I had a great time with the Adam as a kid. My brother got one on discount from KB Toys and I spent a lot of hours on that thing. Getting Dragon's Lair on cassette was an exciting time and I really enjoyed the game. Buck Rodgers was the pack-in game and it was a lot of fun in itself. Great memories!
I had this same computer Adam Coleco you are shown. Mine had zero issues,I got this Adam Coleco Computer for Christmas 1985 & worked perfectly until I sold it in 1991. Damn I miss mine!!
hi guys ! :) im 49 and i had the coleco adam when i was 10 , my father bought me this and i learned to program the softwares called :Basic ,and LOGO. GOod memories ! :)
Same here,I used the Adam Coleco for other things besides games-which I loved of course-like Logo,Basic & some of learning software that Coleco sold then.
Lucky you! I owned a ColecoVision at 10, and nagged my parents for an Adam big time! but in italian currency would have been a fortune... I scored a Sega SC3000 a bit later though... not so bad :)
I got an ADAM for xmas 1983. Used to play Buck Rodgers and Family Feud a lot. Donkey Kong too. Also practiced BASIC on it too, but I was only 7 at the time, so I didn't get it to do much other than make an ASCII rocket. Still had fond memories of it though. Once I got an NES in 1986 my mom sold my ADAM and Coleco against my wishes. It's a shame, because now they'd be worth a lot.
I was absolutely blown-away by the professionalism of the host, Aaron, as well as the content of the video. I never had an Adam, however I was the owner of a Colecovision that I got at Christmas of 1982. Only three of my friends in the community had a Colecovision, so we shared games. All of us who played it together have a unique memory of that experience. I would LOVE to see the museum. Dr. Peter James Smith, Ed.D.
I also got a ColecoVision at Christmas 1982 and never got the Adam, though I remember really wanting one for a few months. I had a ton of friends who had the Atari 2600, but only had two friends with a ColecoVision as well. I also knew two kids who had Intellivision and I remember going to their houses to play "Frogs and Flies".
I drove my roommate in college a little nuts with my dot matrix printer, when I'd print out my papers for class (I had an Atari). That thing was noisy, too. There were hoods you could put over a printer to make it quiet, but I didn't have one. :(
I remember seeing that box on the shelf in a Zayre's. I always wondered about it as it wasn't something I could afford at the time. Thanks for sharing it.
I remember being mesmerized by an Adam box in a store. It was really clever of them to make the system default to the word processor instead of BASIC - really made sense in terms of selling the system to newcomers and the target practical-minded family buyers.
@@IrishCarney You are one of the few who recognize the value in owning a word processor available at boot along with a letter quality (although noisy) daisy-wheel printer. I agree completely.
Thank you for the walk down memory lane....lotsa great memories for me about this. My Uncle Ken bought one of those for each of his siblings & their family for Christmas, somewhere around their release year...(5 total including himself). He was a disabled Vet that had MS & no kids, so he had plenty of money, but nobody to really spend it on. So that year, He ordered them from over seas, along with A TON of games, so he could surprise all of us ON Xmas day @ grandma & grampa's....and boy were we! It came with the Printer, Unit, 2 Remotes with the number pad, & 2 other black remotes that had a pistol style grip with 4 triggers (one for each finger, each trigger a different color) a black curved shield style front, a Red knob joystick & number pad on top. He kept most of the coleco cartridge games, but made us all copies of EVERY game. Yep...all of em were on those cassettes. I never even met anyone else who had one'a these! I was born in '80, so needless to say, I was the envy of the kids in my neighborhood. Here's the games I remember having & playing.... *Buck Rodgers, *Spy Hunter, *B.C.'s Quest, *B.C.s Quest 2-Grogs Revenge, *Frogger, *Popeye, *Donkey Kong, *Donkey Kong Junior, *Tapper, *Jumpman Junior, *Smurfs, *Congo Bongo, and SEVERAL others that I can't remember. My Mom apparently either threw it all out, or gave it away, I can't remember. But I remember askin about it years & years ago, & she said we didn't have it anymore. 😫😭 I do remember VERY clearly though, that all of ours worked REALLY well, & never had ANY issues. So I was surprised to hear that alot of them didn't work great. I can't even begin to imagine what all of that would've been valued at today!
Watching your video, you commented on the digital tape drive continuing to load portions of Super Buck Rogers in real-time while already playing the game. This impressed me a LOT when I noticed it on my 1985 closeout purchase of ADAM. Other home computers of the time could not do this type of multitasking. It was possible on ADAM thanks to each peripheral device containing their own microprocessor, a Motorola 6801. The 6801s have their own onboard ROM customized for each peripheral: keyboard, data pack drive, printer, and floppy disk drive. There is a master 6801 onboard the ADAM logic board. THANKS for the video. Very enjoyable!
It likely wasn’t multitasking where the CPU was switching between programs, but rather that it had hardware that could do some things without involving the CPU much if at all. Maybe the tape controller could do things like seek to a particular segment on the tape, or load tape data into RAM, without the CPU needing to get involved.
Adam fan here, the first computer our family owned circa 84-85, after first price drops. Like many other Comments here, I had no defects, failures with mine. I wonder if a large portion of returns was just buyers remorse and wsnting the money back, or changing their mind for a c64 or other computer, or mistaking normal operation for a problem, like daisy wheel noise or tape speed, etc. At the time of release and decades after, you were laughed at by fellow non Adam computer users- pc, c64, atari, etc. But as you observe here, the base unit with expansion slots was well built with a lot of advanced tech for the cost and time period. The random access tape drives were a good idea pre 1985 vs the cost of disk drives at the time. Yes, all printers were loud in those days, daisy wheel or dot matrix. Cool thing about the daisy wheel, it used standard wheels at any office supply store or mail order. I picked up a bunch of wheels on clearance for a few dollars, giving me many fonts to choose from, a cool option pre 1985 before price drops on 24 pin dot matrix printers happened 86-87.
