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Everyone has different tastes in games they like and do not like. Also one does not have to own a system to know what it is like. I never owned a NES however I played games on a NES in the late 80's at a relatives house. Also game consoles are on display at certain retail stores to try them out.

Sorry, perhaps I need to be more careful when doing research. A website I was on claimed only 100,000 sales for the Atari 7800, however that must have been for the year 1986 only. It sounds like by 1988 over 1 million Atari 7800 were sold. But by January 1992 up to 3.5 million Atari 7800’s were sold (So the good news is the ATARI 7800 was more popular then the ATARI 5200 and also more popular than the ColecoVision if these numbers are correct. Quote “To sum up the atari 7800, by January 1992 over 3.5 million unit had been sold in the US alone.” http://retrovideogamesystems.com/atari-7800-prosystem/

Here is a website that has pictures of the prototype. https://colecoadam.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/coleco-adam-3-25-disk-drive-prototype/ Sounds like Coleco was going to cut corners and go with 3.25 inch disk drives instead of the industry standard of 3.5 inch. Perhaps if the ADAM would have shipped with a Disk Drive instead of a Digital Data Drive and if the printer was optional, maybe the Coleco ADAM would have been more successful. To some the ADAM almost became a Apple or IBM but the quality control in October of 1983 stopped that from happening (Very negative press from the Smartwriter prom bug that froze the computer when they launched).

We went to the same ADAM users group back in the 80's. I remember once and awhile picking up Micro Innovations products from your father. He had a neat workshop, and there was almost always a new product he was working on. In those days it was like a 15 or 20 minute drive to get to the Micro Innovations location.

One of the very last products that Micro Innovations made for the ADAM was a ADAMNet hard drive that worked with EOS Coleco programs not just CP/M 2.2 or the TDOS operating system for the ADAM. However the internal expansion cards are much faster then ADAMNet, so even though the ADAMNet hard drive worked with EOS and many ADAM programs, the only negative is it was much slower when compared to a ADAM hard drive that used an internal slot (However it’s my understanding that the ADAMNet hard drive was faster when compared to floppy disks). I do not remember the exact sales numbers that Mark Gordon told me, however if my memory is correct I thought they sold under 1,000 floppy ADAMNet disk drives. I doubt it was several thousand but under 1,000 for floppy disks is most likely correct. It might have been only 300-500 Micro Innovations hard disk drives sold. All these numbers are estimates, and Mark Gordon knows the true numbers that were sold. Now if these Micro Innovations disk drives would have existed back in 1985 instead of 1991, they could have easily have sold over 10,000+. From 1984 to 1991 it was extremely hard to find a Coleco floppy disk drive since they were made in low QTY’s. When the Micro innovations 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppy disk drive came out it was so much better quality then Coleco’s 5.25 inch 160K disk drive, that no one really cared to own a Coleco 160K disk drive anymore (Even the Micro Innovations 5.25 inch 320K disk drives which was 100% compatible with Coleco disks was much better quality then the original Coleco disk drives).

It is truly amazing the amount of research and development that Coleco did between 1981 to 1984. In addition, the amount of unreleased software and hardware prototypes that were either completely finished or mostly finished is incredible. Coleco had a fully functional RS-232/serial ADAMNet device that had been verified working by several people. It was rumored that Coleco was going to release the Dragon’s Lair game on the 12 inch optical Laserdisc format, however before that was a possibility they had to make a RS-232 interface for the ADAM so that modern 1983 Laserdisc players could be controlled by the ADAM computer. Coleco developed an external 1200 baud hayes modem that was going to be released as a upgrade for people that had the internal 300 baud ADAM modem. In addition, several people I heard from said they saw a working internal 3.25 inch AdamNet disk drive which offered over 270K of storage space. Coleco was thinking about replacing the Digital Data Drives with internal 3.25 inch disk drives. Any type of disk drive would have been better than the Digital Data Drives. It was ridiculous the amount of unreleased hardware and software that former Coleco employees took home before being laid off (After January 1985 many Coleco employees were laid off). Stories were told over the years that if the products were not taken home that Coleco would have ended up destroying the products. Back around June 5th 1993, various ADAM dealers and ADAM users groups received the following letter in the mail asking to trade unreleased Coleco ADAM prototype equipment for the latest brand new Micro innovations 1.44MB 3.5 inch disk drive. I have no ideal who ended up with these unreleased Coleco products. I have removed most the names and addresses from the attached 2 page letter below to protect their privacy. In addition, the source that provided this letter no longer had the attached photos for uploading. Unreleased Coleco ADAM hardware letter.pdf

Back on 9-14-91 a third party company produced a X10 Home Automation Interface and software for operating it for ADAM owners (attached is the info on that device). Also at least a couple of different third party ADAM companies sold a MIDI interface for the ADAM. X10 Home Automation device.pdf

I subscribed to many ADAM newsletters in the 1980’s. From 1985 to the 1990’s my absolute favorite newsletter on the ADAM computer was NIAD’s newsletter. NIAD was a Christian run business under the owner Lyle, Lyle would always put Jesus Christ first by publishing a Bible study on the front cover of every NIAD newsletter (Attached is a sample of the front cover). From various people I heard NIAD lost business because of their stand for Jesus Christ and being a Christian run business. However, NIAD might have gained more percentage of business then they lost since Christianity was more popular in the 20th Century and because NIAD had a reputation of being a honest ADAM USER Group one could trust to purchase products from. There also was a lot of misinformation coming out of Coleco in 1985 from both active and former Coleco employees. Depending on who one talked too, one did not know what the truth was. Remember this was back in the days before the Internet websites and email. All communication was done by mail and landline phone in general. For example if one searches the Internet there are some websites that claim over 6 million ColecoVision’s were sold, however the reality is only around 2 million ColecoVisions were sold. In addition, we now know that the Coleco ADAM went out of production in January 1985 and sold 500,000 ADAM computers maximum (some sources say 300,000-500,000 units sold). However back in 1985 it is my understanding that a Coleco employee was telling NIAD and other people that production on the ADAM did not stop until 12/85 and 950,000 ADAM computers were manufactured by Coleco. Attached is a scan of an October 1985 document form NIAD letter also making that claim. However according to the documentation we have today Coleco stopped making the ADAM in January of 1985 and a maximum of 500,000 ADAM’s were sold or manufactured. 950,000 ADAM's manufactored by Coleco.pdf Sample front page of NIAD newsletter.pdf

