The Adam SD Drive....

[else]

Okay, I'm going to be ordering materials to build 10 units, initially. I will certainly do more runs after that as need be. The lead time on the PCBs can be up to about 3 weeks, since I'm using a cheap/slow (but good quality!) fab house. So sit tight, and I'll keep you posted...

[NIAD]

Jim at NIAD,

 

Is there any chance you well start printing the monthly NIAD Adam newsletter again? Then you could start reviewing all the new hardware and software that is being released for the Adam and Colecovision in the 21st century. The new NIAD newsletter could be an electronic version instead of a printed version. I would subscribe to it.

 

Sounds like a terrific idea, but there is no way I could ever find the time necessary to devote to such an endeavor at this ime in my life (real-world job, small kids, wife that would throw me out of the house, etc.). I tried in vein to keep NIAD going out of my own house after Lyle closed the computer store and lasted about a year and a half before things became to overwhelming... having to work a real-world job is what did me in and it did Lyle in as well by 1989, that's why you saw a lot less of Lyle's stamp on the newsletter and group in the last 3 to 4 years.

 

Just trying to organize the Coleco/ADAM Collection the past four-five months has been a daunting task for Joe B. and myself as I am too much of a perfectionist, but I am getting close to the point where I am happy with it and will have a DVD of it available at ADAMcon, either hand delivered or mailed to Daniel for all to enjoy.

 

BTW, if you have anything, and I do mean anything to contribute (disk/ddp images, newsletter PDFs, instruction manuals, etc.) please contact me. We are dearly lacking in instruction manuals for their respective program. Thankfully a lot of programs included SmartWRITER documentation and/or built-in instructions, but there were a good number that came with a printed manual that I would love to see made available.

[Inky]

 

 

BTW, if you have anything, and I do mean anything to contribute (disk/ddp images, newsletter PDFs, instruction manuals, etc.) please contact me. We are dearly lacking in instruction manuals for their respective program. Thankfully a lot of programs included SmartWRITER documentation and/or built-in instructions, but there were a good number that came with a printed manual that I would love to see made available.

I may have quite a bit of stuff packed up around here.  I'll see what I have one of these days.

 

 

[else]

 

 

BTW, if you have anything, and I do mean anything to contribute (disk/ddp images, newsletter PDFs, instruction manuals, etc.) please contact me. We are dearly lacking in instruction manuals for their respective program. Thankfully a lot of programs included SmartWRITER documentation and/or built-in instructions, but there were a good number that came with a printed manual that I would love to see made available.

I may have quite a bit of stuff packed up around here.  I'll see what I have one of these days.

 

I have a manual for PackCopy, but that's about it (as far as 3rd party programs, which I assume is what you're mostly looking for).

[Murph74]

Awesome stuff, Else! I'm in for one for sure!

 

On a similar note, how does this compare to the IDE and Hard Drive adapters that were available several years ago?

 

Would love to have a no-need-for-swappable-media complete Adam library on line at all times. The button selectable solution is unique and innovative as well, and think I'll like that if I get my hands on one!

 

Although, with the expandable drive size, is there a need for the button other than changing images (I'm thinking that is the primary reason for switching pairs, but may be over looking or missing something)? Is 4 the max number of drives adamNET will support? If so, could the DDP drives be removed to enable 4 active SD drives at once?

 

Way to go, Else!

[NIAD]

 

 

BTW, if you have anything, and I do mean anything to contribute (disk/ddp images, newsletter PDFs, instruction manuals, etc.) please contact me. We are dearly lacking in instruction manuals for their respective program. Thankfully a lot of programs included SmartWRITER documentation and/or built-in instructions, but there were a good number that came with a printed manual that I would love to see made available.

I may have quite a bit of stuff packed up around here.  I'll see what I have one of these days.

 

Thanks Inky!

[NIAD]

 

 

BTW, if you have anything, and I do mean anything to contribute (disk/ddp images, newsletter PDFs, instruction manuals, etc.) please contact me. We are dearly lacking in instruction manuals for their respective program. Thankfully a lot of programs included SmartWRITER documentation and/or built-in instructions, but there were a good number that came with a printed manual that I would love to see made available.

I may have quite a bit of stuff packed up around here. I'll see what I have one of these days.