Interesting. One port that was missed was the "AdamLink" port. It's on the side, is another phone jack, and could hook the Adam up to a floppy drive and other serial type devices. The Adam I had also had 80k of memory and a 2400 baud modem that went into the slots in the top. Worked well to be honest, I even ran CP/M on it with the floppy drive....
Around 1992-93, we bought a full-size ADAM computer at a yard sale being run by who we think was a former employee of the company (I'm an hour from Amsterdam, NY where system and game were produced). We had 12 Copies EACH of the Buck Rogers Super Game and SmartBASIC, as well as the complete 32 programs library (you had to code the software yourself and then record it on the actual program cassettes) The following summer my friends from Grammer school gave me a whole bag of ColecoVision games and that was my first time discovering that system as well. We had the ADAMLink modem which my dad was able to dial into his work systems. The company caught wind of it but when my dad told them he was testing out whether the computer could actually get in (my dad was no computer genius in any way), they found it pretty funny and didnt get in trouble 😂 Even though we were using a computer about a decade past it's prime, it got a lot of use and loved the ADAM to this day.
I had a ColecoVision Adam in the 80s in my teens. Worked for 6 months and then crapped out! Yep faulty power supplies that were in the printer were notorious for this computer. When I bought it, the box was freaking huge.
I recently acquired one of these. It had a bad video chip. I was able to put a new one in and I'm back in business. It really is a cool computer system. Luckily it came with a couple ColecoVision cartridges and got to try those out.
Funny enough, I also recently acquired an Adam computer. I find myself really liking the aesthetics, and the printer is a beast. Sure, it's slow and loud, but it's very good quality and it's just cool to use.
I can still hear the tape drive sound whenever I think about the ADAM. It went something like this, repeated until the game or what have you finally loaded: rrr rrr rrr REEEE rrr rrr rrr REEEE rrr rrr rr REEEE rrr rrr rrr (REEEE is when it would fast forward or rewind, whichever direction it was)
This was also my first computer and at the time I was a teenager with a paper route, and I remember I kept all of my customers logged on to this computer so that I had a running list Of who I needed to deliver too. Mine worked perfect
I owned the full sized version. The original game pads were the same beige color of the computer, printer, keyboard. You could insert graphical overlays over the keypad that were unique to the game or software you were running that also used those controllers. The self-centering controller knob could also be used as a mouse. I don't recall if that is how it was used. On the top left and right sides of the printer are two holes and slots for mounting the tractor feed accessories. Thus allowing you to use fan folded continuous feed paper. A standard method of printing for its day. Our family never used that option. The capabilities of the computer/gaming console were pretty cool. Especially the expansion opportunities. There were cards for the modem, more RAM, connecting the second data drive. Mom's intent was to bring computers into the home where it could benefit her kids and give her something to use to keep track of her files, stories, finances in a more streamlined manner. She'd worked on commercial computers at work. She immediately recognized the benefits that a home or personal computer can provide to children. As true as it is today that kids are quick to master computers it was also true of my generation when all of this micro computing stuff was brand new to everybody.
Hopefully you’ve checked out our two other ADAM videos! Its a fun system and I anticipate we will be doing more videos on it in the future…thanks for watching!
I have the original ADAM in the original box. The box I have is almost mint (no holes). Also, I have the original SHIPPING box that the ADAM came in! VERY hard to find. Unfortunately, the shipping box is flaking away. Every time I move it some pieces fall off. But at least the ADAM box itself is nice.
I also have the original outer shipping box for mine, except mine is the rarest of them all. It is likely the only one left on earth that has NEVER been used, and even the plastic wrap has never been removed from the manuals. I was told it's worth around $20k
You made a comment that the tape is still running when the game starts. It's actually loading the next level into RAM. I know this because I decided to take the tape out before it happened one time to test it out. It went to a blank screen with the ship only. You could fire and maneuver but the game was over at that point. It was pretty neat to see that Adam had rudimentary multitasking capabilities way back then.
There’s another comment about how each peripheral had its own microcontroller. That means they could do things independently of the main CPU. Maybe stuff like seeking the tape to a specific segment and loading that into RAM. That’s not multitasking the way it’s normally thought of, where the CPU is running multiple programs at once.
Thankyou . I do enjoy these videos. I remember playing Atari and very old system one that was similar to colecovision and I have always wondered what it was, I remember a game called bonk with a baby that would attack with its teeth
Thank you. I was a big fan of Coleco in my early teenage. The controller should be held with the entire hand, not with the thumb, and the buttons pressed with the other hand, the one holding. It makes much more sense. Thank you for sharing this, I never had a chance to see an Adam in action, but I longed for it when I was 11...
At 15:13 you use the hammer to knock out all the gold pins. Then the layers collapse causing the monkey to have a fit, (possibly take the princess), and leave to another level. I say possibly take the princess because I don't remember that part of the game. Fly low to the ground between the towers to get past them. When you're fighting the flying saucers do the same but try to stay away from the middle of the screen. Your hand may tense up with extended use of the controller. I sure did hurt mine after a few hours of playing. I never saw the arcade game. But I have fond memories of playing it on the Adam.