Tonight I just located the Micro Innovations official ADAMNet Floppy Disk Drive Product Description that was published on October 1st 1992. I believe Micro Innovations began research and development for the ADAM computer around 1988 or 1989 time frame (I would have to do research for the exact date). Anyways Micro innovations began releasing floppy disk drives for the ADAM computer back in February of 1991. Attached is just a more detailed information on their floppy disks that work on 120 or 240 volts. Of course as mentioned before sometime around 1994 Micro innovations stopped production on all ADAM hardware and software products. ADAMnet Floppy Disk Drive Product Description October 1, 1992.pdf

Here is a scan of the front cover of a ATARI 5200 brochure that I picked up in a retail store back around 1982 when I was researching videogame systems. I never owned a ATARI 5200 system, instead in 1982 I purchased the much more popular ColecoVision system around August 1982 (2 million units sold between 1982-1985). I did purchase Expansion module #1 ATARI 2600 adapter for the ColecoVision/ADAM and started collecting classic ATARI 2600 games. Its amazing the less powerful ATARI 2600 that came out in 1977 sold over 30 million units. Every time ATARI came out with a more powerful videogame system, the next generation system were less popular. The ATARI 5200 only sold 1 million units (half the amount of the ColecoVision) and it could play ATARI 2600 cartridges with an adapter and was more powerful than the IntelliVison, and the graphics quality was approaching the ColecoVision quality for some games even with its slower CPU. The ATARI 7800 released in May 1986, was a better videogame system then the ATARI 5200 plus the ATARI 7800 could play ATARI 2600 games without an adapter. However according to online sources only 100,000 ATARI 7800 were sold, compared to a million ATARI 5200's sold. The first 64 bit video game system (some claim it ws a 32 bit videogame system), the ATARI Jaguar released in November 23rd 1993 sold a maximum of 250,000 units but was discontinued in 1996. The ATARI Jaguar was the last ATARI videogame system. It’s amazing the most successful ATARI videogame system was the 1977 ATARI 2600 and the ATARI 2600 was much less powerful than any other videogame system that used a cartridge slot. ATARI 5200 front cover.pdf

However with a SDHC card you get 32GB of storage for under $10. Is there any ATARI 5200 cartridges that are even 8MB in ROM size? One could have over 10,000 game screens with a 32GB SDHC card. There is so much space for the game, a programmer can push the limits to the maximum.

The ADAM versions have all the original arcade intermissions and the game graphics quality is really close to the arcade (Plus didn’t Donkey Kong Junior in the arcade only have 4 screens and Coleco worked with Nintendo to get a new 5th screen that no one ever saw before?). I guess the ATARI 7800 version is most likely not as good as the NES version. I know when the NES came out in the USA October 18th 1985 it is a more powerful videogame system then the ColecoVision/ADAM and maybe the graphics are a little better for the screens that it does have. I am sure the programmers could have made Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior with all the screens for the NES if the ROM cartridge was large enough, however maybe certain contracts do not allow for the home version to have all the screens. If the home versions of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior are exactly the same or too close to the quality of the arcade then there would be no reason to play the arcade version anymore. However now in the 21st Century with no arcades left (or very few in existence), Nintendo should allow home videogame systems and computers to have the full version of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior with all the screens, especially when people are downloading the actual Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior arcade rom images and playing them with a MAME emulator on a Windows PC. Was the NES system the last videogame and computer system that released Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior (Sure there might be homebrew versions released)? On August 23rd 1991 the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the United States and it was a more advanced 16 bit system. It was discontinued in 1999 in North America and September 25th 2003 in Japan (It sold 49.10 million worldwide but was not as popular as the original 8 bit NES). I am surprised Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, and Donkey Kong 3 was not made for the Super NES system. Also I guess no one was interested in the original Donkey Kong for the 64 bit video game systems like Nintendo 64, GameCube, and Wii.

There is copy protection technology available for SD cards and there is also encryption technology that can be used with SD cards to prevent the image on the SD card from being copied. It’s also possible to change the firmware in the Ultimate SD Wafer drive so there is a serial number in the cartridge so a SD card will only run the ROM image if the cartridge serial number is exact match.

Someone told me that the NES only had 3 screens for Donkey Kong. If that is true then the ADAM version is better since the ADAM version of Donkey Kong has 4 screens and Donkey Kong Junior on the ADAM is 5 screens.

I would have to look at some old magazines to see if the IntelliVision adapter was mentioned. In my phone conversations and letters with Coleco it was mentioned (Maybe it was mentioned once in a magazine article). Coleco did make games for the IntelliVision. Does anyone know why the Coleco IntelliVision cartridges like Venture, Mouse Trap, Carnival, and Donkey Kong would not work with the IntelliVision II? For some reason the IntelliVision II is not 100% compatible with IntelliVision cartridges. I do not know anything about the ATARI exclusive rights contract, however I did purchase Donkey Kong the Supergame and Donkey Kong Junior the Supergame for the ADAM in 1984 when it was released. However, it sounds like the ADAM version of Donkey Kong might have been the best version of all time except for the original arcade version, since you mentioned that the NES version did not have all the screens. The ADAM version of Donkey Kong had all 4 screens and the Donkey Kong Junior for ADAM had 5 screens (However the released version had 4 screens and a former Coleco employee leaked a unreleased 5th screen version of Donkey Kong Junior to the ADAM community in 1985). Was there any other videogame system or computer system that had all 4 screens for Donkey Kong and all 5 screens for Donkey Kong Junior in the 20th Century? I know in the 21st Century we have homebrew games that might now offer all the screens with the exact same arcade quality.

The latest videogame systems like PS3, PS4, and XBOX One S use Blu-ray media since that is needed to make high quality games that are several GB's in size. In its day for 16 bit videogame quality the Laseractive system was the best Sega Genesis system since it played 100% Sega Genesis and LD-ROM's. I always liked playing Pyramid Patrol. That was a awesome fun game. There were many other neat games on 12 inch LD-ROM's.

