THANK YOU for reviewing the Coleco ADAM. Enthusiasts understand ADAM had problems when released, but it really did have a LOT to offer when factory production problems cleared up. I wrote a full functionality Z80 Assembly Language Bulletin Board System for ADAM CP/M 2.2 in 1986 and today it can run with a Telnet Wimodem 232. We also have SD card adapters for better storage options.
We got one on clearance when I was a kid. I have fond memories of playing and working with the system. We never had any issues. We have the memory extension module aand a 300 baud modem. I remember my dad logging into bulleton boards. He even created his own auto dialer to find other computers. I miss it and wish I had one again. It had the most accurate version of the arcade of Donkey Kong fot the time on high speed tape. Also you could buy regular cassettes and drill holes at the top and they work just like the ones that Adam sold. The one program you was Logo programmable drawing software. Thank you for the upload.
I got luck. I got an Adam near launch and never had a problem. Data packs work, nothing failed. The only probably I did have was the printer shook so hard while printing that every so often, it would shake the power cord loose. Besides that, it was my main computer and served me well.
The Adam was my family's first home computer mainly because it was Christmas of 1985 and they were basically giving them away at $199. It was a great deal at that price, but the computer was immediately an orphan as soon as we hooked it up. We used it until early 1990 when we switched to our first IBM PC compatible. I'm a software engineer today, most likely because I started writing programs using SmartBasic in early 86.
My first computer at age 12, got it at Christmas, they got it from Zayers. Those were the days, turtle graphics. Lemonade Stand, Buck Rogers, Poppey, carnival, zaxxon, burger time, donkey kong, etc. The sound of the tape drive, hummmmmm.
The ADAMs printer was not only fixed font, but it was LOUD! The daisy wheel design meant there was a little electro-mechanical hammer behind the character when typing. TACK TACK TACK! Just sold my last ADAM about a year ago, everything worked.
I just missed the colecovision as it was released when i was born. When i first started to remember things, the colecovision was long gone. I did have a colecovision briefly for about 2 years a number of years ago. Loved the games for it
One major drawback to its daisy wheel printer was that it was LOUD as all hell, and not very fast. Clack-clack, clack-clack-clack!! Ziiiiiip! Clackity-clack-clack!! Any time I had to print something for school, I had to print it before 9pm and close the bedroom door - with myself outside the room! You had zero choices for fonts, just the standard typeface that it came with, exactly like a typewriter. But like the video says, it was perfectly crisp and dark - until the ink ribbon ran out (again, exactly like a typewriter).
Yes, that is true. It was also effective at good print output though. You could add other daisy wheels to change your font! Not the smoothest way to do so, but the best output I could afford at the time.
I have read many people sharing experiences of using their Adam computers & printers through college [even grad school] for writing papers when letter quality was a requirement vs dot matrix. Utility is in the eye of the user/application. Obsolescence only applies when something is no longer useful. One man's toy is another man's treasure.
I'm getting well educated on a computer I knew little about except for knowing it existed from the TV commercials. But my biggest education of all in this video is at 11:15 and learning that Ink-Jet printers came out in the 1980's. I never saw them until the mid 90s. I was using good old Dot Matrix printers with my Commodore 64. I wish I could get my hands on a Windows 11 compatible color dot matrix printer for old times fun of gearing those pins making that noise as it slowly prints out a color picture.
That magazine cover from February 1984 is surprising, but low cost inkjet? A co-worker bought an early HP inkjet printer and they were at least $500 if I remember correctly. It was a BIG DEAL that ADAM included a letter quality printer AND word processing software built-in. Other competing systems were bundled to compete with ADAM around the same pricing, but with inferior dot matrix type quality. As long as you didn't need graphics on paper, ADAM produced far more professional print output. My college professor would NOT accept dot matrix work in class.
When I transferred to private school for junior high in '87, the school's computer lab was full of TRS-80s and one Adam. The Adam was only ever used for gaming there as far as I could tell. The class was being taught basic BASIC, and if you finished your assignment, you could use the Adam as a sort of reward. And since my CPA dad used to take me into his office on some nights he'd have work to finish up and would often sit me in front of his IBM System 23 with a set of BASIC books, as well as programs from magazines that I'd input line by line for games like Lunar Lander, I already had enough of a head start on BASIC that I constantly wound up being first to finish. I only ever remember playing either Montezuma's Revenge (which no one in the class was very good at), and Spy Hunter. We had this delusion that Spy Hunter had a section where, if you got far enough, you'd switch to a boat on the water, and we were all _determined_ to get far enough to see it, dammit! Of course, that section wasn't in the Adam version, so we were on a fool's errand. But man, the memories.
Boardroom Conversation: "At least we have the Cabbage Patch dolls to fall back on ... Oh damn that fad died fast. I guess back to making kiddie pools."
I can vouch for the fact that my family bought two Adams both of which were defective. I wrote a letter to Electronic Games magazine about it that was published. I was a big Colecovision fan but we gave up and bought a Commodore 64 with which I was very happy.
I got a whole Adam system ,with Colecovision and big box of software and add ons at a yard sale in the 90's for $20 What an awesome find ! I had tons of fun with this,and at the time I hadn't seen anything like it.
My older brother was a huge Colecovision fan, but his experience with the Adamnn completely soured him that Christmas. If I remember correctly, he went through two of the Adam expansion add ons, then he finally tried to just buy the all in one Adam system. None of them worked. He ended up going out and buying the C64 immediately after, and the Colecovision eventually ended up in the closet. Was a great video game system while it lasted though. Loved playing Turbo with the driving controller.
