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Why no love for the Coleco ADAM?

Because everyone who puts their demo tape in before powering it on ends up with nothing to test? j/k
 
That is an amazing blog!

Steps:

1. Read the blog
2. Do other accompanying research
3. Record a podcast

I'm pretty sure I have mentioned the ADAM before - but I can't swear to it. In any event, great suggestion and you may be certain it's on the list.

- Earl
 
That is an amazing blog!

Steps:

1. Read the blog
2. Do other accompanying research
3. Record a podcast

I'm pretty sure I have mentioned the ADAM before - but I can't swear to it. In any event, great suggestion and you may be certain it's on the list.

- Earl

Thanks Earl for the kind words! I would love to do a podcast, but.. it's rather personal as to why I don't. Ah, you never know, maybe I'll change my mind.

Can't wait to hear the Retrobits podcast on the ADAM!
 
I never knew about the ADAM until about 4 years ago when I ran across one at a rummage sale for $25. I should have bought it, but I was in a hurry to get to work. When I got out and went to the sale... it was gone. I looked it up when I got home and found out all the info about it.
 
I always saw it as a glorified typewriter with a ColecoVision attached. I have never seen any real killer apps for it and the disk drives were always far too expensive to take seriously.
 
colecoadam.wordpress.com

colecoadam.wordpress.com

I always saw it as a glorified typewriter with a ColecoVision attached. I have never seen any real killer apps for it and the disk drives were always far too expensive to take seriously.

Well, check out my blog and you'll see that the Coleco ADAM was not a "glorified typewriter" but a fully capable computer. Being able to play ColecoVision games is a plus =)

http://colecoadam.wordpress.com

The Coleco ADAM blog
 
New blog post on the Coleco ADAM blog

New blog post on the Coleco ADAM blog

That is an amazing blog!

Steps:

1. Read the blog
2. Do other accompanying research
3. Record a podcast

I'm pretty sure I have mentioned the ADAM before - but I can't swear to it. In any event, great suggestion and you may be certain it's on the list.

- Earl

New blog post, regarding educational software for the Coleco ADAM: http://colecoadam.wordpress.com/
 
Compared to the Atari 800 series and C64 the Adam just didnt have a software library. The printer on the ADAM (that had the power supply for the whole system so you couldn't ditch it) was a slow and couldn't do graphics.
 
No programming language in ROM in an era when that was the norm; proprietary magnetic tapes where the drives were more often than not broken from the factory making it impossible to even load BASIC for many users...

... and let's not forget the unregulated power supply in the printer that can send out a EMP destroying any magnetic media within a foot and a half of it; Said power supply should never have passed FCC inspection regs; and wouldn't have without the rather massive payoff they paid for it...

Much less that you can't even turn the blasted thing on without the printer, since that idiotic unstable outdated power supply runs the entire machine. In terms of power regulation and supply design, the Adam makes classic 1970's S100 machines look good.

Just who said "let's just use a massive transformer and simple rectifier for the power, and then put it into the printer?"

Hell, buddy of mine actually commented during GoldenEye "Hey look, they put a Coleco Adam in orbit"
 
Maybe add in the Mattell Acquarius and the other lesser known game system crossover computers. Here is a good article from the day that I pre dates the Adam but is in the same class of consumer stuff. There were a lot of special interest groups that focused on these types of systems. A lot of the correspondence was about how to makes these systems more useful. Out of the box the Adam is limited, yes. Not really my thing personally.

http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/...national Winter Consumer Electronics Show.pdf
 
Really disappointed to see the negative comments. To those folks, let me say this:

1) The Coleco ADAM had a big software library (not sure where your facts are coming from).

2) Those problems with the electromagnetic surge and any other faults were fixed by the 2nd wave of ADAMs produced.

3) Programming language in ROM? The ADAM had a WORD PROCESSOR IN ROM! That sounds way more useful.

Btw, nice find billdeg!
 
3) Programming language in ROM? The ADAM had a WORD PROCESSOR IN ROM!

Coleco was ahead of the curve on this one, as in 1983, most home computers were used by kids for games and BASIC programming. The home market for word processing had not really developed yet, due to the significant extra expense for a printer. I know Coleco saw it as giving you a good deal by packaging the printer with the system, but for people who didn't need or want a printer, they saw it as an unnecessary expense and waste of desk space.
 
Coleco was ahead of the curve on this one, as in 1983, most home computers were used by kids for games and BASIC programming. The home market for word processing had not really developed yet, due to the significant extra expense for a printer. I know Coleco saw it as giving you a good deal by packaging the printer with the system, but for people who didn't need or want a printer, they saw it as an unnecessary expense and waste of desk space.

That's a good point, but Coleco was targeting the ADAM for educational purposes. It's funny, I must have been one of the few kids that was excited to have a printer; I was always typing stuff out on that machine gun sounding printer =)
 
Kids like dot matrix graphics printers back then, typing up letter quality reports is not exactly thrilling. I had a dot matrix printer connected to my C64 in the 80's but mostly just gamed on C64.
 
Kids like dot matrix graphics printers back then, typing up letter quality reports is not exactly thrilling. I had a dot matrix printer connected to my C64 in the 80's but mostly just gamed on C64.

Also remember that typing/word processing was still considered to be secretarial work in the '80s -- i.e. a woman's job. So call it sexist or old-fashioned, but a computer with a typewriter-style printer attached was not something a boy would've wanted to have back then, unless he was the type of boy who also wanted an Easy-Bake Oven. :)
 
Feminist here

Feminist here

Also remember that typing/word processing was still considered to be secretarial work in the '80s -- i.e. a woman's job. So call it sexist or old-fashioned, but a computer with a typewriter-style printer attached was not something a boy would've wanted to have back then, unless he was the type of boy who also wanted an Easy-Bake Oven. :)

Call me a feminist then! I love printing stuff out, even if it wasn't pictures.

Actually, as soon as I got the SmartFiler program, I was all about sorting and organizing my files, which carried over to things around the bedroom =)
 
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