You have some good points. The Digital Data packs were not as reliable as floppy disks and yes the ADAM would generate a small EMP when turning the power off and on, that resulted in the Digital Data Packs being erased in that spot of the tape if it was left in the drive. Also the printer was letter quality but extremely noisy, and having the entire power supply for the computer inside the printer is a bad cost cutting design. For videogame graphics quality the ColecoVision/ADAM was King and the best of the best for ADAM games like Donkey Kong the Supergame and Donkey Kong Junior the Supergame. After Coleco stopped production on both the ColecoVision and ADAM computer in January 1985. Nintendo made a smart business decision and on October 18th 1985 released a little bit more powerful videogame system when compared to the ColecoVision/ADAM (The NES had 52 colors with 64 sprites). Also in late 1985 there were new computers more powerful than the ADAM like the Commodore Amiga (The Commodore 128 released in 1985 also had 80 column color with more memory then the ADAM).

There is a product on the market for Atari 5200 owners that is called the “Ultimate SD Wafer Drive” by ATARIMAX (also known as Ultimate SD cartridge on its old style label name). The Ultimate SD Wafer Drive has been produced in huge QTY’s and can be purchased directly on Amazon and EBAY. It ships with a fully licensed version of Beef Drop (32KB) Atari 5200 game on a 8GB SDHC media. One’s entire Atari 5200 cartridge rom image collection can fit on one SDHC wafer card. The following are only a few advantages of the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive 1. It allows game developers to distribute games on low cost SD media. Blank 2GB size SD wafer cards can be purchased from online venders for only around $2 each (blank 8GB SDHC for around $2.50 each). Low cost 32GB SDHC wafer cards can be purchased from many different venders for under $10 if one needs that much space to distribute games. If the Atari game developers back in the 80’s would have had the ability to create videogames with 32GB of storage space for under $10, the quality of the games would have been something the world has never seen before. With 32GB of storage space programmers do not have to worry about trying to fit their games in a small amount of space. Now having a full 32GB of space for games has become a reality. 2. A future firmware update for the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive will offer full support for up to 2TB SDXC wafer cards with exFAT file support. 3. Current firmware supports up to 32GB SDHC wafer cards for programmers that want to create huge games and programs (The actual capacity of the current hardware is to allow up to 4MB of data to be loaded at any moment. A game developer can page data in and out from the 32GB SDHC wafer cards as needed, which means a programmer can literally make one large Atari 5200 videogame that takes up the entire 32GB of space on the SDHC wafer media). 4. Distributing games on SD wafer media is much more cheaper and powerful than game cartridges. 5. There are over 1.25 billion Windows PC’s in the world that can play Atari 5200 games with a software emulation program. An internal or external SDXC card reader can be purchased for under $5 that allows over a billion people to play the Atari 5200 SD Wafer rom images. Therefore distributing ones Atari 5200 games on SD Wafer media allows over 1.25 billion people to have the potential to play the game. Releasing the game on a physical cartridge limits the sales to a small amount of people with a 1982-1984 Atari 5200 game system. 6. SD Copy protection technology: Making a quality game for the Atari 5200 can take several months or years. There is technology that makes it impossible to copy a SD card so that the Atari 5200 game rom image cannot be duplicated with a simple copy and paste technique on a Windows PC. Game developers that want to protect their hard work from being copied can release all their games on copy protected SD media. Cartridges released today do not use copy protection, so SD media with copy protection is more secure to protect peoples hard work. 7. A future third party firmware update could make SD media 100% secure from being copied: Videogame developers that want to protect their hard work from being copied, could in the future release secure encrypted games onto SD media. With a third party firmware update to the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive, it would be possible to make an encryption system with a digital serial number key that would marry the SD card wafer game to only one Ultimate SD Wafer Drive. Making videogames is a time consuming process. In the 21st Century game programmers now have better tools to create videogames when compared to the technology Atari used in the early 80’s to create videogames. If research and development was spent with Supercomputers, it would be possible to create state of the art tools that would allow game developers to speed up the game developing process. Using a touchpad onscreen drawing interface and a supercomputer one could greatly speed up the Atari 5200 game code development time. If greater tools were created for 8 bit videogame systems like the Atari 5200 then amazing large 32GB size games could be created by a team of programmers in a few months instead of years. Opening up the games to be sold to a potential customer base of 1.25 billion people or more would create an entire new market for classic 8 bit videogames even if only less than 1% of those people were to purchase the game, one is looking at lot of Atari 5200 SD wafer game media being sold. A talented programmer could create games more popular than even Pacman and Donkey Kong by using their creative imagination. More detailed information To help make things more clear I am creating this add on post that hopefully will answer everyone’s questions. 1. Distributing games on SD media and using copy protection has nothing to do with ATARIMAX and their cartridges: There are different types of copy protection technologies and encryption technologies that keep data secure on SD cards. There is secure and so far unbreakable encryption technologies like 256 bit AES and 448 bit blowfish technology that keeps data secure. Now I understand that once one uses an authorized key to unlock that encryption and to covert the file to a standard unencrypted file, that the file or rom image can be copied and read once its back in its unencrypted state. Therefore, the purpose of the first post was to bring people’s attention that some different types of copy protection and/or encryption technology can be used on the SD media itself that would protect the media from being copied with a simple copy and paste in Windows, MAC, or Linux machine. Preventing the copy from occurring on the Windows PC, MAC, and Linux computer is the most important place to protect the SD Wafer rom image from being copied and not the cartridge SD wafer drive. 2. The existing firmware in the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive is designed to read Atari 5200 or ColecoVision/ADAM videogames on cartridge that do not use any encryption or copy protection technology (Which is 100% of all current ROM images): Currently many people use the ATARIMAX Ultimate SD Wafer Drive to play classic public domain rom images for ColecoVision/ADAM and ATARI 5200 games that they have downloaded from various websites. In addition, some commercial ROM images are for sale on various third party websites that people purchase and can play with a PC with emulation program, or with the ATARIMAX Ultimate SD Wafer Drive on a real console. Game developers also use the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive to play their homemade videogames on an actual console. 3. ATARIMAX firmware update information: ATARIMAX is currently working on an Official firmware update that will offer exFAT file support. Once that firmware update is released consumers can use up to 2TB SDXC wafer cards in theory. Currently in the year 2017 512GB SDXC cards are the largest available on the market; however in the lab 1TB and 2TB SDXC cards are being worked on for a future release in the years to come. So one day a 2TB size videogame for the ColecoVision/ADAM and ATARI 5200 system could become a reality if one had the time in their lifetime to make a videogame that size (Using Super computers with specially made software, one could greatly reduce the development time since the computer would write automated code with a graphic interface). 4. A Possible future firmware update from a third party programmer can make copy protection and/or encryption technology possible in the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive cartridge: With my communication with ATARIMAX it was my understanding that anyone can make a special firmware update for the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive that would allow a game programmer to use copy protection and/or encryption technology with a digital serialized key that is unique to each cartridge. This means a SD wafer game can be serialized to run on only one Ultimate SD Wafer Drive. This would most likely be a third party firmware update only. However, it is my understanding that if enough videogame developers want this copy protection technology inside the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive cartridge, then ATARIMAX would consider maybe writing a firmware update to offer that feature.

