Bill Loguidice Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I'd like to see a more compatible CP/M (with 40 or 80 columns) get released so more text adventures could be converted. For some reason I get a kick out of playing Infocom games on the ADAM (even though they're SLOOOOOOW). Perhaps more people would make homebrews for the ADAM if it had a larger user base. The ADAM user base is pretty small compared to most other systems (how many ADAM users are there on AA? 20? 30?). It would be nice to see some more 'Super Game' games made. There are a bunch of Coleco titles that could be enhanced that way. I think another factor against more Super Games being made specifically for the Adam is that the SGM add-on for the ColecoVision (and Adam of course) is now available as a homebrew target. Once all of the units finally get out into the hands of ColecoVision fans, the number of active (meaning active purchasers of new software) SGM owners will probably exceed the number of active Adam owners, if they haven't already. I suspect things would be different if the Adam was originally designed in a different way. Even though many of us have alternatives to the printer/power supply combo, it's still not really a system that's easy for the average person to just grab and use for a variety of reasons, including space and storage medium. If you're going to be an active Adam owner/user, you kind of have to REALLY commit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Perhaps the Adam's greatest "flaw" is that it's also a ColecoVision, meaning it's far more interesting to support the console portion than the computer portion because 100% of software will work on the former, while only a relatively small percentage of us own the latter. I think you hit the nail squarely on the head with that statement. I might have to start a poll to see just how many on this forum own an ADAM, but more importantly, how many have one setup and use it. This reminds me of a little project I did for CollectorVision well over a year ago to convert their CV release StarCom to ADAM format on Data Pack. We had discussed a number of titles as candidates, but I pushed for StarCom seeing as only 30 CV cartridge copies were ever made and sold and this would allow a few more to be able to finally acquire and play the game. They had plans to make a very limited (10) release in CIB form to celebrate the ADAM's 30th anniversary and to test the waters, but with everything else that they have going on, the project has been pushed back time and again. So the ADAM was to have a new Hombrew release specifically for use with it, but it would have been a converted ColecoVision game and not a new title developed specifically for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I think another factor against more Super Games being made specifically for the Adam is that the SGM add-on for the ColecoVision (and Adam of course) is now available as a homebrew target. Once all of the units finally get out into the hands of ColecoVision fans, the number of active (meaning active purchasers of new software) SGM owners will probably exceed the number of active Adam owners, if they haven't already. Couldn't agree with you any more. Basically put, with the added benefits of extra RAM and sound chip that the SGM provides and with the MegaCart PCB able to break the 32K barrier via bank switching, the ColecoVision is capable of some pretty impressive and large games. If someone was to develop a game that ranges from 64K on up to 1024K, I'm sure they wouldn't want to limit it to a small audience by making it specifically for the ADAM. The added benefit of this propsed CV game is that it will work on the ADAM as well, so there would be no need to convert it and make an ADAM specific DDP/Disk release. If all goes as planned by CollectorVision, Team Pixelboy and Opcode Games with their respective new Cart PCBs that include SaveRAM, there will be another reason not to make an ADAM specific release. Oh yeah, then there is that CV Keyboard that has been developed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I'd like to see a more compatible CP/M (with 40 or 80 columns) get released so more text adventures could be converted. For some reason I get a kick out of playing Infocom games on the ADAM (even though they're SLOOOOOOW). How many Infocom text adventures do you need... there are 21 available already in ADAM CP/M or T-DOS format! If you own MicroFox's IDE CF Package, you can copy the titles that are in T-DOS format to one of the T-DOS partitions, play them in 40 columns and load times should be super fast. Not going to be easy to find one of the 80 column units that were made for the ADAM. I got lucky a couple years ago and acquired the Orphanware unit, but sold it to someone who really wanted one. Aside from that, your other option would be a Serial Interface and a Terminal to get 80 column output thru T-DOS. It can be done this way with CP/M as well, but I'm not sure if the software was ever archived. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Oh yeah, then there is that CV Keyboard that has been developed. I'm not aware of this. Can you provide more details? