9 Jun
1997
9 Jun
'97
1:23 p.m.
I've accumulated a little info on the Radofin Aquarius (as that's the
flavor of Aquarius that I've got). Apparently Mattel made the Aquarius
for a short time and then dumped it when it didn't make money. Radofin
who was the manufacturer purchased the rights to it and continued to
manufacture it for another 2 years. At some point, but apparently not
immediately they changed from a Zilog Z-80 to some kind of Z-80 clone
for a processor (I can't remember what at the moment - I think it may
have been an NEC chip). I've talked to a person who's R-Aquarius has
a Z-80 in it, but mine has the clone chip. Functionally there appears
to be no difference between the models. Mattel has been removed from
the top logo in the Radofin version. It also looks like the Radofin
guys were overachievers when it came to internal shielding. I was told
by a Mattel owner that the guts of his machine were shielded by that
cheezy cardboard/foil stuff and screwed to the main board. Mine is
encased in a poorly vented metal box which is soldered all around to
the main board (yeah, it was a bitch to remove. Now it's screwed down.)
Bill
----------------------------------------------------
Bill Whitson - Classic Computers ListOp
bill(a)booster.u.washinton.edu or bcw(a)u.washington.edu
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bcw/ccl.html
On Mon, 9 Jun 1997, Jeff Hellige wrote:
Of course, Sam and others have taken to talking
about the Mattel Aquarius
lately, but I've never seen a mention of the Radofin version, which other than
the lack of 'Mattel' logos and the change to the model number and label on the
bottom of the machine, is identical. Were many of them sold? Does anyone
else out there have one? About all I've been able to learn is that since
Radofin was the actual manufacturer of both versions, they continued to
produce it for an unknown length of time after Mattel dropped it from their
line. There's not even a mention of it on any of the Aquarius references on
the web.
Jeff jeffh(a)unix.aardvarkol.com
--
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Collector of classic home computers:
Amiga 1000, Apple II+, Atari 800, 800XL, Mega-ST/2 and XE System,
Coleco ADAM, Commodore 128D, 16, Plus/4 and VIC-20, IBM 5155,
Kaypro 2X, Mattel Aquarius, Osborne Executive, Radofin Aquarius,
Sinclair ZX-81, TI-99/4A, Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80 Color
Computer-3, Model 4, and Model 4P, plus Odyssey2, Atari Superpong
and 2600VCS game consoles.