HDTV1080P

Attached is a sample page from the Official unreleased in house Coleco technical manual that came in two parts. I am guessing this manual is most likely online somewhere now (This manual also shows how to create Supergames for the ADAM computer). Coleco released EOS 5 in the ADAM computers, however EOS 6 was completed but was unreleased. EOS 6 has less bugs when compared to EOS 5 and is 100% compatible with existing software (some people were able to get the Coleco EOS 6 rom image and place the eprom into their physical Coleco ADAM computers). OS 7 was finished by Coleco however there was an EOS 7 that Coleco was working on but did not finish. Walter’s Software EOS 9 is based on Coleco’s EOS 7 but with improvements. The ADAM Desktop cartridge rom image will install EOS 9 operating system when one pushes or pulls the cartridge reset button. sample page.pdf

Thanks for the post you are correct. In another thread I briefly mentioned EVE Electronics speech card, 80 column unit, etc. E and T had the first 720K disk drive conversion (Or at least the most popular conversion that became the standard prom format for the ADAM community for years). There was a lot of third party support for the ADAM thanks to peoples hard work. Unique to Micro innovations was that they were not converting a Coleco 160K disk drive to 320K or 720K. Mark was engineering disk drives from the ground up and was the first ADAM company to make a ADAMNet 1.44MB disk drive and ADAMNet hard drive. Also many people liked his 2MB memory expander that interfaced with the MIB3 card. I have been away from the ADAM for awhile and perhaps other companies besides Microfox technology is still developing hardware for the ADAM like the Coleco ADAM microSD floppy Emulator product. Or perhaps MicroFox technologies is the last remaining hardware manufactory for the ADAM. I know ATARIMAX makes a SD cartridge and OPCODE games makes Supergame modules, and both of those products are very nice ColecoVision/ADAM products. I am talking about dedicated hardware products that only run on the ADAM and not ColecoVision.

