yea, it's the same set of 99 mazes everytime, but the objects are always different....
That time I got to level 22 on Easy, I was just able to replace weapons and health as needed.. so I just waltzed over to the Dragon King, and buried the hatchet.. *a white battle axe, right into its' head... LOL!*

..SOMEwhere here there is a 'stash' of Aquarius overlays that my dad tucked away in a safe place before he passed..... [sigh]

MAN, I love that little machine! If ya ask me, AD+D was the 'killer app', Ext. Basic and X10 modules could have been...

[revolutionika]

Dont forget everyone, if you are interested in an AQUARIUS High Score Club. Post your interest here!!!

http://www.atariage....rius-hsc-check/

[retrozoneorg]

Hi Everyone,

I have received my Aquaricart and will be testing it on my UK system on the weekend.

I have produced a simple box for the Aquaricart (with Jay's blessing) for anyone who wants to make one for themselves. Just print it out on an A3 card and cut, glue etc etc.

Too big to attach so you can download it from:

http://www.retro-zon...aricart_box.pdf

It's uploading now so should be ready in a few minutes.

[the-topdog]

retrozoneorg, on Thu Sep 8, 2011 2:11 PM, said:

Hi Everyone,

I have received my Aquaricart and will be testing it on my UK system on the weekend.

I have produced a simple box for the Aquaricart (with Jay's blessing) for anyone who wants to make one for themselves. Just print it out on an A3 card and cut, glue etc etc.

Too big to attach so you can download it from:

http://www.retro-zon...aricart_box.pdf

It's uploading now so should be ready in a few minutes.

Cool! I'll download it as soon as it is available!

Edit: Eeep! Your website is down.

Edited by the-topdog, Thu Sep 8, 2011 4:40 PM.

[retrozoneorg]

Quote

Cool! I'll download it as soon as it is available!

Edit: Eeep! Your website is down.

It seems to be working on my end. Can you try clicking on the link again?

Edited by retrozoneorg, Fri Sep 9, 2011 2:36 AM.

[the-topdog]

retrozoneorg, on Fri Sep 9, 2011 2:36 AM, said:

Quote

Cool! I'll download it as soon as it is available!

Edit: Eeep! Your website is down.

It seems to be working on my end. Can you try clicking on the link again?

All good now

[cmart604]

My cart arrived today!!!! I haven't had a chance to test it yet, but I did read the manual and that alone was a thing of beauty. Jay, I honestly don't think we can overstate how fantastic and how amazing a job you have done with this. Talk about a labour of love.

Congrats on releasing one of the best homebrew products on any system ever.

[retrozoneorg]

Have tested the Aquaricart on my UK Aquarius and am pleased to report it is working perfectly . I have not had a chance yet to play all the games thoroughly but I did test every single option on the cartridge including the trivia, help and instructions pages and the quick start keys.

I even plugged my US mini expander into the UK aquarius and carried out a diagnostic check... Everything works great.

I will give it a more complete test in the coming days - but I can't imagine there being any major problems. (although I will need to turn the volume down on Melody Chase - that game drives me crazy )



p.s. I have updated the box design. Small in size and graphics are neater. I have sent the original file to Jay in case he would like to change it.

[retrozoneorg]

Final Box Design.

Jay has applied higher resolution graphics and supplied the original fonts....

It is now small enough to attach here so download your box in PDF format... Print onto A3 (ensure that you change the print settings "Page Scaling" to "None".

Cut out and glue together.

 aquaricart_box.pdf   498.66K   42 downloads

[jaybird3rd]

Thanks for the kind words, cmart604, and thanks to retrozoneorg for the box design and for testing the Aquaricart on a PAL Aquarius! I didn't really have any doubt that it would be compatible with PAL systems, since there's nothing region-specific in the design, but it's great to get firsthand confirmation.

[jaybird3rd]

Okay, as of this morning, ALL the preorder cartridges have been built and shipped. It's still a bit embarrassing to me that it took so long to get to this point, so I'm very relieved to have finally fulfilled those initial orders. Thanks again to everyone for your patience and your support.

I've implemented the cosmetic and editorial changes that Jason suggested earlier (along with a few of my own), and I also fixed a few other nagging bugs that Marc helped me to uncover. The user feedback I've received has been very positive, so I think I'm finally ready to begin gearing up for a general release. I'm still waiting on a shipment of EPROMs, and once those arrive, I'll start building the first of the "production" Aquaricart cartridges. I still don't have a clear idea of what the exact level of demand will be, so I'll start with an initial batch of twenty cartridges, just to see how it goes.

[marcfrick2112]

Just a note to everyone: I have just been testing Jay's bug-fixed ROM, and 100% of the 'problematic' cartridges now work 100% with both official 16K and 32K RAM carts.

Granted, I have only tested for 30mins. or so, but if no other issues are found, this should be the definitive release, according to Jay. Extended BASIC now 'correctly' reports free memory of -31117, lol! Even the Biorythms Y2K patch works... Ugh, Oct. 1st is gonna be a bad day for me, LOL! Gotta take my hat of to Jay for this! Excellent job!

jaybird3rd, on Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:28 PM, said:

Okay, as of this morning, ALL the preorder cartridges have been built and shipped. It's still a bit embarrassing to me that it took so long to get to this point, so I'm very relieved to have finally fulfilled those initial orders. Thanks again to everyone for your patience and your support.