I used the heck out of this for school papers. I also remember the word processor being a bit crashy, so you had to save extremely frequently. My unit had no hardware issues, and was used for about a year. I don't think I gamed on it at all.
MULTI-TASKING was a little-known feature of ADAM when competing systems couldn't offer it. ADAM has a Z80 CPU, but also 6801 microprocessors in each ADAMNet peripheral. You can literally print letter quality while main processing continues in software that supports that! This is immediately noticeable with the included Super Buck Rogers game as the NEXT game screen starts loading while gameplay continues on the current screen!
I remember reading all the computer magazines at the time, struggling between having my parents buy me an Atari 800XL, or an Adam. Even then all the problems were apparent, and I wisely went with the Atari. Was learning BASIC and 6502 machine language within weeks, cracking floppy disk protection code, and printing yards of code to analyze. Lead to a 30yr software engineering career. Thank you, Atari. Best decision I ever made.
I've seen people adapt hard drives and modems for use on upgraded and expanded ADAMs, running CP/M and using them for BBSs. Of course, we know the video chip is the same as in the TI 99/4a. Shelby at Tech Tangents made an adapted power supply for the Colecovision / ADAM so now the printer isn't even necessary.
I remember attending an "Alternative Computing Show" in London, I think at the very end of the 80's (Because I had an Atari 800xl and the gubbins). It was aimed at anything not an Amiga, ST or IBM. Now someone had an Adam there, I was struck by the very industrial look/feel of the machine. Most definitely a hefty, chunky and clunky boi (to use a modern term!). Also the first time I saw a Sam Coupe in the wild. I remember that I did score a bargain of a a 130XE quite cheap at the same show and some Atari 8 bit software that had been imported as it had not been released in the UK (or had but was long out of print).
It is interesting looking back at the idea of “turning your console into a computer” that was so popular in the early 80’s. No one really seems to have had the most coherent idea what that actually meant in practice, as there were kits to adapt machines as limited as the 2600. I think for Coleco alot of what they had intended with the Adam made absolute sense at the time. It’s just no one knew how the IBM clone market was about to explode the following year, pretty much locking down the business productivity side of things till……essentially now. I think there was still a market for a “mostly games” machine with a few productivity add ons. It’s just the Adam wasn’t enough of a graphical improvement to really compete with third Gen consoles like the NES or Commodore 64, and COLECO’s insistence on packaging everything together might have been the wrong call in hindsight (the certainly couldn’t compete on price with the C64). They ultimately chose cabbage patch dolls over computers as their long term investment when the market continued to crash in America through 1984.
There have been many add-on accessories for various consoles over the years that promised to turn them into a "full fledged" computer with keyboard, storage, etc, but I cannot think of a single one that was successful.
They make a reference to the Adam in an episode of The Simpson's. When Gil tries to sell one to the school and accidently revelling all the machines flaws
So, the Coleco Adam could have been much more successful if only a few minor details were changed. Very sad that nobody could have talked some sense into those in charge of Coleco.
Great stuff as always, K! This is a machine I wanted before it turned put to be faulty. Luckily the Atari 800 arrived under the X-mas tree, but the Coleco with all the stuff we liked about a computer was VERY ENTICING!
It'll be interesting to see what happened with Coleco's attempts to enter the microcomputer market; never do hear much about it, despite being a Brit where microcomputers boomed. 1:03 - That would have included me, as I had never heard of the Sord M5 before in my life. 4:35 - Recycling at it's finest. I actually feel so far that this is a more sensible decision than releasing an add-on, so it does make me wonder where things to wrong for the Adam. 5:52 - Loving the look of the game on-screen; the flat colours pop out so nicely. An gosh; going from console to microcomputer makes the Adam sound so expensive and yet you then say that folks were commenting on how cheap it was at the time. 10:39 - It's interesting to imagine business being done with a joystick and from here, it looks like the Adam controller's are just plain dials, which is even more amusing to picture. So strange that they would never think to advertise their cancelled console add-on turned microcomputer for it's gaming capabilities. 13:23 - Loving the styling of Dragon's Lair here. Again, the bold flat colour look is present and it works wonderfully. 19:42 - You would have thought all those earlier delays and rescheduling of the release date would have been because they noticed a problem slowed down, and fixed it. Sad to hear their system had so many faults. 22:21 - Okay, that's actually a really funny advert.
Seems a shame the video didn't mention the ability to run CP/M 2.2 from Coleco allowed ADAM a HUGE library of compatible software. The one biggest limitation was the video display used a scrolling 30-column display for virtual 80 columns. Most CP/M software worked best with the full 80-columns visible at once, so that was a compromise. Prior to the MS-DOS computing days, CP/M brought a compatibility standard that was not available on other computers of the era, with each very much locked into their own software world.
I did consider it, but I didn't really see it as a standout feature. In the UK there were quite a lot of computers around this time that could run CP/M. It seems that wasn't so true of the U.S.
I think some people underestimate how big the name CP/M was back then in the US. There was a LOT of buzz because Adam had CP/M. Not saying people would have used it or been happy with it, but it was a big selling point that it was an option. I always thought the biggest mistake was putting the power supply for the whole system in the printer. Yes, a letter quality printer was nice back then, but to have it be required to be always attached was a problem. I also think the "it will erase your DDP if you power it on!!!" has become a bit of an urban myth. I say a bit, because it was definitely something that "could" happen. But the story is repeated as tho it was going to happen every time, and that wasn't true. I was given an Adam in the early 2000's and didn't know about that warning. So I almost always powered it up with the DDP in there and never had a DDP get ruined. Now, I am sure it is something that could happen, hence the warnings. And it was a design fault. But it wasn't like it happened all the time. I did eventually trade away my Adam. Just found I wasn't using it as much as some of my other systems... And it was huge... Took up way to much space for something I rarely used...