 

I have a manual for PackCopy, but that's about it (as far as 3rd party programs, which I assume is what you're mostly looking for).

 

Of all the ones you had to have, why'd it have to be PackCopy? Mark-ADAM provided me with that one already. BTW, one of the most overpriced pieces of software ever (sorry Joe B.).

 

Thanks for the offer else, it's appreciated and good luck with the production run. You'll probably be sold out even before you get them in your hands for testing.

Edited April 29, 2010 by NIAD

[Murph74]

 

BTW, one of the most overpriced pieces of software ever (sorry Joe B.).

 

 

Oh C'mon Jim! PackCopy from WalterSoft was GREAT!!! ...that is until QuickCopy came out.

[NIAD]

 

BTW, one of the most overpriced pieces of software ever (sorry Joe B.).

 

 

Oh C'mon Jim! PackCopy from WalterSoft was GREAT!!! ...that is until QuickCopy came out.

 

Gotta play the historian again!

 

PackCopy was written by Darrel Sage of Expandable Computer News fame. He released it in 1984 under the software banner Sage Enterprises / Unreal Software and initially was selling it for $40!! This was a simple 4K SmartBASIC program with a 1K machine language routine and I'm not saying with complete certainty, but a lot of people used Ben and Peter Hinkle's programs from the Hacker's series and then made simple changes and modifications, then released as their own work.

 

Jim Walters' utility programs were all top-shelf starting with his RamDSK programs, then MediaAIDE, then the SmartDSK series on up to two of the best for ADAM, ADAM's DeskTop and ADAM's ToolKit. Quickopy, by Glenn Gabarik, was outstanding as well, but the one I ended up using the most was File Manager by Tony Morehen and Guy Cousineau.

 

Gotta a lot of &^$* in the recesses of my brain as you can see... time to purge it all out!

 

Jim

[HDTV1080P]

BTW, one of the most overpriced pieces of software ever (sorry Joe B.).

 

 

Oh C'mon Jim! PackCopy from WalterSoft was GREAT!!! ...that is until QuickCopy came out.

 

Gotta play the historian again!

 

PackCopy was written by Darrel Sage of Expandable Computer News fame. He released it in 1984 under the software banner Sage Enterprises / Unreal Software and initially was selling it for $40!! This was a simple 4K SmartBASIC program with a 1K machine language routine and I'm not saying with complete certainty, but a lot of people used Ben and Peter Hinkle's programs from the Hacker's series and then made simple changes and modifications, then released as their own work.

 

Jim Walters' utility programs were all top-shelf starting with his RamDSK programs, then MediaAIDE, then the SmartDSK series on up to two of the best for ADAM, ADAM's DeskTop and ADAM's ToolKit. Quickopy, by Glenn Gabarik, was outstanding as well, but the one I ended up using the most was File Manager by Tony Morehen and Guy Cousineau.

 

Gotta a lot of &^$* in the recesses of my brain as you can see... time to purge it all out!

 

Jim

 

The best copy utilities for the Adam are File Manager 3.1 and CopyCart + 2.0. File Manager 3.1 was an easy to use EOS backup utility program that also allowed users to edit blocks on disk or DDP. File Manager also supported a lot of third party Adam hardware which made the program very popular over the competition. Up to 2MB memory expanders were supported. 1.44MB 3.5 inch floppy drives and Micro Innovations hard drives were supported. Up to 4 Adamnet disk drives were supported. Tony Morehen kept improving the File Manager program. CopyCart + 2.0 was an easy to use EOS cartridge backup program. I used CopyCart + 2.0 for years to play several Colecovision cartridges from a 1.44MB 3.5 inch disk. I just recently in the last few years stopped using Copycart + 2.0 when Atarimax released the 128 in 1 Colecovision/Adam blank cartridge that allows Colecovision and Adam users to backup their games to a cartridge.

 

 

 

Jim do you have any contact information for Tony Morehen? I use to be in contact with him back in the 80's and early 90's. Did Guy Cousineau also make File Manager? I always thought it was only Tony. If you have any contact information for Guy Cousineau maybe you could send me a private message.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2010 by HDTV1080P

[Murph74]

 

BTW, one of the most overpriced pieces of software ever (sorry Joe B.).

