Insaniquarium is a computer game created by Flying Bear Entertainment and PopCap Games. It was awarded "Innovation
In Game Design" in the 2002 Independent Games
Festival by the Game Developers Conference.
The first version of the game was Java-based and was available as a free
online game. Shortly after, a PDA
version was released. The latest version is called Insaniquarium Deluxe, released in September 2004 for PC.
The deluxe version of Insaniquarium costs approximately $20USD and features
enhanced graphics, new pets, new modes of gameplay, and a new type of currency called shells. Shells are collected as the
game progresses, and they can be used to create a custom Insaniquarium screen saver, to buy
bonus pets or to increase the number of pets allowed in each tank.
Basic Gameplay
Insaniquarium can be played either in Adventure, Time Trial, Challenge, or Virtual Tank mode. In Adventure, Challenge, and
Time Trial modes, money is collected from various species of marine life in the player's tank. It is dropped by guppies,
carnivores, guppycrunchers, beetlemunchers, and ultravores. Each lifeform must be kept alive by feeding it, whether through fish
food or buying other species of fish.
- Guppies: yellow with rose coloured fins. Must be fed fish
food. Babies drop nothing, medium fish drop $15 coins, and adults drop $35 coins, ones which have constantly been fed
(without being allowed to turn green) and have turned blue (and gain small crowns) will drop diamonds worth $200. This process is helped along by Blip. When guppies are hungry they turn green and purple.
When guppies die, they turn upside down, turn white and make a sound before they fall to the floor and disappear.
- Carnivore: black and red. Must be fed baby guppies. Periodically drops diamonds worth $200. Carnivores are larger than guppies and are the food for Ultravores.
- StarFish: translucent yellow and pink. An adult guppy that has
eaten a Star Potion (which costs $250). Drops stars worth $40 that can be eaten by Starcatchers. Star Potion kills baby and
medium sized guppies.
- Starcatchers: gray, with tentacles and a bucket-shaped head. Must eat stars dropped by StarFish. Releases a $200 diamond
after eating a star.
- Guppycrunchers: brown with pincers. Must be fed baby guppies. Releases beetles worth $150.
- Beetlemuncher: bulbous-eyed and blue. Must eat beetles released by guppycrunchers. Produces pearls worth $500.
- Breeders: yellow with red fins and large stomachs. Must be fed fish food. Babies give birth to nothing, but medium and adult
breeders give birth to baby guppies periodically.
- Ultravores: large, bluish-silver fish. Must eat carnivores. Drops treasure chests worth $2000. Ultravores are large, about
three times the size of a carnivore. When Ultravores die, they turn upside down and their eyes become pitch black and they emit a
large gargling sound.
Adventure Mode
In adventure mode, a player advances through four tanks. Each tank has five levels, each with progressively more expensive
upgrades (upgrades are usually necessary to finish a level unless the player has Blip). A level is beaten by collecting enough
money to purchase three Egg Pieces, which then hatch into a new pet before the next level begins.
After the fourth and final tank, the player must beat Cyrax, the game's boss. The new pet screen will come up as in previous
levels. However, instead of a new pet made available, Cyrax appears on the screen. The final battle then begins with Cyrax
warping into a guppy-less tank; unlike previous levels, however, all of the player's pets (except for Angie, Presto if unlocked,
Brinkely, Stanley, Walter and Nostradamus) are made available. Cyrax then warps in, and the player must attack him. The goal is
to beat Cyrax, who attacks by producing miniature Sylvesters which are harmful to the pets. The player must kill the mini
Sylvesters before they kill all the pets. Moreover, other aliens will periodically warp into the tank and begin to attack the
pets. In this tank, Cyrax can take away the pets' special powers, but once Cyrax is defeated, the pets will regain their powers.
The "cast" then rolls, followed by the real credits. Beating Cyrax in Adventure Mode unlocks Presto the Tadpole. During the
credits, it says that Angie the Angelfish sat out the fight and reincarnated all the pets.
Time Trial Mode
Similar to Adventure mode, but the player is restricted to five minutes for the first tank and ten minutes for the other three
tanks, and egg shells no longer count towards finishing a level, but rather add a random pet into the tank. Each shell cost
doubles the previous one, with the first shell starting at $100. The goal of the Time Trial mode is simply to make as much money
as possible. In the deluxe version, after time runs out, 5% of the player's monetary score is converted to shells and collected
by the virtual tank.