Back in 1983 when the Coleco ADAM was first released, consumers only had Digital Data Drives with 256K of storage on the center directory and right directory Digital Data Packs. Digital Data packs were a step above the much more slower manual cassette tapes that were used for other brands of computer systems. The Coleco Digital Data Pack was a high-speed automated tape that operated similar to a floppy disk in some ways. However, there was reliability problems with Digital Data Packs. Turning the ADAM computer power on and off would most of the time damage the data on the Digital Data Pack if it was left in the drive, and if it was a software program, many times it would no longer load. Also some people would eject and reinsert the Digital Data Packs while the drive is still running, which resulted in the tape being completely destroyed and wrapped around a hub inside the cassette shell. In 1984 Coleco came out with an external ADAMNet 160K ADAM Disk Drive that uses 5.25 inch floppy disks for $199.95. The only advantage of the Digital Data Packs was the 256K storage space. However many ADAM owners decided to purchase a 160K floppy disk drive since it was more reliable and much faster when compared to Digital Data Packs. In 1984 Coleco started coming out with games and programs on floppy disks. Coleco also started re-releasing famous games and programs on floppy disks since there were too many complaints about the Digital Data Packs. However after the original 1983 SmartWriter rom bug issue that made the original ADAM’s built in word processor unusable when one first turned on the computer, and after reliability issues with Digital Data Packs with some consumers that did not know how to use the drives properly, the launch of a Disk drive in 1984 was too late. The ADAM had too much bad reputation that Coleco had to cease production on computers in January of 1985. After 1985 it was hard for some ADAM owners to find a Coleco 160K disk drive. In the 1986-1990 years Coleco ADAM disk drives sometimes sold for $100 higher than their original list price. There was not enough ADAM Disk Drives in existence for the existing ADAM owners that wanted one. Once and awhile refurbished or used ones turned up. The Coleco ADAM disk drives were not perfect, sometimes new ones were broken and sometimes they only lasted a few years before needing repaired. Some third party companies for around $200, $300, or $400 were offering to remove the 160K Coleco disk drive from the original Coleco case and to convert the disk drive to 320K 5.25 inch double sided or 720K 3.5 inch disk drive option and to make modifications to the Coleco Adamnet controller board so the new larger sizes could be seen. At some point a high-end third party company out of Reston Virginia became interested in making hardware products for the ADAM. It might have been around the year 1988. However, by the year 1991 Micro innovations had become the best third party hardware developer for the ADAM in terms of reliability, customer service, and easy to use quality products. Also their products were available in large QTY’s of several hundred’s of pieces for large mail order companies like ADAM House. However somewhere around 1994 Micro Innovations stopped making products for the ADAM and had a big close out clearance sale of all remaining inventory. Micro innovations developed internal Memory cards for the ADAM as large as 2MB with a suggested list price of $249.95 (64K memory cards were as low as $29.95). In addition, Micro innovations had an internal Multi-purpose board that had two RS-232 serial ports and one parallel printer port (Plus it had a Boot PROM socket for items like Walter’s Software ADAM Desktop that uses the EOS 9 operating system). That MIB3 card had a list price of $74.95 and a sale price of $49.95. All excellent products. Micro Innovations also had 40MB hard disk drives for the ADAM and floppy drives up to 1.44MB 3.5 inch. The Micro Innovations disk drives were made using state of the art components and most of their disk drives still work fine today. These Micro Innovations hard drives and disk drives controller boards, power supplies, and cases are engineered from scratch and do not use any Coleco parts. With the Coleco disk drives one could only have a maximum of two disk drives connected at once with the ADAM computer. With Micro Innovations disk drives up to 4 disk drives could be connected to the ADAM. Micro Innovation disk drives would ship with the standard disk 1 and disk 2 prom, however one could special order a disk 3 and disk 4 prom that worked with special third party ADAM programs like File Manager. The 5.25 inch Micro innovations disk drives had an original list price of $199.95 and a sale clearance price of $124.95. These disk drives were double sided and could be ordered with a 160k, 320k, or 360K prom. Most people got the 320k prom since it was 100% compatible with existing Coleco ADAM software on 160K disk and one could use the full 320K of space for blank floppy disks if they wanted. The 160K and 360K proms were to read special IBM format 5.25 disks. The 720K 3.5 disk drives had a list price of $249.95. The top of the line 1.44MB 3.5 inch Micro Innovations disk drives became very popular in the 90’s and they had a list price of $299.95 and a clearance price of $199.95. However, they now sale on EBAY for around $500 when one does see them offered. The 1.44MB 3.5 inch drive can also read 720K 3.5 inch disks. Micro innovations over the years made changes to the floppy disk drive power supplies only once as far as I am aware. That is why some floppy disk drives have a DB9 power connector on the back since they use a different style of power supply. Third party ADAM software companies started releasing programs on 3.5 inch media in 720K and 1.44MB format. If the program was only 720K or lower in size most companies released the 3.5 inch disk in the 720K E&T software format so that the disk could work on both 720K and 1.44MB floppy drives. Some companies took special orders for programs on 1.44MB 3.5 inch disks since native 1.44MB disks would load a little faster when compared to 720K disks. Terry Fowlers famous Invoicer V3 was released on 3.5 inch media. Walter Software had a lot of programs available on 3.5 inch disks and they came factory sealed in shrink wrap plastic style bag. In addition, Walter Software and at least one other company released their 3.5 inch ADAM programs with a special copy protection scheme that looks for a bad sector on the disk in a certain spot and various other copy protection methods. Some ADAM owners were known for making unauthorized copies of software and passing the program around to other people, so third party companies like Walters Software protected their hard work by making it impossible for an ADAM 3.5 inch disk drive to copy the software (I am glad 3.5 inch disks are very reliable since many original third party releases cannot be copied). ADAM Formatter 3 on 3.5 inch media contained a special version of the program that would format up to 1.44MB 3.5 inch disks. Formatter 3 was the best EOS 9 based formatting program for ADAM floppy disks. It used nice fancy Smartkey’s, etc. File Manager 3.01 was also released on 3.5 inch floppies, however the picture below is of the 5.25 inch floppy disk version (File Manager 3.01 is also one of my favorite programs for the ADAM for backing up and editing programs. File Manager 3.01 also lets one use up to 4 floppy disk drives at the same time). Walters Software came out with a special 247K version of SpellingAID that literally took up 247K on the 3.5 inch disk (Once it was unpacked it required a 512K or larger memory expander). This 1988 SpellingAID program loaded all at once into the ADAM memory expander and for the first time Smartwriter owners had their first spell checking program for the ADAM computer. You need a minimum of a 512K memory expander to use this special version. RAMboot was also popular program on 3.5 inch media. Around the mid 1990’s all the factory new Micro Innovations disk drives dried up. For another 20 years people looked for used disk drives on EBAY for as much as $500+. Even then, floppy disk drives for the ADAM computer were rare. In 2016 Microfox Technologies released the Coleco ADAM microSD floppy Emulator. This device is suppose to be better quality and faster than the Micro innovations 1.44MB floppy drive (However I cannot verify that claim since I have not taken the time to setup my ADAM computer and test the product out). If it works like it is suppose to then there is no need to even own a floppy disk drive anymore and for that matter no need to own a hard disk drive either. Sometime in the future I might try out the 2 microSD floppy Emulator’s I purchased back in 2016. Attached are some pictures and a copy of Micro innovations documents that have been converted to PDF format. Micro Innovations AdamNet floppy Disk Drive instructions.pdf Micro Innovations Inventory close out price list.pdf