@@mervynstent1578 I recall hearing that C128 CP/M was rather awkward and slow because it was not native Z80 CPU. Did you use it? How was it? ADAM CP/M was very nice except for the 30-columns visible in a virtual 80-column screen. I wrote a full Z80 Assembly BBS for ADAM before the Internet social media existed.
Correct on so many counts! The DDP did NOT always erase, but there was a POSSIBILITY of data damage. I made the mistake a few times turning it on/off with a tape but don't recall ever having THAT associated failure. Yes, the tape drive biggest weakness was tangles due to direction changes and high braking speeds. Native Z80 CP/M was a huge benefit for ADAM as you mentioned.
I guess I'm not too surprised they marketed the Adam as a tool for business rather than for gaming. Video games were still by and large considered toys for kids. Certainly wouldn't see my Grandparents playing an arcade machine or Video games back in the early 80's, no friggin' way. So they wanted advertising skewed towards businesses and professionals, the ones who were gonna PURCHASE an Adam computer.
It's worth noting that ALL of the major consoles in the USA promised home computer expansion capability, and most of them struggled to deliver. It was a particularly desperate situation for Mattel's Intellivision. Even in the 1970s, console makers in the USA had the feeling that customers wanted more than just a game system ... at least as a promised selling point. For all its flaws, the Adam may still be the best console to home computer upgrade ever. The only two decent console/computer hybrids originated from home computer architectures (coincidentally - both with Jay Miner chipsets originally intended for console hardware, before switching to home computer focus).
I'm not sure if it really counts because it ended up releasing on the same day as the SG-1000, but the Sega SC-3000 is a good computer, it just never really made it to the west other than Australasia. Almost identical on a hardware level to the Adam too.
@@TheLairdsLair Oh you're right. I completely forgot about the SC-3000. Never seen one yet in person, but I understand the capabilities and amount of good software available for it. It definitely counts as a console/computer hybrid, even if it's not a case where the console or computer variant came out first. Sort of like how Atari's 400/800 might have turned out if the went with a pure console for the low end variant.
Nice video! I had one of these as a kid. Just a few things I thought might be of interest: 1) I had Super Donkey Kong and Super Doney Kong Jr. on the high speed Data Pack format. They were great ... and now I wonder if they were rare (my Dad got these when he bought the computer through work when he owned a Home Hardware in Toronto, Canada). 2) It came with the SMARTBasic pack included in the original box. The Applesoft Basic compatibility was great (just couldn't do PEEK and POKE commands). Typed in a lot of Apple games from magazines back in the day. 3) I loved this thing when I was a kid. Wished I had it still now (my mom pitched it when I moved out in 3rd year University).
The Super DK and Super DK Jr as somewhat rare, but QUITE valuable when original arcade style box included. They played great and included the intermission animations too!
What can you say about a computer that sunk an entire company from electronic efforts (totally killing the ColecoVision in the process). Apart from a few years forward powered by Cabbage Patch Dolls, the Adam was more like an Adam Bomb. It didn't use the same tape drive as the proposed super game module as that was a string tape drive later packaged for Sinclair computers.
I never knew the tapes were a proprietary type, and that third party licensing thing, wow. Nintendo had a strict licensing policy too, but they had teeth and a dominant market to back it up, enough that many challenged it. I guess nobody bothered to challenge Coleco's; made it an easier decision on which micros (not) to develop for.
The tapes were high-speed, much faster than other home computer tape formats. Watching them function is reminiscent of the big reel-to-reel computer tapes as they would quickly seek, rewind, read, and write. Unfortunately sometimes they would apply brakes and direction changes that caused the tape to internally tangle inside the shell. The Fall of 1984 saw the release of the 160K disk drive, a big improvement for those who could apply a bit more investment in the system. There was a LOT of 3rd party software development as Coleco abandoned ADAM in January 1985. Innovative new hardware developed by others as well!
They weren't really that proprietary. They were the exact same physical dimensions as any regular audio cassette. They were functionally identical except the ADAM Digital Data packs had an extra hole in the shell that prevented you from inserting regular audio cassettes into the drive. If you drilled a hole in the right location of an audio cassette, you could in fact use it in an Adam data drive. Also, you could copy Adam data cassettes using any old school dual-cassette deck boom box. The only real thing proprietary about them was the speed and method at which they read/write digital data to the cassette.
I had it when I was a small kid. The printer was very loud. It saved on tape cassettes but if it got caught in the computer issues. Played games and used the word processor couldn't do much with it.
I never heard of it until your channel. I played a Colecovision, so obviously heard of that. A shame it failed. Best fact, NES could been branded Atari; which is what could have been.
The Coleco Adam was essentially the computer version of the ColecoVision but with the printer as the power supply, and combine that with a defective tape drive and low-budget build quality.
@@tomservo5007 Mine worked fine. There were some malfunctions possible that might tangle a tape though, so not perfect but I was happy with ADAM, and happier with upgrading to a diskette drive when able to do so!
I saw an Adam system, and peripherals in their boxes in curbside garbage about 10 years ago. I should have grabbed it. Coleco should have just made a Colecovision II, and leave the PC market to others.
