Crazy Climber Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Hello Finally found someone to ship me an ADAM, should be here this week sometime. I'm pretty pumped for this thing, always wanted to play around with one. I really want to mess around with the high speed data packs (cassettes) I don't know why, I just do.. I know a few games were made (Buck Rodgers and Zaxxon come to mind) but also quite a bit of software was made right? Like typing tutorials and other lame "learning" applications, lol. Is there a list somewhere of all the non game software that was released on cassette? Also a list of all the actual games released on cassette would be cool too, I can't seem to easily find a complete list since there is no Colecoage rarity guide Another reason is I have this sick 80's wooden cassette rack that I would like to casually fill up with ADAM tapes but I have no idea what I am even looking for, lol Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Have you seen this? http://www.sacnews.net/adamcomputer/00_csl.html It shows the format too if it's dsk or ddp which is the data packs (Tape) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Check out a list of ADAM software on my web page at: http://www.sacnews.net/adamcomputer/00_csl.html Most all that's designated as "disk" can be run from data pack too. Hello Finally found someone to ship me an ADAM, should be here this week sometime. I'm pretty pumped for this thing, always wanted to play around with one. I really want to mess around with the high speed data packs (cassettes) I don't know why, I just do.. I know a few games were made (Buck Rodgers and Zaxxon come to mind) but also quite a bit of software was made right? Like typing tutorials and other lame "learning" applications, lol. Is there a list somewhere of all the non game software that was released on cassette? Also a list of all the actual games released on cassette would be cool too, I can't seem to easily find a complete list since there is no Colecoage rarity guide Another reason is I have this sick 80's wooden cassette rack that I would like to casually fill up with ADAM tapes but I have no idea what I am even looking for, lol Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Hey, you posted while I was writing the same thing!!! Have you seen this? http://www.sacnews.net/adamcomputer/00_csl.html It shows the format too if it's dsk or ddp which is the data packs (Tape) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Hey, you posted while I was writing the same thing!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted May 4, 2016 Author Share Posted May 4, 2016 Awesome, Thanks guys! I didn't even know the ADAM had a disk drive, lol. So where do I find one of those? Ebay or is there someone around with a stockpile? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed1475 Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 (edited) Here's a pic I posted in the "Show us your collection" forum a couple of years ago. All 36 unique DDP's (tapes) released by Coleco (35 unique inserts; there were 2 versions of the blank DDP - one with a clear label and one with a gray label -they both had the same insert). ADAM_DDP_Software.txt Edited May 4, 2016 by ed1475 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Awesome, Thanks guys! I didn't even know the ADAM had a disk drive, lol. So where do I find one of those? Ebay or is there someone around with a stockpile? Ebay. There's a user here, I believe it's Milli V who may have one to sell. I had 3 and sold one to a friend here in mint condition. I still have 2 that I will be buried with 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 ( there were 2 versions of the blank DDP - one with a clear label and one with a gray label -they both had the same insert). Ever pull the grey label off one of those? I had one, pulled the label off, and it was a factory printed Jeopardy shell. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted May 4, 2016 Author Share Posted May 4, 2016 Here's a pic I posted in the "Show us your collection" forum a couple of years ago. All 36 unique DDP's (tapes) released by Coleco (35 unique inserts; there were 2 versions of the blank DDP - one with a clear label and one with a gray label -they both had the same insert). ADAM_DDP_Software.txt Adam_-1_(all_36_coleco_tapes).jpg YES!! That is exactly what I was looking for Thanks man! (well, before I knew this thing has floppy disks too, now I have to obsess over those also) Ebay. There's a user here, I believe it's Milli V who may have one to sell. I had 3 and sold one to a friend here in mint condition. I still have 2 that I will be buried with Just out of sheer curiosity, whats a guy to expect to pay for one of these? MINT or CIB doesn't matter to me, looking more for functionality/etc.. Ever pull the grey label off one of those? I had one, pulled the label off, and it was a factory printed Jeopardy shell. Is Jeopardy rare or vaporware? Sorry, I have no idea (other than not seeing a Jeopardy in ed's complete cassette collection picture) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 There's at least 2 real big ADAM guys here at AA. If I were getting into this system, I wouldn't hesitate to hit NIAD up for goodies. There's another trader or two as well. Can probably find them here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/221017-colecovision-adam-computer-collectors-lists-updated/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Is Jeopardy rare or vaporware? Sorry, I have no idea (other than not seeing a Jeopardy in ed's complete cassette collection picture) Jeopardy was vaporware. The prototype was found real early on, and it looks complete. Certainly plays complete. It's worth getting. It's been released into the public domain. