Jim Sachs, creator of SereneScreen Aquarium, joined us for a chat from 7pm to 8:30pm on Friday, July 26th to discuss the salt and freshwater Aquariums and his future plans. This chat was hosted by Morgan (feldon26), creator of the fan site, forum, and chat room.

		*** Jim Sachs joined the chat at 6:53PM ***
[Jim Sachs]		Hi, Guys
[Shinsa]		Hi Jim!
[EddieWan]		feldon26 was starting to worry.
[feldon26]		How are you tonight, Jim?
[Jim Sachs]		I'm currently laid up with a sprained back.
[EddieWan]		ouch
[Shinsa]		Yeah, gotta hate that
[Jim Sachs]		Twisted while moving my cement mixer into the garage yesterday.
[Jim Sachs]		I'm propped up in my computer chair, with velcro holding me together.
[feldon26]		So you're building a freshwater tank to help model it?
[Jim Sachs]		Yes, a 20-gallon.
[EddieWan]		figured thats where he sprained his back :)
[EdwardT]		Hello all!
[EddieWan]		Hello, Edward.
[EddieWan]		We're just starting up here.
[feldon26]		I sent out 3,600 e-mails on Tuesday. We had more people here last time when I didn't announce it :)
[feldon26]		EdwardT: it's an informal chat for now.
[EddieWan]		you trying to tell us to talk? :)
[EdwardT]		I just wanted to say "Thank you" to Jim for making a Mac version of Marine Aquarium.
[Jim Sachs]		Actually, I didn't do it. The job was farmed out to Jim O'Connor's group.
[EdwardT]		Well, if you didn't farm out the job, then there would be no Mac version :-)
[alphaex]		Hi Jim.
[EddieWan]		so Jim, what's the next thing we can expect to see from you as far as the aquariums go?
[grape_jellyfish]		hello Jim
[Jim Sachs]		The freshwater tank is my number 1 priority.
[Jim Sachs]		Hi, Grapie.
[grape_jellyfish]		how are you doing?
[Jim Sachs]		Sprained back.
[EdwardT]		that must be painful
[Jim Sachs]		I'm held together by one of those Home Depot kidney belt girdles at the moment. Don't know how Shatner did it all those years.
[EddieWan]		duct tapes works good too
[grape_jellyfish]		he isn't a redneck eddie
[EddieWan]		oh, sorry. It's a north Florida thing
[EddieWan]		we are taught at birth that duct tape can fix anything
[grape_jellyfish]		wish it were true
[EddieWan]		i've seen it fix some strange things before
[EddieWan]		used it to bandage wounds before
[grape_jellyfish]		so jim, how is the freshwater ss coming along?
[Jim Sachs]		Very slowly.
[Jim Sachs]		I'm adding some things that I considered too difficult for the saltwater tank, and paying the price.
[Jim Sachs]		Swaying plants are a killer.
[grape_jellyfish]		well im sure it will be worth the wait
[EddieWan]		swaying plants does sound like a major addition
[EddieWan]		i'll be the first in line to buy it ;)
[Jim Sachs]		Thanks, Eddie
[grape_jellyfish]		I had a freshwater tank for years and loved it.
[EddieWan]		I've had a freshwater aquarium since i was knee high to a grasshopper, so I really am a little excited about the freshwater aquarium
[feldon26]		so Jim, what do you think about having one Discus body and a few textures for it? Is that cheating? :)
[Jim Sachs]		The amount of resources required for a new model is so low that it doesn't really make much difference if there are more than 1.
[Jim Sachs]		Fish models are only 7k.
[feldon26]		I didn't know how easy or hard it was to reshape a fish model to get it right.
[Jim Sachs]		A few minutes, if it doesn't need much.
[feldon26]		Do you know if they had the Aquarium at MacWorld? nobody seemed to report on it.
[Jim Sachs]		Don't know anything about MacWorld.
[EdwardT]		There was a report either in Macfixit or Macintouch about Marine Aquarium. That's how I learned about it.
[Jim Sachs]		Yes, the MacFixit artle said I was there. I wasn't.
[EdwardT]		You were there in spirit; lol.
[feldon26]		It is one of the laws of physics that every article about the Aquarium must contains at least 2 mistakes. I don't get it.
