Perhaps if the 1983 Coleco ADAM production problems could have been avoided

[65Gamerguy]

Just wondering how big of a player was Spectravideo back then? I know of them through some games that they released for the Coleco and I have seen ads for the computer, the one with the built in joystick, but I don't recall ever seeing much from them here in the US, not saying they weren't, just that I didn't notice. An interesting idea though, I wonder how it would have played out. Like you said though it was pretty much everyone to their selves, so it might have been to late, but I like the idea.

 

My two cents is I think that Coleco should have worked closer with Spectravideo i.e. let Spectravideo handle the computer side of things, Coleco the game console and have a common cartridge slot design between the two of them.

Spectravideo had a full range of powerful perhiperals, including reliable disk drives, CPM support, but they totally lacked the software support (on the games side). They built the Coleco adapter for the Spectravideo computers so they obviously had the smarts, but I suppose they were also dragged off task by Nishi of Microsoft pushing for the MSX standard.

The Spectravideo with its direct support from Microsoft had the most powerful version of Microsoft Basic at the time, compared with Commodore, Atari and even Apple at the time (as they didn't want to continue to pay Microsoft licensing fees to get the newer versions - well I can't blame them ).

So between the two of them their combined efforts might have allowed them to make a larger impact on the American market and would have alleviated all the money wasted on the Adam by Coleco. But back then it really was every man(company) for themselves.

[65Gamerguy]

I can agree with you completely. While I had to wait until 1989 as my kids pulled me into the ADAM, our hardware is still clicking along nicely. Of course, there are the occasional data pack problems and the data drive timing wheel meltdowns, but the actual hardware is lasting much longer than Coleco intended. The second generation (and some first generation) ADAM was and still is a dependable computer, more dependable than most any of the ibm stuff I have used since then. Too bad it was so short lived, but hwat can you expect from a company that made a living off short lived games and dolls.

 

I really need to hook up my modded colecovision to it see if it still works, which I think it will, and upload some videos on my youtube channel. Maybe I can show some my crappy basic programs that I created, when I was a teenager. LOL