I've implemented the cosmetic and editorial changes that Jason suggested earlier, and I also fixed a few other nagging bugs that Marc helped me to uncover. The feedback I've received has been very positive, so I think I'm finally ready to begin gearing up for a general release. I'm still waiting on a shipment of EPROMs, and once those arrive, I'll start building the first of the "production" Aquaricart cartridges. I'll start with an initial batch of twenty cartridges, just to see how it goes.

[jaybird3rd]

marcfrick2112, on Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:49 PM, said:

Just a note to everyone: I have just been testing Jay's bug-fixed ROM, and 100% of the 'problematic' cartridges now work 100% with both official 16K and 32K RAM carts.

Granted, I have only tested for 30mins. or so, but if no other issues are found, this should be the definitive release, according to Jay. Extended BASIC now 'correctly' reports free memory of -31117, lol! Even the Biorythms Y2K patch works... Ugh, Oct. 1st is gonna be a bad day for me, LOL! Gotta take my hat of to Jay for this! Excellent job!

Thanks again, Marc.

Did you happen to read through the credits, by any chance?

[Mirage]

jaybird3rd, on Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:28 PM, said:

so I think I'm finally ready to begin gearing up for a general release. I'm still waiting on a shipment of EPROMs, and once those arrive, I'll start building the first of the "production" Aquaricart cartridges. I still don't have a clear idea of what the exact level of demand will be, so I'll start with an initial batch of twenty cartridges, just to see how it goes.

Wait, was that an official announcement, or was that just saying there is an official announcement coming? 1 here, let me know!

[jaybird3rd]

Mirage, on Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:18 PM, said:

Wait, was that an official announcement, or was that just saying there is an official announcement coming? 1 here, let me know!

I'm not ready to start taking orders just yet (I don't want to take anyone's payments until I have a product ready to ship), but it shouldn't be long now; I just have to wait for those EPROMs to finally arrive. I'll soon start a new thread about the finished product, including ordering information, but in the meantime I'll definitely put you down for one of the first twenty.

[Mirage]

Cool, sorry, I let my excitement get the better of me!

Edited by Mirage, Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:38 PM.

[jaybird3rd]

Mirage, on Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:38 PM, said:

Cool, sorry, I let my excitement get the better of me!

No apology necessary! I'm glad to see that people are still interested after all this time!

I should also say that I'll have the Aquaricart website online within the next week or two. It will only be a "placeholder" at first, but it will have full scans of (most of) the original manuals, once I get them cleaned up a bit more and converted to PDF. Eventually I'll be set up to take orders through the site as well, but in the meantime I'll handle it through e-mails and through PMs here on AtariAge.

[SoulBlazer]

I don't have a INTV and too poor to buy this, but I'd be very interested in reading all the 'Trivia' that you typed for up for all the games/programs. Due to my history degree, I love reading things like that.

[marcfrick2112]

I have now been doing some 'burn-in ' tests with Jay's updated ROM, I think we may have a winner here. I ran every cart. twice, I must have turned the power on and off 500 times, I had exactly one occurrence where the Aquaricart went to a random cart. That's a pretty good ratio.. Aquarius and Aquaricart were on for about 15-20 hours non-stop.
Been really delving into the docs, and trivia also on the cart. This is just a first-class job, all around, Jay!
*And I even found a portable tape recorder that works!*
I can see it now;

'Now Loading, Come Back Tommorow!'

*waiting for Jay's storage solution for the Aquarius..*

[jaybird3rd]

Wow, thanks, Marc! That sounds a lot like the test routine I've been going through over the last few months, on about six different Aquarius computers. Since it seems to be working reliably on yours as well, and since the PAL users who've tried it report that it is compatible with their systems also, I think the hardware and software are ready to go. I'm still waiting on my EPROMs, but once they arrive, I should have the first twenty production cartridges finished and available for sale shortly afterward.

SoulBlazer, on Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:12 AM, said:

I don't have a INTV and too poor to buy this, but I'd be very interested in reading all the 'Trivia' that you typed for up for all the games/programs. Due to my history degree, I love reading things like that.

I'm sure I'll put that material on the Aquaricart website at some point. It's still in my proprietary Aquaricart Viewer format, but after I have the website design finalized, I'll convert it to HTML. I'll probably do the same with the instruction manuals; it will be handy to have those available in a searchable format, in addition to the PDF scans I'll be making available.

[mvdsteenoven]

My Aquaricart arrived today. Huge deja-vu moment when i saw the manual. It really looks like the original stuff. Too bad i will not be able to test it tonight, but it will have to wait till tomorrow.
Hope i can get some sleep tonight.

Regs,
Martin

[chjmartin2]

I love my new Aquaricart. I got mine last night as well. Played Snafu and Astrosmash for 2 hours. Manual was awesome, really well done, really close to the original. The cart quality is fantastic as well. Enjoyed playing the games. I have to get in to Utopia, as I never played that before. Great job Jay! Now we need new original games.

[Aquaman]

Finally I am also one of the lucky guys to receive the new Aquaricart! I am going to hook up my Aquarius right away and start playing with it for the next few hours. Tomorrow I will probably be a mess at work !

[Chuck D. Head]

Getting jealous and antsy with anticipation! I guess I will clean my Aquarius again and play a little Utopia to tide me over.........