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Old 07-19-2004, 04:40 PM   #1
cjmaddy
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Angry How did you first find SereneScreen Aquarium?

Mark's post, and before that, philosopher and Yodelking, (All on Virtual "No Mans Land" thread.) - prompted this thought.

........ It may give some idea of how we all found you Jim!

In my case it was in of all places, SAGA Magazine, (it's for Oldies - like me!) - The magazine had been passed to us by a neighbour, the Screensaver was referred to in the Computers & IT column. - That was in August 2001
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Old 07-19-2004, 05:29 PM   #2
Surferminn
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Saw it on a monitor at CompUSA. Bought it following week on sale. That was early June 2004.

worth every penny. ditto wiz below - :heart:


Minn


Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes.


Last edited by Surferminn; 07-19-2004 at 10:56 PM.
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Old 07-19-2004, 05:35 PM   #3
Marian Nichols
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.Believe it or not I was already looking for a gold fish screen saver. I had found Mopy Fish and thought maybe there something more out there. I just kept going to web sites that offered themes and screen savers and found Marine Aquarium, I believe I was on C-Net or ZD-Net and type goldfish in the search and there it was. I loved it and bought it the first week. I had to mail Jim a check because the site was not set up to received credit cards. But I received my key code by e-mail. I told others about it including Ellen who is also a member and she bought it too. That had to be five years ago if I am not mistaken.
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Old 07-19-2004, 05:48 PM   #4
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My story is pretty much like Marians, I was looking for a nice fish screensaver but I don't remember the name of the site that had it, just a site that offered demos or freebies and I downloaded this one and it pretty much changed my mind about never paying for something like a screensaver. I bought the basic the first day with my debit card, then I upgraded that same day to premium, back when they did it like that, the exact date was March 2nd 2001.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass....It's learning to Dance in the Rain.
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Old 07-19-2004, 06:15 PM   #5
Wizwad
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I'm moving my post over here where it'll make more sense.

I think the date I joined the forum was 10 March 2003, so I've not been around long relatively speaking, and I discovered the aquarium a few days before that.

I got a copy of the Plus pack from a friend to see if there was anything worth while on it. The Plus pack, with all its mostly pointless contents, has been long since ditched, with the exception of the Aquarium which was quickly purchased as an 'upgrade' (Huh! - Not an upgrade, but the proper version!) along with the Goldfish Aquarium and Marine Aquarium Time.

Freshwater Aquarium and Sharks will be purchased in due course!

I've had the MA for well over a year now, as I said, and I'm still totally thrilled with it. Goldfish is newer, but is likewise a truly beautiful screensaver, and these are the best of any I've ever found as far as I'm concerned. Well done Jim! Well done Prolific!
Mark
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Old 07-19-2004, 06:47 PM   #6
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Like Wizwad, I was introduced to MA through the Plus! disc. I added it in when I purchased my computer a little over a year ago. When I saw it, I couldn't believe my eyes. I'm sure my family and friends got tired of me talking about it. I bought the full version as soon as I could afford it. I found the forum when I visited the Prolific site to find out more about the full version of MA.
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Old 07-19-2004, 07:04 PM   #7
Marian Nichols
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You know, I bet I'm one of the very first owners of The Marine Aquarium, Jim would know closer than I what years he had to take checks. And I remember his search for a host site and I think there were some other trouble he had with distributing the SS but I don't remember exactly what it was. I wish I could remember the year. It will take some time but I am going to see if I can find my check registry with it there. It will drive me crazy ‘till I find out.
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Old 07-19-2004, 07:04 PM   #8
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I found it on a usenet newsgroup complete with a key generator. It was listed as the best most realistic screen saver ever. And it was.... After installing it I ventured into this forum and became a member. Within a month I realized the dedication of the membership, the hosts, and the author. So, I purchased the then current version. I forget which it was, the forum was "just" beginning to talk about the addition of a lion fish. And... as soon as the fresh water version or the creature packs come out they too will be purchased, sight unseen even.
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Old 07-19-2004, 07:37 PM   #9
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A friend of mine gave me a CD that he bought really cheap in Thailand with a bunch of different kinds of pirated software on it. The only thing on there that I liked was the Marine Aquarium. I just fell in complete and utter love with it and had to know everything about it, so I searched for any and all info and found this site where I was a lurker for several months before my first post back in Nov. of 2001. I bought my own keycode just before 1.0 came out.
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Old 07-19-2004, 07:48 PM   #10
feldon34
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I don't remember the site I initially found the Aquarium on, only that it was the 1st week of December. I couldn't spell saltwater fish at the time.

Out of frustration at not being able to pick them from a pictoral list (and my job), I spent a few hours looking up all the fish species in the Aquarium and ended up building a rough website with a guide to all the fish, a news page, and the original 2-page wishlist with 42 fish!

The rest, as we say, is history...

Here's part of the e-mail I got from Jim on December 11th, 2000:
Originally e-mailed by Jim Sachs
From: "Jim Sachs" <Jim@...>
To: "Morgan Feldon" <feldon23@...>
Subject: Re: Complete Guide to Sachs Aquarium Fish
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 21:45:02 -0800

Wow - you've really put a lot of work into this! I am truly honored that you went to this effort, and I would be glad to put a link on my site.

