Marine Aquarium DVD Coming Soon!
 

Prolific is happy to announce we have just created a 2 hour dvd of the Marine Aquarium! We are currently completing the authoring of the product (help screens, art, etc) and will have a manufactured product for retail in approximately 45 days. There are 7 chapters, of varying length, which highlight different combinations of fish, with various lighting settings and changes. A bonus chapter includes wire frame fish in a coral background.

It looks fabulous on a big screen tv!

Russell Mix
CEO
Prolific Publishing

There was a brief discussion on this in the Mac OS forum if you are interested.

I hope it will be orderable at serenescreen.com?
Is it widescreen or normal version?

How would you upgrade to later versions with this?

You wouldn't. It's for people who asked for a way to see the Aquarium using a TV and DVD player, not a computer.

oh boy...
 

B.F.D.

Where are our new creature packages, Jim?

It seems You and prolific are more concerned about making your 3rd and 4th million rather than concentrating on the people who made you your first.

typical.

I posted a reply in a thread in the other forum about this already. I don't know if you read it or not but have you noticed that no one is posting here anymore? In almost a year there has been no excitement, no sence of "Christmas morning" if you will. People are sick and tired of waiting for unfulfilled promises. I suggested to Feldon that he simply shut down if there is no need to HAVE a forum anymore - people can go to prolific for tech support... He agreed with my sentiments or found it hard to disagree, rather.

If you promise something, deliver. NO ONE, to my memory has started a thread about wanting a DVD - if they did, I missed it.
THERE ARE HOWEVER, a buttload of comments about how we've been told there would be new creature packages, a freshwater tank, etc. and nothing, nothing, nothing is what we get.

I am so disillusioned with the way you've put your faithful supporters on the back burner. It's gonna bite you in the backside, Jim. Maybe not tomorrow, but eventually. Maybe you just don't give a sheet anymore since you are comfortable with your earnings to date, I dunno. If so, good for you, roll around in the money you've got from us - but remember, SOME of us may not chose to support you anymore when it comes to buying the freshwater tank or DVD or go see your PIXAR production - whatever. After all, it's only a bunch of zeros and ones when you get down to it. Your ones and zeros are in the bank, though. You win.

How sad.

Tsk, tsk

Re: oh boy...
 

Ditto!!!

just some guy,

I agreed with your first post.

Your second post is rude and seeks to provoke rather than looking at any facts. Jim is not expending one minute on these other projects like translating the Aquarium into Japanese or German, making a goldfish aquarium, or making a DVD. That is entirely Prolific's deal. They are also working on moving the Aquarium to DirectX 7 code, improving the interface, etc. It seems they're doing what Jim will allow them to do.

If you want to fault Jim for the Freshwater and Saltwater development being at a standstill, fine, but don't distort the truth to improve your argument. I am not closed to debate, but you have to play fair.

You are trying to expand the scope of what I agreed to.

An announcement that development on something is beginning is not a promise or assurance that such product will ever be released. An announcement that something is in development is just that. The creature pack costs extra anyway, so I am not sure what you are fuming about. The remaining upgrade as part of the $21.95 ($20 for some) is the 3D background and possibly more regular fish. I share your surprise that Prolific has lent no aid to the 3D background project. The idea that artistic integrity can be maintained by Jim being the only voice in the Aquarium is hard to swallow.

Well, it's been said that you can't rush art. Still, the artist's block Jim is suffering is no different from ones that I have had. When I have my heart in something, I get it done in record time and with the utmost quality. When my heart is not in something, I just cannot get anywhere with it. I don't think there is any shame in Jim admitting that his heart just isn't in the Freshwater Aquarium.

It has been suggested to me a few times that SereneScreen needs 2 products to get the Aquarium into major retail stores that don't just specialize on computers. Can a creature pack+ more fish meet this requirement?


I am amazed at the sense of entitlement. I would say that the group of supporters who have an emotional attachment to the Aquarium and Jim's work from the Amiga days is a small percentage of the market. We have 1,100 people registered here and another 3,500 people registered at my website. Of those ~75 regularly post messages here. 75 out of 100,000. I'd say the rest of them don't even know that a creature pack or 3D background is coming. They purchased the Aquarium just wanting a pretty picture on their screen.

