Mattel Aquarius - History and Restoration of a Micro Flop - Pt1 - Trash to Treasure 

We're back! Apologies for the re-upload I had to remove an anomaly caused by the video editing software. So what are your thoughts on the system, did you own one? Did you ever see one for sale? I honestly don't remember seeing these on the shelves, or even games for them... perhaps they were more prevalent in other regions to mine. Neil - RMC

Thank you for this episode. A rush of nostalgia came over me as I watched it. The Mattel Electronics Aquarius was actually my very first computer when I was 14 years old. I owned it for all of two weeks. Since it was discontinued almost immediately after launch, there were loads of them available after the Christmas '83 season on clearance sale at the local toy store for only $99 (It may have been only $79, I can't recall). I took one of them home, hooked it up to my television, and proceeded to explore this new technological wonder. I spent lots of time playing that Dungeons and Dragons game, and in those two weeks I learned to program with the integrated Microsoft BASIC. Having quickly figured out what this whole "personal computer" thing was about, my first sign of trouble appeared when I wasn't able to type in the somewhat lengthy example BASIC program in the back of the owner's manual. It simply would not fit into the meager 1.7K of available RAM. Somewhat perplexed but undaunted, I dialed Mattel's toll free support number to inquire about the 16K memory expansion module which you show in the video, only to be told that they are not available, and likely won't be because the product had been discontinued. This was all the information that I needed to pack everything back up in its boxes and promptly return this thing back to the store for a refund. After returning it, I headed directly to a second-hand computer store and bought a nice pre-owned Commodore VIC-20 and (having learned my lesson) a massive 16K memory expansion cartridge, along with an Asteroids video game. That started me on the Commodore track of VIC-20 -> Commodore 64 -> Amiga 500 -> Amiga 3000, but that's a whole another story....

Man, this whole trash to treasure series, along with the other talented folks on youtube that can pull this stuff off well, really inspires me to want to get some proper tools to and try to save some of these older electronics. This is all stuff I dreamed about as a kid in stores, and to see these things saved just makes me happy.

I remember owning one of these. It was my third computer after a TRS 80 Model III and the Intellivision Computer. Had bought the Intellivision Computer for $79 at Sears when they first came out. I went to KB Toys a couple of weeks later and saw the Aquarius there for $49 so I returned the Intellivision Computer and bought the Aquarius with a printer and another device thrown in for a few bucks more. When I found that I didn't use it as much as I used my TRS 80 Model III, I tried to return it but I couldn't. But back then you could return things anywhere without a receipt and found that Target was still selling them for full price. I ended up getting something like $500 store credit for all of them (bought an Atari 5200 with a bunch of games!) Thanks for the video, bringing back tons of memories from over 35 years ago.

Until I got my first "real" computer (286 based) in 7th grade, the closest things we had to computers were a Mattel Aquarius and a Magnavox Odyssey2. (Don't worry, like any other 80s kid I also had a NES for games.) My dad still has the Odyssey 2, the Aquarius was sold at a garage sale and a friend of mine ended up buying one (Tom611 here on youtube) with all the same games and accessories, so we thing he ended up buying it (from whoever bought it from me.) We had a handful of games, no RAM expansion, but we did have the mini expander with the game pads. This video certainly brought back some memories.

Thanks for this video! It brought back great memories. My parents got me an Aquarius when it came out (I was around 8 or 9). It was my first computer. I learned BASIC on it and would spend hours typing code to make games and such, only to have it all gone whenever I turned the computer off. In retrospect, clearly it was a horrible computer, but I didn't know that at the time. I just thought it was so cool how you could write code and make things happen on screen. Cut to today, I am a programmer by trade, so I guess some good did come of the Aquarius. It definitely inspired ME on my path, if nothing else... :)

Thank you! The Aquarius was our first computer, I was 10. It was a bonus being able to write my own simple programs on it, but never had the game selection my friends had on Atari.

Thumbs up for unexpected Kenny Everett! That really puts us back in the 80s!

Very nice! Every time I think I've read about or seen a video about every single console and micro computer released in the US and Europe I find a video like this one that proves me wrong! Thank you!

When it comes to long lead-ends, I solder, clip, the reheat the solder joint. Saves time and heartache.