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 There's at least 2 real big ADAM guys here at AA. If I were getting into this system, I wouldn't hesitate to hit NIAD up for goodies. NIAD is the guy. I knew him when we were both members of the Northern Illiana Adam Users Group, which he took over in the late 80's / early 90's. He's the source. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 YES!! That is exactly what I was looking for Thanks man! (well, before I knew this thing has floppy disks too, now I have to obsess over those also) Just out of sheer curiosity, whats a guy to expect to pay for one of these? MINT or CIB doesn't matter to me, looking more for functionality/etc.. Is Jeopardy rare or vaporware? Sorry, I have no idea (other than not seeing a Jeopardy in ed's complete cassette collection picture) Mint I'd say around $200 if not a bit more. With the original box depending on condition it be closer to $300. On Jeopardy, it really plays great. Family Feud is also really nice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoDan Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 NIAD put out some info on all the Adam games that will give you pictures and what the games are like if you do a search in this forum. It was real informative. I don't care about Adam at all but it was interesting to read all the information. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 Just download the ADAM Computer collector's list in the pinned "CV and Adam Computer Collector's List" thread for a complete list of commercially released items for the Adam by Coleco and others thru 1985. This list does not cover all the Homebrew items made by 3rd parties since Coleco abandoned the Adam, but there is a wealth of info and software available about all that on Joe B's Adam website that is linked in the footer of this message... not everything, but it's getting there. Congrats on finally acquiring an Adam and hope everything is working so that you can start having fun with it right away. Disk Drives are very scarce and expensive, so an option that you should watch for is the Virtual Drive product that MilliV is working on. It's a cable hookup with adapter that will allow you to connect the Adam to a modern PC thru USB port and you can use all the emulator disk and data pack images files on a real Adam without having to convert them over to real Adam media. It's not an SD Drive solution, but it's going to be a HUGE step toward making life easier for Adam owners. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted May 5, 2016 Author Share Posted May 5, 2016 Yeah, I'm getting much less interested in the floppy disk side of things after doing a little research. Seems the drives are VERY expensive and scarce....not to mention the software is nowhere near as abundant as I hoped for I Was kind of thinking the floppy stuff would be cheap and plentiful like the C64 and other similar era computers but no such luck... Oh well, upon purchasing it I didn't even know it had a drive option so no big loss If I ever go this route I will probably go the emulation option NIAD mentions is coming soon This is the system I picked up (from the marketplace here) http://atariage.com/forums/topic/248803-complete-coleco-adam-for-sale-sold/ It's complete and working so looking forward to it! (Tracking says it is in MN today so maybe after work I'll have a surprise waiting!) I also just picked up a small lot of obsolete programs for like $25 shipped to play around with. My kids will probably have fun messing around with some of them Quick question on the cassette games, can they be pirated/copied? If so do I need the special ADAM high speed data packs to do so or is there a cheaper alternative out there? Or better yet does someone sell already copied tapes? If this is a no no I apologize but we are talking 30+ year old games here, lol I was somewhat amazed the tapes are not readily available on Ebay! I mean there are a few Buck Rodgers and a Zaxxon but as far as games go NOTHING else? Are they really that uncommon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 Those ADAM tape cassettes tend to degrade over time. I recall testing a Buck Rogers Super Game DDP a couple of years ago, and seing garbage characters on the title screen. The rest of the game didn't work much better, if I remember correctly. It's one of the little reasons why I released that game in cartridge format under my Team Pixelboy label. The software will likely last longer on that medium. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 You can contact Bob Slopsema (adamcon) to see what he has. Here's the website http://ann.hollowdreams.com/and here's the catalog. http://ann.hollowdreams.com/adamsupplies.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milli V Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 YES!! That is exactly what I was looking for Thanks man! (well, before I knew this thing has floppy disks too, now I have to obsess over those also) Just out of sheer curiosity, whats a guy to expect to pay for one of these? MINT or CIB doesn't matter to me, looking more for functionality/etc.. Is Jeopardy rare or vaporware? Sorry, I have no idea (other than not seeing a Jeopardy in ed's complete cassette collection picture) I'll be listing a drive next week You can see what I have to sell at: http://www.ebay.com/sch/spinningwebz/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= The last drive I had went in 2 hours for $350 - this one will probably go just as fast, they are a rare thing on eBay - personally I like the DDP's more myself - get that full retro vibe - but I need a disk to be able to transfer stuff to / from the PC - once I eliminate that with the VD I'll sell the other drives I have Milli V 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 Once you get the system and experience the longer load times of the Data Drive (much faster than cassette decks for other computer of the time, but considerably slower than a disk drive), you will