I think they were trying to compete with Atari home computers. They were trying to be too innovative with those DDPs and putting the system's master power supply inside the printer. If they would have used more conventional cassette tapes like all the other home computers, put the BASIC interpreter in the system's ROM or on a cartridge and used a normal power brick, they would have likely had more success. They made a very decent keyboard for their computer, however.
I guess it was inevitable at the time that any criticism of Coleco's hardware was going to include "...and those controllers..." in some form. They are pretty bad but my nostalgia for the ColecoVision outweighs that fact. If you're not sitting there smothering that defiantly immovable flat joystick in your palm then you're not getting the full experience. ;-)
Funny you brought up the boston Phoenix paper. It's been out of print for about 15 years now and it stopped mentioning computers and turned into a early era ltgbq meeting paper. I remember reading one once on the subway to pass the time and to this day im still scarred by the things in that paper
As adam did made his mistake by taking a piece of an apple from eva wich she took fromthe forbidden tree of good & evil,and so did.coleco did make their mistake by coming up with a faulty adem computer and computer addon of it on the market,i guess the name adam seems to became just a cursed name,isn’t it🤣
I got a trash picked one of these things and rebuilt it. Such a cool machine. I keep wanting to ask...what is the digitized voice saying in your intro?
it's too bad Coleco distracted themselves with this Adam Computer, if only they put that same research/time into a ColecoVision 2 game Console. things may have been much different...and possibly even better!
Hey, is that jailbird Lori Loughlin in the Adam commercial at 22:19? I guess even back then she was skirting the law, as she asked a few times if what was being done on the Adam was "Legal"? LOL
@11:59 "Tiny cassette tapes"???... No they were not. They were the exact same physical dimensions as any regular audio cassette. They were functionally identical except the ADAM Digital Data packs had an extra hole in the shell that prevented you from inserting regular audio cassettes into the drive. If you drilled a hole in the right location of an audio cassette, you could in fact use it in an Adam data drive. Also, you could copy Adam data cassettes using any old school dual-cassette deck boom box.
I get a sense that whenever manufacturers decided on proprietary media, it was a way to reduce piracy. So, while on the face of it, it looks stupid, but in their minds it would have made total sense. Normal tapes and disks were notoriously easy to copy.
Very much so, but because they weren't so tried, tested and well developed different kinds of media never quite worked as well and were usually riddled with technical issues - also see Sinclair Micro Drives.
If the Adam links to colecovision does it need printer for power. Plus wasn't the Adam what Nintendo saw donkey Kong playing on which messed up the Nintendo PlayStation deal
You are getting confused with Atari seeing Donkey Kong on the Adam and cancelling the deal for the NES, which is mentioned in the video. I have no idea if it still needs the printer, I am guessing not.
Could you use VHS as data backup? my Mitsubishi HiFi had two Parallel ports under the right side of the case , Saying Ext Loop Test and Input , With Sony PCM-F1 you can use VHS as data backup. But that did cost alot even now they cost 450$
I own a lot of 1980s and 1990s 'vintage' computers from Atari, Commodore, Amiga, Tandy, Ti, etc. but the Adam has never interested me. No disrespect to the fans of the Adam, but with all of the Adam's hardware issue and quirks like having to plug it into the printer for power, it seems like owning one would be more frustrating than I am willing to deal with. Fortunately, emulation is an option for folks like me.
THANK YOU for reviewing the Coleco ADAM. Enthusiasts understand ADAM had problems when released, but it really did have a LOT to offer when factory production problems cleared up. I wrote a full functionality Z80 Assembly Language Bulletin Board System for ADAM CP/M 2.2 in 1986 and today it can run with a Telnet Wimodem 232. We also have SD card adapters for better storage options.
We got one on clearance when I was a kid. I have fond memories of playing and working with the system. We never had any issues. We have the memory extension module aand a 300 baud modem. I remember my dad logging into bulleton boards. He even created his own auto dialer to find other computers. I miss it and wish I had one again. It had the most accurate version of the arcade of Donkey Kong fot the time on high speed tape. Also you could buy regular cassettes and drill holes at the top and they work just like the ones that Adam sold. The one program you was Logo programmable drawing software. Thank you for the upload.
I got luck. I got an Adam near launch and never had a problem. Data packs work, nothing failed. The only probably I did have was the printer shook so hard while printing that every so often, it would shake the power cord loose. Besides that, it was my main computer and served me well.
The Adam was my family's first home computer mainly because it was Christmas of 1985 and they were basically giving them away at $199. It was a great deal at that price, but the computer was immediately an orphan as soon as we hooked it up. We used it until early 1990 when we switched to our first IBM PC compatible. I'm a software engineer today, most likely because I started writing programs using SmartBasic in early 86.
My first computer at age 12, got it at Christmas, they got it from Zayers. Those were the days, turtle graphics. Lemonade Stand, Buck Rogers, Poppey, carnival, zaxxon, burger time, donkey kong, etc. The sound of the tape drive, hummmmmm.
The ADAMs printer was not only fixed font, but it was LOUD! The daisy wheel design meant there was a little electro-mechanical hammer behind the character when typing. TACK TACK TACK! Just sold my last ADAM about a year ago, everything worked.
I just missed the colecovision as it was released when i was born. When i first started to remember things, the colecovision was long gone.
I did have a colecovision briefly for about 2 years a number of years ago. Loved the games for it
Dad bought one from Toys R Us. I inherited it, and amazingly enough it still works!
