Wishlist for Marine Aquarium 3 and Future

[Gordon Hughes]

A programme that works would be good, I have 2 monitors and cannot get the prime monitor to work without a shadowed/double image, the spacebar does not work to bring up the options and get a message that says Nvidia does not support this programme
A bit more fundimental than talking about the actual fish
A frustrated user

[Nicki]

Wouldn't you know it? I can't get the popups to appear today. What I was seeing was an underwater scene of a sunken ship with some flash animated fish 'swimming' in straight lines across the foreground.

[Jim Sachs]

Gordon Hughes - You are the only one to ever report this particular problem. One-of-a-kind issues almost always turn out to be driver-related.

[lkmurry1]

Hi, my starfish has not moved in about 2 weeks. I have removed the whols program and re-loaded it with no change. Any clues on what I can try next? I loved the star in my previous use of the Marine Aquarium and would like to get my current one moving.

[lkmurry1]

How about a sea anonie and some attedent clownfishes?

[Jim Sachs]

Are you sure the starfish doesn't move? I programmed it to have a fairly wide range within the 'valley' on the left side of the tank. Its position gets reset each time the program starts. How long has it been running?

I have always planned to bring the sea anemone on the far right side to life and have the clownfish hang out there. It still may happen if sales pick up enough to justify the work.

[patscarr]

Perhaps he is asking for the position NOT to get reset each time we start the program. I would also like to see that implemented. It just seems like it doesn't move much because we see it in that first position more often that anywhere else.

[cjmaddy]

If we remove it from the fish list before closing down MA, then reintroduce it on re-startup, then it continues from where it last was. - So why not let it always start in its last seen position? - And have the 'reset position' as an option.

[Jim Sachs]

That's a possibility. Remind me next time I've got the hood open.

[thematrix]

I cant run dual monitor on windows 8.. maybe the video drivers?

[snorkler]

If you want sales - offer something! Creature packs, starfish movement, improved fish movement! fiddler had some interesting ideas.
The eel is great but it is not a moving starfish nor realistic fish interaction.
How many people have purchased this program? How many would pay for new creatures? Most I think!
Probably I sound "bitchy", maybe it's the weather! Maybe it's because this program could be soooooo... much more!

Michael

[cjmaddy]

I think snorkler may have a valid point there..... Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?
I would have thought that you enter into new developments, to generate new/more sales? - If sales have reached saturation point, then why not introduce some of what we have been told over the past years, would eventually be introduced?

[Jav400]

This lends itself to what I have said all along. It is exceedingly difficult to sell from an empty wagon.

And last but not least, "If you build it they will come."

[Jim Sachs]

That slogan should be "If you advertise it, they will come".

There are still far more computer users who don't have the Aquarium than do. Many would buy it, but don't know about it. When there were still computer stores displaying the CD version of the program on their shelves and monitors, sales were fantastic. Now that all those stores have either gone out of business (like CompUSA, Circuit City, and nearly all neighborhood computer stores), or don't sell or display software on their monitors any more (like Costco and Sam's Club).

There are many who say, "Well, you wrote one of the most popular computer programs of all time, which lasted for years instead of weeks like most programs. You should have invested the money better". These people are absolutely right, but that doesn't really help going forward.

The popular impression is that sales would improve if I added more creatures and objects to the tank, but this is not substantiated by any evidence. Creating the last 3 fish, the Featherduster coral, the Moray Eel, the entire 3D environment, and the moving background objects all had no noticeable effect on sales. On the other hand, the advertising that Mindspark has been doing has resulted in doubling of sales for the past month. We'd still need another 5X increase to even approach what they were in the old days, but it is encouraging and may be enough to justify some new development.

[cjmaddy]

Apart from attracting new sales, (which you may say is doubtful). - If the additional creature packs that have been promised over the years, had materialised, surely that additional income, (from existing customers), would have been better than nothing.
I thought the slogan was, "You have to speculate to accumulate."
People are not likely to pay for jam tomorrow, once they realise that no creature packs have ever appeared.

[Jim Sachs]

So people would have been happier if I bundled the new creatures into packs and charged them for it, instead of giving away the creatures for free to licensed users as I have done?

[Jav400]

I think what Cliff is talking about is that if you had went ahead and created some additional creature packs of specialty fish, probably 4-5 creatures per pack and offered them for sale you might have been better off getting some sales from something like that in addition to just trying to sell the aquarium only. It would be better to have the aquarium and 1-2 creature packs trying to generate sales than just the aquarium.

[cjmaddy]

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

So people would have been happier if I bundled the new creatures into packs and charged them for it, instead of giving away the creatures for free to licensed users as I have done?  

No, - as Michael says, for years there have been references made to additional creature packs, but none have ever materialised.
As you say, there have been a lot of free additions made to MA over the years, for which I'm sure we are all very grateful. But the additional packs talked about from time to time, have yet to appear. These could surely have created additional income.

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

I do still plan to create Creature Packs for both products, as well as the occasional free addition like the eel.  

[Jim Sachs]

And that's a point which I'm willing to concede. There would be additional income from Creature Packs. The question is, would it be enough to justify the effort? It's a risk which my whole future depends on. Would it be like the iPhone version, which averages about 60 units a day, but only nets me $20? If I spend 6 months on a Creature Pack, then we're suddenly into Winter, making it much more difficult to finish building my house before my wife leaves me. Or, given my rapidly diminishing mental capacity, would it be wiser to give up programming entirely and switch to writing books?

[cjmaddy]

That's a question that only you can answer, Jim. - But, quite rightly, you appear to have made up your own mind.