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Adam Jeopardy Manual


ed1475

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ADAM Jeopardy Manual

 

Here's a PDF of the Jeopardy manual. In 13 years of collecting, I had never seen this on the internet or anywhere until a few days ago when it showed up in an ebay auction. Jeopardy was finished but never released by Coleco. The software has been in the public domain for 30+ years but not the manual.

 

 

ADAM_Jeopardy_Manual_(PDF).PDF

 

post-13580-0-69698400-1532641283.jpg

Edited by ed1475
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Jeopardy was never officially released by Coleco. And this is the first time in my entire life that I have seen the official original manual in PDF form. Back in 1985+ I had a phone conversation with someone at Coleco. And I was told that Jeopardy was completely finished by Coleco including the colorful retail box, instruction manual, and colorful Digital Data Pack label (but not released to the public). Again this is the first time I have seen the manual. Back in 1985 a former Coleco employee copied the original finished 256K Jeopardy Digital Data Pack to only one 160K 5.25 inch Disk Drive and gave it to the ADAM community with a Coleco letterhead claiming the game had been released into public domain. The problem is to this day only 160K of data was copied from the original 256K Digital Data Pack. Which means that the game crashes after getting to block 159K the last question pack. Walter’s Software in the 80’s fixed this issue by making a routine that automatically resets the program after the last question pack is used instead of crashing. However to this day we do not have the complete 256K Jeopardy program and only 160K worth of the program since the person that copied the program back in 1985 did not copy the entire program.

 

Now it is my understanding that someone came across a two disk version of Jeopardy on two 160K disks and maybe that has some of the questions that would have been on the original 256K Digital Data Pack. Where ever that manual came from, that person might have access to the original 256K Jeopardy on Digital Data Pack. After all these years it would be nice to have the full Jeopardy game and not just 160K worth.

Edited by HDTV1080P
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Coleco did release Family Feud on a 256K Digital Data Pack for the ADAM computer. Back in 1984 I really enjoyed that Family Feud game. Playing Jeopardy was fun also but I am much better at Family Feud. Coleco stopped videogame and computer manufacturing in January 1985, however there is some rumors that Wheel of Fortune might have been in development or planning stages. The Commodore 64/128 computer did officially get a Family Feud, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune release.

Edited by HDTV1080P
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Holy "F-in" Shit !!! This is an incredible find and many thanks for sharing it with the community, Ed.

 

I skipped some posts, so if someone mentioned this already, I am sorry. Yes, Jeopardy was a completed game that was to be released on one Digital Data Pack or two 5 1/4" 160K disks by Coleco. They had gone thru the expense of at least an initial production run of the Data Pack version and manual (which I thought was lost to the landfill until moments ago) and I'm sure the box was designed, but no idea if a print run was made. I guess the timing of things with the abandonment of the ADAM was the deciding factor as far as not releasing the game since the retail price would have inevitably been heavily discounted rather quickly.

 

So now a bit of info that will probably start a mad rush to acquire Buck Rogers Super Game data packs. As I mentioned, Coleco did make a production run of the Jeopardy Data Pack version (no idea how many) with an official sticker like other Data Pack titles that were released. When the plug was pulled on the release of Jeopardy, the Data Packs were repurposed/relabeled as Buck Rogers Data Packs including the game code stored on the Data Pack, but the Jeopardy label remained in place. I can't say if this was for 100% of them, but they are out there and you'll need to peel a small portion of the Buck Rogers label back to see if there is another label underneath. If there is another label underneath, hold your breath and continue peeling off the Buck Rogers label very carefully. Someone should come across one even after all these years. Good Luck!!!

Edited by NIAD
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HDTV1080p... the complete 2 disk version was acquired by Doug Rosenvinge from a former Coleco employee circa 1992/93. He sent a copy to us and then we shared it with the community thru the Public Domain. The disk images are attached.

 

 

Thanks! Works in Virtual Adam!

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Wow a $1.99 for a official in house unreleased Coleco Jeopardy manual. This person must not of known what they had. Minimum bid should have started at $1.99 not a Buy it now. This manual might have been bid up to $100 if there was a actual auction. At the very minimum I would have paid $10 or $20 for this collectors item. Also the word "Coleco" and word "computer" was not used in the title and many people missed it since a search normally is not looking for the words ADAM.

Edited by HDTV1080P
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HDTV1080p... the complete 2 disk version was acquired by Doug Rosenvinge from a former Coleco employee circa 1992/93. He sent a copy to us and then we shared it with the community thru the Public Domain. The disk images are attached.