One major drawback to its daisy wheel printer was that it was LOUD as all hell, and not very fast. Clack-clack, clack-clack-clack!! Ziiiiiip! Clackity-clack-clack!! Any time I had to print something for school, I had to print it before 9pm and close the bedroom door - with myself outside the room! You had zero choices for fonts, just the standard typeface that it came with, exactly like a typewriter. But like the video says, it was perfectly crisp and dark - until the ink ribbon ran out (again, exactly like a typewriter).
Yes, that is true. It was also effective at good print output though. You could add other daisy wheels to change your font! Not the smoothest way to do so, but the best output I could afford at the time.
I have read many people sharing experiences of using their Adam computers & printers through college [even grad school] for writing papers when letter quality was a requirement vs dot matrix. Utility is in the eye of the user/application. Obsolescence only applies when something is no longer useful. One man's toy is another man's treasure.
I'm getting well educated on a computer I knew little about except for knowing it existed from the TV commercials. But my biggest education of all in this video is at 11:15 and learning that Ink-Jet printers came out in the 1980's. I never saw them until the mid 90s. I was using good old Dot Matrix printers with my Commodore 64. I wish I could get my hands on a Windows 11 compatible color dot matrix printer for old times fun of gearing those pins making that noise as it slowly prints out a color picture.
That magazine cover from February 1984 is surprising, but low cost inkjet? A co-worker bought an early HP inkjet printer and they were at least $500 if I remember correctly. It was a BIG DEAL that ADAM included a letter quality printer AND word processing software built-in. Other competing systems were bundled to compete with ADAM around the same pricing, but with inferior dot matrix type quality. As long as you didn't need graphics on paper, ADAM produced far more professional print output. My college professor would NOT accept dot matrix work in class.
When I transferred to private school for junior high in '87, the school's computer lab was full of TRS-80s and one Adam. The Adam was only ever used for gaming there as far as I could tell. The class was being taught basic BASIC, and if you finished your assignment, you could use the Adam as a sort of reward. And since my CPA dad used to take me into his office on some nights he'd have work to finish up and would often sit me in front of his IBM System 23 with a set of BASIC books, as well as programs from magazines that I'd input line by line for games like Lunar Lander, I already had enough of a head start on BASIC that I constantly wound up being first to finish. I only ever remember playing either Montezuma's Revenge (which no one in the class was very good at), and Spy Hunter. We had this delusion that Spy Hunter had a section where, if you got far enough, you'd switch to a boat on the water, and we were all _determined_ to get far enough to see it, dammit! Of course, that section wasn't in the Adam version, so we were on a fool's errand. But man, the memories.
There were so many fun TRS-80 games, though ... but if your computer lab TRS-80s didn't have any floppy drives you were out of luck.
Adam Spy Hunter has the boat.
Boardroom Conversation: "At least we have the Cabbage Patch dolls to fall back on ... Oh damn that fad died fast. I guess back to making kiddie pools."
I can vouch for the fact that my family bought two Adams both of which were defective. I wrote a letter to Electronic Games magazine about it that was published. I was a big Colecovision fan but we gave up and bought a Commodore 64 with which I was very happy.
I got a whole Adam system ,with Colecovision and big box of software and add ons at a yard sale in the 90's for $20
What an awesome find ! I had tons of fun with this,and at the time I hadn't seen anything like it.
Wow, that's a great score!
Deal of the century there! Look how those sell for up to $500 today in auctions.
@@TheLairdsLair My Amiga 1200 rig was $120 at a garage sale circa 2008. I live in the USA and they are pretty rare over here :-)
I'm sharing this video with Jennell Jaquays, the former director of game design at Coleco.
My older brother was a huge Colecovision fan, but his experience with the Adamnn completely soured him that Christmas. If I remember correctly, he went through two of the Adam expansion add ons, then he finally tried to just buy the all in one Adam system. None of them worked. He ended up going out and buying the C64 immediately after, and the Colecovision eventually ended up in the closet. Was a great video game system while it lasted though. Loved playing Turbo with the driving controller.
21:57 This Adam commercial was definitely inspired by the movie “War Games.”
The actress looked familiar - yup, it is Lori Loughlin from the "Full House" TV series
It most certainly is!
I used the heck out of this for school papers. I also remember the word processor being a bit crashy, so you had to save extremely frequently. My unit had no hardware issues, and was used for about a year. I don't think I gamed on it at all.
This was my first computer. 70% at a KB Toys clearance sale. Terrific as a word processor. Ultimately, I traded it for a C64.
MULTI-TASKING was a little-known feature of ADAM when competing systems couldn't offer it. ADAM has a Z80 CPU, but also 6801 microprocessors in each ADAMNet peripheral. You can literally print letter quality while main processing continues in software that supports that! This is immediately noticeable with the included Super Buck Rogers game as the NEXT game screen starts loading while gameplay continues on the current screen!
I remember reading all the computer magazines at the time, struggling between having my parents buy me an Atari 800XL, or an Adam. Even then all the problems were apparent, and I wisely went with the Atari. Was learning BASIC and 6502 machine language within weeks, cracking floppy disk protection code, and printing yards of code to analyze. Lead to a 30yr software engineering career. Thank you, Atari. Best decision I ever made.
My family had an Adam computer! I played Buck Rogers & drew pictures in BASIC.
I've seen people adapt hard drives and modems for use on upgraded and expanded ADAMs, running CP/M and using them for BBSs. Of course, we know the video chip is the same as in the TI 99/4a. Shelby at Tech Tangents made an adapted power supply for the Colecovision / ADAM so now the printer isn't even necessary.
Yes, and there are BETTER regulated ADAM power supplies available today that match the ADAM aesthetic.
