NIAD Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 Here is an incredible video of Coleco executives introducing the Coleco ADAM Computer at "The Boston Computer Society" that was brought to my attention by Richard Salvati thru his Coleco ADAM website. The video was archived by "The Computer History Museum" and posted on Youtube. It is quite lengthy (runs 80 minutes), so set some time aside to watch it in it's entirety. The ADAM Computer used for the demonstration is a pre-production module that looks and functions very similarly to what was sold in stores a few months later and so far I have only noticed one difference from resale ADAMs... the file display screen when loading/saving is just a text screen instead of a file index display. I'm sure there are other differences, but I haven't watch the video in it's entirety yet, only skipping thru it. Thanks Justin for bringing this video to our attention! https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gg_I9TGYM-w 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed1475 Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 Cool find! I'm looking forward to watching it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 Who is Mary??? And why do I find her oddly attractive??? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted May 13, 2016 Author Share Posted May 13, 2016 Arnold Greenberg, for what it's worth, should have been more careful when pronouncing "Peanut" in referring to what became known as the IBM PC Jr. It sounds a lot like the word for male genitalia... I'd say he did this on purpose! Hmm... IBM PC Jr. or ADAM Computer? I'd take the ADAM Computer hands down! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValkerieSilk Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 . Not sure my kids are going to enjoy movie night tonight ..Ehh ... Is it just me, or does Arnold Greenberg kinda remind you of Nixon?? ...Notice the guy doing the demo moves to the second data drive to open it @ 3:15 .... This is so cool, Thank You Jim .... The sales guy took a bit of a beating over the target market comment .... It's interesting listening to the conversations afterwards ... ..... Notice standing room only ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retroillucid Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 Thanks alot for posting this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckwalla Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 Very cool video, thanks! Bromley looked really nervous, Greenberg had the vision, and Kahn had the personality. What a great time in recent history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted May 16, 2016 Author Share Posted May 16, 2016 (edited) Yeah, for a man that dealt with the top Nintendo executives when acquiring the rights to Donkey Kong, it was surprising to see him come off as a little nervous in this video. Probably a lot of this nervousness was from hoping that the Adam would work properly throughout the demonstration and he did't seem to be rock solid with his knowledge of the system. It really surprised me that they didn't hold up a Memory Console and point out the Expansion Bus, the 3 internal Expansion Slots, extra DDD bay, cart port, the video/audio options on the back of the unit, etc., etc. I was really impressed with Arnold Greenberg. Edited May 16, 2016 by NIAD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 (edited) Arnold Greenberg really impressed me too. If I had had the money, I would have bought an ADAM The video inspired me to look up what information there is online about him - not much unfortunately but I did come across two recent pieces, an article and YouTube video from recent years. Good to see that he is still around and doing well. http://www.jewishledger.com/2011/09/q-a-with-arnold-greenberg-founder-of-the-maurice-greenberg-center-for-judaic-studies/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq_VF9XkUW4 Makes me wonder if he has been interviewed for the upcoming Coleco history book? Edited May 16, 2016 by Ikrananka 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValkerieSilk Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 So did the Adam beat the PC Jr. (Code named Peanuts I guess) to market? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ransom Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 Hard to believe that just one year later, the Macintosh would be released. Things were moving so fast back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 Arnold Greenberg really impressed me too. If I had had the money, I would have bought an ADAM The video inspired me to look up what information there is online about him - not much unfortunately but I did come across two recent pieces, an article and YouTube video from recent years. Good to see that he is still around and doing well. So very cool! I had no idea he was still around. I'm guessing that the family business is little more than a distant memory for the Greenbergs now. But I wish we could discover what, if anything, is in the video game vaults! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted May 17, 2016 Author Share Posted May 17, 2016 So did the Adam beat the PC Jr. (Code named Peanuts I guess) to market?Yes it did and in my humble opinion, the Adam was a lot better computer thru and thru. I am sure there are PC Jr. fans that would say otherwise and I can respect those feelings as well. Funny thing is, I seem to recall there being issues with the PC Jr., but there just wasn't as big a backlash like what Coleco had to endure... part their own fault, but just as much due to first time computer owners who didn't know what they were doing and couldn't comprehend simple instructions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 I think part of the problem with ADAM was people considered it a toy. It was made by a toy company after all. The PC Jr. had the IBM name behind it so even if there were problems, it was "respected" as a REAL computer. Yes it did and in my humble opinion, the Adam was a lot better computer thru and thru. I am sure there are PC Jr. fans that would say otherwise and I can respect those feelings as well.Funny thing is, I seem to recall there being issues with the PC Jr., but there just wasn't as big a backlash like what Coleco had to endure... part their own fault, but just as much due to first time computer owners who didn't know what they were doing and couldn't comprehend simple instructions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValkerieSilk Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 I remember as a kid lots of folks considered it (the Adam) a serious contender, especially the fact that it was bundled with a printer. The only negative about the Adam that I recall as a kid, were the data drives. I recall my Mom not liking that aspect of it as those seemed dated at the time. The real issues seemed to be related to the incredibly high failure rate and the data loss issues with the tapes being left in the unit, all quickly corrected but not before tarnishing it's name. Myself, I loved the Adam as a kid and still do now and almost 35 years later it's still sitting on my desk in perfect working condition. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 The real issues seemed to be related to the incredibly high failure rate I always wondered what the specific issue(s) was for the high failure rate, and how were they corrected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 I always wondered what the specific issue(s) was for the high failure rate, and how were they corrected. Quality control. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ValkerieSilk Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Quality control. Ya, I think they fell prey to the media pressure and released them a little to soon. Perhaps they needed a small test market first to work out the kinks. Nevertheless, it was love at first sight for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 Ya, I think they fell prey to the media pressure and released them a little to soon. Perhaps they needed a small test market first to work out the kinks. Nevertheless, it was love at first sight for me. Fortunately I got one of the good ones at the time. I had it from 84 to 94. I had that ADAM mint but got frustrated when the logic board I replaced died again 6 months later and ended up throwing it all out. As I got older I came to regret doing that. The replacement board was purchased from ADAM'S HOUSE. Happy I got another complete ADAM in box in Mint condition that included many accessories back in 2014. That's when I found you guys here and boy am I happy I came back to colecovision 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 That's when I found you guys here and boy am I happy I came back to colecovision As are we 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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