 

 

Oh C'mon Jim! PackCopy from WalterSoft was GREAT!!! ...that is until QuickCopy came out.

 

Gotta play the historian again!

 

PackCopy was written by Darrel Sage of Expandable Computer News fame. He released it in 1984 under the software banner Sage Enterprises / Unreal Software and initially was selling it for $40!! This was a simple 4K SmartBASIC program with a 1K machine language routine and I'm not saying with complete certainty, but a lot of people used Ben and Peter Hinkle's programs from the Hacker's series and then made simple changes and modifications, then released as their own work.

 

Jim Walters' utility programs were all top-shelf starting with his RamDSK programs, then MediaAIDE, then the SmartDSK series on up to two of the best for ADAM, ADAM's DeskTop and ADAM's ToolKit. Quickopy, by Glenn Gabarik, was outstanding as well, but the one I ended up using the most was File Manager by Tony Morehen and Guy Cousineau.

 

Gotta a lot of &^$* in the recesses of my brain as you can see... time to purge it all out!

 

Jim

 

I stand corrected! I recall using PackCopy (not sure why I thought it was Walters... ?) for a few months until I got my hands on QuickCopy. File Manager, I'm guessing, after I left the Adam scene for the c-64 online scene in 1989 as I've not heard of it. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge!

 

For what it's worth, I got Hacker's Guide to Adam the year it came out for Christmas, and never had any luck using hte copy program for full DDPs on the utilities tape, but did have some limited success with the CartCopy program!

Edited April 29, 2010 by Murph74

[Bill Loguidice]

Just saw this. I DEFINITELY want one. This is great, great news for us criminally too few Adam fans (I finally broke down and purchased a composite modded ColecoVision because I enjoy the Adam's monitor output so much).

[NIAD]

BTW, one of the most overpriced pieces of software ever (sorry Joe B.).

 

 

Oh C'mon Jim! PackCopy from WalterSoft was GREAT!!! ...that is until QuickCopy came out.

 

Gotta play the historian again!

 

PackCopy was written by Darrel Sage of Expandable Computer News fame. He released it in 1984 under the software banner Sage Enterprises / Unreal Software and initially was selling it for $40!! This was a simple 4K SmartBASIC program with a 1K machine language routine and I'm not saying with complete certainty, but a lot of people used Ben and Peter Hinkle's programs from the Hacker's series and then made simple changes and modifications, then released as their own work.

 

Jim Walters' utility programs were all top-shelf starting with his RamDSK programs, then MediaAIDE, then the SmartDSK series on up to two of the best for ADAM, ADAM's DeskTop and ADAM's ToolKit. Quickopy, by Glenn Gabarik, was outstanding as well, but the one I ended up using the most was File Manager by Tony Morehen and Guy Cousineau.

 

Gotta a lot of &^$* in the recesses of my brain as you can see... time to purge it all out!

 

Jim

 

The best copy utilities for the Adam are File Manager 3.1 and CopyCart + 2.0. File Manager 3.1 was an easy to use EOS backup utility program that also allowed users to edit blocks on disk or DDP. File Manager also supported a lot of third party Adam hardware which made the program very popular over the competition. Up to 2MB memory expanders were supported. 1.44MB 3.5 inch floppy drives and Micro Innovations hard drives were supported. Up to 4 Adamnet disk drives were supported. Tony Morehen kept improving the File Manager program. CopyCart + 2.0 was an easy to use EOS cartridge backup program. I used CopyCart + 2.0 for years to play several Colecovision cartridges from a 1.44MB 3.5 inch disk. I just recently in the last few years stopped using Copycart + 2.0 when Atarimax released the 128 in 1 Colecovision/Adam blank cartridge that allows Colecovision and Adam users to backup their games to a cartridge.

 

 

 

Jim do you have any contact information for Tony Morehen? I use to be in contact with him back in the 80's and early 90's. Did Guy Cousineau also make File Manager? I always thought it was only Tony. If you have any contact information for Guy Cousineau maybe you could send me a private message.

 

 

 

After the summer of '94 I didn't keep up with all the latest advancements, but see that File Manager did receive a number of new updates.

