Remaining ADAM population?

[SlowCoder]

I recently read that approximately 2 million ADAMs were produced, many less than Apples or other models. Almost half of them were dead off the line, or shortly thereafter. That means there were only a few over a million that survived. Over the next 25 years, how many do you think might be left?

 

 

What functionality issues did they have? Cancer? Heart disease? Dropped on the head when they were born?

[NIAD]

I recently read that approximately 2 million ADAMs were produced, many less than Apples or other models. Almost half of them were dead off the line, or shortly thereafter. That means there were only a few over a million that survived. Over the next 25 years, how many do you think might be left?

 

 

What functionality issues did they have? Cancer? Heart disease? Dropped on the head when they were born?

It's your favorite respondent again!

 

I'd be interested to hear where that 2 million ADAMs produced came from cause the last figure that was given by a Coleco employee to Lyle Marschand was 950,000 and I'm not even sure if this number means systems that were completey packaged (ie: what was sold in stores) or just manufactured and then part of the big sell-off to numerous companies like eColeco.

 

I'm not going to disagree with the fact that there were numerous issues with the ADAM when first released, but there was A LOT of user error as well that lead to problems. Probably the biggest user error was leaving a data pack in the drive when powering on the system which could cause the tape to get eaten or a section of the tape to be damaged and therefore render the data pack useless.

 

- The ADAM logic board revisions of R57 up through R79 (these revision numbers actualy refer to the Elementary Operating System (E.O.S.) and SmartWRITER). You can check yours by pressing the < CONTROL > and < R > keys at the same time once you turn on the system and are in the Electronic Typewriter mode. A new SmartKEY will display and you will hopefully have an R80 displayed in it... this is the final revision that was officially made available. Newer revisions of SmartWRITER up to R84 are available at the two websites in the footer of my posts. Systems that have a revision earlier than R80 would experience sporadic lock-ups and will not work with some 3rd party ADAM software. BTW, other Coleco made software can be checked for it's revision number in the same manner - CONTROL + R.

 

- The original revision of the Digital Data Drive had a tendency to eat data packs. I had one of these in my system for some 15 years and only lost one data pack to it being eaten. The second and thirds revisions of the Digital Data Drives added a clip (along with other improvements) to hold the data pack in place more securely which should have been included from the get go considering the high speeds at which the drives could operate.

 

- The Print Head had a number of issues, but the main one was a sensor on one side of the unit (think it was on the left side) that would go bad and cause the print head to repeatedly try to keep moving to the left... you wuld have to turn off the system.

 

- The most famous, however, is the E.M.P. Bomb eminatted from the power supply when turned on that would erase data packs and such. Actually, never heard too much about this one back in the day and never experienced it throughout all the years.

 

- Poorly debugged SmartWRITER and SmartBASIC programs. Guess this just proves that Coleco should have stuck to games as the included Super Buck Rodgers worked pretty flawlessly, except of course if your data pack got eaten

 

- The E.O.S. had some a number of bugs as well like when deleteing a file. The file and it's place in the directory were not removed, just it's attribute changed to deleted and therefore it would not display in the catalog anymore. With a 1 block directory there would be room for about 35 files and once you reached this number of files on a data pack or disk you could not save anymore files to the ddp/disk even if you had plenty of FREE BLOCKS being reported as available (ie: save 35 1K files to a data pack and the directory is full, do a catalog in SmartBASIC and it reports 220 free blocks available for storage, try to save another file and you get the "NO MORE ROOM" error)!!! The remedy to this bug was to format/initialize your data packs or disks with at least a 2 or 3 block directory.

 

There were others, but I don't want to give the ADAM a bad reputation.

Edited October 10, 2010 by NIAD

[SlowCoder]

So how many might you think are still alive today?

[Classic Pac]

Good question and one I wondered about myself. So I like to add this: How many here have Adams?

[Pixelboy]

Good question and one I wondered about myself. So I like to add this: How many here have Adams?

I have two of them.

