Mattel Aquarius

Mattel Aquarius Specifications

Mattel Aquarius is a home computer system that was released by Mattel Electronics in 1983. It was designed to compete with other popular home computers of the time, such as the Commodore 64 and the Atari 800. The Aquarius had a unique design with a detachable keyboard and cassette tape storage system. It was powered by a Zilog Z80A processor and had 4 kilobytes of RAM.

The Aquarius was marketed as a low-cost alternative to other home computers and was primarily targeted at families and students. It came with a built-in version of Microsoft BASIC and several cartridge games were also available for purchase. Unfortunately, the Aquarius had limited success in the market and was discontinued in 1984 after only a year on the market. Despite its short lifespan, the Aquarius has gained a cult following among retro computing enthusiasts and collectors. Its unique design and relative rarity have made it a sought-after item for those interested in vintage computing technology.

Looking to compete in the home computer market, Mattel Electronics turned to Radofin, the Hong Kong based manufacturer of their Intellivision consoles. Radofin had designed two computer systems. Internally they were known as "Checkers" and the more sophisticated "Chess". Mattel contracted for these to become the Aquarius and Aquarius II, respectively.

Aquarius was announced in 1982 and finally released in June 1983, at a price of $160. Production ceased four months later because of poor sales. Mattel paid Radofin to take back the marketing rights. Four other companies: CEZAR Industries, CRIMAC, New Era Incentives, and Bentley Industries also marketed the unit and accessories.

The Aquarius was often bundled with the Mini-Expander peripheral, which added game pads, an additional cartridge port for memory expansion, and the General Instrument AY-3-8910 sound chip. Other peripherals were the Data recorder, 40 column thermal printer, 4K and 16K RAM carts. Less common first party peripherals include a 300 baud cartridge modem, 32k RAM cart, 4 color plotter, and Quick Disk drive.