Chuck(G)
25k Member
I ran across a few samples of Adam diskettes the other day. That's one system that I don't see mentioned here--at one time, it was fairly popular. Anyone know the reason for the lack of interest?
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Whatever happened to the Coleco Adam?
- Thread starter Chuck(G)
- Start date
Chuck(G)
25k Member
I've got a letter inviting me to AdamCon along with a 1.44M 3.5" diskette that someone was peddling kit for. Apparently there were third-party add-ons.
Coleco did make floppy drives before quitting the market, they do exist.
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/coleco-adam/CIMG3305.JPG
One of the neighbor kids purchased a Coleco Adam just before they quit the market and then took it back for a refund at the store, it was a nice looking system.
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/coleco-adam/CIMG3305.JPG
One of the neighbor kids purchased a Coleco Adam just before they quit the market and then took it back for a refund at the store, it was a nice looking system.
I thought they were a neat idea but I'm not sure how practical they became. Essentially similar to turning your gaming system into a cheap computer just like that kit for Atari 2600 (never saw one but someone here mentioned it).
I'm honestly confused though, I've read conflicting comments on whether it requires a coleco and is just an expansion (what I think is true) vs a system by itself. I rarely see it bundled together and haven't done the proper research. lol even after reading the wikipedia page I'm still confused. Anyway, with the price they quoted of $525-$725 I would imagine that didn't help it's intro to the market.
I'm honestly confused though, I've read conflicting comments on whether it requires a coleco and is just an expansion (what I think is true) vs a system by itself. I rarely see it bundled together and haven't done the proper research. lol even after reading the wikipedia page I'm still confused. Anyway, with the price they quoted of $525-$725 I would imagine that didn't help it's intro to the market.
Druid6900
Veteran Member
Yeah, definately made floppy drives for the Adam. I have (most of) one.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
In answer to the Adam system question: there were two versions released. The first version was an add on to the Colecovision that turned it into a full-blown Adam. A short while later, the Adam was released as a stand-alone system with everything integrated into a single case. I seem to remember that there were some serious stability issues with the kit to convert the Colecovision to an Adam (initial releases), and that the news of this problem dragged sales down for some time. There were always problems with the Wafertape drives, which further damped sales. I read somewhere else that only about 250K Adam machines in all flavors were produced/sold.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
It's interesting that TDOS (a "clone" of CP/M) seemed to be preferred to real CP/M when disk drives were installed. Are there any other systems that used TDOS?
250K were sold? If so they should be easier to get then a Timex 2068 which sold a fraction of that.
Maybe I should look for an ADAM (figured they didnt sell so many units), but the floppy drives should be rare.
It would be neat to load all the Colecovision ROM games from a disk drive (saves space too).
Maybe I should look for an ADAM (figured they didnt sell so many units), but the floppy drives should be rare.
It would be neat to load all the Colecovision ROM games from a disk drive (saves space too).
Bill_Loguidice
Veteran Member
I have an extensive Adam collection, including a disk drive. They seem to pop up on eBay all the time, and for good prices. Most of the homebrew interest is in the ColecoVision these days, but there are still pockets of Adam fans out there. It was actually a very competitive 8-bit computer, just built rather poorly and hampered by several curious design decisions. If you want to imagine what the Adam's potential could have been, you only need to look to how the MSX specification evolved over the years, as the specs/foundation are very similar.