 

As far as whatever happened to Tony M. and Guy C... not really sure. You would be well served to check out the ColADAM List and send Rich Clee a message. He was the president of the group (Metro Toronto AUG or MTAG for short) that they belonged to. I still remember meeting both of them at ADAMcon 01, and was just in awe of their talents. Tony was the programmer behind File Manager, but the two of them were best friends and worked on a lot of stuff together so I'm sure Guy had a part in FM. You can also see in Guy's programs (Disk Doctor, File Indexer) that the same user interface was used.

 

Jim

[else]

Update: Just placed an order for 10 PCBs. Like I said earlier, they take about 3 weeks to manufacture so don't expect much in the way of updates for a little while.

[frogstar_robot]

If you like playing Colecovision, then you won't be disapointed to be able to play the Adam exclusive games

 

I would love someday to make an exclusive ADAM game... I dunno wich game though

 

Game wise, isn't the only thing the ADAM has over the ColecoVision is mass storage and more memory on board? In the early eighties, an 80K random access tape drive (yes, I wrote that right. Adams seeked the tape back and forth.) would allow for bigger games than cartridges. These days large bank switched carts obviate most of that advantage though I don't know if expanded RAM on a cart is practical with the ColecoVision. Even so, with planning additional ROM suffices for most things.

 

It also occurs to me that that the ColecoVision Expansion Port could be abused as an Ultimate Ram Expanded Super Cartridge port. Never heard of anybody doing that but why not?

[+remowilliams]

Update: Just placed an order for 10 PCBs. Like I said earlier, they take about 3 weeks to manufacture so don't expect much in the way of updates for a little while.

Good to hear. My ADAM is so excited I think I just heard it hopping in from the other room.

[else]

an 80K random access tape drive

 

Actually, Adam tapes are 256KB, disks are 160KB. But yea, back in the day ROMs were really expensive to make and thus a company had to lay a lot of money on the line to make one. So companies were searching for cheaper alternatives to ROMs. The Supercharger for the Atari 2600 was a similar experiment at a cheaper alternative to ROMs. Today, massive amounts of storage in almost any form (ROM, RAM, flash, hard disks, etc) have become so fast and so cheap that its really mind blowing to most of us old enough to remember "how thing used to be"....

 

Personally, I'd love to see Contiki ported to the Adam. Now that would be cool! It's already been ported to most other 8-bit systems -- come on, where's the love for the Adam?

Edited May 4, 2010 by else

[frogstar_robot]

an 80K random access tape drive

 

Actually, Adam tapes are 256KB, disks are 160KB. But yea, back in the day ROMs were really expensive to make and thus a company had to lay a lot of money on the line to make one.

 

Yeah. Thought I flubbed that number. But am I correct in that there is little point to an "ADAM Exclusive" game that won't run on a ColecoVision these days? Or is there anything else an ADAM can draw on that a ColecoVision couldn't?

[HDTV1080P]

an 80K random access tape drive

 

Actually, Adam tapes are 256KB, disks are 160KB. But yea, back in the day ROMs were really expensive to make and thus a company had to lay a lot of money on the line to make one.

 

Yeah. Thought I flubbed that number. But am I correct in that there is little point to an "ADAM Exclusive" game that won't run on a ColecoVision these days? Or is there anything else an ADAM can draw on that a ColecoVision couldn't?

 

The SD Adamnet device would be ideal for third party companies to make exclusive new Adam Super games.

 

The following information is for those that are new to the ADAM

 

The Colecovision came out in 1982. Then in 1983 Coleco released Expansion Module #3 which was a Adam computer with a built in supergame module. There were more then a dozen Coleco made games for the Adam. None of them were more then 256K in length. There were millions of Colecovision's sold but most likely there were only around 150,000+ Adam computers sold (Some people claim around 250,000+ Adams sold).

 

So the Supergame module exists in the form of a ADAM computer but only a small percentage of Colecovision owners purchased expansion module #3. Some people also own 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppy disks (Plenty of storage for third party game development).

 

 

Here are some of the ADAM games

 

Dragon's Lair the Super Game was officially released on Digital Data Pack and 5 ¼" Disk (153K).

 

Jeopardy (floating around in public domain but not officially released). 160K

 

Best of B.C. 67K

 

Colecovision Video catalog 192K

 

Troll's Tale (Demo) 39K

 

Dambuster's the Super Game (69K)

 

Buck Rodgers the Super Game (152K) Shipped with all Adam computers on Digital Data Pack

 

Project Name by Line (Coleco internal development cartridge for Adam) Used to create Supergames.