I have never seen this microcomputer in France but it is this microcomputer which had the particularity that its central unit was powered by the printer, so it was directly sold with its printer in the complete package microcomputer and printer or the size of the box it seems to me no ?
Back then, Nintendo wasn't a console maker. They were just another arcade manufacture that licensed out their games to other console makers. So it wasn't a strange arrangement.
I loved this computer… I still have the software tapes somewhere… I was a stupid kid and plugged a phone into it and broke the prongs inside and could t use it anymore…I was devastated.. it was bought at cvs drugstore lol
Shelby at Tech Tangents came up with an ADAM power supply replacement which makes the printer unnecessary. Those expansion slots I have seen used for hard drives and serial interfaces for modems. I've seen hobbyists expand the ADAM to run CP/M and operate BBS systems on them. The NABU is also somewhat compatible with the Colecovision and shares similar hardware with the Spectravideo and Japanese MSX computers. It's practically possible to code hack games between the various systems and make them run. At least I've seen proof of concept with the NABU. It has an interesting history.
So loud I made a cover for it out of the clear cover from an old stereo turntable. I also put foam padding inside the printer. Probably cut the noise by at least half.
Didn't the Iomega Zip Drive kind of work in the same fashion, but with custom cassetes? The use of regular tapes for digital logic was also at the core of the ADAT audio recording system, if I remember correctly, 44khz 16bit... quite impressive for the late 80s...
I bought a Coleco Adam to add on to my Colecovision console. I returned it and bought an Apple II clone. I wish I had kept it. I still have (and use) my Colecovision games console.
The data pack version of Donkey Kong has more cut scenes from the arcade version .. so in a way they were able to do the "Super Game Module" promised for the colecovision in the Adam.
Lived in a small town in the country when this came out. The neighbors bought one. They barely touched it. Funny how Lori in the commercial was so concerned about it being legal 🤦♂️
we had 2 of these, there was a hack to fix something in the power supply with a capacitor or resister (been decades) there was a way to connect a modem a uber high end option back then,,
I wanted to buy one of the returned systems but we had to return them to Coleco even if there wasn't an obvious problem. I got my Atari 800 as a return which I bought off Sears at a discount. I wish I still had the 800. I also wish I had collected the Coleco at the time.
When they were getting liscences for games on the colecovision, they went straight to Nintendo of America and saw a Donkey Kong machine in action and made a deal for the home console rights. Keep in mind that Nintendo was still mainly a toy company at this time and made only a couple arcade games, they wouldn't fully pivot to home consoles for another two to three years and they still didn't have a hold on us distribution for another two years after that
Adam really is a fun system, it's a shame it was rushed to market because they were one of the first systems to include a working integrated stringy floppy and 64K. It had a lot of expandability. I bought one a few years ago without a printer, added a modern switched power supply from Amazon and a fujinet myself and it works great vs the hot, bulky linear power supply that was originally included. The printer is the most basic possible .. everything is bit banged with timing in software but it did work I guess. Memory console because of the add on for the colecovision I guess.
Absolutely. Coleco shipped a mostly Applesoft-compatible version called SmartBASIC. It loaded from tape, which could be advantageous since you could patch the SmartBASIC bugs. There are additional flavors of BASIC available too including Microsoft BASIC for CP/M.
"a letter-quality printer, which was something that other companies had not offered" Atari released a letter-quality printer the same year the Adam came out, the 1027. It wasn't a daisywheel, but it was an impact printer that rotated a drum, had a hammer behind it, that would "punch out" characters onto the paper. It was a traction-feed printer, so it could only print one page at a time. Huh, Lori Loughlin. The woman who got in the news when she was charged with fraud getting her daughter into college. Wow. :) Wow. The Adam had a disk drive?? I hadn't heard of that.
I used to have one of these, I'm surprised you call the smaller system a 'small formfactor version' as when pugged into the Coleco it has probably the largest foot print of any computer once you have the printer and monitor on your desk? I proffered the all in one version due to the space improvement and the colour coded joystick that acts like a numeric keypad. Overall though a neigh on useless system but with a nice looking keyboard.
The printer would not take tractor feed paper, unless you modified the printer. My family had an Adam when I was a kid. The Adam was as good if not better than its competitors at the time. The tape drive was faster than Commodore's disk drive at the time. No other computer had a word processor in ROM. The only things I remember not liking about it, the printer was so LOUD, I had to leave the room while it was printing. The joystick and fire buttons wer very stiff and didn't move much, so your hand would get tired playing some games.
There is a surprising number of these Coleco ADAM machines still around and working 40 years later, in 2023. New hardware is made by independent vendors too! Anyone who has one should consider joining the FaceBook group where new products and legacy support can be found.
They tried, sending a second tape drive to replace the malfunctioning original. That's probably where a lot of two-drive units come from. In retrospect, the Super game module by itself would have worked. For the Colecovision players who wanted that extra bit of game. meanwhile.. Sega looks at the convoluted stack of console parts, says, watch this..
