UPDATE: SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 3.0 (January 18, 2008) Beta testers will soon be receiving an early test version of SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 3!! This includes the completely rebuilt 3D high resolution background. The new background is over two screen widths in size. It is hard to believe that after 8 years, MA3 is nearly at hand.

UPDATE: SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 3.0 (April 17, 2007) Jim reports continued progress on SSA 3.0. He now has over 50% of the background objects placed in the newly designed tank, including a Lacy Sea Fan. He continues to make progress on using new shader 3.0 capabilities for lighting effects, and is currently working on resizing modifications for windowed mode which will allow the user to see the entire tank at one time.......

UPDATE: SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 3.0 (September 21, 2006) Jim has confirmed continued progress on the new 3.0 version. He is currently working about 12 hours per day, and is presently designing the new elephant-ear coral for the 3D background.

Once 3.0 is finished, Jim hopes to release "special creature packs" of 5-7 creatures each for a small fee, which will each require special design and implementation, and has announced his preliminary choices for inclusion. This list will eventually be narrowed down to 20 special fish and creatures: Seahorse, Squid (cuttlefish), Nudibranch (sea slug), Crab, Hermit Crab, Coral Shrimp, Lobster, Eel, Shark, Bat Ray, Flounder, Dogfish, Moorish Idol, Horseshoe Crab, Cardinal, Mandarin Goby, Blue or Green Chromis, Puffer Fish, Spanish Hogfish, Asfur Angel, Teira Batfish, Harlequin Tuskfish, Lemonpeel Angel, Saddleback Butterfly, Sea Apple, Sea Urchin, Octopus, Chambered Nautilus, Jellyfish, and Sea Turtle.

SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 3.0 (August 2006) Jim Sachs, creator of the ever popular SereneScreen Marine Aquarium has reported significant progress in developing the 3rd generation Marine Aquarium product. Developed in DirectX 9 with shaders, the new Aquarium is slated to have an entirely redesigned high-resolution widescreen-capable 3D backdrop, improved fish behavior and graphic quality, and it lays the foundation for the addition of special creatures such as a Coral Shrimp, Hermit Crab, Moray Eel, etc.

The Aquarium has always supported 3D glasses (even when Microsoft removed the necessary support for this feature from DirectX 8). But now, the background will be fully 3D as well, creating an incredibly realistic effect for those lucky viewers. The new background also benefits those who possess dual monitors, who will now see fish utilizing both screens as a single tank. For the vast majority of us with a single monitor, we can choose which part of the tank to view, or set the camera to "slow pan".

We're all very excited to hear that progress is being made on the new Aquarium. Stay tuned and watch out for an upcoming web chat with Jim Sachs about these developments!

Logo Creation Guide for Marine Aquarium Marine Aquarium 2.6 and Marine Aquarium Time both support the addition of your own logos or other graphics to the etched crystal included within the Aquarium. If you are familiar with (and own) Adobe Photoshop 6 or later, you may want to check out my Logo Creation Guide to make logos for the Aquarium.

There are also a handful of free logos you can download for the Aquarium.

SereneScreen Marine Aquarium 2.6 RELEASED (November 30th, 2005) Version 2.6 of Marine Aquarium has been released! This new version combines the Logo/Clock/Crystal features of Marine Aquarium Time, the widescreen/dual monitor features of Marine Aquarium MD, and all the features of the popular Marine Aquarium 2 into a single download. New features not in these existing products include 2 new fish:

• New Fish: "Achilles Tang"
• New Fish: "Clearfin Lionfish"

Marine Aquarium 1.0, 1.1, 1.5, 2.0, Time, and Crystal customers can upgrade to Marine Aquarium 2.6 for $5.95 at SereneScreen.com.

Goldfish Aquarium 2 Released! (February 2nd, 2006) LifeGlobe Goldfish Aquarium 2 has been released, introducing a ton of new features:

• New Tank: "Zen Goldfish Bowl"
• New Tank: "Desktop Toy"
• New Tank: "Art School"
• New Tank: "Driftwood"
• New Fish: "Prince"
• New Fish: "Julius"
• New Fish: "Tillie"
• New Fish: "Halley"
• All fish models have been improved/cleaned up.

Goldfish Aquarium customers can upgrade for $5.95 at LifeGlobe.com.

Sharks: Terrors of the Deep 2 (June 29th, 2005) LifeGlobe Sharks: Terrors of the Deep 2 has now been released!

• New Creature: "Manta Ray"
• New Tank: "Migration Tank 1"
• New Tank: "Fantasy Theme Park"
• New Tank: "Migration Tank 2"
• New Tank: "The Blue Lagoon"
• New Tank: "Ray O'Light"
• New Tank: "Reef"
• New Tank: "Open Water"
• New Tank: "Sandy Bottom"
• Improved shark textures
• Improved shark movement and collision avoidance
• Great White now has an articulated jaw

Sharks: Terrors of the Deep 1 customers can upgrade to Sharks: Terrors of the Deep 2 for $5.95 at Lifeglobe.com.

SereneScreen Freshwater Aquarium On Indefinite Hold (January 10th, 2005) Jim Sachs has announced that his SereneScreen Freshwater Aquarium has been put on indefinite development hold. He now intends to return to developing the 3D background and creature packs for the Marine Aquarium product.

Work began on the Freshwater Aquarium in late March 2002. In 2003, I got a chance to see the Freshwater Aquarium in-progress. It had a stunningly realistic treasure chest with bubbles and I got to see some of the ultra-realistic rocks and terrain being added. I also saw a couple of fish in-development.