 

The Best of Electronic Arts (152K) Released on Digital Data Pack

 

Subroc the Supergame (92K) floating around in public domain but not officially released).

 

Richard Scary Best Electronic Workbench every (242K) Released on Digital Data Pack with awesome graphics.

 

2010: The text adventure Game (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Zaxxon the Super Game (released on Disk and Digital Data Pack)

 

The Best of Broderbund (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Donkey Kong the Super Game (released on Digital Data Pack) (95K) One of my favorite, exactly like arcade with intermissions and ape climbing latter. Second screen is blue like arcade.

 

Donkey Kong Junior the Super game (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Family Feud (released on Digital Data Pack)

Edited May 4, 2010 by HDTV1080P

[NIAD]

an 80K random access tape drive

 

Actually, Adam tapes are 256KB, disks are 160KB. But yea, back in the day ROMs were really expensive to make and thus a company had to lay a lot of money on the line to make one.

 

Yeah. Thought I flubbed that number. But am I correct in that there is little point to an "ADAM Exclusive" game that won't run on a ColecoVision these days? Or is there anything else an ADAM can draw on that a ColecoVision couldn't?

 

The SD Adamnet device would be ideal for third party companies to make exclusive new Adam Super games.

 

The following information is for those that are new to the ADAM

 

The Colecovision came out in 1982. Then in 1983 Coleco released Expansion Module #3 which was a Adam computer with a built in supergame module. There were more then a dozen Coleco made games for the Adam. None of them were more then 256K in length. There were millions of Colecovision's sold but most likely there were only around 150,000+ Adam computers sold (Some people claim around 250,000+ Adams sold).

 

So the Supergame module exists in the form of a ADAM computer but only a small percentage of Colecovision owners purchased expansion module #3. Some people also own 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppy disks (Plenty of storage for third party game development).

 

 

Here are some of the ADAM games

 

Dragon's Lair the Super Game was officially released on Digital Data Pack and 5 ¼" Disk (153K).

 

Jeopardy (floating around in public domain but not officially released). 160K

 

Best of B.C. 67K

 

Colecovision Video catalog 192K

 

Troll's Tale (Demo) 39K

 

Dambuster's the Super Game (69K)

 

Buck Rodgers the Super Game (152K) Shipped with all Adam computers on Digital Data Pack

 

Project Name by Line (Coleco internal development cartridge for Adam) Used to create Supergames.

 

The Best of Electronic Arts (152K) Released on Digital Data Pack

 

Subroc the Supergame (92K) floating around in public domain but not officially released).

 

Richard Scary Best Electronic Workbench every (242K) Released on Digital Data Pack with awesome graphics.

 

2010: The text adventure Game (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Zaxxon the Super Game (released on Disk and Digital Data Pack)

 

The Best of Broderbund (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Donkey Kong the Super Game (released on Digital Data Pack) (95K) One of my favorite, exactly like arcade with intermissions and ape climbing latter. Second screen is blue like arcade.

 

Donkey Kong Junior the Super game (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Family Feud (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Else,

 

As far as the numbers I always saw and some confirmations by poeple who worked for Coleco, about 6 million ColecoVisions were made/sold and just under 1 million ADAM Computers were made/sold (Exp. Mod. #3 and Stand-Alone versions).

 

Actually, all the ADAM SuperGames are roughly 128 - 160K in size. The games were laid out in Right Directory Digital Data Packs to increase there load speed over Center Directory DDPs (SmartBasic, blank DDPs used for storage) and it took a lot of work by Jim Walters to hack away at all of these supergames and reassemble them for use on 5 1/4" 160K disks.

 

If you really want a good round-up of what was made for the ADAM by Coleco and third-party vendors after Coleco bailed with short desciptions and of course screenshots, check out my friend's website, Joe Blenkle's ADAM Family Computer Website:

 

http://www.sacnews.net/adamcomputer/index.html

 

He's been working like made to get everything up to date with the Coleco/ADAM Collection we have been putting together and it's probably the best starting point for anything ADAM related and also has a lot of CV stuff with more coming.