There is a product on the market for ColecoVision/ADAM owners that is called the “Ultimate SD Wafer Drive” by ATARIMAX (also known as Ultimate SD cartridge on its old style label name). The Ultimate SD Wafer Drive has been produced in huge QTY’s and can be purchased directly on Amazon and EBAY. It ships with both a fully licensed version of Mario Brothers (64KB) and Mr. Chin (32KB) ColecoVision/ADAM games on a 16GB SDHC media. One’s entire ColecoVision/ADAM cartridge rom image collection can fit on one SDHC wafer card. The following are only a few advantages of the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive 1. It allows game developers to distribute games on low cost SD media. Blank 2GB size SD wafer cards can be purchased from online venders for only around $2 each (blank 8GB SDHC for around $2.50 each). Low cost 32GB SDHC wafer cards can be purchased from many different venders for under $10 if one needs that much space to distribute games. If the Coleco game developers back in the 80’s would have had the ability to create Supergames with 32GB of storage space for under $10, the quality of the games would have been something the world has never seen before. With 32GB of storage space programmers do not have to worry about trying to fit their games in a small amount of space. Now having a full 32GB of space for games has become a reality. 2. A future firmware update for the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive will offer full support for up to 2TB SDXC wafer cards with exFAT file support. 3. Current firmware supports up to 32GB SDHC wafer cards for programmers that want to create huge Supergames and programs (The actual capacity of the current hardware is to allow up to 4MB of data to be loaded at any moment. A game developer can page data in and out from the 32GB SDHC wafer cards as needed, which means a programmer can literally make one large ColecoVision/ADAM videogame that takes up the entire 32GB of space on the SDHC wafer media). ADAM owners could create a completely new operating system that would install with a cartridge reset and look similar to Windows. 4. Distributing games on SD wafer media is much more cheaper and powerful than game cartridges. 5. There are over 1.25 billion Windows PC’s in the world that can play ColecoVision games with a software emulation program. An internal or external SDXC card reader can be purchased for under $5 that allows over a billion people to play the ColecoVision SD Wafer rom images. Therefore distributing ones ColecoVision games on SD Wafer media allows over 1.25 billion people to have the potential to play the game. Releasing the game on a physical cartridge limits the sales to a small amount of people with a 1982-1985 ColecoVision game system. 6. SD Copy protection technology: Making a quality game for the ColecoVision/ADAM can take several months or years. There is technology that makes it impossible to copy a SD card so that the ColecoVision game rom image cannot be duplicated with a simple copy and paste technique on a Windows PC. Game developers that want to protect their hard work from being copied can release all their games on copy protected SD media. Cartridges released today do not use copy protection, so SD media with copy protection is more secure to protect peoples hard work. 7. A future third party firmware update could make SD media 100% secure from being copied: Videogame developers that want to protect their hard work from being copied, could in the future release secure encrypted Supergames onto SD media. With a third party firmware update to the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive, it would be possible to make an encryption system with a digital serial number key that would marry the SD card wafer Supergame to only one Ultimate SD Wafer Drive. Making videogames is a time consuming process. In the 21st Century game programmers now have better tools to create videogames when compared to the technology Coleco used in the early 80’s to create videogames. If research and development was spent with Supercomputers, it would be possible to create state of the art tools that would allow game developers to speed up the game developing process. Using a touchpad onscreen drawing interface and a supercomputer one could greatly speed up the ColecoVision game code development time. If greater tools were created for 8 bit videogame systems like the ColecoVision/ADAM then amazing large 32GB size games could be created by a team of programmers in a few months instead of years. Opening up the games to be sold to a potential customer base of 1.25 billion people or more would create an entire new market for classic 8 bit videogames even if only less than 1% of those people were to purchase the game, one is looking at lot of ColecoVision SD wafer game media being sold. A talented programmer could create games more popular than even Pacman and Donkey Kong by using their creative imagination. More detailed information To help make things more clear I am creating this add on post that hopefully will answer everyone’s questions. 1. Distributing games on SD media and using copy protection has nothing to do with ATARIMAX and their cartridges: There are different types of copy protection technologies and encryption technologies that keep data secure on SD cards. There is secure and so far unbreakable encryption technologies like 256 bit AES and 448 bit blowfish technology that keeps data secure. Now I understand that once one uses an authorized key to unlock that encryption and to covert the file to a standard unencrypted file, that the file or rom image can be copied and read once its back in its unencrypted state. Therefore, the purpose of the first post was to bring people’s attention that some different types of copy protection and/or encryption technology can be used on the SD media itself that would protect the media from being copied with a simple copy and paste in Windows, MAC, or Linux machine. Preventing the copy from occurring on the Windows PC, MAC, and Linux computer is the most important place to protect the SD Wafer rom image from being copied and not the cartridge SD wafer drive. 2. The existing firmware in the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive is designed to read Atari 5200 or ColecoVision/ADAM videogames on cartridge that do not use any encryption or copy protection technology (Which is 100% of all current ROM images): Currently many people use the ATARIMAX Ultimate SD Wafer Drive to play classic public domain rom images for ColecoVision/ADAM and ATARI 5200 games that they have downloaded from various websites. In addition, some commercial ROM images are for sale on various third party websites that people purchase and can play with a PC with emulation program, or with the ATARIMAX Ultimate SD Wafer Drive on a real console. Game developers also use the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive to play their homemade videogames on an actual console. 3. ATARIMAX firmware update information: ATARIMAX is currently working on an Official firmware update that will offer exFAT file support. Once that firmware update is released consumers can use up to 2TB SDXC wafer cards in theory. Currently in the year 2017 512GB SDXC cards are the largest available on the market; however in the lab 1TB and 2TB SDXC cards are being worked on for a future release in the years to come. So one day a 2TB size videogame for the ColecoVision/ADAM and ATARI 5200 system could become a reality if one had the time in their lifetime to make a videogame that size (Using Super computers with specially made software, one could greatly reduce the development time since the computer would write automated code with a graphic interface). 4. A Possible future firmware update from a third party programmer can make copy protection and/or encryption technology possible in the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive cartridge: With my communication with ATARIMAX it was my understanding that anyone can make a special firmware update for the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive that would allow a game programmer to use copy protection and/or encryption technology with a digital serialized key that is unique to each cartridge. This means a SD wafer game can be serialized to run on only one Ultimate SD Wafer Drive. This would most likely be a third party firmware update only. However, it is my understanding that if enough videogame developers want this copy protection technology inside the Ultimate SD Wafer Drive cartridge, then ATARIMAX would consider maybe writing a firmware update to offer that feature.