realize what thousands over the years have already learned... a disk drive is probably the most significant addition to the ADAM. While it is true that the data packs do degrade over time, I have gone thru 100s over the last six years with only a couple having issues, so they have held up pretty well over the years. It probably all comes down to how much use they have experienced in the past and if the Data Drives were in good working condition. If you can acquire a disk drive at a reasonable price, jump on it... even with the upcoming Virtual Drive by MilliV. The data pack software can be copied to a blank ADAM data pack seeing as no Coleco software was copy-protected (there were a few 3rd party titles that were) and the best program to use is File Manager by AJM Software. One thing to know is there were two different formats of data packs: 1) Center Directory - these include all the ADAM application software titles (SmartBASIC, SmartLOGO, ADAMCalc, etc.) and it's best to copy these to another Center Directory data pack like the blank data packs that Coleco sold. 2) Right Directory - these were used for all the ADAM Super Games to decrease load times. Coleco did not sell these types of data packs, so what you will need to do to copy titles such as DK Super Game, Buck Rogers Super Game, Richard Scarry's Best Electronic Word Book, etc. is to copy it to a repurposed Buck Rogers data pack. There were tens of thousands of these Buck Rogers data packs made by Coleco and they can still be bought from the likes of ADAMcon for this purpose. Pretty much anything for the ADAM that was sold commercially is rare due to the short lifespan of the system, but most items can still be acquired thru ADAMcon at reasonable prices. Here are a few pics of a near complete ADAM collection... legacy products, not Homebrew/3rd Party. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 My ADAM arrived yesterday and it fired right up. I still need a few things to have it running the way I want but with what I have I had some fun with it last night. I like it so far, not to beat a dead horse but YES...the box is HUGE! - Definitely need an AV cable, I want to hook it up to a monitor (a cool 80's one of course) - Going to need a different monitor, I found a sweet retro one from 84 but was unaware it was monochrome/green until I fired it up, lol. I was able to use the monitor output/input to get a picture to test things out and play around a bit but will need the actual AV cable to also have sound (assuming ADAMCON is the guy for one of these cables too?) While the monochrome monitor does add a certain old school charm to things I think I would like to go full color I'll use it for now as it's what I've got but maybe I'll score a nice 1702 commodore or something to compliment my ADAM (they both have that greyish/white color with rainbow style logos) I guess I could just use a flat TV or whatever but I like the older look/feel of classic monitors I only got maybe 30 minutes or so of play time but I had fun using the built in typewriter with my daughter (who sadly does not even know what a "typewriter" is, lol) and I played a few normal coleco games like Zaxxon and Donkey kong/etc.. Just a quick system check and all seems well so far. Tonight I plan on figuring out how to use the Digital Data packs since I have a Buck Rodgers game on one to try out. Was surprised to see how heavy the printer was, I am assuming the power supply is inside it and part of the reason it feels like it's full of bricks I kind of overspent my gaming allowance for a little bit so I'll wait to contact Adamcon until I have a little more money to play with. I also can not open the software for sale because it requires Microsoft office (yes, my work computer actually does NOT have this or Windows media center and I can't even install it without some password that nobody can remember, sigh...) so I'll have to wait until I get to a library or something with a normal computer, lol. I guess I could try opening it on my phone... I totally want a drive but yeah, I can't justify that expense unless I really spend some time with this thing. If I get really into it then sure, but if it's just a casual once in a while thing I'll probably just stick to the tapes and coleco carts If one pops up at a reasonable price then sure, it's just money in the bank then anyways but if I'm going to drop premium coin on one I have to wait it out I totally forgot about those awesome cardboard arcade machine boxes until NIAD posted pics of them. I've wanted those for awhile just for the look if nothing else but they are very uncommon Thanks for everything guys! The information, the pictures, all very helpful! I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 By the way, I have some daisy wheels with different text fonts, which I'm not doing anything with: - Pica 10 - Prestige Elite 12 - WPS Modern PS - Dual Gothic - WP Courier 12 I'll let you have them for free if you want them. Just pay 5$ for shipping and I'll pay the rest of the shipping fees if it goes over 5 bucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 (edited) By the way, I have some daisy wheels with different text fonts, which I'm not doing anything with: - Pica 10 - Prestige Elite 12 - WPS Modern PS - Dual Gothic - WP Courier 12 I'll let you have them for free if you want them. Just pay 5$ for shipping and I'll pay the rest of the shipping fees if it goes over 5 bucks. I'm in!! (PM SENT) Thanks!! Edited May 6, 2016 by Crazy Climber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 This seems to be the last thread that Crazy Climber started. He logged in after this his last post here, but hasn't been on AA in more than a year. Does anyone know him? He's been a fixture of this site since I've known about it. I hope he's ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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