else

That's the rarer first edition "black box" version of the Portfolio and accessories. Nice.....

Second the advice request. I've got a Lady Bug that's in desperate need of a cap kit. I've owned it for over 10 years, but been too scared to do it -- give the possibility of death and all

My bad. I guess I'm just old enough to remember when everything on eBay was actually an auction....

Yikes! Starting bid is $3,000! Glad I got mine for a couple hundred a few years ago....

I have the large box, and it also has the little girl on it.

I know the ADAMCalc one: At the screen asking whether or not you want ADAMCalc's online help file you hit the <UP ARROW> and <RIGHT ARROW> together and then type in the word "surfnazi", you get a hidden screen showing the monogrammed initials of all the ADAMCalc programmers.

I've seen most of these before in some shape or form. With most Adam applications, you can press CONTROL-R to see the version number. You can even do this with SmartWriter (in typewriter mode, I believe) to see what version of firmware your Adam has (r80 is the latest). There are multiple versions out there of most software, as Coleco snuck in bug fixes as time went by.

Probably a dumbed down of AdamCalc. After all, there is precedent with Coleco doing this: Recipe Filer is a dumbed down version of Smart Filer Smart Letters and Forms is a dumbed down version of Smart Writer It seems Coleco was really trying to milk what few titles they had for the Adam by recycling them as "different" products. I wish a Coleco warehouse would be discovered one of these days. There's a few things now for the Adam that there seem to be only one or two in existence, yet seem to be finished products (this being one, the monitor cable set being the other).

Wow, that is REALLY cool!!! Must be practically a one-of-a-kind. Maybe they later rebranded it as AdamCALC or something?

Sounds good. I applaud your efforts. A comprehensive list is something that the Adam has been sorely missing, imho.... Oh, just thought of one more title you are missing: "Trolls Tale". I have it on DDP. The title screen mentions something about Coleco releasing it to the public domain. It's a fully playable graphic adventure game. It's a pretty short game though....

Best of EA was never officially released, as far as I can tell. Some other titles floating around are: SmartBasic 2.0 Adam Link II Adam Link III Not sure if these were done at Coleco or by hackers later on? Also some things about your list: 1) You might want to note that Dam Busters and Tax Planner were developed & released by Coleco Canada. They weren't released here in the U.S. 2) I don't think SmartLogo is the correct name. I believe it was just called "Logo" 3) Never heard of SimpleCalc before??? 4) I'd say it's pretty doubtful that Address Book Filer came on disk. I don't think the box that the AutoDialer comes in is big enough to fit a disk.

Loved Cosmic Avenger as a kid! It was one of the first Colecovision games we had, along with Smurf, Venture, Zaxxon, and of course Donkey Kong. It was pure gaming bliss back then for me and my brother! I must say, Coleco really had a solid group of launch titles. Not one stinker in the whole lot. I know it's trendy to complain about the Colecovision's choppy animation these days, but I tell you what -- we never noticed it back then as kids....

Just as with the Adam, the SGM wasn't going to add any "power" to the Colecovision. It was just going to add cheap mass storage. If you take the Expansion Module #3 version of the Adam, remove the printer and the keyboard, you are essentially left with what the SGM was going to be (only in a different case). So in many respects, the SGM was released -- only as an enhanced product called Adam.... Unfortunately Coleco bit off more than they could chew with the Adam product (where as the SGM would have been a much more manageable product). And the rest, is history....

Here's a listing for that building in the picture. Looks like it's been refaced since 1983 (or maybe just painted?). Notice in the description how it still says "former home of Coleco Toys". Funny how 20 years later, that's what it is remembered for.... 945 Asylum Ave, Hartford, Ct.

Looks fake to me. The lettering is off-center and crooked. If it's legit, it sure is a sloppy job....

Tempest -- were you able to get your disk drive working?

No advantages to the expansion module. In fact, you lose the Composite Video connector with it. That's really the only difference between the two. Only cool thing about the expansion module is that if you unplug the printer and keyboard, dim the lights really low, and squint your eyes really hard -- you can almost visualize it being the Super Game Module that I used to drool over in the magazines instead of the Adam . Or maybe that's just me ..... BTW, you would think that the expansion module version would be the easy one to find, since the Colecovision had a pretty large installed base at the time. But it seems like the stand-alone version out-numbers it by about 100 to 1 or better. I've never really understood why that is....

It didn't add any extra graphics or sound capabilities. It really just added a keyboard, a mass storage device, a printer, and some extra memory. In fact, even the stand-alone Adam contains a complete (separate) Colecovision inside it. If you have the stand alone version, you can open it up and you'll see two PCBs connected by a flat-ribbon cable. One is the Colecovision, the other is the Adam expansion board. So even in the stand alone version, the Adam effectively plugs in to the Colecovision (though I'm not sure if it's possible to actually unplug the board and use it just as a Colecovision -- there may be some simple signals like power, etc. that the Adam board supplies).

Magnavox 3000 pong unit. Nothing too special.

I guess OUT was supposed to mean "out away from the Adam" and IN was supposed to mean "in towards the Adam". See, clear as mud.

Maybe I can snap one later. It's nothing special though. Coleco never made cases for them. So it's just a ugly PCB with some chips on it. There's an official Coleco manual that came with it. It will load automatically. Make sure you've got the switch on the back set correctly. Also try plugging in to the other port on the back of the drive. I think one says in and the other says out (or some such nonsense), which always confused me. Otherwise, I hate say it, you may have a bad drive. Try giving it a clean? Or try a different disk? EDIT: Got my manual out. The "input" port connects to the Adam....

Coleco went through three revisions of the Digital Data Drive. The first two were, quite simply, junk. The third one was very solid and reliable. So that might be the problem. The third revision is easy to spot, if you know what you're looking for.... There were a couple of revisions of the Printer as well. Again, the first ones were junk, while the final one was pretty nice. In fact, all the Coleco Adam hardware was pretty good at the end. But by then, nobody was paying attention any more.....

I'll take a crack at a few of these. 3) Rarest piece of hardware I've ever seen is an official boxed Coleco Composite Video cable set. I saw a boxed one come up for auction on eBay many years ago, and it's the only one I've ever seen. I keep hoping a warehose full of them will be found one day. 4) That's pretty much it -- extra screens / levels, and high score table. Of course, that only applies to games that were also released on the Colecovision. Some games were Adam exclusives. 5) 64k memory expander was an official Coleco product. As far as software, SmartWriter, AdamCalc, and CP/M can take advantage of it. There may be more. 7) The keyboard cable can be used to connect up the disk drive. An interesting side note is that the Keyboard can be plugged in to the side port, and the Disk Drive can be plugged in to the front port. It doesn't matter what you plug where -- they are both identical AdamNet connectors (Coleco just labeled them differently for the masses).

Could have easily occurred at the factory....

I think cabin fever has officially set in out there in Wisconsin