To be honest the only reason or main reason I purchased the Expansion Module #3 ADAM computer in 1983 was because I wanted to play Supergames like Buck Rogers and others. For videogames like Donkey Kong the Supergame, Donkey Kong Junior the Supergame, and Zaxxon the Supergame, there was no other system that had a better version of those games in terms of graphics quality and being similar to the arcade ports. So I know back in 1983 that there were some business machines that were more powerful but a lot of them were black and white, and I liked the ADAM’s color graphics. Every system has its plusses and minuses. Some people preferred the ATARI computers because PACMAN was exclusive to ATARI. For some ATARI was better since PACMAN in the early 80’s was never released for the ColecoVision. When the ColecoVision/ADAM went out of production in January 1985, I know some people in October of 1985 purchased the NES system which had better graphics. I never tried Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior on the NES. Maybe someday I well to see if it its better then the Coleco ADAM version. The NES system has the potential of being better with the 1MB cartridges and 64 sprites with 52 colors, but the big question is did a programmer create a good arcade port of those titles? With arcade rom images being released into public domain in the 21st Century, people with Windows PC’s are now able to play classic 80’s arcade games at home and compare them side by side to the actual computer and videogame systems. What some people have discovered is that the ColecoVision/ADAM and many other systems were only similar to the arcade originals but not exactly the same.

I forgot to mention 9610 Expertype on 5.25 inch disk was released (I have seen Expertype but I forgot to mention it). In addition, you are correct about Disk Manager on 5.25 inch disk, it was bundled with the original 160K floppy disk drive. Smart Letter & Forms is one title with two disks in the same package. I personally had an original of disk of both ADAMCALC and 2010: The Text Adventure Game on 5.25 inch disk, which I made a backup copy to a 1.44MB 3.5 inch disk for my personal use. Sometime in the late 80’s or early 90’s I sold the original ADAMCALC and 2010: The Text Adventure Game on disk, so I cannot provide a picture (I think Coleco only shipped certain 5.25 inch titles to certain dealers, which made the ADAM more interesting for collectors). I would be very interested in where you got an original of Address Book Filer on 5.25 inch disk. I never saw it in retail stores or any mail order company on the 5.25 inch disk format. When a person around 1985 had visited a former Coleco employee in another state, they came back to a local ADAM users group and gave a presentation on the unreleased Address Book Filer on 5.25 inch media. When the question and answer section of the presentation began I asked him where he got the Address Book Filer on 5.25 inch disk since it was suppose too have been unreleased. Another person in the room said that was not a proper question to ask (since everyone knew he and one other person had a special connection with one or more former Coleco employees). After the presentation in private he told me it was unreleased version of Address Book Filer on 5.25 inch disk. However maybe by mistake or on purpose Address Book Filer was released on 5.25 inch disk in a maximum QTY of 100 since it sounds like you have an official original. I also heard that there was a 2 Disk version of Richard Scary’s Best Electronic Workbook Ever floating around but I never seen it with my own eyes therefore I cannot verify the story is true. It is rumored one of the people in that ADAM users group back in 1985 got the unreleased full color retail box version of 7716 Jeopardy on Digital Data Pack and then made a copy of it on 160K 5.25 inch disk. They also got the former Coleco employee to make a Coleco letter head saying it was released into public domain, then the two original copywrited screens were changed to have the title screen say it was public domain and then released to the public, and then the program was also distributed to all the large ADAM dealers and clubs for free. The problem was when the person made a copy of the Jeopardy program on 256K Digital Data Pack to 160K floppy disk, the actual program was larger than 160K. Since the ADAM community never got the full Jeopardy image it would crash after a certain point, therefore since Walter Software was told it was a public domain program, he spend several hours and perhaps weeks fixing and repairing Jeopardy so that when it got around the 160K block area it would not crash the program. However to this day someone most likely still has the full original 256K Digital Pack Pack version of Jeopardy that had more questions on it. It’s too bad, but the ADAM community might never see the full version of Jeopardy because the person that copied the program did not copy the entire program. Also many people in the ADAM community do have the original unmodified two screen copywriten logo boot screens of the Jeopardy before it was altered to say public domain, but still the program is not complete since only 160K was copied for the original Coleco Jeopardy Digital Data Pack.