I watched all your ADAM vidz but came back to this one since it was first in "series". FIRST- You HATE THE CONTROLLER???? That controller was the best on the market for any system at the time. Even the NES controller, though came close, did not beat the solid joystick keypad combo of the ColecoVision stock controller. It was so popular that there came a time where people were copying their design (ie Atari 5200) and aftermarket tools to turn the Intellivision (all variations) pad into a stick of sorts. But still none compared. But if you didn't like the ColecoVision stock controller you could buy the ColecoVision Super Action Controller which was EVEN BETTER! It was the stock controller on Steroids with a dash of cocaine it was AWESOME!!! (Google is your friend) SECOND- You never explained in this video or the others you have posted what the WILDCARD key does. Since watching your video and seemingly lack of research skills into talking about a device you featuree I will happily enlighten you. (Are you sure you are a serious collector/curator???) The WILDCARD button alot of young folks, me included (I was 11) thought it was going to be a built-in game. Similar Fairchild Channel F having built-in games. WILDCARD implied a card game. Well I had an ADAM. And I wasn't surprised yours worked at all. These are tanks just like Commodores (all including Amigas). Anyway I got mine for Christmas and when I set it up that was my first task to check that out (who reads manuals GET ME TO THE GAME!!!!!!!) It isn't a game at all but basically a "hotkey" of sorts. That was used with other keys would enable a command depending on what program like word processing or when programming. BoringCARD is what it should be named. Anyway that is all I got to say about the ADAM and my takeaway from your vids. One last thing though. Coleco ADAMS were not prone to as many defects as you mentioned. My theory (and it's a agood solid one) is that people that could afford the low price point of an "ALL-IN-ONE" like COLECO marketed ADAM as, just really didn't understand what they were buying. Don't mistake me I am not saying people were to dumb to understand all the nuances that we today would be like "meh" was consider Blue SCREENS OF DEATH to them. Buck Rogers glitched on you. That was common with dirty "cassettes" Those things were actually as fragile as 5 1/4 floppies. If not more so cause it literally (at the time) to make "backups" (winkwink) of your cassettes. Yes you could argue the C64 was cheaper and less prone to "problems". And I mean problems such as little Johnny pouring coke into the keyboard, printer, etc. But Commodore was a SuuperWhiz when it came to manufacturing and production. PLUS they were already in the computer business. They knew what they were doing. Coleco had never built a computer system from scratch before. Commodore was putting out 100 to 1. Plus with Commodore on such a large and fast production puts out 2 million units in a year (spitballing that #) And Coleco only puts out 200kl units in a year. And both have a 20 percent failure rate, which system will sounds more unsafe to buy? Commodore with 1.8 million working just fine with 200k back? Or ADAM with 160k working fine and 40k back? Yeah, my choice as well. Commodore baby!! And again that doesn't account for all the returns as "defective' when in fact weren't. Or at least not due to manufacturing. Again there is a term people in IT say: I.D.10.T issue (idiot...DUH!!!) and a lot of stores and retailers back then only accepted returns if defective. Now the poor shielding was a solid concern. And I feel them putting the PSU in the printer was also the dumbest idea ever. Not just for reasons you state but they could have made the printer perhaps even perform better had if it had it's own PSU. It is too much, think of plugging your desktop into your monitor. It slows your PC down. Gotta give it it's own gas pump. I think with better education to the consumer, or if they had waited a year and did a campaign with local libraries for free lessons on the ADAM it would have done much better as a home system. The musical quality is right there with NES. The graphics on par with the SEGA Master system. And the luxury of and Atari 800. All rolled into one. My opinion.
This made sense until you said that computers slowed down if they shared the power supply with a monitor or a printer. No. Computers are not like cars. They do not go faster if you give them more gas! Yes you can save power if you run a computer slower *and it was designed to do that*, but the opposite isn’t true. The only thing a computer will do if you give it more voltage or amps than it should have is blow up or melt.
And even if you only wanted to play games and fool around with BASIC you still needed the printer, so I’ll bet lots of people left the printer behind when they moved and then even they found the thing didn’t work anymore, they junked it.
I had a great time with the Adam as a kid. My brother got one on discount from KB Toys and I spent a lot of hours on that thing. Getting Dragon's Lair on cassette was an exciting time and I really enjoyed the game. Buck Rodgers was the pack-in game and it was a lot of fun in itself. Great memories!
I had this same computer Adam Coleco you are shown.
Mine had zero issues,I got this Adam Coleco Computer for Christmas 1985 & worked perfectly until I sold it in 1991.
Damn I miss mine!!
Wow - you were lucky! Did it not even do the extra blank line issue when printing?
hi guys ! :) im 49 and i had the coleco adam when i was 10 , my father bought me this and i learned to program the softwares called :Basic ,and LOGO. GOod memories ! :)
these days , im gaming PC VR , it changed a bit ahaha
Same here,I used the Adam Coleco for other things besides games-which I loved of course-like Logo,Basic & some of learning software that Coleco sold then.
Lucky you! I owned a ColecoVision at 10, and nagged my parents for an Adam big time! but in italian currency would have been a fortune... I scored a Sega SC3000 a bit later though... not so bad :)
I loved Logo.
I got an ADAM for xmas 1983. Used to play Buck Rodgers and Family Feud a lot. Donkey Kong too. Also practiced BASIC on it too, but I was only 7 at the time, so I didn't get it to do much other than make an ASCII rocket. Still had fond memories of it though. Once I got an NES in 1986 my mom sold my ADAM and Coleco against my wishes. It's a shame, because now they'd be worth a lot.
I was absolutely blown-away by the professionalism of the host, Aaron, as well as the content of the video. I never had an Adam, however I was the owner of a Colecovision that I got at Christmas of 1982. Only three of my friends in the community had a Colecovision, so we shared games. All of us who played it together have a unique memory of that experience. I would LOVE to see the museum. Dr. Peter James Smith, Ed.D.
I also got a ColecoVision at Christmas 1982 and never got the Adam, though I remember really wanting one for a few months. I had a ton of friends who had the Atari 2600, but only had two friends with a ColecoVision as well. I also knew two kids who had Intellivision and I remember going to their houses to play "Frogs and Flies".
My first computer :) I used to run that printer at all hours of the night for school work and drive my parents absolutely nuts.