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 CV Keyboard: http://www.nyangau.org/cvkbd/cvkbd.htm A couple of recently released Homebrews like Comic Bakery already support it... check out the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 (edited) CV Keyboard: http://www.nyangau.org/cvkbd/cvkbd.htm A couple of recently released Homebrews like Comic Bakery already support it... check out the box. It doesn't look like something the average ColecoVision owner would have because there's no pre-assembled option. I'm also honestly at a loss of what value it would serve. It looks like in Comic Bakery it's only for entering your name in the high score list faster. In that regard, it's a shame there's no support for the Adam's keyboard. That would be more logical to support since you would expect more people would have that available over the CV Keyboard. Edited February 12, 2015 by Bill Loguidice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 In that regard, it's a shame there's no support for the Adam's keyboard. That would be more logical to support since you would expect more people would have that available over the CV Keyboard. Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Now that I think about it, isn't there some issue with accessing the Adam's accessories, including the keyboard, from the ColecoVision side? Maybe that's the reason for the CV Keyboard support in lieu of Adam support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 You would have to create an ADAMnet interface in order to use the ADAM Keyboard on the CV. The keyboard is an ADAMnet device with it's own Logic. Board and 6801chip, so it's probably a heck of a lot easier to use the PS/2 standard, keyboards are obviously more plentiful and cheaper to acquire.... plus available in black to match the CV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 You would have to create an ADAMnet interface in order to use the ADAM Keyboard on the CV. The keyboard is an ADAMnet device with it's own Logic. Board and 6801chip, so it's probably a heck of a lot easier to use the PS/2 standard, keyboards are obviously more plentiful and cheaper to acquire.... plus available in black to match the CV. Understood. What I meant was if using an Adam (not a ColecoVision) to play the game, support the keyboard on the Adam. I don't believe that's possible, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Understood. What I meant was if using an Adam (not a ColecoVision) to play the game, support the keyboard on the Adam. I don't believe that's possible, though. That I am not completely sure of, but seeing as there were a couple Coleco In-House test utility cartridges that accessed/tested all aspects of the ADAM (CV Delta Board, ADAM Logic Board, Data Drives, Keyboard, Printer, etc.), I would assume that there shouldn't be any issues with making a cartridge based game that can accept input from the ADAM Keyboard. I seem to recall in one of the Coleco Electronics dealer catalogs seeing planned cartridge based game(s) made specifically for the ADAM that featured keyboard input... but I will have to double check to confirm seeing as you would think they would just be released on DDP/Disk for the cost savings over cartridge production. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Loguidice Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 That I am not completely sure of, but seeing as there were a couple Coleco In-House test utility cartridges that accessed/tested all aspects of the ADAM (CV Delta Board, ADAM Logic Board, Data Drives, Keyboard, Printer, etc.), I would assume that there shouldn't be any issues with making a cartridge based game that can accept input from the ADAM Keyboard. I seem to recall in one of the Coleco Electronics dealer catalogs seeing planned cartridge based game(s) made specifically for the ADAM that featured keyboard input... but I will have to double check to confirm seeing as you would think they would just be released on DDP/Disk for the cost savings over cartridge production. Yeah, that would be interesting to verify. It may be an either/or thing, where if an Adam-specific cartridge were made it couldn't work in a ColecoVision, and a ColecoVision/Adam cartridge couldn't access Adam features. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 It's definitely possible but you have to do something similar to what I did with the cart version of the IDE driver. You can't just run the Adam code from the cart because you have to initialize EOS to use the keyboard since it has all the AdamNet drivers.If you check the memory map, you'll find the cartridge memory uses the upper 32K memory bank and so does EOS/AdamNet.You'll have to change the memory map, copy code to a different address, change the memory map again, etc... to run an Adam specific version.The Colecovision places it's calls in a ROM at the bottom of memory.I think the easiest approach is building two versions, startup code that checks if you are running on the Adam or not and runs the Colecovison version or copies the Adam version to RAM and executes the Adam startup. Whether it's completely different versions or a patch with the differences would be up to the author.I'm not sure if I still have the code since the fire burned the laptop the code was on. I'll have to check if it was any of my backups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Here it is. Not much to the final IDE cart code and I think the ROM had the code to copy itself to it's final address so there is a little more involved.You would have to test for Adam ROMs which is easy enough. Disable interrupts and try swapping in the SmartWriter ROM. If it's not there, just swap back and continue as a Colecovision game.This is a test cart image which skips the startup © screen and associated delay. ***************************************************************** ;* IDE Boot Cart.asm ;***************************************************************** ;* Loads the MICRO-INNOVATIONS boot EPROM from a game cart ;* and launches it from intrinsic