[ Welcome ]

I have been intrigued by computers and technology since the age of 7 when my older brother gifted me his Commodore 64. Vintage computing remains one of my favorite pastimes and I love to explore the pioneering machines of the 1970s-80s.

I am a three-time consecutive grand prize winner of Intel-sponsored app development competitions and an Intel Software Innovator. By profession, I am a programmer analyst and web developer at a medical research facility. I also run an occasionally-updated technology blog containing in-depth guides, tutorials and other meandering thoughts. 

[ Retro Computing ]

The first three home computers I ever experienced were a Commodore 64, Color Computer 2 and I.Q. Unlimited. All three of these paved my lifelong interest in computing, taught me the basic concepts of programming and let to many hours of gaming and creativity.

I've rekindled my interest in these old systems as a casual collector. My latest kick has been with the oft-forgotten Mattel Aquarius home computer from 1982-83. I purchased a used Aquarius in the 1990s, but without any software or accessories it quickly made its way to a storage tote. With very restrictive hardware and a limited set of programs, the Aquarius was destined for failure from day one and ended its shelf life in around four months. 

The Aquarius had no GPU, a fixed set of 256 characters and only 1.7K of usable RAM out of the box. But its limitations and commercial failure has become intriguing to a small handful of community members who are still actively to create new software and hardware for the platform, bringing new life to an obscure and ancient system.

My current Mattel Aquarius contributions include:

• Matt's Aquarius Collective - Simple site for indexing my Aquarius efforts and notable external links and resources.
• Aquarius Draw - A full-featured online editor for creating Aquarius-compatible scenes. This supports the full character and color set, 2x2 and 2x3 bloxel draw mode,  basic image outline conversion, preview, high resolution PNG export, document saving and loading, gallery submission and code template generation in BASIC and ASM. Useful for any retro art needs. Comprehensive user guide also exists.