 

BTW, my little avatar pic is from the best 3rd party game ever made for the ADAM... it's called ADAM Bomb II - The Rescue!

 

Jim

Edited May 4, 2010 by NIAD

[NIAD]

oops!

Edited May 4, 2010 by NIAD

[HDTV1080P]

an 80K random access tape drive

 

Actually, Adam tapes are 256KB, disks are 160KB. But yea, back in the day ROMs were really expensive to make and thus a company had to lay a lot of money on the line to make one.

 

Yeah. Thought I flubbed that number. But am I correct in that there is little point to an "ADAM Exclusive" game that won't run on a ColecoVision these days? Or is there anything else an ADAM can draw on that a ColecoVision couldn't?

 

The SD Adamnet device would be ideal for third party companies to make exclusive new Adam Super games.

 

The following information is for those that are new to the ADAM

 

The Colecovision came out in 1982. Then in 1983 Coleco released Expansion Module #3 which was a Adam computer with a built in supergame module. There were more then a dozen Coleco made games for the Adam. None of them were more then 256K in length. There were millions of Colecovision's sold but most likely there were only around 150,000+ Adam computers sold (Some people claim around 250,000+ Adams sold).

 

So the Supergame module exists in the form of a ADAM computer but only a small percentage of Colecovision owners purchased expansion module #3. Some people also own 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppy disks (Plenty of storage for third party game development).

 

 

Here are some of the ADAM games

 

Dragon's Lair the Super Game was officially released on Digital Data Pack and 5 ¼" Disk (153K).

 

Jeopardy (floating around in public domain but not officially released). 160K

 

Best of B.C. 67K

 

Colecovision Video catalog 192K

 

Troll's Tale (Demo) 39K

 

Dambuster's the Super Game (69K)

 

Buck Rodgers the Super Game (152K) Shipped with all Adam computers on Digital Data Pack

 

Project Name by Line (Coleco internal development cartridge for Adam) Used to create Supergames.

 

The Best of Electronic Arts (152K) Released on Digital Data Pack

 

Subroc the Supergame (92K) floating around in public domain but not officially released).

 

Richard Scary Best Electronic Workbench every (242K) Released on Digital Data Pack with awesome graphics.

 

2010: The text adventure Game (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Zaxxon the Super Game (released on Disk and Digital Data Pack)

 

The Best of Broderbund (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Donkey Kong the Super Game (released on Digital Data Pack) (95K) One of my favorite, exactly like arcade with intermissions and ape climbing latter. Second screen is blue like arcade.

 

Donkey Kong Junior the Super game (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Family Feud (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Else,

 

As far as the numbers I always saw and some confirmations by poeple who worked for Coleco, about 6 million ColecoVisions were made/sold and just under 1 million ADAM Computers were made/sold (Exp. Mod. #3 and Stand-Alone versions).

 

Actually, all the ADAM SuperGames are roughly 128 - 160K in size. The games were laid out in Right Directory Digital Data Packs to increase there load speed over Center Directory DDPs (SmartBasic, blank DDPs used for storage) and it took a lot of work by Jim Walters to hack away at all of these supergames and reassemble them for use on 5 1/4" 160K disks.

 

If you really want a good round-up of what was made for the ADAM by Coleco and third-party vendors after Coleco bailed with short desciptions and of course screenshots, check out my friend's website, Joe Blenkle's ADAM Family Computer Website:

 

http://www.sacnews.n...uter/index.html

 

He's been working like made to get everything up to date with the Coleco/ADAM Collection we have been putting together and it's probably the best starting point for anything ADAM related and also has a lot of CV stuff with more coming.

 

BTW, my little avatar pic is from the best 3rd party game ever made for the ADAM... it's called ADAM Bomb II - The Rescue!

 

Jim

 

Is there a reference link for 6 million Colecovision's made and 1 million Adam computers made? I never new Coleco made close to 1 million Adam computers. I heard that Coleco only made around 50,000+ 5 1/4 inch 160K disk drives (Not sure if that number is accurate). Third party companies like Micro Innovations made over 1,000+ 320K, 720K and 1.44MB floppy drives.