Yep, back in '83 my dad thought he heard gunshots when I used the printer
Same on this end. I couldn't use my printer after 9pm on weeknights LOL
I drove my roommate in college a little nuts with my dot matrix printer, when I'd print out my papers for class (I had an Atari). That thing was noisy, too.
There were hoods you could put over a printer to make it quiet, but I didn't have one. :(
yep got to love that slap sound! lol
I remember seeing that box on the shelf in a Zayre's. I always wondered about it as it wasn't something I could afford at the time. Thanks for sharing it.
Ha! I remember Zayre's! I haven't thought about those stores in ages. Did you have a Bradlees too?
I remember being mesmerized by an Adam box in a store. It was really clever of them to make the system default to the word processor instead of BASIC - really made sense in terms of selling the system to newcomers and the target practical-minded family buyers.
@@IrishCarney You are one of the few who recognize the value in owning a word processor available at boot along with a letter quality (although noisy) daisy-wheel printer. I agree completely.
i was mesmerised by the size of that box
Thank you for the walk down memory lane....lotsa great memories for me about this.
My Uncle Ken bought one of those for each of his siblings & their family for Christmas, somewhere around their release year...(5 total including himself). He was a disabled Vet that had MS & no kids, so he had plenty of money, but nobody to really spend it on. So that year, He ordered them from over seas, along with A TON of games, so he could surprise all of us ON Xmas day @ grandma & grampa's....and boy were we!
It came with the Printer, Unit, 2 Remotes with the number pad, & 2 other black remotes that had a pistol style grip with 4 triggers (one for each finger, each trigger a different color) a black curved shield style front, a Red knob joystick & number pad on top.
He kept most of the coleco cartridge games, but made us all copies of EVERY game. Yep...all of em were on those cassettes. I never even met anyone else who had one'a these! I was born in '80, so needless to say, I was the envy of the kids in my neighborhood.
Here's the games I remember having & playing....
*Buck Rodgers, *Spy Hunter, *B.C.'s Quest, *B.C.s Quest 2-Grogs Revenge, *Frogger, *Popeye, *Donkey Kong, *Donkey Kong Junior, *Tapper, *Jumpman Junior, *Smurfs, *Congo Bongo, and SEVERAL others that I can't remember. My Mom apparently either threw it all out, or gave it away, I can't remember. But I remember askin about it years & years ago, & she said we didn't have it anymore.
😫😭
I do remember VERY clearly though, that all of ours worked REALLY well, & never had ANY issues. So I was surprised to hear that alot of them didn't work great. I can't even begin to imagine what all of that would've been valued at today!
My Adam worked completely fine for 3 years
Watching your video, you commented on the digital tape drive continuing to load portions of Super Buck Rogers in real-time while already playing the game. This impressed me a LOT when I noticed it on my 1985 closeout purchase of ADAM. Other home computers of the time could not do this type of multitasking. It was possible on ADAM thanks to each peripheral device containing their own microprocessor, a Motorola 6801. The 6801s have their own onboard ROM customized for each peripheral: keyboard, data pack drive, printer, and floppy disk drive. There is a master 6801 onboard the ADAM logic board. THANKS for the video. Very enjoyable!
It likely wasn’t multitasking where the CPU was switching between programs, but rather that it had hardware that could do some things without involving the CPU much if at all. Maybe the tape controller could do things like seek to a particular segment on the tape, or load tape data into RAM, without the CPU needing to get involved.
@Sashazur Correct, the hardware was multitasking at the driver level but the operating system did not multitask application switching.
thank you for your channel. It tastes lile a delicious coffee
Adam fan here, the first computer our family owned circa 84-85, after first price drops.
Like many other Comments here, I had no defects, failures with mine.
I wonder if a large portion of returns was just buyers remorse and wsnting the money back, or changing their mind for a c64 or other computer, or mistaking normal operation for a problem, like daisy wheel noise or tape speed, etc.
At the time of release and decades after, you were laughed at by fellow non Adam computer users- pc, c64, atari, etc.
But as you observe here, the base unit with expansion slots was well built with a lot of advanced tech for the cost and time period. The random access tape drives were a good idea pre 1985 vs the cost of disk drives at the time.
Yes, all printers were loud in those days, daisy wheel or dot matrix. Cool thing about the daisy wheel, it used standard wheels at any office supply store or mail order. I picked up a bunch of wheels on clearance for a few dollars, giving me many fonts to choose from, a cool option pre 1985 before price drops on 24 pin dot matrix printers happened 86-87.
I must've walked into Toys"R"Us 10 times just to look at the Adam computer but could never spend that much on something that looked like a toy.
Interesting. One port that was missed was the "AdamLink" port. It's on the side, is another phone jack, and could hook the Adam up to a floppy drive and other serial type devices.
The Adam I had also had 80k of memory and a 2400 baud modem that went into the slots in the top. Worked well to be honest, I even ran CP/M on it with the floppy drive....
"The Adam was a defective failure!"
Proceeds to power up and works perfectly 40 years later.
i love the Coleco ADAM ,so wish i had one.
Around 1992-93, we bought a full-size ADAM computer at a yard sale being run by who we think was a former employee of the company (I'm an hour from Amsterdam, NY where system and game were produced). We had 12 Copies EACH of the Buck Rogers Super Game and SmartBASIC, as well as the complete 32 programs library (you had to code the software yourself and then record it on the actual program cassettes) The following summer my friends from Grammer school gave me a whole bag of ColecoVision games and that was my first time discovering that system as well. We had the ADAMLink modem which my dad was able to dial into his work systems. The company caught wind of it but when my dad told them he was testing out whether the computer could actually get in (my dad was no computer genius in any way), they found it pretty funny and didnt get in trouble 😂
Even though we were using a computer about a decade past it's prime, it got a lot of use and loved the ADAM to this day.