ColecoVision owners no longer use the ColecoVision power supply after they purchased Expansion module #3 the ADAM computer. Both the standalone ADAM and the Expansion module #3 ADAM use the power supply in the ADAM printer to power the computer and the ColecoVision motherboard. The ADAM printer has always been a negative part of the ADAM with complaints going all the way back to 1983. A cost cutting decision by Coleco was to not develop a standalone power supply for the ADAM. All ADAM owners always had to use the ADAM printer to power the ADAM. Back in 1983 a letter quality Daisy wheel printer was nice, however the ADAM printer is also extremely noisy and can sometimes over heat since the power supply for the entire computer is inside the printer. Coleco should have designed a standalone power supply for the ADAM. If they would have did this then they could have released the ADAM without the printer for a few hundred dollars cheaper. People that used external third party printer interfaces with a Laser printer or other external printer for the ADAM were forced to use the Adam printer also so that they could power their ADAM computer. As the ADAM printers started breaking down or were not being used anymore. People started tearing apart their ADAM printer and removing the computer system power supply from the printer. Many ADAM owners were also able to purchase the original Coleco printer power supply between 1985-1990 since Coleco sold a lot of spare parts to mail order companies. There were so many people taking the power supply out of their Coleco printer and/or buying the bare internal Coleco ADAM printer power supply from mail order companies, that third party companies started making a little plastic or metal case covers to screw on top of the bare Coleco printer power supply that powered the entire ADAM computer system. Micro Innovations never released a power supply for the ADAM computer as far as I am aware. Many companies did not want to touch this issue. However, with 1MB and 2MB memory expanders hooked up to the ADAM along with other devices, the ADAM printer power supply could not output enough power. Some mail order companies in extremely small QTY’s developed external third party power supplies for the ADAM computer. They used an old ADAM power cord and converted a factory new 230WATT power supply so that it worked with the ADAM computer. This 230watt power supply was more than enough power to power anything hooked up to the ADAM including 2MB memory expanders and anything else located in the 3 internal slots. Also the 230watt PC power supply had a on off button with a internal fan. In addition, this external new 230watt power supply would power the Coleco ADAM printer when the printer was connected to the DB9 jack on the side of the power supply. One could leave the ADAM printer connected and hit the on/off switch on the printer when they wanted to turn on and off the printer. Since an external power supply was powering both the ADAM computer and the Coleco printer, the printer lasted longer since there was less heat occurring. Pictured below is the Coleco ADAM printer, bare internal Coleco power supply that was inside the printer, and the 230watt third party ADAM power supply that was top of the line back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. In the future, it would be possible to re-release a ADAM power supply using either a modified PC power supply like pictured below or design a custom power supply made from scratch. A lot of third party companies did not want to make a power supply for the ColecoVision and ADAM computer for various reasons. That is why products like pictured below are rare:

When Coleco designed Supergames and other programs for the ColecoVision and ADAM they used a unreleased in house program called “Graphics Design Cartridge”, which had the words Project Name by Line in the title screen. Also while playing a game on the ADAM computer or what every the image was on the screen at the time, as soon as one would hit the cartridge reset button the ADAM would do a screen capture and with this Graphics Design program the image could be modified. There was also a 19,200 baud option for Coleco’s unreleased parallel/serial interface so program developers could transfer data back and forth from a external computer and the ADAM computer.

