[feldon34]

12 years ago, Jim's Aquarium was astonishing, remarkable, unbelievable. People had to have it when they saw it. It appeared on TV programs and on computer screens in the background of tentpole movies. There was no equal, and at the time, the Aquarium made scrupulous use of limited hardware, thus ensuring that it would appear on millions of desktops.

Now, Aquarium screen savers are too numerous to count. Computer hardware has increased in performance 10-fold, and everyone has high speed internet. The remaining distinction between Jim's Aquarium and the others are realism and artistic integrity, and some of the other Aquariums out there are getting awfully close on the realism.

When Jim visited me in Italy, I proffered that Jim being mired in the day-in and day-out gruntwork of programming the Aquarium (instead of creating the Art and 3D animation and supervising a developer or two) was like the sculptor Michaelangelo toiling away for years in a rock quarry before carving each statue.

This is my personal opinion, but at this point, I think the only way forward is a Kickstarter campaign to do a NEW screen saver (possibly the butterfly habitat or terrarium) along with 1-2 programmers and technical types. Jim would do the artwork and animation and have full editorial control over anything that is released. If he hates everything they produce, then so be it. But, if the project is a success, then his new-found programming posse would be able to sweep back around and knock out those niggling physics issues that stand between Marine Aquarium 3 and its first creature pack.

I don't wish to dwell on history too much, but the original plan of the Jim's screen savers was one per year, and after 5 years and 5 screen savers, he would have the funds to produce a film. Here we are at year 12 and we're still on the 1st screen saver. I have the utmost respect for Jim, but friends tell each other the truth, and there is something to be said about performing the same action and expecting different results.

I know Jim has had crappy results working with partners and programmers in the past. Some of that comes down to the bad nature of some people, and some of that comes down to not having well-written binding legal contracts. I believe Jim's abhorrence for crooks and publisher interference is is why he chose Prolific. They've been totally hands-off and given him complete creative freedom. But at some point, you have to realize hey, here's a great artist who is languishing because he doesn't have the tools he needs.

Jim is like a painter with no paints, a sculptor with no marble, a photographer with no camera. There are thousands of talented, fantastic programmers out there. Let's find some!