RAM. ;***************************************************************** ; define standard assembler directives to work with TASM #define org .org #define end .end #define byte .byte #define word .word #define DCB .byte #define dcb .byte #define DCW .word #define dcw .word ;***************************************************************** ;* test cart header ;***************************************************************** org $8000 ; start of cart memory DCB $55,$AA ; test cart ID DCB 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 ; filler, we don't use this ; org 800AH ; location of cart start address DCW CARTSTART ; cart start address, used to execute cart code ;***************************************************************** ;***************************************************************** ;* the first code executed in the cart ;***************************************************************** CARTSTART: di ; interrupts would be bad durring this process ld a,%00001101 ; 32K lower intrinsic RAM + cartridge ROM out ($7F),a ; set memory map ld hl,$45ed ; interrupt handler ld ($0066),hl ; set interrupt vector ; copy code from cart into 32K intrinsic RAM ld hl,LOWRAMCODE ; start ld de,$0100 ; destination... low RAM ld bc,ENDCODE - LOWRAMCODE ; length ldir jp $0100 ; call code in 24K intrinsic RAM ; start of the eprom data ; we duplicate what this does but from cart ROM so we skip it ;BOOTCODE: ; dcb $66,$99,$F3,$3E,$05,$D3,$7F,$21,$ED,$45,$22,$66,$00,$21,$1B,$80 ; dcb $11,$00,$01,$01,$7B,$06,$ED,$B0,$C3,$00,$01 LOWRAMCODE: ;remainder of IDE Boot ROM was here ENDCODE: end Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 CV Keyboard: http://www.nyangau.org/cvkbd/cvkbd.htm A couple of recently released Homebrews like Comic Bakery already support it... check out the box. do you own one of this keyboard adapter or do you know someone who own one? cause i look around but i didnt find someone who have one or build one pcb maybe i should give a try Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Yes, it can be powered from the ADAM, IF your ADAM power supply can handle the extra power needed. On the rare occasion we will find a power supply that is marginal or won't even run the data drive, but will run the ADAM. That is why we also provide an external mini power supply, so you do not need to worry about available power. Out of curiosity and desire, has anyone here successfully implemented this? I am back in the Adam game after being out for some years... been following this thread and I'm ready to purchase the IDE card and full CF drive configuration. I'd really love to power this guy internally to eliminate the extra PS and power strip-flip! I'm going with Rey's soon-to-come standalone Adam PS, so Rey, can you weigh in on this? Jim? Also, from what location would we draw power, and what type of cable mods are we looking at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Yep my supply can power this as well. I have mine getting power from the inside at the db9 port. You can solder or even use hot glue to attach one cable to the +5v pin and another to ground. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I can share a few pics in a bit if you'd like that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Yep my supply can power this as well. I have mine getting power from the inside at the db9 port. You can solder or even use hot glue to attach one cable to the +5v pin and another to ground. This is totally awesome. I can share a few pics in a bit if you'd like that. Absolutely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 This is very easy and allows you to unplug the CF cards under the hood. You can skip the plug since you can also detach the cable at the CF card adapter. I also added a switch so I can cut the power to the cards whenever I want to do so. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 This is very easy and allows you to unplug the CF cards under the hood. Dude. This totally rocks! Nice, clean and powerful Super ADAM! You have the exact setup that I have just ordered for mine. You can skip the plug since you can also detach the cable at the CF card adapter. Not exactly sure what you mean here... which plug are we referring to? Also, if you have a chance, could you point out which pins from the DB9 power-in are tapped, and where they end up on the ATA Molex connector? I'm assuming not all of the Molex pins are even used. If you point it out, I'd be happy to sketch up a simple pinout diagram for all to reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Here's the pinout http://atariage.com/forums/topic/234815-pinout-for-the-powerconnector-on-adam-help/?p=3173905 You'll want the red and black cables on the male molex connector that comes with the cf cards adapter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 rey_1178 has quickly become the ADAM hardware guru around these parts... in very short order! The IDE CF Adapter power mod he devised is a beauty and very well conceived. Lord knows we all probably have a mess of cables and power transformers tucked under our desks/storage units and it's always great to be able to ditch some of that mess by drawing power from the system. The addition of a separate on/off switch for the IDE CF Adapter is the icing on the cake seeing as there will be times when you won't need access to the IDE device (say just playing cartridges) and there's no need for it to be wasting power. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 A pic of the mini-power PCB inside the ADAM. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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