I know some original Coleco ADAM owners from 1983 are more dedicated then I am. Some Coleco ADAM fans have been to several Adam conventions called ADAMCon’s and I have only been to two. Perhaps maybe someone has been to all 29 Adam conventions? My first ADAMCon convention I went to was ADAMCon 1 in Orlando Florida between October 7-11th 1989. Perhaps that might have been the biggest convention since it was around 4 years after Coleco announced they were leaving the computer and videogame business. At least Coleco kept their toll free number open for a few years, however in late 1989 the toll free Coleco number was disconnected (might have been disconnected in 1988 but I noticed it in 1989). A year or two later is when ADAM House the biggest third party Coleco ADAM dealer was able to obtain Coleco’s toll free number for their ADAM business. However ADAM House no longer has Coleco’s toll free number, and instead some other company now has the number (some telemarketer has the number and their business model has nothing to do with Coleco products). I ran into an interesting former Coleco employee at the first ADAM convention. He had pictures of the unreleased working prototype Adamnet serial and parallel unit that needed no software patches. All third party company serial and parallel devices always required special software since it did not use ADAMNet. At ADAMCON 1 I met many interesting companies displaying hardware and software products. There was even an Adult company making what was called soft-core pornography for the ADAM. However the graphics on the ADAM were not detailed enough to be considered to be pornographic. This company mainly had text adventure style Adult games for the ADAM computer and also a version of the Basic language that used profanity for command words. To make a long story short, the company’s owner wanted me to sale their products, but I ended up never selling their products to anyone. Back in the late 1980’s many people boycotted this companies Adult products and any ADAM dealer that sold or tried to sale the products. The ADAM was designed to be a Family Computer system and many Christians and secular families purchased the ADAM computer for family style games. There were 3rd party Bible games made for the ADAM like a Bible Jeopardy question pack, and other Bible games like a Bible flash card pack. The second and so far the last ADAMCon IV convention I went to was in Cleveland Ohio between July 23rd to July 27th in 1992. Micro Innovations was there having an excellent display of new products. Micro innovations was the best hardware developer for the ADAM with 1.44MB 3.5 inch floppy drives, hard drives, memory expenders, and other products. I lived very close to the Micro Innovations headquarters in Virginia back in the 80’s and 90’s. I believe Micro Innovations stopped producing products for the ADAM computer back in 1993 or 1994. The two ADAMCon conventions I went to were ADAMCon One and ADAMCON 4, and both were both professionally run. The only reason why I stopped using my ADAM computer around 1993 or 1994 and went with a Laptop using Windows 3.1, is because I needed a professional word processor with 80 columns for college. The spelling checkers with words underlined in red had really advanced over the years and much better than the ADAM word processor. So yes after 10 or 11 years of using the ADAM computer, I finally went to a Windows 3.1 Laptop with a monochrome screen. I ended up selling that Laptop and years later building several different desktop PC’s using Windows operating system. I never purchased a Laptop or notebook computer again and only used desktop computers since they are faster and easier to work on. However, I have heard reliable stories of some retired older people in their 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s that purchased an ADAM in or around 1983 and used no other computer during their entire lifetime. Then some of these peoples physical bodies died when they passed away around the 21st Century. The ADAM computer was their one and only computer used for around 20 years. Sometimes people fall in love with their very first videogame system and very first computer system. Now I mainly only use the ADAM computer for videogames. Attached is a picture of an ADAMCON One T-shirt that people received for attending the first AdamCon. There is a funny story about someone at the convention that went into a bar to try and pick up a women between the daily conventions. The lady was very interested in the guy, however as soon as the guy unzipped his jacket in the bar, the lady saw the guys blue ADAM shirt and did not see the small computer system letters below the large ADAM logo. The lady in the bar lost complete interest in the guy after seeing the large ADAM logo on the t-shirt. The ADAMCon IV t-shirt was completely re-designed and it clearly has a big picture of an ADAM computer with a monitor and the words “International ADAM computer convention ADAMCON IV”. This way no one gets confused about the meaning of the t-shirt message. In addition, there was ADAMCON IV hats made up at the Convention. It appears that all or most the modern ADAMCON conventions in the 21st Century are located in Canada instead of the United States. There must be a lot more dedicated ADAM owners in Canada now.

In 1983 everyone used 256K Digital Data Packs with the Coleco ADAM. Then in 1984 Coleco came out with a 160K 5.25 inch floppy Disk Drive for around $199.95, which made Digital Data Packs less popular. However most ADAM owners never experienced the Coleco disk drive since a small QTY were made before Coleco stopped computer and videogame production in January of 1985. This is what the Digital Data Pack retail package looks like.