I sold two out of Sears on the Christmas after they were announced. Both were returned in a couple of days.
At 8 my favourite basic trick was to ask for someoune to input their name, and then print out: Hello [name], (following a long list of insults) ahah
Your collection is my definition of heaven haha.
Amazing.
I’m thinking I need to add a “wildcard” button somewhere in the software I work on. What an inspiration!
I had a ColecoVision Adam in the 80s in my teens. Worked for 6 months and then crapped out! Yep faulty power supplies that were in the printer were notorious for this computer. When I bought it, the box was freaking huge.
This was my first computer
I recently acquired one of these. It had a bad video chip. I was able to put a new one in and I'm back in business. It really is a cool computer system. Luckily it came with a couple ColecoVision cartridges and got to try those out.
Funny enough, I also recently acquired an Adam computer. I find myself really liking the aesthetics, and the printer is a beast. Sure, it's slow and loud, but it's very good quality and it's just cool to use.
16:00 “Indeed all of the excitement of the first time…” in a completely monotone business meeting voice. That’s great😂
I can still hear the tape drive sound whenever I think about the ADAM. It went something like this, repeated until the game or what have you finally loaded:
rrr rrr rrr REEEE rrr rrr rrr REEEE rrr rrr rr REEEE rrr rrr rrr
(REEEE is when it would fast forward or rewind, whichever direction it was)
That open bay is legit. We had one, and it was like that OOB
Subscribed. Excellent production value. Informative and entertaining.
This was also my first computer and at the time I was a teenager with a paper route, and I remember I kept all of my customers logged on to this computer so that I had a running list Of who I needed to deliver too. Mine worked perfect
I owned the full sized version. The original game pads were the same beige color of the computer, printer, keyboard. You could insert graphical overlays over the keypad that were unique to the game or software you were running that also used those controllers. The self-centering controller knob could also be used as a mouse. I don't recall if that is how it was used. On the top left and right sides of the printer are two holes and slots for mounting the tractor feed accessories. Thus allowing you to use fan folded continuous feed paper. A standard method of printing for its day. Our family never used that option. The capabilities of the computer/gaming console were pretty cool. Especially the expansion opportunities. There were cards for the modem, more RAM, connecting the second data drive. Mom's intent was to bring computers into the home where it could benefit her kids and give her something to use to keep track of her files, stories, finances in a more streamlined manner. She'd worked on commercial computers at work. She immediately recognized the benefits that a home or personal computer can provide to children. As true as it is today that kids are quick to master computers it was also true of my generation when all of this micro computing stuff was brand new to everybody.
More Adam content please !!
Hopefully you’ve checked out our two other ADAM videos! Its a fun system and I anticipate we will be doing more videos on it in the future…thanks for watching!
@@vintagegeek i certainly will. Thank you. And I have certainly subscribed!!!!
subbed! I can't have enough retro computing channels. Thanks!
Agreed! I subbed just because of this one video. I enjoy all vintage systems, so the channel will be great fun.
I have the original ADAM in the original box. The box I have is almost mint (no holes). Also, I have the original SHIPPING box that the ADAM came in! VERY hard to find. Unfortunately, the shipping box is flaking away. Every time I move it some pieces fall off. But at least the ADAM box itself is nice.
I also have the original outer shipping box for mine, except mine is the rarest of them all. It is likely the only one left on earth that has NEVER been used, and even the plastic wrap has never been removed from the manuals. I was told it's worth around $20k
You made a comment that the tape is still running when the game starts. It's actually loading the next level into RAM. I know this because I decided to take the tape out before it happened one time to test it out. It went to a blank screen with the ship only. You could fire and maneuver but the game was over at that point. It was pretty neat to see that Adam had rudimentary multitasking capabilities way back then.
There’s another comment about how each peripheral had its own microcontroller. That means they could do things independently of the main CPU. Maybe stuff like seeking the tape to a specific segment and loading that into RAM. That’s not multitasking the way it’s normally thought of, where the CPU is running multiple programs at once.
Thankyou . I do enjoy these videos. I remember playing Atari and very old system one that was similar to colecovision and I have always wondered what it was, I remember a game called bonk with a baby that would attack with its teeth
Thank you. I was a big fan of Coleco in my early teenage. The controller should be held with the entire hand, not with the thumb, and the buttons pressed with the other hand, the one holding. It makes much more sense. Thank you for sharing this, I never had a chance to see an Adam in action, but I longed for it when I was 11...
At 15:13 you use the hammer to knock out all the gold pins. Then the layers collapse causing the monkey to have a fit, (possibly take the princess), and leave to another level. I say possibly take the princess because I don't remember that part of the game. Fly low to the ground between the towers to get past them. When you're fighting the flying saucers do the same but try to stay away from the middle of the screen. Your hand may tense up with extended use of the controller. I sure did hurt mine after a few hours of playing. I never saw the arcade game. But I have fond memories of playing it on the Adam.
Thanx, Mr. Ish-mah-el.
I have never seen this microcomputer in France but it is this microcomputer which had the particularity that its central unit was powered by the printer, so it was directly sold with its printer in the complete package microcomputer and printer or the size of the box it seems to me no ?
Back then, Nintendo wasn't a console maker. They were just another arcade manufacture that licensed out their games to other console makers. So it wasn't a strange arrangement.
