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else

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Posts posted by else

  7. Posted

    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.

  8. Posted · Edited by else

    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).

  10. Posted · Edited by else

    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....

  11. Posted · Edited by else

    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.

  12. Posted · Edited by else

    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....

  13. Posted · Edited by else

    How powerful would the Super Game Module have been in comparison to other game consoles of the time? Would it have been as good as NES or 7800?

     

    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....

  17. Posted · Edited by else

    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....

  18. Posted · Edited by else

    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).

  21. Posted · Edited by else

    Anyone got a pic?

     

    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.

     

    Really? I never knew that. Makes sense though. Does the ADAM automatically load the disk if the drive is turned on before the ADAM or do you have to do something special from the ADAM EOS?

     

    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....

  22. Posted · Edited by else

    But I never could get a Digital DataPack drive to work for more than a week at a time.

     

    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.....

  23. Posted · Edited by else

    3. What's the rarest ADAM software/hardware?

     

    4. What extra features are enabled in the ADAM versions of games? I know they support a high score table and DK/DK Jr. has an extra screen, but what else?

     

    5. The ADAM has 3 expansion slots, what can go in them? I know of the modem and memory expansion, but what else? Was the memory expansion an official Coleco product or just a 3rd party thing? What software can make use of the extra memory?

     

    7. I've got disk drive that I'm not sure works. It powers up (with the official power supply), but the ADAM never seems to access the drive. I've got it hooked into the ADAM using a 6? pin phone cable, but I'm not sure if that's the right one to use. Is the keyboard cable the same kind of cable? I've got an extra one of those.

     

    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).

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