Ah, a new Trash to Treasure, my favourite category. The re-upload wait was more than worth it then. 😇

As with other people here, the Mattel Aquarius was my first home computer (although I'd programmed others before at school and friends houses). I also utilised the "running man' characters in a BASIC game I wrote called "Clifftop Clint". It was loosely based on Century Electronics 'Hunchback' arcade game in that you moved from left to right jumping over gaps and rolling balls. I was pretty proud of my accomplishment filling all of the remaining 1.7KBytes, but my Mum was unimpressed. Of course I eventually went on to a career in video game development, so I guess I can thank the Aquarius for that. BTW: I had the Toshiba HX10 MSX next, another home computer flop. It wasn't until I got the Atari ST in 1989 that I finally got a decent computer with some support.

I still have this computer at my mother's house! I got it when i was 10 years old (1985). It came with de dual card expansion and the 2 controllers. Also i had the cassete player for loading the applications on it. Now i've seen this video, i start to dig around my parents house to find this piece of history!

As an Intellivision user in the 80's I always heard of the Aquarius but never got to see one in person. Childhood dreams come true!

One day I'm going to splice a load of RMC videos together to create the ultimate re-capping montage :) As for the machine - I was impressed to see a colour first-person adventure game in only 4Kb of RAM with no graphics hardware present. If I had seen that in the early '80s I'd have been blown away!

This brings back a lot of memories for me. Around 1983 a weekly magazine called Personal Computer News was released and I think, in the second issue I bought at least, there was a review of the Aquarius. Looked absolutely gorgeous in the photos in the magazine and I immediately asked my parents if I could get one for xmas (which was a good 7 months away!). As time went on the Spectrum and C64 became popular and I was able to get a C64 that xmas... a year or so later a friend of mine got the Aquarius and I realised just how 1970s it was... all the games seemed to be ASCII character based and it wasn't even as good as the Intellivision.

I wanted a spectrum when I was younger but they were too expensive. A boy at the end of the street had one of these and sold it me for £70. Back in the mid 80s, alot of money for me. I was naive and jumped at the chance. Only after did i discover there were NO games for it. He refused to give me my money back and learned a lesson. Research before buying! Was left with a doorstop. He ripped me off. Spent ages pushing those rubber keys typing lol. I got a speccy at Christmas that year. Even though it was crap...still makes me smile.

the Monchichi reference just made my head explode. I had totally forgotten that commercial, but when you just said the name 'woosh,' the entire song came back. Arrgh. Must listen to another jingle to get it out. Why couldnt I remember things in school, but can remember to this day these commercials.

I can remember going to the store with my dad and picking one of these up! It was my first computer at the tender age of 4!

I love these obscure machines

I was only thinking of my Aquarius the other day so the timing of this video helped greatly with my memories. I remember getting mine from Asda and I had a version of Burger Time on cartridge and I fondly remember sitting there for hours learning to program and making my own Space Invader game because trying to get hold of any other games was next to impossible, so I was glad you showed the part of the manual with the preset sprites as I certainly remember using them.

I never saw the original upload but i found this episode so interesting. Id never heard of this machine before so found this fascinating.

It was the ZX81, not the Spectrum, that had the old Ram Pack Wobble... I "fixed" mine with some tape and an ice lolly stick between the back of the '81 and the Ram Pack. :-)

To be honest I'm very attracted to the boxes and the aesthetic design.

I have zero knowledge or Nostalgia on this machine except its from Mattel, but i love learning about electronics and there history. Thankyou Neil. When you removed your first upload i thought you had been cat fished by Commodore .LOLOLOLOL.

I had Snake Mountain and took great pleasure sending He-Man through the trap door, I also made a little noose attached above for added effect. Heady days.

I worked for a mil spec company in the 80's and we were told to snip and then solder so that the cut end of the component lead was covered with solder. If the copper was left exposed it would supposedly corrode. We all just used to tack one leg, snip them all and then reflow the first leg with a bit more solder to cover the cut end. Passed inspection no problem.

I still have my old Aquarius laying around somewhere in storage. Just few days ago I was thinking of digging it out to see if it still works, and then I stumbled on this video while watching all kinds of retro computer and console related videos. Hope I have some TV suitable for connecting it for testing...

I could see this being repurposed for a low tech futuristic film. Like some kind of terminal with different cartridges for different levels of clearance. Love the aesthetic of vintage computers!