 

Those Adam computer game size numbers I provided above were quotes from Walters Software. Jim Walters converted many Coleco DDP to disk. Richard Scary Electronic Workbench every, was Coleco's largest game they every made. It would not fit on a 160K disk. I had Jim convert the 256K data pack to a 242K floppy disk version. Jim informed me that the program was 242K in length. All the other quotes from above on size are also from Jim Walter. I worked with Jim over the years to get some disk versions made of digital data pack only games like Richard Scary and some Coleco unreleased programs that ended up in public domain.

Edited May 4, 2010 by HDTV1080P

[frogstar_robot]

Richard Scary Electronic Workbench every, was Coleco's largest game they every made. It would not fit on a 160K disk. I had Jim convert the 256K data pack to a 242K floppy disk version. Jim informed me that the program was 242K in length. All the other quotes from above on size are also from Jim Walter. I worked with Jim over the years to get some disk versions made of digital data pack only games like Richard Scary and some Coleco unreleased programs that ended up in public domain.

 

My original point was that carts with lots of bankswitched rom and maybe even ram aren't prohibitive for hobby and boutique coders. Given that we can make cartridges today that dwarf what could be done with cartridges in the Eighties why would there be any need to create NEW Adam exclusives? The only thing keeping the expanded titles you mention off unexpanded ColecoVisions is some work. There would be some effort into creating a "supercart" architecture. Though I'm not a CV maven and something along those lines may well exist. The other effort would be porting the Data Pack games to the cart architecture. As I said before, the ADAM has the same sound, CPU, and VDP as a Colecovision with only extra memory and mass storage for advantages.

 

We see a similar thing with titles being ported back and forth between the A8 computers and the 5200. Though most ports go in the A8 direction in that case.

 

Even though I think "ADAM Exclusives" make little sense to create these days...at least game wise, an ADAM is still a nice development system for ColecoVision titles.

[else]

an 80K random access tape drive

 

Actually, Adam tapes are 256KB, disks are 160KB. But yea, back in the day ROMs were really expensive to make and thus a company had to lay a lot of money on the line to make one.

 

Yeah. Thought I flubbed that number. But am I correct in that there is little point to an "ADAM Exclusive" game that won't run on a ColecoVision these days? Or is there anything else an ADAM can draw on that a ColecoVision couldn't?

 

The SD Adamnet device would be ideal for third party companies to make exclusive new Adam Super games.

 

The following information is for those that are new to the ADAM

 

The Colecovision came out in 1982. Then in 1983 Coleco released Expansion Module #3 which was a Adam computer with a built in supergame module. There were more then a dozen Coleco made games for the Adam. None of them were more then 256K in length. There were millions of Colecovision's sold but most likely there were only around 150,000+ Adam computers sold (Some people claim around 250,000+ Adams sold).

 

So the Supergame module exists in the form of a ADAM computer but only a small percentage of Colecovision owners purchased expansion module #3. Some people also own 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppy disks (Plenty of storage for third party game development).

 

 

Here are some of the ADAM games

 

Dragon's Lair the Super Game was officially released on Digital Data Pack and 5 ¼" Disk (153K).

 

Jeopardy (floating around in public domain but not officially released). 160K

 

Best of B.C. 67K

 

Colecovision Video catalog 192K

 

Troll's Tale (Demo) 39K

 

Dambuster's the Super Game (69K)

 

Buck Rodgers the Super Game (152K) Shipped with all Adam computers on Digital Data Pack

 

Project Name by Line (Coleco internal development cartridge for Adam) Used to create Supergames.

 

The Best of Electronic Arts (152K) Released on Digital Data Pack

 

Subroc the Supergame (92K) floating around in public domain but not officially released).

 

Richard Scary Best Electronic Workbench every (242K) Released on Digital Data Pack with awesome graphics.

 

2010: The text adventure Game (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Zaxxon the Super Game (released on Disk and Digital Data Pack)

 

The Best of Broderbund (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Donkey Kong the Super Game (released on Digital Data Pack) (95K) One of my favorite, exactly like arcade with intermissions and ape climbing latter. Second screen is blue like arcade.

 

Donkey Kong Junior the Super game (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Family Feud (released on Digital Data Pack)

 

Else,

 

As far as the numbers I always saw and some confirmations by poeple who worked for Coleco, about 6 million ColecoVisions were made/sold and just under 1 million ADAM Computers were made/sold (Exp. Mod. #3 and Stand-Alone versions).