In the next month or so I hope to be able to spend a couple of days re-working the SereneScreen site. Up to now it's just been a few minutes here and there between programming emergencies and 300 e-mails a day. Your site looks great, and shows what someone can do when they put some thought into it. Your list of the fish is almost exactly what I had planned.

Regarding your wishlist: The Percula Clown is coming soon, though it will be a "free swimmer" like the other fish until I can program a sea anemone (a major task). The Majestic Angel is a great candidate, and I will start looking for a suitable photo of that one. Also, a Clown Trigger will be in the next group, as will a Regal Tang. There will be about 10 more conventional fish before I start on the invertebrates.

Thanks again, and I'll keep in touch.


--- Jim Sachs
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman
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Old 07-19-2004, 08:52 PM   #11
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I was doing a search for "aquarium" to get help with a problem I was having with the goldfish aquarium at home. After downloading and running the screensaver, I bought it the next day as an early birthday present for myself, and this was in January 2001.
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Old 07-19-2004, 10:23 PM   #12
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I remember getting tired of the same old screensavers, and wanting something 3d and realistic looking. I don't remember all the details about how I came to know about Marine Aquarium, but I'm fairly sure I must have seen it advertised on the Plus cd and through another forum. I remember doing a search on Google, finding serenescreen.com, and downloading and buying it the same day. Looking in my records just now (I'm really a packrat!), I bought Marine Aquarium on Nov 1, 2001.

I have since bought other aquariums, but I still like Jim's aquariums the best. The fish look great, and I especially like the collision routines. The only aquarium I run now is MAT2. Having the aquarium, the time, and the logos in one package is an added bonus/pleasure.

Everytime I sit back and view the scr, I am still impressed with the quality of Jim's work!
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Old 07-19-2004, 11:52 PM   #13
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After long playing with Aquazone I have search something new with better colours and fish movements.
So I found the SSA 0.99 on a shareware site on march or april 2001.
By playing with Aquazone you could combine different Guppies or Goldfish or Discus to new fishes like in reality.
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Old 07-19-2004, 11:52 PM   #14
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I used to frequent 3dfiles.com and one day they posted a demo (I think it was version 99F or something), and I’ve been hooked ever since. I bought Goldfish and Sharks as soon as I could. I was tempted to get Flags to finish the Prolific collection (not including T3), but I think I wait to see what the future holds for that one.
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Old 07-20-2004, 01:08 AM   #15
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I was looking for drivers for a video card and stumbled upon .99H (possibly .99G) on 3dfiles.com which considered it a good way to show off a video card. I did too and somehow managed to conjure up the courage to post on that American forum... The coolest thing happened and the author of the program actually responded to my query!

/Tiny Eons Ago
Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think.

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.
I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says,
'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'
I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
" /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.
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Old 07-20-2004, 03:39 AM   #16
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Well, my profile says I joined the site on 2/15/2002, though I found the aquarium nearly 2 years or so before that (if that's possible, that's how I remember it anyway) but didn't keep it around because my video card at the time was a STB Velocity 128 (based on the Riva 128) and it just didn't get along with the aquarium... BTW, I think I got it from 3Dfiles.com as well... Anyway, in late 2000 I splurged and bought a Voodoo3 3000 and sometime later (like a year) remembered that cool fish thing I had wanted to use before...

My first post here came about an upgrade and a half later when I had an 800Mhz Athlon and had just ditched my 32MB DDR Radeon for a Radeon 8500 and wanted to brag about my framerate and 21" screen... Now, my 21" screen remains but I don't even know off the top of my head what FPS my current system can make the fish swim around at...
I don't watch commercials.
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Old 07-20-2004, 03:56 AM   #17
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I saw it on top of the download list at 3dfiles.com (this site isn't existing anymore since a long time). That was the last time I've changed my screensaver!
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Old 07-20-2004, 05:46 AM   #18
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Since I ran a real saltwater tank for a number of years and liked it I was looking for something that would do justice to the environment and show the fish better than the lousy looking screensavers at the time. I wanted to find one and give it to myself for a Christmas present and stumbled on a fresh looking site that was exactly what I wanted. I got the file and promptly sent Jim a check at the time and waited for my email to arrive. I then joined up, studied everything I could find about the aquarium, and started trying to help people out with questions and problems. Not long after, Morgan contacted me and started telling me to type things into my browser and showing me all sorts of screens and settings ( which confused me to no end at the time ) and told me he was going out of town for a vacation ( to a swamp no less ) and he needed someone to watch everything, congratulations I was now an administrator. With Jim's approval, and careful instruction from Morgan, I have been on this site every day since, almost 1300 days ago.
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Old 07-20-2004, 07:41 AM   #19
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Like Lostboy I found the demo on 3dfiles. I have been using the demo and a d version untill I could get myself a credit card (credit cards are not used often in The Netherlands so I never needed one before internet purchases came along). Version 1.0 was just released when I bought it.
Remi
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Old 07-21-2004, 01:36 PM   #20
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I think it was in 2001 that I saw it in a PC magazine. I really liked the look of it and went to serenescreen.com to download the demo.
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