[jblenkle]

I have:

3 standalone consoles (each with 2 data drives)

2 printers

2 disk drives

2 keyboards

6-8 controllers (haven't counted recently)

1 64k memory expander

1 speech synthesizer

1 midi interface

 

 

Good question and one I wondered about myself. So I like to add this: How many here have Adams?

I have two of them.

[NIAD]

I have:

3 standalone consoles (each with 2 data drives)

2 printers

2 disk drives

2 keyboards

6-8 controllers (haven't counted recently)

1 64k memory expander

1 speech synthesizer

1 midi interface

 

 

Good question and one I wondered about myself. So I like to add this: How many here have Adams?

I have two of them.

Are you trying to corner the market?

 

Think you should buy that Parallel Card and 256K Memory Expander that Bob S. has up on eBay right now to round out your collection!

[jblenkle]

Naw, I got the setup I want and extra consoles in case one dies. I can't imagine what I'd use a bigger memory expander for and I do have a parallel card...forgot to include it in my list.

 

All I need are missing pieces of software. I'd like to believe they exist somewhere and are not lost to the ages.

 

I have:

3 standalone consoles (each with 2 data drives)

2 printers

2 disk drives

2 keyboards

6-8 controllers (haven't counted recently)

1 64k memory expander

1 speech synthesizer

1 midi interface

 

 

Good question and one I wondered about myself. So I like to add this: How many here have Adams?

I have two of them.

Are you trying to corner the market?

 

Think you should buy that Parallel Card and 256K Memory Expander that Bob S. has up on eBay right now to round out your collection!

[NIAD]

Naw, I got the setup I want and extra consoles in case one dies. I can't imagine what I'd use a bigger memory expander for and I do have a parallel card...forgot to include it in my list.

 

All I need are missing pieces of software. I'd like to believe they exist somewhere and are not lost to the ages.

 

I have:

3 standalone consoles (each with 2 data drives)

2 printers

2 disk drives

2 keyboards

6-8 controllers (haven't counted recently)

1 64k memory expander

1 speech synthesizer

1 midi interface

 

 

Good question and one I wondered about myself. So I like to add this: How many here have Adams?

I have two of them.

Are you trying to corner the market?

 

Think you should buy that Parallel Card and 256K Memory Expander that Bob S. has up on eBay right now to round out your collection!

Probably stored away in shoe boxes at the back of someone's closet!

 

Actually for the price, the 256K Memory Expander would be a nice pick up for someone and it will give you a full 8 cells to work with in PowerPAINT and a nice sized Ramdisk in multiple programs!

Edited October 11, 2010 by NIAD

[yuppicide]

I heard Coleco made Car Cassette players back in the day. Problem is if you started the car with the tape in, it'd get damaged.

[NIAD]

I heard Coleco made Car Cassette players back in the day. Problem is if you started the car with the tape in, it'd get damaged.

They also came out with a line of X-rated talking Cabbage Patch Dolls as a last ditch effort to save the company, but all the girl dolls would say is, "Not tonight honey, I got a head-ache!".

[Madaracs]

Good question and one I wondered about myself. So I like to add this: How many here have Adams?

I have two of them.

 

ADAM hog.

Edited October 12, 2010 by Madaracs

[Pixelboy]

Good question and one I wondered about myself. So I like to add this: How many here have Adams?

I have two of them.

 

ADAM hog.

I'm actually looking to get rid of some of my ADAM stuff...

[Madaracs]

Good question and one I wondered about myself. So I like to add this: How many here have Adams?

I have two of them.

 

ADAM hog.

I'm actually looking to get rid of some of my ADAM stuff...

 

I want one but I kinda wanted the Expansion Module #3 version. The ADAM is such a massive thing... it's hard to have 2 I'll bet. You don't need a 5200 do ya?

[Tempest]

I have both versions boxed (stand alone and expansion module).

 

Tempest

[Pixelboy]

I want one but I kinda wanted the Expansion Module #3 version. The ADAM is such a massive thing... it's hard to have 2 I'll bet. You don't need a 5200 do ya?

I have an Expansion Module #3, which I really don't need and would be ready to part with. However, even if it's smaller than the stand-alone ADAM, it's still pretty big to ship by mail... PM me if you want to discuss this further.