In 1983 the Coleco ADAM met Federal Communications standards for radio frequency interference acceptable levels. However, in 1984 Coleco found out that when people started adding additional controllers, and peripherals to the ADAM, that the interference levels were to high. Therefore starting in 1984 all Expansion module #3 ADAM computers and all standalone ADAM computers started shipping with a free RF-1 Kit that had special sleeves that would make sure the Coleco ADAM met FCC acceptable interference guidelines. These sleeves would shield RF noise and they were required to be installed on game controllers, RF TV output, and all AdamNet devices. People that did not use the better quality composite video output also discovered that the ColecoVision/ADAM RF channel 3 and 4 output could have improved picture and sound quality with less interference if the kit was installed. Also the shorter the connection cable to the TV will improve the picture and sound quality of the ColecoVision/ADAM system. In mid to late 1984 Coleco got smart and the latest R80 memory consoles had built in RF-1 sleeves internally placed on the ADAMNet jacks and printer locations. This met that the RF-1 kit did not need to be used if the sleeves were already internally installed at the factory. Attached is the Coleco ADAM RF-1 Kit PDF instruction sheet that came with many ADAM systems shipped out in 1984. Coleco ADAM RFI-1 kit.pdf

The Coleco ADAM came with nice quality set of instruction manuals. However as the system got a little cheaper in price a year or so later, the package of manuals started getting printed with less quality. For example the first edition of the SmartBasic manual had a color back and front with a professional binder style. The new revised SmarBasic manual was plain black and white and the text was harder to read (Plus this cheaper quality manual does not age well and is falling apart when opening it). I get the feeling this thread is turning into a modern day show and tale:

Here is a picture of a third party audio cassette tape that sold in retail stores. This was a one hour audio manual on how to use the ADAM computer.

In the 1980’s there was a third party company called Eve Electronic Systems. They made hardware products for the Coleco ADAM system. There was an EVE speech synthesizer unit with a clock calendar that plugged into the side of the ADAM. One could type words that were in a dictionary and for the first time the ADAM computer could speak (Of course there were some ColecoVision games that spoke a few words that did not need any special speech device connected). I use to have the EVE speech synthesizer but I sold it many years ago. It also had a built in real time data and time clock with a watch battery for power backup. Eve Electronics was the first company to make an 80 Column expansion system that only worked under the CP/M operating system. EVE Electronics also had a parallel Interface unit so one could connect a parallel printer like a Laser printer. Attached is the EVE Electronic Systems catalog #3 front cover. The only disadvantage of the Expansion Module #3 ADAM computer was that the 1982 ColecoVision base unit only had RF channel 3 and 4 output. In 1983 and especially in the years to come, some ADAM owners were switching to the standalone ADAM system, since the standalone ADAM had the better quality composite video output with RCA audio once the Coleco DIN monitor cable was connected. Coleco made a special monitor cable for the standalone ADAM that was sold separately, however it was rare item to find since it was made in very small quantities (Many third party companies came up with their own ADAM composite video and audio cable since it was almost impossible to find the original Coleco version). The standalone ADAM used a DIN plug for audio and video output. The standalone ADAM also had composite video RCA jack and RF channel 3/4 RCA jack, but that special DIN plug was needed if one wanted both composite video with audio. Back in 1983 and even in the years to come, most people did not own a high-end CRT tube TV with composite video inputs. Most TV’s in use had RF antenna inputs with channel 3 and 4. One problem with the standalone ADAM is that it was only 99% compatible with ColecoVision cartridges. There were a few cartridges that did not run correctly on the standalone ADAM (like Defender, and at least one other). There was many cartridge backup programs for the ADAM computer that allowed one to copy up to 32K cartridge ROM images to a floppy disk or Digital Data Pack (Not until the 21st Century did someone make a ColecoVision game cartridge bigger then 32KB). Several cartridge rom images could fit on a 1.44MB 3.5 disk media. A computer programmer made modifications to Defender and other games so that they would run correctly on the standalone ADAM. Some people preferred the Expansion module #3 ADAM computer since the ColecoVision game system is 100% compatible with all game cartridges without any modification needing to be made, and also people liked the ColecoVision game system since it held two ColecoVision controllers inside its base unit case. Eve Electronics came out with the very first composite video modification conversion kit for the ColecoVision game system. This added a composite video output and an audio output to the ColecoVision game system and it also was 100% compatible with Expansion module #3 the ADAM computer. Attached is a sample page of the EVE Electronics System catalog. Some third party company also made excellent dust covers for the ColecoVision, Expansion module #3 ADAM, and standalone ADAM. They covered the ADAM printer, keyboard, memory console, and ColecoVision. A couple sample pictures are attached of what the dust covers looked liked along with a sample picture of a third party ADAM composite monitor cable with audio. EVE Electronics front page catalog.pdf

