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Mattel Aquarius - home computer with the shortest career

The success of home computers in the early eighties made manufacturers eager. Mattel, famous because of its Barbie dolls, also wanted to profit from the boom in home computer business. But Mattel didn't profit at all: the company in 1983 became responsible for one of the biggest failures in de history of home computers.
It wasn't strange that Mattel decided to develop home computers too. The division Mattel Electronics had achieved much success with the game console Intellivision. A special keyboard was developed, with which the Intellivision could be metamorphosed into a (sort of) home computer. But now Mattel Electronics wanted to develop a computer that could stand on its own.

Less then 20,000 Aquarius computers sold
It became the Mattel Aquarius, with its characteristic blue rubber keys and water resistant appearance - Mattel didn't belie its toy-nature. The Aquarius should compete in the market segments then controlled by the Texas Instruments TI 99/4A, the ZX-81 and ZX Spectrum, the Oric and the VIC-20. But instead of that, it turned out into a terrible failure: Mattel began manufacturing the Aquarius in June 1983 and already stopped with it in October 1983! Estimations are that worldwide less then 20,000 Aquarius computers were sold, while Mattel had expected to sell 100,000. Of course, this makes the Aquarius very interesting for today's collectors.

Causes of failure The main cause for the failure of the Mattel Aquarius is most probably that it halted between two opinions. The developers had hoped to make a combination between a game console and a home computer, but in both respects it performed terribly. Hold your breath: which follows is a long list of mistakes.

Expensive extensions
Indeed, the Aquarius had 4K of RAM at its disposal, but in fact the consumer could only use 1,7 K. Needless to say that this amount of RAM was fairly useless. In this way, working with the word processor Fileform which Mattel sold on a cartridge, was almost impossible. Unless the user was prepared to store paragraphs again and again on tape or print them on paper.
In an attempt to compensate this, Mattel Electronics sold various comparatively expensive extension options. Examples are the 4K and 16 K RAM memory expansions; cartridges which could be plugged into the Aquarius. Besides that, there was the so-called Mini Expander that could be attached to the computer. With the Mini Expander - almost taller then the tender Aquarius itself - you could use two cartridges at the same time (e.g. RAM-extension and a game). It gave the Aquarius also two extra sound channels and two Intellivision-like controllers for playing games.

Extra costs As a consequence the consumer who thought to have bought a relatively cheap home computer and game console, was confronted afterwards with many extra costs. And paid much more than his neighbour who had bought a ZX Spectrum. Employees of Mattel Electronics later confessed that this was part of the selling strategy: selling the Aquarius itself with losses, and make profit on the extension options and games.

Specifications of the Mattel Aquarius