[EddieWan]		lol, does seem that way.
[EddieWan]		Do you think these people research there stories before they write em?
[Jim Sachs]		That's a pretty big one, since 'my' presentation apparently sold a few copies.
[Jim Sachs]		I will say that dealing with the Mac community has been a very nice experience.
[Jim Sachs]		They are so polite.
[grape_jellyfish]		kinda like ms?
[EddieWan]		don't think i'll touch that one grapie
[EdwardT]		Was there a special price for Marine Aquarium for the Mac? I saw reference to those who purchased it for 12.95.
[Jim Sachs]		For the first 1000. Actually it went to 1600 before we could stop it.
[EdwardT]		Wow, by the time i heard about it, it was back to 21.95
[EdwardT]		still bought it!
[EdwardT]		the lionfish is amazing
[Jim Sachs]		Thanks - but they all still need some work.
[feldon26]		all of the fish you mean?
[Jim Sachs]		Yes.
feldon26 mumbles that he wishes he could help.
[feldon26]		moving right alone :)
[feldon26]		along :)
[grape_jellyfish]		i think you had it right the first time
[feldon26]		Freud would be proud.
[EddieWan]		so Jim: have you thought about having someone else help with fish for the saltwater as far as adding or updating them?
[Jim Sachs]		Actually, we just hired a top Disney animator to help with the Prolific SereneScreen-type programs.
[grape_jellyfish]		so they will be putting new fish in the saltwater tank?
[Jim Sachs]		No, I'm the only one allowed to touch that.
[EdwardT]		that means we should be getting all the planned things in a few days? lol
[Jim Sachs]		There's a company in Bora Bora that has promised to buy a large number of units if I'll add a sea turtle.
[grape_jellyfish]		wow, a sea turtle would be cool
[EddieWan]		there has been people asking for a turtle before, so there is interest.
[Jim Sachs]		Yes, it's on the list.
[Jim Sachs]		I'll have to leave any announcements to them for now.
[Jim Sachs]		Sales [on the Mac version] are already very strong. 2 or 3 times the PC.
[feldon26]		Did anyone see that coming?
[Jim Sachs]		Jim O'Connor.
[Jim Sachs]		Mac people buy software.
[EdwardT]		Have you notified the various Mac news site about Marine Aquarium's release?
[Jim Sachs]		Not yet.
[EdwardT]		Well, 1.1 is out and working great!
[EdwardT]		Even on a 366 mHz iBook, I can get 30fps with the 7 fishes
[EddieWan]		that is good
[grape_jellyfish]		thats about what i get
[Jim Sachs]		O'Connor was one of many Mac programmers who came to us with proposals. We 'lent' him the source code so he could give us an estimate, and about a week later it was virtually done.
[EdwardT]		Did they get any sleep during that time?
[Jim Sachs]		Probably not.
[Jim Sachs]		He took a big risk putting in so much effort without an agreement, but his work was so good, we couldn't turn him down.
[EdwardT]		So does that mean a week after the fresh water aquarium is released for the PC, Macs will get it?
[Jim Sachs]		Yes, he'll get the source for the freshwater tank as soon as it's done.
[grape_jellyfish]		I think I'll like this one even better than the salt tank.
[grape_jellyfish]		I think the freshwater one will sell just as well as the saltwater tank.
[EddieWan]		Well, he will sell at least 2 copies. One to me and one to grape.
[grape_jellyfish]		well, that should make up for several months of blood sweat and tears.
[Jim Sachs]		By the way, I'll soon have my own 'news' page back on the web. There will be a 'Jim's Corner' button on the SereneScreen site, which will take you to fish-byte.com.
[EdwardT]		A newbie question, when did you first come out with the Aquarium?
[Jim Sachs]		2 years ago next month.
[EdwardT]		The first time I saw it was at CompUSA last month, they were running it on their monitors.
[Jim Sachs]		Yeah, they do that a lot. Hopefully, we'll be selling it there soon.
[EddieWan]		the aquarium has always sold itself
[EddieWan]		people see it, they gotta have it
[grape_jellyfish]		i found it cause i was looking for an underwater ss, never thought i would actually buy one though but i liked it
[EdwardT]		and I was wishing for a Mac version
[Jim Sachs]		We are talking to a distributer who handles CompUSA.