 

I realize there was a unreleased 256K Digital Data Pack version made available around 1985 for the ADAM community (only 160K was copied). I never tried the unreleased Jeopardy two disk version. The reason for the two disk version is because Coleco never officially released a 320K double sided disk drive and only a 160K single sided disk drive. So I am guessing at a certain point one needs to insert disk 2 when prompted on the screen. The entire 256K Digital Data Pack version would be better to have since once copied to a modern 1.44MB Micro Innovations 3.5 inch disk drive or even a 320K disk drive no disk swapping would be needed.

 

It is disappointing that Coleco never released a 320K Disk Drive, since games that used the full 256K Digital Data Packs could not be copied to a 160K Disk Drive and also Coleco had to release special 2 disk versions of programs that went over 160K. Richard Scary’s Best Electronic Workbook Ever was released on Digital Data Pack only, and uses a total of 242K of space on the 256K Digital Data Pack (It is so big it requires a minimum of 320K, 720K, and 1.44MB disks only). Coleco was going to release the Richard Scary’s Best Electronic Workbook on two separate 160K 5.25 disks, however to my knowledge I never seen it and it was never released on floppy disks. Perhaps one day Team Pixelboy or someone else will convert the cool 242K DDP version of Richard Scary's Electronic Workbook Ever to a 256K or 512K cartridge. That was one of Coleco's best kids program that uses up almost the entire DDP. Walter's Software created a special 320K Disk version from the original 256K Digital Data Pack.

Edited by HDTV1080P
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I realize there was a unreleased 256K Digital Data Pack version made available around 1985 for the ADAM community (only 160K was copied). I never tried the unreleased Jeopardy two disk version. The reason for the two disk version is because Coleco never officially released a 320K double sided disk drive and only a 160K single sided disk drive. So I am guessing at a certain point one needs to insert disk 2 when prompted on the screen. The entire 256K Digital Data Pack version would be better to have since once copied to a modern 1.44MB Micro Innovations 3.5 inch disk drive or even a 320K disk drive no disk swapping would be needed.

 

It is disappointing that Coleco never released a 320K Disk Drive, since games that used the full 256K Digital Data Packs could not be copied to a 160K Disk Drive and also Coleco had to release special 2 disk versions of programs that went over 160K. Richard Scary’s Best Electronic Workbook Ever was released on Digital Data Pack only, and uses a total of 242K of space on the 256K Digital Data Pack (It is so big it requires a minimum of 320K, 720K, and 1.44MB disks only). Coleco was going to release the Richard Scary’s Best Electronic Workbook on two separate 160K 5.25 disks, however to my knowledge I never seen it and it was never released on floppy disks. Perhaps one day Team Pixelboy or someone else will convert the cool 242K DDP version of Richard Scary's Electronic Workbook Ever to a 256K or 512K cartridge. That was one of Coleco's best kids program that uses up almost the entire DDP. Walter's Software created a special 320K Disk version from the original 256K Digital Data Pack.

 

The question packs are on disk 2.

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The question packs are on disk 2.

I guess I need to try the official unreleased 2 disk version. It sounds like one loads the main Jeopardy disk and then is prompted to enter disk two for all the question packs. Or maybe disk one has some questions and disk two is just the rest of the questions. The advantage of the 256K DDP version is that the question packs and program are all on the same media so no media swapping, everything loads automatically.

Edited by HDTV1080P
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I guess I need to try the official unreleased 2 disk version. It sounds like one loads the main Jeopardy disk and then is prompted to enter disk two for all the question packs. Or maybe disk one has some questions and disk two is just the rest of the questions. The advantage of the 256K DDP version is that the question packs and program are all on the same media so no media swapping, everything loads automatically.

 

Maybe you could make your own Jeopardy ddp? I have no idea if such technology exists.

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I guess I need to try the official unreleased 2 disk version. It sounds like one loads the main Jeopardy disk and then is prompted to enter disk two for all the question packs. Or maybe disk one has some questions and disk two is just the rest of the questions. The advantage of the 256K DDP version is that the question packs and program are all on the same media so no media swapping, everything loads automatically.

 

I just loaded it up in Virtual Adam and after choosing options, it asks if you are using a Question Pack. It then asks you to select a drive for question tape or disk. If you try to choose disk 1, it will ask you to put the data tape in drive 1. If you select "Done", it will ask you to do it again or select another drive. It seems to know at this point you need a tape or another disk.

 

However, I just found if you answer no to using a Question Pack, it will use questions on disk 1, so there are some questions on disk one as well.

 

I also quickly became aware they did not get a license for the Jeopardy theme, which would have been a big improvement.

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