I remember being obsessed by these because I had an Intellivision and it seemed like a logical next step to a very young me! I ended up with an Electron instead which started me on the Acorn path. Thanks for the video, great trip down memory lane.

Your videos give me Bob Ross vibes, I've been trying to put my finger on it for ages!

Nice video! I like learning about these old computers and seeing the repair you did.

Great vid! Lots of research and details. Relaxe and friendly delivery. Thank you 😃

Your videos are so zen. Thank you. Nothing relaxes after a hard day of work more than nostalgia lane meets learning lane with RMC.

I've owned a couple of these. One was a grubby-looking bare unit that had a VHF output, so I had to run it through an old video recorder to convert it to UHF. The other was a complete boxed set in excellent condition, including cartridges and the 4-colour pen plotter (which I'm guessing is rare). One of the cartridges was the FinForm spreadsheet - do your finances on the Aquarius! I ended up selling them all on eBay due to lack of space. I'd hardly used them at all because there's not much you can really do with them!

Interesting information on the textbook way of soldering. I tend to solder, snip, then reflow to get a clean end. But generally speaking, I doubt it matters too much.

I used to LOVE the Advanced D&D game on the Aquarius! Best game on the system (that I knew of) by far!

Another great video Neil, can't wait for part two.

I just googled it and apparently about 8000 of these machines sold. I thought my ADAM was the biggest flop but it sold between 2-8 million units. However if we are talking about which was the biggest financial flop I think it's the ADAM since Coleco invested so much money in that machine. I do remember loving that machine though between my age of 7-10 (1984-87). We never again had a computer in my house until I moved out on my own and I built an Athlon based computer with a Gforce 2 gfx card and DSL internet to play Counter Strike with my little Brother.

Great video and its nice to see this Micro getting some airtime. I almost wish my Aquarius was not functioning when I did my video as it would have been fun to have repaired it.

If this computer was a transformer, it would be a Decepticom!

I got mine from Kay-Bee toys here in the us. It worked for about 10 minutes and then it stopped working. Fortunately I was able to get a refund. As the old saying goes "it was good while it lasted" :-) Thumbs up! -Larry

One summer holiday Back in the day, remember seeing one of these for sale in a computer shop in Barnstaple. I bought an Alphacom 32 printer for my Spectrum that day. Happy times!

Great episode :) I love the simplicity of this machine, it seams so approachable.

I played around with the Aquarius floor demo at a department store, maybe it was K-Mart, but unsure, when it was still new in the early 1980's. I don't remember much about it except that the blue colors of the screen reminded me of my C-64. I was thinking of buying one, but I already had said C-64.

Great vid Neil. I deffo remember seeing the Aquarius on display in my local Dixons/Debehams back in the day. I remember the bright rubber keys which reminded me of the Speccy. We hung around after school playing all the display models but I don't remember playing any games on it. Love your T2T series, looking forward to part 2 :)

I wanted an Aquarius so so badly back in the day. Obviously I had little to no idea about how poor it was, but something about the aesthetic appealed. I've been hunting for one myself, and you've got a bargain for all that for 60! I think i can beat you with an even worse couple of keyboards now. I've become addicted to Japanese MSX machines, and both my Casio MX-10 and PV-7 make that one look like ergonomic bliss!

Of all the retro channels I have subscribed to, this is my favourite.

You are the best in class. You are going to have 20 times the subscribers you have in two years.

Fascinating. No idea this machine existed. RMC never disappoints.

Great video Neil. This one looks so much like a toy rather than a computer.. i know its a Mattel product but still. 🕹👍

Love this stuff ! Cheers from Canada

Simply entertaining! You're growing on me...

I really enjoy these Trash to Treasure episodes. Always interesting.

Can't wait for part two! :)

Great video as always Neil. Mine is tucked up safely in the garage awaiting a cheap copy of Dungeons and Dragons on a car boot find!

I got one of these when they went on clearance. I came back to the store about a month later to buy a RAM expansion unit just to find that they were all gone. Not deterred, I found an EE who built me a 16K RAM expansion "unit" for the low, low price of $75. I still have my one-off RAM expansion for the Aquarius.

I had one of these for about 1 week, and returned it. Bought from KayBee toys, I think it was on clearance. Although it screamed intellivision for sure. but I was a kid and was amazed by it !