My expansion module #3 ADAM computer was purchased in 1983 and it was reliable after around the 3rd exchange. There was a Smartwriter bug where Coleco shipped them all not working for the built in Smartwriter program. After the software rom was coded differently to get rid of the bug, later on the ADAM’s were very reliable. I used my ADAM as a Supergame machine for games that were better quality when compared to the ColecoVision games. I also used Smartwriter word processing all the time, sometimes ADAMCalc, sometimes Smartfiler, and other programs. I also did a little programming in SmartBasic. I switched from an ADAM to a Windows 3.1 Laptop sometime around 1993+. Then after that, I built several desktop computers and never purchased a Notebook/Laptop computer again.

The storage media is one factor, however other factors like the CPU, graphics card, etc. Quality of the game play is also one of the most important factors in a system. The Microsoft Xbox One S is currently the only system on the market with a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray drive. The ability to offer 100GB of optical storage is a advantage for game developers that want to make huge size videogames (If compression is used more than 100GB is possible with optical disc. Possible 128GB or more depending on the lossless data compression scheme). Of course, with consumer 10Gbps download and 10Gbps upload Internet speeds in big cities and 1Gbps download and 1Gbps upload Internet speeds in smaller cities, the ability to download large size videogames to a solid state/hard drive is becoming popular. Some people believe the future generation of videogame consoles will have no optical drive, but instead a 10Gbps Ethernet jack and advanced WI-FI options to delivery games to a 10TB or 20TB hard drive (And the solid state drive will serve as a cache storage option).

My first videogame system was the 1982 ColecoVision and my first computer was the Expansion module #3 ADAM computer that was purchased back in 1983. In addition, I owned a Coleco Expansion module #1 Atari 2600 adapter. For a little over a decade I was happy with my 8-bit ADAM computer for arcade games like Donkey Kong the Supergame, Zaxxon the Supergame, and others. In addition, as I got older I did not have time for videogames. Work, School, and various projects kept me from the videogame world. In my free time, I would rent and purchase Laserdiscs and watch those high quality movies that had much better quality video and audio when compared to VHS tape. In September of 1993 Pioneer released a very unique product in North America called the LaserActive Interactive Entertainment system. Back in 1993 this was the best videogame system on the market in terms of picture and audio quality. It was a 16-bit videogame system that ran circles around the 1982 ColecoVision and 1983 ADAM. When I saw the Laseractive system I was amazed at the video and audio quality. The Laseractive system not only plays 16 bit Sega Genesis games and 16 bit NEC Turbo Grafx games on both cartridge (called rom cards for NEC) and CD-ROM but it also plays exclusive 12 inch LD-ROM discs for the Sega system and the NEC Turbo Grafx system. The 12 inch LD-ROM games are amazing for the Pioneer Laseractive system. The DVD format did not come out until 1997 and before DVD, Laserdisc was King for picture and sound quality. Laserdisc had the highest quality standard definition resolution and offered 5.1 lossy DTS surround sound at 1.54Mbps. There were 4 control packs for the Laseractive system. There was the Sega Genesis Pack, the NEC Turbo Grafx pack, the Karaoke Pack, and the latest pack was the computer interface pack. There was also a 3-D goggle adapter. Pioneer never released Dragon’s Lair or Space Ace for the system, however if one had the computer pack and the actual Laserdisc from the arcade, in theory it would be possible to make a program on a IBM or Macintosh computer that would make it possible to be exactly like the arcade game, instead of the poor quality version of Dragon’s Lair like the ADAM computer had. The Laseractive system also played Laserdisc movies and audio CD’s. The Pioneer LaserActive system in September 1993 was the best videgame system on the market, however it also was the most expensive with the LaserActive unit costing around $970 plus the control packs were optional items costing hundreds of dollars. The 12 inch LD-ROM games cost around $100 each. In 1996 Pioneer electronics discontinued the system that was too expensive for the average consumer. It is estimated that only 10,000 LaserActive systems were sold. I ended up purchasing a few LaserActive systems in the 1990’s at a retail store and mail order places since it was the best videogame system at the time. Also the Laseractive system was being cleared out at around $300 at some places, and some places were throwing in one or two game packs for free or for only a $100 more. The LaserActive system was a major improvement over the 1983 Coleco ADAM system and also I had a large selection of Laserdiscs and audio CD’s that I could play on Pioneer’s Laseractive system. I also purchased all 4 control packs, 3D goggles, and every 12 inch LD-ROM videogame made for the system. It has become a true collector’s item since only 10,000 LaserActive systems were made and some of the games, and computer pack items were made in small QTY. Of course, I have not had or made much time to play with the LaserActive system. So far the Pioneer LaserActive system was my last videogame system I purchased. In November 2006 the Sony Playstation 3 with a 50GB BD-ROM drive was the best videogame system on the market. However in August 2016 Microsoft released the Xbox one S with a built in 100GB BD-ROM drive that plays native 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. As of August 2017 the XBOX One S is the best videogame system on the market. However when I have free time I normally 99% spend that time watch Blu-ray movie discs, and I have not purchased any modern videogame system. Thar Pioneer LaserActive system is the last videogame system I purchased. Information on the attached files Sometime around Christmas of 1993 or later I picked the attached Pioneer brochures up at a retail store. Because of limitations of this websites individual file size needing to be no more then 50MB maximum, I reduced the scan quality from 48 bit color at 1200dpi to 48bit color at 600dpi. 1200dpi looks better but takes more space. Even at the low 600dpi quality the first attachment had to be compressed using lossless zip compression in order to get the 10 page flyer under 50MB in size. Pioneer LaserActive flyer.zip Laseractive new software review.pdf