Challenge Mode
Similar to Adventure mode, but the cost of each item on the board rises 1% for every five seconds of game time. Buying a shell
piece resets the cost of all of the items except for other shell pieces; as such, shell pieces eventually cost $99,999 if the
player waits for long enough. Moreover, the difficulty and number of aliens allowed in the tank also rise as time progresses,
behooving the player to finish as quickly as possible. Finally, unlike in the adventure mode, after five minutes all purchase
options are open so that there is no need to purchase specific upgrades or special fish to be able to buy other items or egg
shell pieces.
Virtual Tank mode
The Virtual Tank mode enables the player to feed fish purchased from a Virtual Store. Many different types of fish are
available, each with a special attribute. There are also rare pre-named fish available, and many possible upgrades for the tank.
Fish available for purchase change daily. However, pets evolve much slower in the game and it takes a week of feeding (three
times a day) before a guppy will grow bigger. Also, fish do not die in Virtual Tank (except for Carnivore, Ultravore and
Voracious fish food)
List of special fish and their features which are not available in Adventure mode:
- Coloured fish
- Musical fish
- Invisible fish
- Fast fish
- "Voracious" fish
- "Exotic diet" fish
- "Very Special Diet" fish
- "Forwardly challenged" fish
- Naming a fish "Santa" will make it white with red fins. It will drop bags of shells and periodically plays Christmas carols
- Selectable tank background
- Bubbulator: periodically releases bubbles
- Alien Attractor: periodically summons a random alien
There are also a few very rare pre-named fish who can have one or more of the above fish properties as well as some unique
features.
List of pre-named fish:
- Rocky: voracious guppy, unique colouring, eats ultravores, drops bags of shells and occasionally disappears from tank
- Ludwig: musical carnivore, unique colouring, periodacally plays Beethoven
pieces and drops blue shells
- Johnny V: carnivore, eats pizza, changes colours, periodically swears he won't eat pizza again, drops blue shells
- Kilgore: ultravore, unique colouring, periodically playes Wagner pieces, drops
bags of shells
- Cookie: beetlemuncher, eats fish food, periodically feed fish who do not eat fish food
The number of pre-named fish allowed is one per tank with the exception of Cookie who can be in the tank with other pre-named
fish.
Bonus Adventure Mode
This mode replaces Adventure mode after Cyrax is defeated in Adventure Mode. In Bonus Adventure mode, the player is taken to a
shell collecting level after each level. In this mode, the fish cannot die of starvation (this is not true for Insaniquarium
Deluxe. In Bonus Adventure Mode, the fish can die of starvation just as in regular Adventure mode).
Sandbox Mode
This mode is unlocked after entering the Konami Code once the player obtained the Silver
trophy. If this is done right, it opens up a tank. Pressing keyboard keys will spawn fish, pets and aliens, with the exception of
Cyrax. The Silver Trophy is unlocked after the player has beaten Adventure Mode, bought the 4 pet extension limit and the 7 pet
Virtual Tank Limit.
Pets
There are 24 pets in the Deluxe version of Insaniquarium, four of which are bonus pets. In the original Java version of the
game there were only 10 pets (they are listed first below), with a random regular pet being unlocked each time a level was
completed. In the Deluxe version the pets are unlocked in the order given below. Brinkley, Nostradamus, Stanley, and Walter are
bonus pets and can be obtained only after earning enough shells.
- Stinky the Snail - Collects coins at the bottom of the tank. When an alien arrives, Stinky
will hide into his shell.
- Niko the Oyster - Produces pearls, which can be clicked on for
$250.
- Itchy the Swordfish - Fights aliens. Whenever an alien is present, Itchy's happy face will
go into a angry face.
- Prego the Momma Fish - Produces small guppies.
- Zorf the Seahorse - Produces free level-two fish food.
- Clyde the Jellyfish - Collects coins that are falling if he passes by them. Unlike Stinky,
Clyde can float in the water and possibly move faster.
- Vert the Skelefish - Drops gold coins as though he were a large guppy, but doesn't have to be fed.
- Rufus the Fiddler Crab - Fights aliens forced to the bottom of the tank.
- Meryl the Mermaid (appears in the main menu of the deluxe
version) - Causes all guppies to drop three coins in unison by singing her song.
- Wadsworth the Whale - Hides small and medium guppies during alien attacks.
