"Utopia" on the Mattel Aquarius

[SuperVarulven]

Artax ,you´re sinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[teeray12]

this was an awesome game. why not build farms at the beginning?

[MattelAquarius]

@teeray12

I agree that Utopia is awesome. Regarding crops, I find them to be a waste of money. They only earn 1 gold bar when they get rained on, and typically they get destroyed easily by storms. Fishing boats are the way to go to feed your people.

[gjc82071]

Sim City v 0.5.  :-)

[NoIDidunt10]

I remember this game,well. Pretty primitive looking back,but it was a good,addictive game

[gjc82071]

@NoIDidunt10 It's still fun. THe computer opponent is OK, but another person is more challenging/fun. I am trying to find anybody to play it with, online, using the Nostalgia emulator. Think you might be interested?

[starblazers1969]

Have you ever made any games for this computer?

[MattelAquarius]

@starblazers1969

Nothing serious, just a Tetris clone written in BASIC. One of these days I'm going to get around to writing in Assembly. ;)

[noxfatalis]

Is this the only video of Utopia on youtube?

[EtherealVortex]

Great vid. I woke up on Christmad Day expecting a Speccy, and found the Mattel Aquarius waiting for me. I was a laughing stock but this game was awesome! :D

[Kiiiiwi]

This game was very cool back in the day.

[tml4873]

I never even knew about this computer. I'm surprised to see the graphics are actually poorer than the Intellevision.

[MattelAquarius]

@tml4873 Thanks for the comment. I don't disagree that the Aquarius graphics are limited, because they are character based, and non-programmable. Most Intelly games demonstrate its graphical superiority with ease. However, as far as Utopia goes, I would say they are comparable, and the AQ Utopia is perhaps superior to the Intelly version. The AQ Utopia has more detail, and two color sprites. Intelly does have its nicely animated storms, though.

[Ambrosine]

I actually have a working Aquarius - anyone know where I can find this game now?

[MattelAquarius]

@Ambrosine This game is very common, and shows up on Ebay quite regularly. Soon, a creative guy over at AtariAge.Com is going to offer the world's first Aquarius multi-cart which will include almost all original cart games plus some of the cassette games.

[Ambrosine]

@MattelAquarius How cool. I would love to see a AQ Multi-cart.

[bukster1]

I saw an Aquarius once in New Zealand. It looked pretty good by the standards of the day. They weren't big sellers here.

[MattelAquarius]

The two users control the large purple and green cursors, for positioning items on the island.  When placed over their boats (red boats for the right island, green boats for the left), they can "enter" the boat and control its movement. Everything else is computer controlled.

[dformax]

I like it

[sinistermoon]

I think this version might be better than the Intellivision version. Awesome video.

[LyonhartZ2]

Hi Guys, I remember one time I was able to "Trap"

some fishes right off my shore (i always liked the Island on the Right side of the screen.

The fishes wer unable to escape and I was making a fortune, I kept building boats and sending them Multiplying my rate of production

[Daintytwinkletoes]

WOW!!!!! I used to play this when I was like 5 in the early 80's. I was always sad when the hurricane came and destroyed the crops.

[starblazers1969]

It looks better on Intellivision. I like this game.

[MattelAquarius]

A recent poll states that 4 out of 5 leading game critics recommend the smaller text and dual colors of the Aquarius version over the Intellivision. However, if we dig deeper, I think the poll results were skewed by bias, because Aquarius Utopia was the only Aquarius game written in C, which is also the highest academic mark achieved by 80% of leading game critics. (Sadly, the other 20% are still working on their equivalencies.)

[Parsec994a]

Wow, here Rebel Soldiers look like the Guy Lifting Box icon found on shipping crates, as opposed to the Intellivision version, where it just lookes like a black figure holding a big black wooden spoon.

[SkinnyDre]

UTOPIA!!!

Remember playing the shit out of this game every morning before going to school, god I hated school!!

[RustDemon79]

Is there a perticular reason you guys are not playing the game properly?

[MattelAquarius]

I just checked the manual, and it says I played a perfect game.

[Ambrosine]

I still own an Aquarius and have never come across a copy of Utopia for it. Still playing my Intelly version...

[MattelAquarius]

Utopia is one of the more common Aquarius cartridges. You should be able to find one Ebay without too much difficulty. It is an excellent port from the Intellivision version.