Coleco released and unreleased software information Coleco released most programs for the ADAM on only Digital Data Packs. The select few titles that were released on the better quality and faster 5.25 inch floppy disk were released in small QTY’s and are true collectors items now. The following programs were officially released by Coleco on 5.25 inch floppy disks in factory sealed retail boxes (And I have seen these titles in person on 5.25 inch floppy disks in the original Coleco retail box over the years): 9662 ADAMCALC, 9628 ADAM Home Software Library, 9613 Smartletters & Forms, 9656 Smartfiler, 9657 Recipe Filer, 9663 CP/M 2.2 Assembler, 9638 Dragon’s Lair, 9633 Zaxxon, and 9659 2010: The Text Adventure Game. And those 9 titles are the only titles that Coleco released onto 5.25 inch floppy disks and they are extremely hard to find even back in 1985 and 1986 since they were made in such small QTY’s. On the “Coleco ADAM order form from 1985” pdf posted on the first post. The last page has an interesting coming soon for direct purchase section (Some of these titles are slightly labeled wrong on that order form and the color ADAM software catalog has the correct name and catalog number). Address Book Filer w/Auto Dialer was only officially released on Digital Data Pack, however Coleco did make and complete the entire box and color label for the 5.25 inch disk version. I and several other people personally saw Address Book Filer with its color label on 5.25 inch disk from someone that traveled to see a Coleco employee in another state (This was back in the mid 80's). 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. Math Quest was never released on either Digital Data Pack or floppy disk. The Berenstain Bears Return to the Spooky Old Tree was also never released on Digital Data Pack and floppy disk. Cabbage Patch Kids Workout was never released on Digital Data Pack or floppy disk. Family Feud was released on Digital Data Pack. Jeopardy was also never released on Digital Data Pack however this game was completed by Coleco and a former Coleco employee released it into public domain for the ADAM community back in 1985. There is a possibility that there are several unreleased ColecoVision/ADAM programs that are sitting around in former Coleco employees houses. One former Coleco employee showed people at the 1989 ADAMCon 1, pictures of the unreleased ADAMNet serial and parallel device that he claimed it was fully functional and working but just never released. Therefore back in 1985 there existed several hardware and software products that were either completely finished or almost finished but were never released. However after 32 years most of these products especially unreleased hardware products might have been tossed out as people pass away over the years. Still its possible that one day unreleased software for systems like the ColecoVision/ADAM might appear online in public domain after the copywrites expire, but as the years go by the chances of this occurring decreases and some product designs will be lost forever.

If that is true then the ADAM is a faster computer. A online source I was reading claims the Commodore 128 was running at 2Mhz for the MOS8502 and Ziog Z80A at 4Mhz. The ColecoVision/ADAM motherboard is Ziog Z80A at 3.58Mhz. Commodore 128 also had native color 80 column video output. The Amiga in July 23rd 1985 had Motorola 6800 at 7Mhz. I am not a Commodore fan and never owned a Commodore. Back in the mid 80's there was not the information overload like we have today with the internet, and one had to learn from books and companies marketing specs. I was happy with my ADAM computer until around 1994 when I switched to a a Windows 3.1 operating system. So the Coleco ADAM was my only computer for around 10 or 11 years. Also my next game system was the Pioneer CLD-A100 Laseractive system that played 12 inch LD-ROM's for the Sega Genesis 16 bit Motorola 68000 processor. Also the Pioneer CLD-A100 played 16 bit NEC TurboGrafx 12 inch LD-ROM games. So even though the NES in October 1985 was a little more powerful than the ColecoVison/ADAM, I was happy with the ColecoVision/ADAM game performance up until around the mid 1990’s time frame. The true videogame collectors if they can afford it will own all the systems from pong to the latest Microsoft Xbox One S that uses 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray’s.

I always was interested in Coleco coming out with the IntelliVision module. They canceled it but perhaps they had a working prototype. If this would have been released then the ColecoVision/ADAM would have been able to play ADAM Supergames, standard ColecoVision cartridges, ATARI 2600 cartridges, and IntelliVision cartridges. Perhaps OPCODE will release the IntelliVision module. Hardware emulation is better then software, however I wonder if the ADAM computer is powerful enough to emulate ATARI 2600 and IntelliVision system in software? I never owned a IntelliVision, but I would purchase the adapter for the ColecoVision/ADAM if OPCODE decides to make it. This would give me an excuse to collect games for that system.

