Aquazone 1.0.2.0: Seven Seas Deluxe

Reviewed by Robert Pritchett

What They Say

• Aquazone Seven Seas Deluxe includes:
• 40 different species of jellyfish, sea turtles, nautili and others
• 20 different tanks--each with unique plantlife and coral
• Fill the screen with of one or more species--allows as many fish onscreen as your computer can handle
• Beautiful, realistic day and night lighting conditions
• Digital food--feed them and watch them eat
• Tapping on the glass--watch as the fish watch you
• Fish cam--closely follow your favourite fish friends
• Soothing sound effects
• Your choice of 8 photorealistic backgrounds
• Wireframe, fully rendered, or silhouette mode
• Pop-up interface--customise your aquarium on the fly

What I Say

Frankly, I have to agree with Frank Hiner’s evaluation linked above, that is 2 years old. Smith Micro did do an update since his review, but very minor. And the backgrounds do not jive (the resolutions and interaction just aren’t “there” yet) with the fish and the fish are not exactly proportional with each other in the fish tank or ocean.

[I think SereneScreen.com does a better job - http://www.maccompanion.com/macc/archives/april2005/Software/MarineAquarium2.htm

And for a better price.]

Now Frank Hiner dinged Allume (subcompany of SmithMicro) for not offering the other packs for the Mac, so Smith Micro answered with Expansion Pack ports from Windows for Bass, Arowana, Fun Stuff (like submarines, etc.) and Goldfish at $10 USD each.

This app takes up a lot of CPU cycles and resources, especially if you add a lot of fish, but heck, if you are not using the CPU to full advantage and want to play with your screen, go ahead and feed the fish, tap on the glass, zoom in and out and full-screen. When I went to full screen, I got a black screen and had to bail out to get my original back. I wasn’t patient enough for the program to “turn on” to get Aquazone to zone in on my screen.

The app does not use the Mac OS X toolbar and uses an internal control menu that “floats” as Japanese glass net floats with icons inside, wherever you right-click on the screen. Once they line up, they act as a food shaker, full-screen option, preferences, zoom-in and exit functions. And no, you have to click on them to find out what they do as they do not have the mouse-over and tell me what you do text. What is neat is that you can grab the “arrow” and the “bubbles” follow it like fish.

BTW, the coelacanth eyes glow in the dark and the jellyfish stay white as the backlight dims to silhouette-mode. And the “fish-cam” works too. Control-click a fish, then open the tools (right-click on the screen) and select the magnifier to follow the fish around as a “fish-cam”.

Maybe it’s just the sharks that suck. The Coelacanth’s eyes move, the details on the turtles are excellent. Now if the “tanks” backgrounds were better synched, I think this would be more than just a lot of fun. There is an easy-to-read 8-page manual that comes with the packaged version and it works with Mactel boxes too.

To use this as a screen-saver with the Mac, it will appear as an option after the program is added to the Applications folder in the Desktop and ScreenSaver window in Apple Preferences. When in screen-saving-mode, the screen goes totally black and it takes a few seconds for the screen to come on. Of course, moving the mouse flips back to a live screen, so no preferences can be chosen while in screen-saver mode.

If you have some discretionary income burning a hole in your pocket and are bored with static screen-savers, go to Amazon.com and get a copy of Aquazone for a better price than the one listed above.