[EdwardT]		Once the Freshwater is done, then you will have more leverage.
[Jim Sachs]		They have promised to carry it as soon as we have any second product ready.
[sccannon]		I first saw it on a computer at Circuit City. The salesperson had bought a copy and installed it
[Jim Sachs]		Yes, many Circuit Citys do.
[EdwardT]		Do you have any screen shots of the freshwater?
[Jim Sachs]		Nothing that you would recognize as art.
[SachsGuest1]		Hi Jim. You're a real genius. As a marketing student, I was wondering how many serenescreen aquariums have you sold?
[Jim Sachs]		Prolific has cautioned me not to give out numbers.
[grape_jellyfish]		if we guess will you tell us?
[EdwardT]		more than a 1000 less than 10 million???
[feldon26]		I would have to guess 100,000.
[EddieWan]		128,032
[grape_jellyfish]		150,000
[Jim Sachs]		Well, about 7 million free demos have been downloaded, but the number of sales is a tiny fraction of that.
[EdwardT]		how many of the demos were Macs?
[Jim Sachs]		The percentage of Mac people who download the demo and then buy a key is about 100 times the PC ratio.
[EdwardT]		I'm one of them ;-)
[Jim Sachs]		So it's a viable market, even though it's very small.
[EdwardT]		And this is with just word of mouth. No advertising, correct?
[Jim Sachs]		So far.
[feldon26]		Just a few radio mentions and little bits on TV. Once on TechTV and once on Adelphia cable.
[Jim Sachs]		Yeah, radio... just the place to show off the Aquarium.
[EddieWan]		lol
[Jim Sachs]		The Tech-TV spot was the best thing that has happened so far.
[Jim Sachs]		Apparently, people really watch that show. Sales were 5 times normal for a few days.
[Jim Sachs]		The next best was a tiny mention in the London Sunday Times. Almost invisible, but sales soared.
[grape_jellyfish]		well I read the WHOLE paper, so do others I guess
[Jim Sachs]		I saw [the clipping] on line.
[EdwardT]		well if you notify sites like MacCentral, Macintouch, Macfixit, you'll get more Mac users
[Jim Sachs]		I'm sure Prolific will be doing that soon.
[EdwardT]		Maybe, they will need a reminder from you!
[Jim Sachs]		They are highly motivated to promote the Mac version since they get a much larger percentage of that.
[Jim Sachs]		Well, if ther's nothing else, I think I'll go rest my back.
[EdwardT]		Please take care of yourself, Jim.
[EddieWan]		Yes, that you should definitely do.
[EdwardT]		Thanks for taking the time to chat
[grape_jellyfish]		bye Jim, take care
[Jim Sachs]		OK, thanks guys.
[EddieWan]		We enjoyed it
[sccannon]		Thanks Jim!!
		*** Jim Sachs left the chat at 8:18PM ***
[EdwardT]		Just wondering, how many users were on last time?
[EddieWan]		something like 30
[EdwardT]		was the time different?
[EddieWan]		it was right at the release of the lionfish, so interest was high
[EdwardT]		I see
[Conga]		Am I only one from Europe area?
[EdwardT]		I enjoyed the chat, thanks feldon26 for hosting, look forward to the next time
[EdwardT]		I'm from Los Angeles, CA
[EddieWan]		Come chat with us again sometime.
[EddieWan]		Florida here.
[Conga]		Late/Early here, gonna have to catch some z's soon...
[EddieWan]		I can understand that.
[EdwardT]		Perhaps if notice of the chat is on SereneScreen.com more will be here
[feldon26]		last time I only announced it on my website and it was BUSY. This time, I e-mailed 3,600 people about it.
[EdwardT]		lets see, its Friday, people must be out and about.
[feldon26]		Would be interesting to have Jim O'Connor and the Mac team come here one night. The java chat doesn't work real well on Mac though.
[EdwardT]		You will have to notify the Mac sites for that.
[EdwardT]		It worked for me, no problem.
[Conga]		Night all.
[EdwardT]		thanks again, see you on the forum
[EdwardT]		good night all

Thank you all for joining us for the chat, and we hope to have another one in the future.