Here is some history about my firsthand experience with Coleco customer service that some people might not know. I first became aware of the Coleco toll free 800 customer service number when I got my first ColecoVision around August of 1982. Before then the toll free number either did not exist or I was not aware of its existence. Therefore, before August of 1982 I normally did not call Coleco since I did not want to run up a long distance bill on my parents landline phone (unlimited local and long distance calling plans for around $50 a month did not become a reality on landline phones until the early 21st Century, around the year 2000). Therefore, some of the Coleco letters and Coleco memos attached, is mainly Coleco customer service replying to handwritten letters that I sent to Coleco, since I did not own a typewriter or computer system with word processor yet. Of course, in October of 1983 when I purchased my first computer the ADAM computer system, I stopped writing handwritten letters and used the ADAM letter quality daisy wheel printer. So beginning sometime around August of 1982 some of the Coleco letters and memos I received were replies to my phone conversation with Coleco customer service using their toll free number. Sometimes different departments handled certain issues and instead of calling one back they took ones name and address and mailed one a letter or handwritten memo. However, there is a possibility that I did write Coleco handwritten and typed letters even after I became aware of their toll free number. However I know for a fact that 100% of the time after I received my ADAM computer in October of 1983 that I never wrote handwritten letters every again, since I liked the letter quality daisy wheel printer with the SmartWriter word processor. My handwriting was terrible to read, and for the first time I was able to use a professional printer to communicate with people and to type reports for school. When calling Coleco customer service between the years of 1982 to 1986+ they were usually friendly and professional. This was in the days before automated robotic voice prompt machines, and one would always get a customer service person after the phone was answered on the other end. Back then, all the customer service representatives communicated with everyone in English and all the Coleco manuals were only produced in the English language for the United States. In addition, this was before the days of the Internet, and dial up BBS modems only offered limited information online. Therefore in the 80’s I sometimes called Coleco once a month, once a week, and sometimes several times a week on their toll free number. Sometimes one would order products directly from Coleco at full list price if it was a rare item not offered in the local retail store. Other times people would call Coleco for technical help or for questions about existing or coming soon products. When calling Coleco customer service they would many times mail me a free dedicated ColecoVision catalog, dedicated ADAM catalog, or a combination ColecoVision/ADAM catalog and with a price list to order from Coleco directly (I attached pictures of the front covers of the catalogs). Coleco customer service also sent me a few free “Gotta get home to my ColecoVision bumper stickers” (pictures of those are also attached). With my parents help when I turned 15 I got my first motor vehicle learners permit that allowed me to drive a motor vehicle when ones parents are in the car. Then when I turned 16 I got my driver’s license and a used car, however I never did place the ColecoVision bumper sticker on my car. When calling Coleco customer service they also many times mailed out free “I Love ADAM” stickers and free “I Love ADAM buttons”. I have many official Coleco I Love ADAM buttons and stickers since I have called them many times over the years (The buttons and stickers are also pictured below). Some ADAM owners ended up placing the “I Love ADAM” stickers on top of their ADAM computer memory console top cover. Some people started wearing I Love ADAM buttons at ADAM user groups and other places. However, some people did not understand the I Love ADAM buttons that people were wearing on their shirts in public. For example if someone were to wear the button to church, one would think the person loved the Biblical ADAM. In addition, if one were to wear the button in public they would think that one loved a guy called ADAM since the words “I Love ADAM” are different then the words “I Love APPLE”. The Apple computer was much more popular computer system. Coleco should have designed the I Love ADAM buttons and stickers to say the words “I Love my ADAM computer” or something similar, but they did not do this. When the ColecoVision game system came out in August of 1982 it was selling for around $200 at retail stores and bundled with the Donkey Kong cartridge. When the Expansion module #3 ADAM computer came out in October of 1983 it was selling for around $600, and the standalone ADAM was selling for around $800. Back in 1982 all the ColecoVision cartridges had a list price of $29.95 (street price under $30). However there was one exception to that rule, back in 1982 the cheapest price I could find the Zaxxon game on cartridge was $50 at several retail stores, and some places were selling Zaxxon for as much as $60. I called Coleco customer service back in 1982 to ask them why Zaxxon was selling for around $50 when according to Coleco literature the videogame cartridge is suppose to be priced under $30. Coleco informed me that because the Zaxxon game cartridge is more expensive to manufacture, that is why it costs more money. Therefore I added the Zaxxon game to my ColecoVision collection for around $50. Later on I ended I getting Donkey Kong Junior on cartridge for the ColecoVision. However after I became an ADAM computer owner (Buck Rodgers the Supergame on Digital Data Pack was bundled with the ADAM), I purchased the new improved Donkey Kong the Supergame on Digital Data Pack, Donkey Kong Junior the Supergame on Digital Data Pack, and Zaxxon the Supergame on 5.25 inch floppy disk. Between the years 1982-1985+ the ColecoVision/ADAM was the best videogame system on the market in terms of graphics game quality (Also the most powerful home computer on the market). After January 1985 when ColecoVision/ADAM went out of production, Nintendo made a smart business move and on October 18th 1985 released a more powerful videogame system in the USA called the Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES had 52 colors and 64 sprites versus the ColecoVision/ADAM’s 16 colors and 32 sprites. Also in 1985 Commodore released two new computer systems that were more powerful than the ADAM computer. The Commodore 128 and Amiga were based on newer and faster CPU’s. However, the new systems used similar design to the ADAM. A little faster version of the Zilog Z80A was used in the Commodore 128 and the Amiga used the faster Motorola 6800 series. Therefore, by the end of 1985 there was clearly more powerful computer systems on the market when compared to the ADAM computer (And Coleco had no plans on making a ColecoVision II or ADAM II since they lost too much money on research and development for the ColecoVision/ADAM system, plus the bad reputation the ADAM first received when it first launched in 1983.). However many people preferred to keep using their existing ColecoVision and ADAM’s in 1985 since there was a lot of third party support occurring and also consumers became loyal to their very first videogame and computer system. In January 1985 after Coleco announced they were stopping production on both the ColecoVision and ADAM computer, the price on both the ColecoVision game unit and ADAM computer dropped. Coleco needed to clear out its inventory. Officially, Coleco was selling the ColecoVision game system brand new for $110 directly. In addition, many retail stores were clearing out of the ColecoVision for $99.99 or lower (Which is half the price of original 1982 list price). Some retail stores were selling Expansion module #1, #2, Roller Controller, and Super Action Controllers for around $20 or $30 on clearance. Of course, now a brand new factory sealed ColecoVision system in the 21st Century can run between $500-$1,000+ on EBAY. Back in 1985 game cartridges like Zaxxon were being sold for only $16 from Coleco directly. There were many retail stores in 1985 and 1986+ that were selling ColecoVision cartridges and ADAM programs for around $3-$4+. In 1985 Coleco was selling the standalone ADAM directly to people’s homes for only $299.95 (instead of the 1983 price of $800), also the ADAM expansion module #3 was being sold directly for $199.95 (instead of the 1983 price of $600). In addition, TV auction style info commercials, and retail stores started selling the complete standalone ADAM’s factory new for only $160-$199.95 price range. The complete ADAM Expansion module #3 was being sold factory new for around $99.99. At these prices they were way below what it cost Coleco to manufactory the computers. I think I purchased one extra ADAM at these prices, however I should have been smarter and purchased several ADAM’s at