@@underthestarsgamingandtech9973 *style
So nice to see this channel back
I remember attending an "Alternative Computing Show" in London, I think at the very end of the 80's (Because I had an Atari 800xl and the gubbins). It was aimed at anything not an Amiga, ST or IBM. Now someone had an Adam there, I was struck by the very industrial look/feel of the machine. Most definitely a hefty, chunky and clunky boi (to use a modern term!). Also the first time I saw a Sam Coupe in the wild. I remember that I did score a bargain of a a 130XE quite cheap at the same show and some Atari 8 bit software that had been imported as it had not been released in the UK (or had but was long out of print).
Anyway, ADAM still is an interesting machine! Very well made article just as usual!
It is interesting looking back at the idea of “turning your console into a computer” that was so popular in the early 80’s. No one really seems to have had the most coherent idea what that actually meant in practice, as there were kits to adapt machines as limited as the 2600.
I think for Coleco alot of what they had intended with the Adam made absolute sense at the time. It’s just no one knew how the IBM clone market was about to explode the following year, pretty much locking down the business productivity side of things till……essentially now. I think there was still a market for a “mostly games” machine with a few productivity add ons. It’s just the Adam wasn’t enough of a graphical improvement to really compete with third Gen consoles like the NES or Commodore 64, and COLECO’s insistence on packaging everything together might have been the wrong call in hindsight (the certainly couldn’t compete on price with the C64).
They ultimately chose cabbage patch dolls over computers as their long term investment when the market continued to crash in America through 1984.
The MSX at the same time didn't help 'new micros' trying to emerge either.
There have been many add-on accessories for various consoles over the years that promised to turn them into a "full fledged" computer with keyboard, storage, etc, but I cannot think of a single one that was successful.
@@JustWasted3HoursHere The Atari XEGS maybe? It didn't sell but was competent as both a games console and Atari 8-bit computer.
OMG... You triggered so many memories with that WHSmiths C15 cassette insert
I had loads of them! I think most home computer users in the UK did to be honest!
They make a reference to the Adam in an episode of The Simpson's. When Gil tries to sell one to the school and accidently revelling all the machines flaws
So, the Coleco Adam could have been much more successful if only a few minor details were changed. Very sad that nobody could have talked some sense into those in charge of Coleco.
Great stuff as always, K! This is a machine I wanted before it turned put to be faulty. Luckily the Atari 800 arrived under the X-mas tree, but the Coleco with all the stuff we liked about a computer was VERY ENTICING!
It'll be interesting to see what happened with Coleco's attempts to enter the microcomputer market; never do hear much about it, despite being a Brit where microcomputers boomed.
1:03 - That would have included me, as I had never heard of the Sord M5 before in my life.
4:35 - Recycling at it's finest. I actually feel so far that this is a more sensible decision than releasing an add-on, so it does make me wonder where things to wrong for the Adam.
5:52 - Loving the look of the game on-screen; the flat colours pop out so nicely. An gosh; going from console to microcomputer makes the Adam sound so expensive and yet you then say that folks were commenting on how cheap it was at the time.
10:39 - It's interesting to imagine business being done with a joystick and from here, it looks like the Adam controller's are just plain dials, which is even more amusing to picture. So strange that they would never think to advertise their cancelled console add-on turned microcomputer for it's gaming capabilities.
13:23 - Loving the styling of Dragon's Lair here. Again, the bold flat colour look is present and it works wonderfully.
19:42 - You would have thought all those earlier delays and rescheduling of the release date would have been because they noticed a problem slowed down, and fixed it. Sad to hear their system had so many faults.
22:21 - Okay, that's actually a really funny advert.
I live in the USA and would love to get my hands of a ZX Spectrum +2
Sord M5 was an interesting computer. It's a shame it never caught on, even in its native japan.
We called it the Adam Bomb back then.
Seems a shame the video didn't mention the ability to run CP/M 2.2 from Coleco allowed ADAM a HUGE library of compatible software. The one biggest limitation was the video display used a scrolling 30-column display for virtual 80 columns. Most CP/M software worked best with the full 80-columns visible at once, so that was a compromise. Prior to the MS-DOS computing days, CP/M brought a compatibility standard that was not available on other computers of the era, with each very much locked into their own software world.
I did consider it, but I didn't really see it as a standout feature. In the UK there were quite a lot of computers around this time that could run CP/M. It seems that wasn't so true of the U.S.
I wanted an ADAM when I was 7. I ended up getting an Apple IIe instead. I'm so glad I didn't get the ADAM.
I think some people underestimate how big the name CP/M was back then in the US.
There was a LOT of buzz because Adam had CP/M. Not saying people would have used it or been happy with it, but it was a big selling point that it was an option.
I always thought the biggest mistake was putting the power supply for the whole system in the printer. Yes, a letter quality printer was nice back then, but to have it be required to be always attached was a problem.
I also think the "it will erase your DDP if you power it on!!!" has become a bit of an urban myth.
I say a bit, because it was definitely something that "could" happen. But the story is repeated as tho it was going to happen every time, and that wasn't true. I was given an Adam in the early 2000's and didn't know about that warning. So I almost always powered it up with the DDP in there and never had a DDP get ruined.
Now, I am sure it is something that could happen, hence the warnings. And it was a design fault. But it wasn't like it happened all the time.
I did eventually trade away my Adam. Just found I wasn't using it as much as some of my other systems... And it was huge... Took up way to much space for something I rarely used...
I came to point out the power supply thing - I nearly bought an ADAM, but in hindsight I think I'm glad I didn't.