It is there now. I posted it and it had a spelling error in the name, so I deleted it, renamed it and uploaded it again.

I never purchased an IntelliVision, however there were features of that videogame system that attracted me. The IntelliVision came out in 1979, however it did not get a nationwide release until 1980 (That is when I got an opportunity to play some of its games in a retail store, graphics were a little better than the older 1977 Atari 2600). The IntelliVision was so popular in 1980 that the videogame system was not discontinued until 1990 and by then it had sold an estimated 3.5 million units. My first videogame system was the much more powerful 1982 ColecoVision system which I turned into a ADAM computer with Expansion module #3 in 1983. The ADAM had Supergames that were even better than the ColecoVision. However the ColecoVision/ADAM went out of production in January of 1985. Only 2 million ColecoVision’s were sold. Therefore the IntelliVision was a more popular videogame system with 3.5 million units sold, however it took 10 years to reach that number. The less powerful Atari 2600 from 1977 to its discontinued date in January 1992, sold 30 million units. Attached are three different samples of the IntelliVision brochures that I picked up in a retail store back around 1980-81 and 1982. Before I went with the ColecoVision around August of 1982, my parents and I were considering purchasing the IntelliVision in 1981 and we were interested in getting the Mattel Keyboard Component in 1981 after listening to a retail store sales pitch. However, the ADAM computer ended up being more popular when compared to the Mattel Keyboard component (Only around 4,000 keyboard components were manufactured by Mattel, versus a maximum of 500,000 ADAM computers were made by Coleco). Mattel did come out with the Aquarius home computer in June 1983, however it was discontinued 4 months later in October of 1983. The Coleco ADAM computer was much more powerful with nice graphics hardware that was based around the ColecoVision’s arcade quality game capability. However, Mattel was smart when engineering the CPU for the Aquarius. The Aquarius used a Ziog Z80A processor similar to what the ColecoVision/ADAM used. 3 different IntelliVision brochures.pdf

My first videogame system was the ColecoVision system in 1982 and then the Expansion Module #3 ADAM computer in 1983. I have never owned a Nintendo videogame console. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released on October 18th in the year 1985 in North America (Japan had the console in July 15th of 1983). After Coleco stopped production on the ColecoVision/ADAM in January 1985, it made sense to release the Nintendo in October of 1985 in North America. In the late 80’s I briefly played the system at a relative’s house. The NES is a little better when compared to the ColecoVision/ADAM since it has 52 colors instead of only 16 colors with the older ColecoVision, plus the ColecoVision only had 32 sprites and the NES has 64 sprites. The ColecoVision sold 2 million units, however the NES was much more popular and sold 64 million units in Japan with 34 million of those units being in the USA. The NES was discontinued on August 14th 1995 in North America and September 25th 2003 in Japan. I would one day like to try Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Donkey Kong 3, and Popeye on the NES (don’t have a NES but in theory the games might be better than the Coleco ADAM version. The Coleco ADAM versions of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior were the best in North America up until the year 1985). Anyways attached is a October 1985 color brochure on Nintendo’s first videogame system that I picked up in a retail store sometime in the mid to late 80’s. Nintendo brochure.pdf