that price for spare parts. Since now ADAM spare parts are going for 10 times those prices. The bare ADAM printer power supply is currently being sold for $99.95 online in 2017 , and some people back in 1986 were able to get a complete Expansion Module #3 ADAM computer with printer new in the box for that price on clearance. In addition, the people that spent $800 on the standalone ADAM when it first came out were getting an older version of the ADAM with more bugs in it. The ADAM computers being sold factory new in the box for $160-$199.95 back around 1986 were the latest R80 bug free version (They had the latest memory console with R80 Smartwriter, they had the latest Digital Data Drives that were more reliable versions, and they had the latest style of daisy wheel printers). Coleco kept making improvements on everything from hardware and software. When they saw a major or minor problem, they would come out with a better version for almost everything related to the ADAM design. Therefore, the people getting the ADAM’s for the cheapest prices were also getting the latest and best quality ADAM’s that had most the bugs fixed. People that spent $800 for their ADAM computer were more dedicated to spending $200 or more on a disk drive and other components. However, some people that only spent $200 or less on their ADAM computer were less dedicated to spending more money on software and hardware. When the ADAM first came out in 1983, soon after its release several third party companies started developing backup software utility programs for the ADAM. There were many cartridge copy programs that allowed people to make a backup copy of any game cartridge up to 32K in size onto a floppy disk or Digital Data Pack. Several game cartridges could fit on a 1.44MB 3.5 inch disk media. In general, 99% of game rom images could be copied and ran on 1.44MB 3.5 inch disks with no problems. However 1% or less than 1% of game cartridges rom images needed to be either loaded into a minimum of a 64K memory expander or needed to be modified for various reasons to work properly from Digital Data Packs and disks. Since Coleco did not use any encryption or copy protection for ColecoVision cartridges and ADAM software, any Coleco and almost any third party software program could be backed up to a Digital Data Pack or Disk drive. While I am all for people being able to make a fair use backup copy of computer software that they purchased. What was disappointing is that there was wide spread piracy in the ADAM community online on BBS boards and with some individuals at local ADAM user groups around the country. Being able to make a perfect bit for bit backup copy of any ColecoVision cartridge or ADAM software also hurt Coleco’s software sales. One third party company I spoke with, told me that all their software programs are required to have both a cartridge and a disk or data pack installed at the exact same time. By forcing consumers to use a special cartridge and disk at the exact same time for every program, this made it impossible to copy the software since no USB or SD cartridge existed on the market (those were 21st Century inventions). However, since this third party companies releases always had both a cartridge and Digital Data Pack in the package, the software programs cost around $60+ and they stopped releasing products for the ADAM. Other third party companies offered new software for $30+ on disk media. Now Walter’s Software company was known as the best or one of the best third party software developers for the ADAM. Walter’s Software released several programs on 3.5 inch disks. The latest finished elementary operating system created by Coleco was the unreleased EOS 6 which was made available in rom format over the years (The ADAM computers shipped with EOS 5 which has more bugs in it). Coleco was working on EOS 7 but it was never finished (OS 7 was finished according to technical documents from Coleco). Walter Software created EOS 9 operating system for the ADAM which was the best quality operating system. When running Walter’s ADAM Desktop from cartridge or prom, or disk it would install EOS 9 on the ADAM computer. Many of Walter’s Software latest products would install EOS 9 before the program would load. Walter Software used professional Smartkey functions just like the original Coleco programs. In addition, Walter Software and at least one other company used copy protection technology on their 3.5 inch disks so that they could protect their hard work from being copied (This resulted in higher sales and Walter’s Software produced new software for the ADAM up until the early 1990’s). Coleco’s customer service department was almost always professional and helpful. One time I purchased a game cartridge at the store, and for some reason the instruction manual and game controller overlays were not included in the box. Therefore, I called Coleco’s toll free customer service line, and Coleco mailed me a free instruction manual and game overlays. Back in the 80's I informed some people at a large local ADAM users group about what Coleco did for me. To my surprise some people started abusing the Coleco customer service toll free number. Some people that did not own a game cartridge but had a copy of the rom image on disk or Digital Data pack were calling Coleco up and getting them to send a free instruction manual and game overlays to a game they never purchased. When Coleco stopped production on both the ColecoVision and ADAM computer in January of 1985, the layoffs started occurring in 1985. There were many stories floating around in ADAM user groups about former Coleco employees that took some unreleased hardware and unreleased software home before they were laid off since they did not want their hard work that they worked on for months or years being destroyed. The unreleased Coleco hardware as far as I know never was developed by any third party company (except of course the OPCODE games Supergame module). However many unreleased Coleco software was released into public domain by former Coleco employees since software is much more easier for a person to duplicate. Anyways in late 1985 someone at one of the ADAM users groups I was at showed up with Address Book Filer on 5.25 inch floppy disk with the official Coleco color disk label (and possible the package itself), and in reality Address Book Filer had only been officially released on Digital Data Pack. In addition Jeopardy was never released by Coleco but someone came to the ADAM user group with a copy of Jeopardy with its original copywrited two screen logo boot screens (A few people at one of the ADAM users groups was good friends with a Coleco employee in New York and was able to obtain unreleased Coleco products (mainly software) ). Over the years there have been several unreleased Coleco and third party programs that have popped up out of nowhere, that most people never knew existed (Like AtariSoft’s 1983 Pacman and Dig Dug for the ColecoVision). Anyways what is funny is that some people in 1985 were calling up Coleco customer service and asking them if they had the Jeopardy instruction manual for the ADAM computer game, since they had the unreleased Jeopardy game. Of course Coleco would say Jeopardy was never released and the instruction manual is not available. However once I heard about a Coleco customer service lady that wanted a copy of Jeopardy for themselves, so they tried to get the caller to send Coleco a copy of the Jeopardy program. In 1986 when one called the Coleco customer service number, I noticed that there was a lot less employees in the department. Also in 1986 the only thing left to purchase from Coleco was Blank Digital Data Packs, Ribbon Cartridges, and Daisy Wheel’s. Gone were all the hardware and software products (supporting documents are attached to prove this). One time I called several times during a week instead of the usually once a month. When a company or individual has a toll free number service, since they are paying for the call, they also get to see all the numbers that call them using automatic number id technology. One day I got a call from Coleco customer service asking me why I call them several times a week. I was surprised by the call and did not have a good answer at the time (Of course I called to order products, ask questions, and technical help). I guess I was that nerd kid that was also a Coleco fan that sometimes ended up calling too many times. At some point in 1988 or 1989 the Coleco toll free number and customer service department disappeared (toll free number was disconnected). A year or couple years later in the early 90’s ADAM House the biggest third party ADAM dealer was able to obtain the Coleco toll free number. However now the toll free number belongs to some telemarking type company. Attached are some items from history that some people might find interesting. Coleco 1982 handwritten letter information.pdf 3 1982 Coleco memo's sent to a consumer.pdf February 10th 1983 Coleco letter with Feb pricing sheet.pdf Various Coleco letters.pdf Coleco order form (late 1984 or early 1985).pdf Coleco ADAM order form (1985).pdf ColecoVision bumper sticker.pdf I love ADAM sticker.pdf