Is there something new?
 

Hi folks,

I haven't been around here for months, and have not been keeping up. (BTW, I also tried to update my email addie but the form would not 'submit.' Anyone know what's wrong?)

Anyway; I was wandering through Best Buy yesterday, and saw a big screen displaying what was obviously a version of 'Goldfish' but it was different than what I have. There were big square rocks and BRIGHT BLUE gravel !!!! The goldfish were my old friends.

I know that in the past folks were talking about a possible 'fishtank' version with divers, castles, etc, etc. Has something new been created. I am so out-of-the-loop :)

Cheers,
Tom

It must have been running on a Mac... The Mac version got the new hottness but "we" haven't yet...

The bright blue gravel isn't a Mac thing.

That is a special Microsoft version for the Media Center OS. Only Media Center will have that as of now.

You guys made another deal with Microsoft? No comment. :)

any screenshot? I'm interest to see

I'm with Morgan... :eek:

Microsoft??!! Bah, Blech, Ptoiee. Anyone noticing a pattern here? :mad: :argue: :flush:

I'm with you guys on MicroSnott. :mad:

LOL. Thanks for the info, Edgar. Sorry I outed you guys :)

M$ (Darth vader theme playing).

So what are you doing right now?
And I would like to see pic of the MS version too!!!

screen shot please?

Saw the blue gravel and square rock version at Cosco last night. Didn't like it. Don't want it.

aloha,
Neil

I found a picture of the new aquarium. I think it looks pretty slick and I would LOVE a copy of this baby!!


http://www.winsupersite.com/images/r...5_aquarium.jpg

Hey Q-Beam, Thanks for the pic. I like it. :TU:

I saw this but thought it was running on a mac when I saw it.

WOW, that gravel is so BLUE!!!!! like those dyed pebbles sold in the pet shop....

I like the squared rocks though...

So it's only for Media Center OS, not for public sale?

PS: there's a Prolific.com on the gravel front....:D:D:D

Ewww...

Reviews of WinXP MCE 2005 Goldfish Aquarium (Blue Gravel)
 

It's turns out one of my friend has WinXP MCE 2005 installed in his computer, so he gave me that special blue gravel version of GA. And I've installed it in my WinXP Pro.

This is my review, let's look at its setting panel first, since my friends's WinXP MCE 2005 is Simplified Chinese version, so all the settings are in Simplified Chinese.

The top section on left is the "Tank appearance setting", you are able to select two tanks namely "Green Plants" and "The Zan Garden", It looks to me the name should be rename as "Medium Planting" and "Rocks Only" if you compare it to the normal GA. The option below it is
"Change Tanks"
Occasionally -------------|------ Frequent
This is quite a new style to see that Prolific use the slider bar to implement the tank cycle option, however, from experiement, the tank won't just cycle like normal GA, but it changes on the next start up. It's similar to what Morgan's design for MA's fish selection method long ago. So the slider bar controls how often the tank should alternate on each start up.

The meddle section on left is "Sound" control, it's a Bubble sound with a volume tunner.

The bottom section on left is the "Lighting" with an "Automatic Lighting" checkbox and the two sliders (Foreground and Background) that we're familiar with.

The right section is the available fish, there're only 7 goldfish: Brando, Freida, Ginger, Jack, Monstro, Morgan and Oreo.
As usual, you can only have 5 fish at a time in the tank, available for random or disable in each fish slot.

Now let's look at the monitor setting button, it's the right button underneath the Lighting section on left.

Surprisingly, it's actually an MD version!!!!, It support multiple Display, the drop down menu is for resolution, the setting on screenshot is set to "Default to system resolution", then it's the colour bit depth, 16 or 32. The top check box is set to blank for the current selected monitor option. The bottom check box is the Wide Screen option!!!!! So cool!!!!!!

Let's look at the "About" button beside the "monitor setting" button.

You can see the version number and the Prolific's contact address on it with other info such as the name of developers. And the special thanks to J. D Sachs:):):):)

There are no hot-key control whatsoever, whenever you press a key, the screensaver just exit, not even a Exit on mouse move option, so you cannot see the FPS, Wireframe mode, Alternate between full screen to windowed mode, or alternate between wide screen and normal screen, or cycle tanks, nope.

But another good part of it is it's preview-able in the the Display propoerties panel, it looks like all Microsoft's bundled screensaver are made to be preview-able, even the 3 fish version of MA comes with WinXP Plus!

And even the wide screen mode is also previewable!!! :TU: :TU:

Now here are the two screeshots:

"Green Plants" AKA "Meddium Planting"

"The Zan Garden" AKA "Rocks Only"

After playing around with this version, I quite like it though. The blue gravel gave me the "Ewwwww" at the fist sight like Doc did, but then it looks cool to me, more like those aquarium set up with dyed gravel in pet shop, I like the square rock the most.

And the wide screen + MD support + previewable in Display propertise panel is definetly a plus!!

I don't know you guys, but I like it! :):)

There a few more points I like to add, the automatic lighting delay is set to 1 minute internally, it starts with background bright ---> Dark ---> Bright ---> Foreground bright --> dark ---> bright and then background again.

Althuogh there's no "Don't duplicate random choices" option available, it's set to that way internally too, you 'll never get duplicated fish if fish slosts are set to random.

I'm not sure about the "Disable monitor sleep mode" is internally set to active or not.

The "Debris" are there, you cannot turn it off, and so does bubbles.

I think those are the differences between normal version of GA.

My another friend in New Zealand are going to purchase a Media Centre PC soon (and of coz it's WinXP MCE 2005 installed), by that time, if he's welling to let me review on the English version of MCE Goldfish Aquarium, I'll post its interface here again.

The current one I got was from my another oversea friend in Australia, it's not surprising that he lives in an English spoken country by using Simplified Chinese version of WinXP MCE 2005. I use Traditional Chinese WinXP Pro on my PC in NZ anyway.

many thanks for your research and informations...

I just realised that the normal GA doesn't support wide screen, this is the first version of GA that supports it, this is definetly a keeper.

But on second thought, am I allow to keep it?:confused:

No problem, I'm just lucky to have one friend who actually own the WinXP MCE 2005 PC, so I have the chance to play around with it. It's my pleasure to share out those findings to who are interest in this special GA version.

WOW thats cool, is there any chance to get it?

Preview mode requires rewriting the Aquarium in DirectX 7 or 8 code.

Blue gravel? ..... You cannot be serious!

Well, I dunno if I could distribute it around, I'm even a little worried about am I allow to keep it? I don't buy the MCE, my friend did! :rolleyes:

Should I up load it on my server for download?:confused:


I see, but from the GA FAQ page , I thought GA was written in Directx 7? so basically they just added the previeable function, no complete rewrite I suppose. No?

However, it's the wide screen support that catches me, and new type of the tank alternating option. That's close what you've suggest for random fish occurance in MA.

PS: Thanks for the title help man

Cliff, you won't say that when you have it in action!!!! Just look at it as those tanks with dyed pebble/gravel in the pet shop! In a way, they still look nice.....

and the MD support plus widescreen plus previewable in window's setting.:TU: :TU: :TU: :TU:

Sorry James, blue gravel does nothing for me! - Must be an age thing! :D

Hey, I said, "Ewwww..." and I'm younger than James I'm sure... ;)

LOL....oh you two little......
:D:D:D:D:D

wow this is sooooo cool...:drool:
i wish i have that blue gravel version of GA..
is there anything wrong if distribute around?
else , James could you please send me a link (PM).:o

I'm not preparing to upload it on my server, for now, PM me first and see what I can do for you and I'll explain why I'm a bit concern to distribute it around.