Today I located these 3 different Texas Instruments brochures that were located in a envelope that came from Texas Instruments (envelope postmark is September 28th 1983). I scanned both the front and back covers for all brochures. So this thread has a total of 4 different brochures for the TI-99/4A. 1982 TI Front and back scan.pdf 1982 TI Home Program Library (back and front).pdf 1983 TI Home Program Library (back and front).pdf

The Arcadia 2001 came out in 1982 and was discontinued in 1984. Online websites claim the game unit was only available for 18 months at retail stores (perhaps that is true for major retail stores). However in the late 80’s I found a brand new one in the retail box for a ridiculously low price. I don’t remember the exact price but it was like around $20 since no one wanted it. It kind of reminds me of a Intellivision clone. The Missile War cartridge is like the Atari 2600 Missile Command in some ways. Attached is a front page scan of the brochure for the Arcadia 2001 that I picked up at a retail store. Arcade-2001 front cover scan.pdf

I use to own both the portable Coleco Quiz Wiz unit and the portable Coleco Electronic Quarterback football game that is located in both the 1978 and 1979 Coleco catalogs. Both of these products broke over the years, and I believe they were tossed out. When I use to play the portable Electronic Quarterback game it was enjoyable as my first handheld videogame, however the graphics were nothing more then red dashes that looked like this “_ _ _“ Each red dash was a football player and one had to move their red dash to the other side of the screen to make a touchdown without running into other players. It was the latest in state of the art handheld portable videogames. However, people would laugh at it today for its terrible graphics and beeping sound. The home pong machines that hooked up to a TV had better quality graphics and sound. As far as I can remember, I never did own another portable videogame device, in 1982 I fell in love with the ColecoVision at home and in 1983 the Expansion module #3 ADAM computer. Today in the 21st Century people can emulate a real ColecoVision/ADAM using special emulation software on a portable Smartphone or portable handheld tablet PC since technology has improved so much. Small 1979 Coleco catalog that came with the Coleco Quiz Wiz unit.pdf

Third party companies like Wico and Suncom started making controllers for the ColecoVision/ADAM around the year 1983 (There was even a third party company that made the Super-Stick CC for the ColecoVision/ADAM). Coleco even made miniature Arcade toy figures for games like Donkey Kong. Third party companies made fancy stick on Donkey Kong characters with moving eyes for around 99 cents and some people were able to purchase those for as low as 33 cents on clearance. Hallmark got into Pacman and Ms. Pacman arcade stickers. There was a big bubble in videogame systems and computers that peaked around 1982. Then between 1983 to 1985 a video game system and home computer crash occurred since there was literally to many different systems on the market. Coleco was effected big time by the crash and they completely stopped making computers and videogames in January of 1985. Wico Coleco controller seen in A page for a deptarment store catalog on the Coleco ADAM.pdf Sample pages of Suncom and Wico catalog.pdf Suncom order form.pdf Small 1978 Coleco catalog that came with the Coleco Quiz Wiz unit.pdf Donkey Kong Arcade figure package.pdf SUPER-STICK CC for ColecoVision.pdf

HesWare makes computer software and hardware for several different computer systems. In the 1983 catalog the Coleco ADAM is not mentioned, however in both the HesWare February 1984 Retail Price List and HesWare Winter 1984 catalog they mentioned the Coleco personal computer briefly. There were a total of 6 Coleco ADAM HesWare software packages that were going to be released on Digital Data Pack format according to the February retail price list. However as far as I am aware these 6 dedicated Coleco ADAM programs were never released. They must have decided for some reason to cancel the release at the last moment. HesWare February 1984 Retail Price List.pdf HesWare Winter 1994 catalog.pdf

Attached is the HesWare Fall 1983 Retail Price list and Summer 1983 catalog. HesWare was known for making software for several different computer systems, but mainly the Commodore 64 and VIC 20. The Atari, and IBM are some of the other systems the company supported with software. HesWare Fall 1983 Retail Price List.pdf HesWare Summer 1983 catalog.pdf

Here is the official Consumer price list for the First Quarter 1984 for Sierra On-line software for the ColecoVision/ADAM. What is interesting is that there was originally 5 dedicated ADAM games planned on Digital Data Pack for a 1984 release, however all 5 dedicated games for the ADAM were canceled. Sierra On-line price list for ColecoVision & ADAM.pdf

Here is an official order form from Sunrise Software where they mention their software is available on cartridge for the ColecoVision or Digital Data Pack for the ADAM computer. Sunrise Software for ColecoVision & ADAM.pdf