I loved this computer… I still have the software tapes somewhere… I was a stupid kid and plugged a phone into it and broke the prongs inside and could t use it anymore…I was devastated.. it was bought at cvs drugstore lol
Shelby at Tech Tangents came up with an ADAM power supply replacement which makes the printer unnecessary.
Those expansion slots I have seen used for hard drives and serial interfaces for modems. I've seen hobbyists expand the ADAM to run CP/M and operate BBS systems on them. The NABU is also somewhat compatible with the Colecovision and shares similar hardware with the Spectravideo and Japanese MSX computers. It's practically possible to code hack games between the various systems and make them run. At least I've seen proof of concept with the NABU. It has an interesting history.
Ahh, I had an ADAM. I can still hear the printer in my sleep.
It was sooo noisy. And slow to print
@@ramblingobservations It was, but there was something oddly satisfying about the sound, Early ASMR?
So loud I made a cover for it out of the clear cover from an old stereo turntable. I also put foam padding inside the printer. Probably cut the noise by at least half.
It's interesting that Adam's tape drive technology was used (with lots of improvements) in the Hilow Datadrive, for the ZX Spectrum circa '88.
I'd love to knonw more about how this was used with ZX Spectrum. Can you share some links about it? THANKS!
Didn't the Iomega Zip Drive kind of work in the same fashion, but with custom cassetes? The use of regular tapes for digital logic was also at the core of the ADAT audio recording system, if I remember correctly, 44khz 16bit... quite impressive for the late 80s...
I bought a Coleco Adam to add on to my Colecovision console. I returned it and bought an Apple II clone. I wish I had kept it. I still have (and use) my Colecovision games console.
My brother worked at Kiddie City to buy this and we use to play Donkey Kong and Qbert on those cassette tapes all the time.
The data pack version of Donkey Kong has more cut scenes from the arcade version .. so in a way they were able to do the "Super Game Module" promised for the colecovision in the Adam.
Great demonstrator, terrible at Donkey Kong. 😂 Awesome video, thanks for making it.
Lived in a small town in the country when this came out. The neighbors bought one. They barely touched it.
Funny how Lori in the commercial was so concerned about it being legal 🤦♂️
we had 2 of these, there was a hack to fix something in the power supply with a capacitor or resister (been decades) there was a way to connect a modem a uber high end option back then,,
I wanted to buy one of the returned systems but we had to return them to Coleco even if there wasn't an obvious problem. I got my Atari 800 as a return which I bought off Sears at a discount. I wish I still had the 800. I also wish I had collected the Coleco at the time.
You should get Fujinet for your ADAM. It gives you the full suite of peripherals plus networking.
I had one of these. Memories!! The sounds on boot-up. It was a crap system for sure.
When they were getting liscences for games on the colecovision, they went straight to Nintendo of America and saw a Donkey Kong machine in action and made a deal for the home console rights. Keep in mind that Nintendo was still mainly a toy company at this time and made only a couple arcade games, they wouldn't fully pivot to home consoles for another two to three years and they still didn't have a hold on us distribution for another two years after that
This #ColecoAdam needs a #FujiNet. :)
Adam really is a fun system, it's a shame it was rushed to market because they were one of the first systems to include a working integrated stringy floppy and 64K. It had a lot of expandability. I bought one a few years ago without a printer, added a modern switched power supply from Amazon and a fujinet myself and it works great vs the hot, bulky linear power supply that was originally included.
The printer is the most basic possible .. everything is bit banged with timing in software but it did work I guess.
Memory console because of the add on for the colecovision I guess.
Was bad (defected)but looking good n work good after fixed 👍
I don´t know, but your channel has something from this sitcom back in the 90s called Home Improvement. lol
Hey! Have you been following the Adam Plus project? I would like to know your opinion about it.
Can we program it in basic?
I don't know, but basically you can program it.
Absolutely. Coleco shipped a mostly Applesoft-compatible version called SmartBASIC. It loaded from tape, which could be advantageous since you could patch the SmartBASIC bugs. There are additional flavors of BASIC available too including Microsoft BASIC for CP/M.
"a letter-quality printer, which was something that other companies had not offered"
Atari released a letter-quality printer the same year the Adam came out, the 1027. It wasn't a daisywheel, but it was an impact printer that rotated a drum, had a hammer behind it, that would "punch out" characters onto the paper. It was a traction-feed printer, so it could only print one page at a time.
Huh, Lori Loughlin. The woman who got in the news when she was charged with fraud getting her daughter into college. Wow. :)
Wow. The Adam had a disk drive?? I hadn't heard of that.
is that legal?
I used to have one of these, I'm surprised you call the smaller system a 'small formfactor version' as when pugged into the Coleco it has probably the largest foot print of any computer once you have the printer and monitor on your desk? I proffered the all in one version due to the space improvement and the colour coded joystick that acts like a numeric keypad. Overall though a neigh on useless system but with a nice looking keyboard.
I’ll never understand why they put the power supply in the printer. Great video on the ADAM!
To save money most likely.
The printer would not take tractor feed paper, unless you modified the printer. My family had an Adam when I was a kid. The Adam was as good if not better than its competitors at the time. The tape drive was faster than Commodore's disk drive at the time. No other computer had a word processor in ROM. The only things I remember not liking about it, the printer was so LOUD, I had to leave the room while it was printing. The joystick and fire buttons wer very stiff and didn't move much, so your hand would get tired playing some games.
Lori Laughlin: "is that legal?"
No.