When it comes time to desolder I absolutely hate encountering bent leads that are embedded under the solder, so I handle radial capacitor leads a bit differently when I install them: I bend only ONE leg. This may not keep the capacitor flat or straight but it is enough to keep it from falling out while I solder the straight leg first. While soldering the straight leg I can straighten/flatten the capacitor and it will stay where I put it, then I can bend the other leg mostly straight again and solder that too. I think I will tweak my technique in light of what I learned here today. Now I will straighten the second leg and trim both before soldering the second leg. I can then re-solder the first leg in case there was any joint fatigue from the shock of being trimmed. Thanks!

Thank you for a very entertaining and informative video, Neil. As a micro, the Aquarius is pretty terrible, however as a piece of computing history, I think you scored a real bargain - especially with all those accessories, complete with original boxes.

Excellent video as always 🙂 I'd never heard of the Aquarius!

I used to play with an Aquarius in dept store when they first came out. Perhaps a big Asda or Debenhams. I remember dreaming of owning one ... Looks like a dodged a bullet and I ended up getting a Spectrum in the end. Still, fond memories of this micro even if it wasn't a success.

I owned one in the eighties, complete with the expander. These machines were dumped at low prices here in Holland. Had a lot of fun with it, and waited for the annouced MSX expansion that never came :-(. Sold it and bought a Goldstar MSX -1

Got to say i loved my aquarius was the first computer i programed on writing a game like loadrunner

It's the dawning of the restoration of Aquarius

Never even heard of this one. Fascinating.

I am obsessively into Barbie so I stan Mattel pretty hard. I’m gonna have to get a tricked out Aquarius like that. The dual cart system is ridiculous, but can you imagine a custom monitor housing to fit within the corner? There looks to be enough space in all that to fit some mods.

If it wasn't for youtube I would never know that this system even existed.

This was my first ever computer bought as a Christmas present back in 1983 when I was 8 years old. Had it a whole three days in which my Dad exchanged it for the Acorn Electron (Couldn’t afford the BBC Micro B).

On the subject of tuning modern TVs in to retro hardware, I've always found Panasonic TVs to be the most reliable when it comes to this. My massive Panasonic 4k OLED will gladly tune to my 520ST, C64, ZX81, 800XL and Intelivision. The image is stable, crisp and the colours are good.

I would suggest that the original plan by Mattel was to sell the minimum hardware they could get away with and make more money on the accessories. By contrast, Sinclair wanted to deliver an affordable colour computer to the masses. Regarding the "dead flesh" keyboard. It was adequate to the task and my wife and I spent many frustrating hours typing in programmes from magazines which usually didn't work. At the time, all I could compare it to was a portable typewriter which I used to write novels and my Degree thesis. My brother-in-law bought a 16k Spectrum and added his own chips to make it up to 48k. We learned from his mistake and bought a 48k model. In the early days a joystick wasn't necessary although many later games were better with one, which meant you had to purchase a separate box to plug into the edge connector. As this occasionally caused crashes if you were too enthusiastic I bought a ribbon connector which plugged into the back and had two female connectors so you could attach the joystick adapter and something else. Good work on the videos, especially on the computers I would never have even considered buying, such as the Aquarius.

Another trash to treasure. Nice to see new episodes in these series. Good video and information. Ofcourse I’ll join part 2.

There's a distinct hint of Clarkson in your voice as you say "Hot Wheels Cars".

Thanks for introducing me to this oddity! Didn't know those even existed. It seems it is not a good machine, but I do love the industrial design of the case. I just picked one up on ebay - it is supposed to be dead, but I will try to fix it. Worst comes to worst I can fit a raspi inside and interface the keyboard (and call it Pisces, because star sign + Pi ;). No matter the outcome, I am in for a fun project!

Glad you're back to the old "Retro Man Cave", back to the 80s. I noticed that also other RU-vidrs start to neglect this decade. Namely Nostalgia Nerd and LGR. But here I understand that they are too young to have really enjoyed the 1980s. LGR just reviewed a PC from 2005. That was just "yesterday"! Talking about rare computers others already have suggested to do a MSX review. I want to add the probably most rare 8 bit micro and the only not coming with BASIC, the Jupiter Ace. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Ace

I have nothing but hazy memories of this thing maybe appearing in the Sears Catalog back in the early eighties. It never did make much of a splash. That AD&D game actually looks quite fun, though!