 

Actually, all the ADAM SuperGames are roughly 128 - 160K in size. The games were laid out in Right Directory Digital Data Packs to increase there load speed over Center Directory DDPs (SmartBasic, blank DDPs used for storage) and it took a lot of work by Jim Walters to hack away at all of these supergames and reassemble them for use on 5 1/4" 160K disks.

 

If you really want a good round-up of what was made for the ADAM by Coleco and third-party vendors after Coleco bailed with short desciptions and of course screenshots, check out my friend's website, Joe Blenkle's ADAM Family Computer Website:

 

http://www.sacnews.net/adamcomputer/index.html

 

He's been working like made to get everything up to date with the Coleco/ADAM Collection we have been putting together and it's probably the best starting point for anything ADAM related and also has a lot of CV stuff with more coming.

 

BTW, my little avatar pic is from the best 3rd party game ever made for the ADAM... it's called ADAM Bomb II - The Rescue!

 

Jim

 

Jim

 

I think you're replying to the wrong person maybe? I didn't inquire about number of systems made or the dispute the "true" size of supergames or anything. I simply pointed out the correct size of standard Adam media and made a shameless plea to get Contiki ported to the Adam....

[HDTV1080P]

Richard Scary Electronic Workbench every, was Coleco's largest game they every made. It would not fit on a 160K disk. I had Jim convert the 256K data pack to a 242K floppy disk version. Jim informed me that the program was 242K in length. All the other quotes from above on size are also from Jim Walter. I worked with Jim over the years to get some disk versions made of digital data pack only games like Richard Scary and some Coleco unreleased programs that ended up in public domain.

 

My original point was that carts with lots of bankswitched rom and maybe even ram aren't prohibitive for hobby and boutique coders. Given that we can make cartridges today that dwarf what could be done with cartridges in the Eighties why would there be any need to create NEW Adam exclusives? The only thing keeping the expanded titles you mention off unexpanded ColecoVisions is some work. There would be some effort into creating a "supercart" architecture. Though I'm not a CV maven and something along those lines may well exist. The other effort would be porting the Data Pack games to the cart architecture. As I said before, the ADAM has the same sound, CPU, and VDP as a Colecovision with only extra memory and mass storage for advantages.

 

We see a similar thing with titles being ported back and forth between the A8 computers and the 5200. Though most ports go in the A8 direction in that case.

 

Even though I think "ADAM Exclusives" make little sense to create these days...at least game wise, an ADAM is still a nice development system for ColecoVision titles.

 

Yes with a read/write SD cartridge design it would be possible to place all the Adam games on one 16GB SD flash memory cartridge with plenty of room for future programs. A programmer would need to convert the disk image code to run on a SD cartridge that was made for the Colecovision.

 

I would like to see someone port the Adam games over to a future Colecovision SD cartridge. The only problem is some of the games would not run on a Colecovision since they require an Adam keyboard be connected to the Adam with Adam Net. For example Jeopardy, Family Feud, 2010 the Text Adventure game, and Best of Electronic Arts require the Adam keyboard. Now if someone made a USB port expansion device for the Colecovision then one could plug in a USB keyboard and a programmer could write code to access the USB keyboard plugged into the Colecovision.

 

Now for just about all the other games like "Super Games" and other games (Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, Richard Scary, etc) it would be a lot easier to convert those games to run on a Colecovision. Most Coleco games only used the Adam keyboard for printing. For example all the Super games allowed people to print the name and score of the hall of fame screen to a ADAM printer. Most people would not care or want to be able to print a paper copy of the hall of fame screen. There is no way to connect an Adam printer to the Colecovision and that would be the only feature missing from the ADAM supergames that were converted to a Colecovision cart.

 

The SD cartridge would need to read and write to the supergame to record the names and scores in the hall of fame area. Most people using their ADAM's today are only using them for exclusive Adam Supergames and Colecovision games. Word Processing, spreadsheets, and day to day computer tasks are done on a Windows PC. So if one could get most the ADAM supergames to run on a Colecovision with 99.9% of the same features accept for printing then that would be very popular. Many Colecovision owners could experience the Coleco Supergames for the very first time.