I'm guessing that Coleco should've stuck with Cabbage Patch Kids!
| Awesome ! | :3
I saw a working Adam at Vcf east 2022 or 21 (don't remember which). You probably have the only other working surviving machine.
There is a surprising number of these Coleco ADAM machines still around and working 40 years later, in 2023. New hardware is made by independent vendors too! Anyone who has one should consider joining the FaceBook group where new products and legacy support can be found.
Everything you need in one package (except the monitor)
They tried, sending a second tape drive to replace the malfunctioning original.
That's probably where a lot of two-drive units come from.
In retrospect, the Super game module by itself would have worked.
For the Colecovision players who wanted that extra bit of game.
meanwhile.. Sega looks at the convoluted stack of console parts, says, watch this..
Man plays Donkey Kong for the first time!
I watched all your ADAM vidz but came back to this one since it was first in "series".
FIRST- You HATE THE CONTROLLER???? That controller was the best on the market for any system at the time. Even the NES controller, though came close, did not beat the solid joystick keypad combo of the ColecoVision stock controller. It was so popular that there came a time where people were copying their design (ie Atari 5200) and aftermarket tools to turn the Intellivision (all variations) pad into a stick of sorts. But still none compared. But if you didn't like the ColecoVision stock controller you could buy the ColecoVision Super Action Controller which was EVEN BETTER! It was the stock controller on Steroids with a dash of cocaine it was AWESOME!!! (Google is your friend)
SECOND- You never explained in this video or the others you have posted what the WILDCARD key does. Since watching your video and seemingly lack of research skills into talking about a device you featuree I will happily enlighten you. (Are you sure you are a serious collector/curator???) The WILDCARD button alot of young folks, me included (I was 11) thought it was going to be a built-in game. Similar Fairchild Channel F having built-in games. WILDCARD implied a card game. Well I had an ADAM. And I wasn't surprised yours worked at all. These are tanks just like Commodores (all including Amigas). Anyway I got mine for Christmas and when I set it up that was my first task to check that out (who reads manuals GET ME TO THE GAME!!!!!!!) It isn't a game at all but basically a "hotkey" of sorts. That was used with other keys would enable a command depending on what program like word processing or when programming.
BoringCARD is what it should be named.
Anyway that is all I got to say about the ADAM and my takeaway from your vids. One last thing though. Coleco ADAMS were not prone to as many defects as you mentioned. My theory (and it's a agood solid one) is that people that could afford the low price point of an "ALL-IN-ONE" like COLECO marketed ADAM as, just really didn't understand what they were buying. Don't mistake me I am not saying people were to dumb to understand all the nuances that we today would be like "meh" was consider Blue SCREENS OF DEATH to them. Buck Rogers glitched on you. That was common with dirty "cassettes" Those things were actually as fragile as 5 1/4 floppies. If not more so cause it literally (at the time) to make "backups" (winkwink) of your cassettes. Yes you could argue the C64 was cheaper and less prone to "problems". And I mean problems such as little Johnny pouring coke into the keyboard, printer, etc. But Commodore was a SuuperWhiz when it came to manufacturing and production. PLUS they were already in the computer business. They knew what they were doing. Coleco had never built a computer system from scratch before. Commodore was putting out 100 to 1. Plus with Commodore on such a large and fast production puts out 2 million units in a year (spitballing that #) And Coleco only puts out 200kl units in a year. And both have a 20 percent failure rate, which system will sounds more unsafe to buy? Commodore with 1.8 million working just fine with 200k back? Or ADAM with 160k working fine and 40k back?
Yeah, my choice as well. Commodore baby!!
And again that doesn't account for all the returns as "defective' when in fact weren't. Or at least not due to manufacturing. Again there is a term people in IT say:
I.D.10.T issue
(idiot...DUH!!!)
and a lot of stores and retailers back then only accepted returns if defective. Now the poor shielding was a solid concern. And I feel them putting the PSU in the printer was also the dumbest idea ever. Not just for reasons you state but they could have made the printer perhaps even perform better had if it had it's own PSU. It is too much, think of plugging your desktop into your monitor. It slows your PC down. Gotta give it it's own gas pump.
I think with better education to the consumer, or if they had waited a year and did a campaign with local libraries for free lessons on the ADAM it would have done much better as a home system. The musical quality is right there with NES. The graphics on par with the SEGA Master system. And the luxury of and Atari 800. All rolled into one.
My opinion.
This made sense until you said that computers slowed down if they shared the power supply with a monitor or a printer. No. Computers are not like cars. They do not go faster if you give them more gas! Yes you can save power if you run a computer slower *and it was designed to do that*, but the opposite isn’t true. The only thing a computer will do if you give it more voltage or amps than it should have is blow up or melt.
@@Sashazur and what happens when it gets less? Honest question as I never said they zoomed with more gas than rated.
They have a fix for rewhittening yellow plastic
It’s called retrobrighting. There are a bunch of videos about how to do it.
This looks like a quite capable system. On paper at least. Anyone remember the Linux CD that could turn the Playstation 2 into a computet?
It's as big as the GI Joe USS Flagg
the power supply was IN the printer, so if you lost the printer you were screwed
And even if you only wanted to play games and fool around with BASIC you still needed the printer, so I’ll bet lots of people left the printer behind when they moved and then even they found the thing didn’t work anymore, they junked it.
If there was a human to represent boring worthless tech no body wants it’s this guy
Outdated boat anchor that never worked.
The Coleco Adam was just a "dog". It was a rushed idea that just didn't turn out good at all.
nuff said?
I was 10 when the Adam came out and wanted it soooo bad that I would have sold a kidney for it!
Goto 3:55 "is that legal?" 😂