How good was the Coleco Adam compared to other computers of the time?

[TigerSuperman]

Yes, they always were more expensive, tho, the gap shrinked by the 90's.

Early IBM PS/2 were probably sold at the same price than clones because they were very popular here.

An idea how the ADAM was priced compared to the competition in France? I know it didn't last long there but I wonder if it was a similar situation like how the CV was expensive there.

[CatPix]

I only found one source, but it list the ADAM at 8000FF, which was 8 time the price for a ZX Spectrum, twice the price of an Amstrad CPC (to be released the next year to be fair) and more than a C64.

No wonder why there are virtually no one here owning an ADAM.

[carlsson]

I just spoke to one of my friends who got a boxed PAL ADAM. He figured it is nearly unsellable today, at least for a price that matches what he bought it for a couple of years ago.

[CatPix]

Make sense, too.

Europe had a load of computers, so, the Adam would be a very niche thing.

Edited October 5, 2018 by CatPix

[TigerSuperman]

I know a few guys that imported ADAM's from the US. I'd be surprised if 100k Adams were sold across all European countries given the high prices and crowded market.

[NIAD]

Make sense, too.

Europe had a load of computers, so, the Adam would be a very niche thing.

CBS Electronics handled distribution of the ADAM in England and the rest of Europe. In England, the system did find a following and most have had decent sales figures seeing as there was a large User's Group called the U.K.A.S. (United Kingdom ADAM Subscribers) and run by Keith Marner for roughly 10 years.

 

I can't really say about France or Germany, but there must have been enough interest in these countries to warrant Coleco making a Language Card that installed in Slot #2 with French and German language version of SmartWriter and some professional quality software was developed in France, MacADAM and daVinci.

[atarilovesyou]

It was real good, eh.

[phoenixdownita]

There's one god damn thread on the Coleco Adam and HDTV1080P is nowhere to be found .... he spams other threads with "Adam this, Adam that" totally uncalled for comparisons like this nonsense here:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/283063-the-rgb-atari-st-series-is-faster-when-compared-to-the-coleco-adam-computer/

 

I was literally expecting him to jump all over this thread .... I hope all is well with him.

[mr_me]

Thanks for your clarification of your use of the phrase "open architecture".

 

So, indeed, Coleco was slow to release the "ADAM Technical Manual" to 3rd Parties, but all things considering with what we now know, this was no surprise and I don't see it as a major factor in the ADAM's eventual failure. Where Coleco failed was in slow walking the EOS Programmers Manual which hamstrung potential 3rd Party software development... so much so that it gave these companies additional time to decide whether or not to commit to supporting the system. With all the delays and other issues we've discussed as well as bad press the ADAM was receiving, it became a very easy decision for these companies not to support the ADAM or withdraw their announced support. Without software, even the most technically advanced computer or videogame system will fail and thru their actions or lack thereof, Coleco was left to fend for themselves.

To be honest, I was thinking of upgrading and expansion as well. Looking at the Adam expansion slot bay area, I couldn't help but remember some of the old full-sized ibm pc expansion cards; they were longer than your forearm. That's just an observation not a knock on the Adam. Most other systems did have an external cartridge/expansion port with access to data/address lines and control signals allowing for all sorts of hardware expansion.

 

It's not fair to compare the two but the point about the modular approach to the ibm pc is another. They could be configured by resellers and users with floppies, hard disks, no disks, colour, text adapters, graphics adapters, dot matrix printers, daisywheel printers, or no printer. Again they are clearly in different markets, coleco just copied the form factor.

 

Open or closed architecture, a system is not going to get that third party support unless there's a significant install base. Colecovision had it but Adam didn't.

 

I only found one source, but it list the ADAM at 8000FF, which was 8 time the price for a ZX Spectrum, twice the price of an Amstrad CPC (to be released the next year to be fair) and more than a C64.

No wonder why there are virtually no one here owning an ADAM.

How much was a letter quality printer in 1984? Many zx spectrum owners used it as a games machine. A cbs colecovision served that market but you couldn't pirate colecovision cartridges. Price is one factor but access to software was a big part of the decision working against coleco. Edited October 6, 2018 by mr_me

[NIAD]

Mr. ME... Two of the three internal expansion slots indeed dedicated/limited:

 

- Slot #1 was for Serial or IDE expansion

- Slot #3 was for Memory Expansion

 

However:

 

- Slot #2 could handle numerous expansion options: Serial, Parallel, expansion memory addressing above 64K, RLL/MFM HD, boot prom options. The Micro Innovations MIB 2 and 3 interface cards come to mind here.

 

The external Expansion Interface has data and address lines to handle everything listed above and much more and was used wisely by Eve Electronics fir their 80 column expansion unit/breakout box that also powered the system and included an additional 4 or 5 expansion slots.

 

You have mentioned pirating of software/cartridges a couple of times and that is not a right of the computer owner, but I understand it could be a reason why someone might decide to purchase a system... there friend(s) have same system and can supply copies for free. Heck, that's why I eventually decided to buy a C=64. Anyway, Coleco obviously decided to not release such copy utility programs even though they had developed them for In-House useage and it took until 1985 for such programs to become available to end users.

Edited October 6, 2018 by NIAD

[Eltigro]

Just because I've never seen one of them on there before... but there's an ADAM for auction on Goodwill's auction site right now...

 

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/58432621