C= 128 had CP/M
@@mervynstent1578 I recall hearing that C128 CP/M was rather awkward and slow because it was not native Z80 CPU. Did you use it? How was it? ADAM CP/M was very nice except for the 30-columns visible in a virtual 80-column screen. I wrote a full Z80 Assembly BBS for ADAM before the Internet social media existed.
Correct on so many counts! The DDP did NOT always erase, but there was a POSSIBILITY of data damage. I made the mistake a few times turning it on/off with a tape but don't recall ever having THAT associated failure. Yes, the tape drive biggest weakness was tangles due to direction changes and high braking speeds. Native Z80 CP/M was a huge benefit for ADAM as you mentioned.
My first computer! Noisy, slow, and buggy, but I loved it.
I guess I'm not too surprised they marketed the Adam as a tool for business rather than for gaming. Video games were still by and large considered toys for kids. Certainly wouldn't see my Grandparents playing an arcade machine or Video games back in the early 80's, no friggin' way. So they wanted advertising skewed towards businesses and professionals, the ones who were gonna PURCHASE an Adam computer.
It's worth noting that ALL of the major consoles in the USA promised home computer expansion capability, and most of them struggled to deliver. It was a particularly desperate situation for Mattel's Intellivision. Even in the 1970s, console makers in the USA had the feeling that customers wanted more than just a game system ... at least as a promised selling point.
For all its flaws, the Adam may still be the best console to home computer upgrade ever. The only two decent console/computer hybrids originated from home computer architectures (coincidentally - both with Jay Miner chipsets originally intended for console hardware, before switching to home computer focus).
I'm not sure if it really counts because it ended up releasing on the same day as the SG-1000, but the Sega SC-3000 is a good computer, it just never really made it to the west other than Australasia. Almost identical on a hardware level to the Adam too.
@@TheLairdsLair Oh you're right. I completely forgot about the SC-3000. Never seen one yet in person, but I understand the capabilities and amount of good software available for it.
It definitely counts as a console/computer hybrid, even if it's not a case where the console or computer variant came out first. Sort of like how Atari's 400/800 might have turned out if the went with a pure console for the low end variant.
Nice video! I had one of these as a kid. Just a few things I thought might be of interest:
1) I had Super Donkey Kong and Super Doney Kong Jr. on the high speed Data Pack format. They were great ... and now I wonder if they were rare (my Dad got these when he bought the computer through work when he owned a Home Hardware in Toronto, Canada).
2) It came with the SMARTBasic pack included in the original box. The Applesoft Basic compatibility was great (just couldn't do PEEK and POKE commands). Typed in a lot of Apple games from magazines back in the day.
3) I loved this thing when I was a kid. Wished I had it still now (my mom pitched it when I moved out in 3rd year University).
The Super DK and Super DK Jr as somewhat rare, but QUITE valuable when original arcade style box included. They played great and included the intermission animations too!
so the Adam computer was what Mathew Broderick started WW3 with in Wargames?
What can you say about a computer that sunk an entire company from electronic efforts (totally killing the ColecoVision in the process). Apart from a few years forward powered by Cabbage Patch Dolls, the Adam was more like an Adam Bomb. It didn't use the same tape drive as the proposed super game module as that was a string tape drive later packaged for Sinclair computers.
The prototype version of the Adam did from what I understand, it was changed for the final retail version.
Ha ha ha! 🐉💪You have Trogdor the Burninator as a patron! 🏠⭐️🏃♂️🥊
Interesting video. It seems that every opportunity they had to make the wrong decision, they did.
I never knew the tapes were a proprietary type, and that third party licensing thing, wow. Nintendo had a strict licensing policy too, but they had teeth and a dominant market to back it up, enough that many challenged it. I guess nobody bothered to challenge Coleco's; made it an easier decision on which micros (not) to develop for.
The tapes were high-speed, much faster than other home computer tape formats. Watching them function is reminiscent of the big reel-to-reel computer tapes as they would quickly seek, rewind, read, and write. Unfortunately sometimes they would apply brakes and direction changes that caused the tape to internally tangle inside the shell. The Fall of 1984 saw the release of the 160K disk drive, a big improvement for those who could apply a bit more investment in the system. There was a LOT of 3rd party software development as Coleco abandoned ADAM in January 1985. Innovative new hardware developed by others as well!
They weren't really that proprietary. They were the exact same physical dimensions as any regular audio cassette. They were functionally identical except the ADAM Digital Data packs had an extra hole in the shell that prevented you from inserting regular audio cassettes into the drive. If you drilled a hole in the right location of an audio cassette, you could in fact use it in an Adam data drive. Also, you could copy Adam data cassettes using any old school dual-cassette deck boom box. The only real thing proprietary about them was the speed and method at which they read/write digital data to the cassette.
I wonder how many kids tried getting bad grades to get a computer like the kid in the commercial and got the belt instead.
I had it when I was a small kid. The printer was very loud. It saved on tape cassettes but if it got caught in the computer issues. Played games and used the word processor couldn't do much with it.
I never heard of it until your channel. I played a Colecovision, so obviously heard of that. A shame it failed. Best fact, NES could been branded Atari; which is what could have been.
Make sure that you get rustproofing for the Coleco.
The commercial is derived from "War Games"! -cool! :)
The Coleco Adam was essentially the computer version of the ColecoVision but with the printer as the power supply, and combine that with a defective tape drive and low-budget build quality.
"defective tape drive ", when I had it, the tape drive never gave out
@@tomservo5007 Mine worked fine. There were some malfunctions possible that might tangle a tape though, so not perfect but I was happy with ADAM, and happier with upgrading to a diskette drive when able to do so!