That Technika screen looks exactly like a Grundig that used to be in my home... I always had my suspicions the name had devolved into badge-engineering generic nonsense back then, but my parents were not hearing it, due to still having good Grundig equipment from 80s and 90s. Seeing it called Technika confirms it!

We had one of these when I was growing up. I wish I still had it. It wasn't a great computer, but I have a lot of nostalgia for it. My dad threw it away without asking me if I wanted it. I was so bummed :(.

Hey there RMC love these Retro videos and all the stuff you put in to accompany them usually from the awesome 80's i knew about most of the other computers and even had a C64 and a Zx Spectrum 48 k and they were awesome,i saw and played a bit with other computers from friends and at shops like the BBC the T994A and Dragon 32 but i never knew about this one.This game was interesting like a forefather of Dungeon Master !

My Aquarius sits upstairs sharing a space with a ZX81 amongst other things. They are a strange machine but I love them. Many memories of wanting one in a superstore. And the Memotech next to it. Ended up with a Speccy. But I love the Aquarius nontheless. Hilarious demo tape lol.

Pt1 - This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius!

Fab! I have a bunch of these machines, cartridges, a printer and a data-recorder (tape drive). Many moons ago I did a disassmbly of the ROM, and an Emulator that runs on Mac OS X. I might just resurrect the emulator and play around with it some more. Released in 1982 and known affectionately as "The system for the seventies"

Very nice.

I think I still have the paper advertisement for this machine stored away. If I am not mistaken, this is very much like the TI-99/4A - which was an awesome machine.

My cousin had this and a CPC so they are my first introduction into video games. Not sure why I wasn't put off for life! She gave me the Aquarius mid 80s and I still have it complete with the mini expansion, 2 controllers and Astrosmash on cart. Could never get the tapes to run so only ever played 1 game on it.

This was my first computer! Got the bog standard unit as my parents wouldn't buy anything else until I'd shown them I would use it. Pity you needed the expansions to do anything worth doing on it! Just checked on eBay and these are going for £200 plus, wish I hadn't got rid of mine all those years ago!

Never saw one of these in the day. This was the PC that was announced, but we waited and waited for, and then moved on.

I do remember seeing these for sale, next to a line of other machines such as the VIC20, C64, ZX81, Spectrum, Dragon, BBC and Electron. They were all in the electronics section of a supermarket, I use to go and play on them whilst my parents did the shopping. This machine did get mostly ignored though.

I never actually owned one of these, or had even seen one before this video, however the name Radofin rang a bell with me - when I was younger my parents had a Radofin game console, that basically played multiple different sports games that were prebuilt into the machine and activated via switches. The controllers were basically Pong paddles but i recall some other buttons on them too.

Good vid!!

Shout out to my mate Adrian from school who had to put up with everyone taking the piss out of his Aquarius. Even me and my Electron got to rub his nose in Elite. I'm not proud of what I did, but he had to learn.

4:00 - I honestly laughed at the size of that cartridge!

I remember this vaugly,hear of it/seen it somewhere back in the day. So this video is very interesting for me :D

My first computer and first DnD experience was this at my cousin's house.

I have one of these boxed but it is dead and won't power on. I hope to get it up and running again one day as I learn to repair and troubleshoot old electronics.

I remember seeing these in Debenhams in Ipswich, or rather the computer shop which used part of the ground floor. It might have been Lasky's but I can't be sure. It was just before Christmas '83 and they had been reduced to £49.99.

I had one back in the day. We bought it after our ZX81 went wrong. The thing was bought from Gamer Computers in Brighton heavily discounted to £40. (my dad could never resist a bargain). I was initially quite impressed because it had colour and sound but that very soon gave way to frustration with the lack of graphics or sprites. I did buy the Tron and Snafu (snakes) games but they were pretty poor using only the character set built in. IIRC hooking it up to a normal tape player was a bit of fun, it used a DIN lead that was not a standard layout, I'm pretty sure I ended making a lead with connectors I bought from Tandy. Anyway, it provided some fun until I managed to save up enough to buy a used C64.

I'd probably fancied this keyboard much more than the Magnavox Odyssey 2 that my 11 year-old self chose at the time. Bonus that it came from the on-board electronics shop on a Navy ship in Pearl Harbor.

Never come across one of these before. Nice video

I had to look up pedantic. I was pedantic about it. Great video, cheers.