- Seymour the Turtle - Slows down coins and fish food.
- Shrapnel the Robot Fish - Drops bombs worth $150, but these will kill fish on contact if not
collected.
- Gumbo the Angler - Lures guppies far away from aliens. Aliens can still eat fish if they
are let near Gumbo.
- Blip the Porpoise - Gives location of alien attacks, alien health, points out hungry fish
with an arrow, and unlocks all items for purchase.
- Rhubarb the Hermit Crab - Pinches fish away from the bottom of the tank.
- Nimbus the Manta Ray - Bounces coins and fish food to the top of the tank.
- Amp the Electric Eel - Electrocutes all of the guppies in the tank, killing them and
turning them into diamonds.
- Gash the Shark - Attacks aliens powerfully, but eats guppies, no matter the size. Gash is much
more powerful than Itchy the swordfish but Itchy doesn't need to eat fish.
- Angie the Angelfish - Revives dead fish as she passes by their corpses (ineffective
once the corpse has disappeared).
- Presto the Tadpole - Transforms into any other unlocked pet.
Bonus Pets
- Brinkley the Scuba-Diving Elephant - Eats fish food, and gives items for every three food items he eats, the items becoming
more and more valuable. This pet was first made available in the PDA version of the game.
- Nostradamus the Nosefish - Drops snot which gives the
player $1. He occasionally delays alien attacks with a sneeze as well. If a guppy eats the snot they will turn into Nostradamus.
Nostradamus is supposed to be the nose of Rutherford B. Hayes.
- Stanley the Startlingly Small Sea Serpent - Throws balls at aliens, doing decent damage
and destroying alien missile attacks.
- Walter the Penguin - Punches other pets, activating their powers. Can also be used to punch
fish, making them drop money. Does not work with Angie, Walter, Itchy, Rufus, Prego. Makes Presto revert back to its original
form.
Aliens
In addition to feeding fish, the player must protect the fish from aliens that occasionally enter the tank and attempt to eat
the fish. The deluxe version of the Insaniquarium contains eight different aliens, but in the original Java version there are
four alien types. The game will warn you, with a submarine alarm, that a certain type "alien signature" is detected, just before
their invasion.
The aliens include:
- Sylvester, a blue eyeless alien slightly resembling the aliens from the Alien quatrilogy.
- Balrog, an alien that looks like a lion/fish hybrid.
- Gus, a "baby-faced man-child" "Type G" alien that laughs hysterically (or Glutton). Can only be defeated by being fed fish
food repeatedly.
- Destructor, a 6-wheeled "Type D" robot-alien armed with a missile launcher that locks on to three random fish and fires
homing three missiles.
The deluxe version doubles the number of aliens to include:
- Ulysses, a grey cyclops "Type U" alien who throws fireballs and is incredibly slow. Fireballs can be deflected but will
bounce in another direction until the fireball hits the ground or Ulysses.
- PsychoSquid, an octopus-like "Type P", regains health when shot at while blue.
- Bilaterus, a 2-headed snake-like "Type II" alien that requires shooting both of the two heads.
- Mini Sylvester, a small version of Sylvester that only appears at the final stage.
- Cyrax the Evil Alien Mastermind, the "Final Boss of Doom" that spawns mini sylvesters.
Cheats
There are a few cheats for Insaniquarium.
- Turning up the time. This is used to make fish in the Virtual Tank grow up faster. Note, fish can get horribly
depressed.
- Typing zombie during game play makes fish look dead.
- Typing give in Main Menu allows Users to transfer shells between accounts. Note, this only works when both players have
completed the first tank in Adventure Mode.
- Typing space changes the background to a space theme
- Typing time allows the player to check how long they have played on the tank. Accurate to the seconds of a clock.
- Typing waves makes waves appear at the top of the tank.
- Typing bubbles makes bubbles appear.
Game Modifications and other fan-made work
Various modifications have been made to the game by fans, mostly to the graphics. Notable mods include Insaniqualien, by Evil
Bob, Phlip's Nostalgia mod, which replaces graphics with those from the original web version, and the Star Wars Mod by
thespaceinvader and ~Sylph~. Many replacement Fish songs also exist, as well as numerous fan-made games. Recently Dino has added
.gmks of his games. This content is available on Insaniquariumguide.com Though Fangames were deleted, and are now at Dino's
forum.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
