Background

In general, the Aquarius hardware is fairly hardy. Few of the parts go bad, and the system just works, even when stored in harsh or unforgiving environments. Add to that the poor reception the computer had during its brief, 3-4 month sales window in 1983, and there is no REAL reason most people would be interested. But the Mattel Aquarius Computer was the first computer I ever owned. I learned first hand how to program in BASIC, and then how to hack together an audio cable to save those programs to my inexpensive Radio Shack cassette player.

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to document and recreate the original Aquarius computer motherboard. This is a like-for-like replacement, and should fit in perfectly in place of the old motherboard. This baseline can be used by other enthusiasts (though we are few and far between) as a starting point for creating new modifications to the system, such as adding a composite video adapter (which I've done) to replace the stock RF modulator, or adding more modern components to "future proof" the system. The system has been out of production for over 30 years, and the patent and trademark have lapsed.