Jim's speed of development is his business. Is it making the forum and website a dull place? I can't argue that. But what can I say? Jim has not been dishonest with anyone. Except for the 3D background, the Aquarium has delivered on its promise. Anything besides that has been announced or suggested, but no promises have been made. Do you really want to live in a world where developers are afraid to announce anything they are working in fear of the backlash from on-the-fence emotional supporters like yourself?

I am not questioning the value of Jim's core supporters. People come to this forum and find a living breathing community of enthusiasts. I'm sure that drives some sales. I think we are at a crossroads and I don't know where the road will lead. I have offered my abilities and so have many others but so far we have been turned away. So we sit and wait for 1 man to do everything.

As I have said in other threads, I look at Jim's digital paintings with awe. They are stunning. I could never aspire to create the art Jim has. Then I look at the Aquarium and say "That's something I could contribute to." I do want to keep this community alive, but I will confront harsh comments that try to twist the truth. There's plenty in this world to complain about without rewriting things to your own benefit.

Let's try to keep this thread constructive while still expressing our feelings.

Re: oh boy...
 

Your post may be viewed by others as being rude, but I think you speak the truth.

People asked for a DVD version, and Prolific responded -- because it was do-able. I didn't even know about it until last week.

Things happen in people's lives which are simply not going to be discussed here. I forgive you for the rant, because you have no way of knowing what's happening on a hundred different fronts -- some good, some bad. I feel I've been more candid than any other developer by admitting that I'm stuck at the moment instead of promising that new wonders will be "coming soon". May you never experience artist's block with the wolves at the door.

Without any recent news, the forum has indeed become a bit dull. The forum belongs entirely to Morgan, so it's up to him if he wants to shut it down.

I'm certainly not going to shut down the forum at the request of "just some guy" or some of the other folks. He and I have been down this road before. His arguments are mostly emotional in nature. I wish the people saying "Ditto" would indicate WHICH parts they agree with. I would hope that Jim's biggest fans don't agree with everything he said because some of it is factually incorrect.

Jim, I know this is not a race. I'm not going to close the forum any time soon. The physical cost of keeping it running is minimal. I could change my fan website to PHP and then I can update it with forms rather than the updates I do now. For the time being, I prefer to expend the effort updating the website properly and being an active participant in this forum, helping people as I can.

To take my posts as an alude to losing interest in the Aquarium is preposterous. Actually, I am more interested than ever in the future of the Aquarium.

Morgan, please don't close this forum! It's always fun to be here, and reading such posts from just some guy is even more funny. I like the way how some people deal with such very important things like a screensaver.
Jim, you are the greatest, take all the time you need!

IMHO, just some guy just shows us how much does he like the aquarium :) nobody that wouldn't like the aquarium so much could make some delays look so important :)

Just some guy, maybe you should keep your feelings a bit hmmm... softer (sorry, I couldn't find a better word in english for it) as there're people reading the post that might consider them (as more ppl said before) a bit rude.

Everybody can easily read between lines, and notice that you really like the program and are, like most of us, waiting for any updates when we have been waiting for so much time and still waiting. I understand you, it's just your way to show your thoughts is too emotional :)

Even if Jim never produces another thing, this forum should stay open and I will continue to visit it. I admit my enthusiasm for the 3D background, creature packs, and freshwater screen saver has wavered recently, to the point that I may not even purchase the freshwater screen saver, but this forum and its' regular posters are wonderful friends of mine. I'm sure, or at least I still have hope, that the 3D background and at least one creature pack will find it's way from Jim's mind to my computer screen eventually.

I like to read in this forum. Please let it open.
It's hard to wait for a new screensaver or enhancement of the aquarium from Jim, but it will be harder without the forum and the marvelous people those write and read in the forum.

Could everybody take some time and read this sentence through a couple of times, please. :)

/Tiny Reminder

Morgan or I have never discussed closing the forum. Of course, it is his, and he can do as he wishes, but it has never come up in any of our conversations and its not something that I would worry about.

Tiny,

I have no qualms with people expressing their opinions one way or the other here.

Me neither, Morgan. To me this felt like something else than expressing an opinion though. Someone said You might aswell close the forum, then somebody went The forum is gonna close down? and after that a whole bunch of people were convinced the forum was coming down. Kinda making a hen out of a feather, it seemed to me.

/TT

P.S. You did note the :), didn't you?