I saw an Adam system, and peripherals in their boxes in curbside garbage about 10 years ago. I should have grabbed it.
Coleco should have just made a Colecovision II, and leave the PC market to others.
I think they were trying to compete with Atari home computers. They were trying to be too innovative with those DDPs and putting the system's master power supply inside the printer. If they would have used more conventional cassette tapes like all the other home computers, put the BASIC interpreter in the system's ROM or on a cartridge and used a normal power brick, they would have likely had more success. They made a very decent keyboard for their computer, however.
I guess it was inevitable at the time that any criticism of Coleco's hardware was going to include "...and those controllers..." in some form. They are pretty bad but my nostalgia for the ColecoVision outweighs that fact. If you're not sitting there smothering that defiantly immovable flat joystick in your palm then you're not getting the full experience. ;-)
Funny you brought up the boston Phoenix paper. It's been out of print for about 15 years now and it stopped mentioning computers and turned into a early era ltgbq meeting paper. I remember reading one once on the subway to pass the time and to this day im still scarred by the things in that paper
As adam did made his mistake by taking a piece of an apple from eva wich she took fromthe forbidden tree of good & evil,and so did.coleco did make their mistake by coming up with a faulty adem computer and computer addon of it on the market,i guess the name adam seems to became just a cursed name,isn’t it🤣
1:22 heh heh you said beat off
5:36 was that 1987 price accurate saying $100 for the whole system
Yep, that's when they were on clearance. I've seen some people say they went even cheaper than that.
I have 2 adams. 300 baud modem. how do i get my smart basic programs to pc for preservation?
I got a trash picked one of these things and rebuilt it. Such a cool machine. I keep wanting to ask...what is the digitized voice saying in your intro?
oh and I just made an Antarctic Adventure Cart for my msx this morning. Odd coincidence.
"Welcome STUN Runner" from the Atari Lynx port of the arcade game.
@@TheLairdsLair Thank you so much! I'll have to play it now.
Amazing game!
I have the add on to the game console. It all works?! Just need to carve out a space yo use it in the house
The most amazing fact about the Adam to me is that anyone ever looked at it as a good purchase option.
it's too bad Coleco distracted themselves with this Adam Computer, if only they put that same research/time into a ColecoVision 2 game Console. things may have been much different...and possibly even better!
Indeed, they planned a ColecoVision II but cancelled it to focus on the Adam, I did a video on it a while back, which is linked in the description.
@@TheLairdsLair thanks, , interesting, will check it out, I was actually playing ColecoVision games on my modded Wii last night, FunTimes!!
Hey, is that jailbird Lori Loughlin in the Adam commercial at 22:19? I guess even back then she was skirting the law, as she asked a few times if what was being done on the Adam was "Legal"? LOL
Yes, it is. Later in life she learned to stop asking so many questions....
21:58 That's Lori Loughlin from Full House.
Yep
@11:59 "Tiny cassette tapes"???... No they were not. They were the exact same physical dimensions as any regular audio cassette. They were functionally identical except the ADAM Digital Data packs had an extra hole in the shell that prevented you from inserting regular audio cassettes into the drive. If you drilled a hole in the right location of an audio cassette, you could in fact use it in an Adam data drive. Also, you could copy Adam data cassettes using any old school dual-cassette deck boom box.
That's interesting to learn
That kind of crap, trying to proprietize an open standard, is what's known as 'A Dick Move', or 'ADiM'.😁
I get a sense that whenever manufacturers decided on proprietary media, it was a way to reduce piracy. So, while on the face of it, it looks stupid, but in their minds it would have made total sense. Normal tapes and disks were notoriously easy to copy.
Very much so, but because they weren't so tried, tested and well developed different kinds of media never quite worked as well and were usually riddled with technical issues - also see Sinclair Micro Drives.
Young me wanted an Adam so bad... Old me knows young me was an idiot 😜
If the Adam links to colecovision does it need printer for power. Plus wasn't the Adam what Nintendo saw donkey Kong playing on which messed up the Nintendo PlayStation deal
You are getting confused with Atari seeing Donkey Kong on the Adam and cancelling the deal for the NES, which is mentioned in the video.
I have no idea if it still needs the printer, I am guessing not.
Could you use VHS as data backup? my Mitsubishi HiFi had two Parallel ports under the right side of the case , Saying Ext Loop Test and Input , With Sony PCM-F1 you can use VHS as data backup. But that did cost alot even now they cost 450$
You can yes, there were a few consoles that used VHS tapes:
th-cam.com/video/c5UfgZ76q_o/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=TheLaird%27sLair
I'll conceived, rushed boat anchor that never worked.
Don't be so hard on yourself..
I own a lot of 1980s and 1990s 'vintage' computers from Atari, Commodore, Amiga, Tandy, Ti, etc. but the Adam has never interested me. No disrespect to the fans of the Adam, but with all of the Adam's hardware issue and quirks like having to plug it into the printer for power, it seems like owning one would be more frustrating than I am willing to deal with. Fortunately, emulation is an option for folks like me.
Pretty sure that chick from the commercial is becky from full house.
Correct!
Regret selling my Coleco Adam.
Davey's friend Billy sounds like a class creep. Davey's doing okay. Stick it to the man, Davey! 🤘🤘🤘
Hahahaha, yeah, f**k Billy, what a swot!
I feel bad for all the people in the comments who have fond memories of this machine, because that means they probably didn't have a Commodore 64. 😝
1st comment, excellent video sir
I had this thing back when it came out. What a pile of crap lol