Micro Innovations was the best third party hardware developer for the ADAM

[HDTV1080P]

Back in 1983 when the Coleco ADAM was first released, consumers only had Digital Data Drives with 256K of storage on the center directory and right directory Digital Data Packs. Digital Data packs were a step above the much more slower manual cassette tapes that were used for other brands of computer systems. The Coleco Digital Data Pack was a high-speed automated tape that operated similar to a floppy disk in some ways. However, there was reliability problems with Digital Data Packs. Turning the ADAM computer power on and off would most of the time damage the data on the Digital Data Pack if it was left in the drive, and if it was a software program, many times it would no longer load. Also some people would eject and reinsert the Digital Data Packs while the drive is still running, which resulted in the tape being completely destroyed and wrapped around a hub inside the cassette shell.

 

In 1984 Coleco came out with an external ADAMNet 160K ADAM Disk Drive that uses 5.25 inch floppy disks for $199.95. The only advantage of the Digital Data Packs was the 256K storage space. However many ADAM owners decided to purchase a 160K floppy disk drive since it was more reliable and much faster when compared to Digital Data Packs. In 1984 Coleco started coming out with games and programs on floppy disks. Coleco also started re-releasing famous games and programs on floppy disks since there were too many complaints about the Digital Data Packs. However after the original 1983 SmartWriter rom bug issue that made the original ADAM’s built in word processor unusable when one first turned on the computer, and after reliability issues with Digital Data Packs with some consumers that did not know how to use the drives properly, the launch of a Disk drive in 1984 was too late. The ADAM had too much bad reputation that Coleco had to cease production on computers in January of 1985.

 

After 1985 it was hard for some ADAM owners to find a Coleco 160K disk drive. In the 1986-1990 years Coleco ADAM disk drives sometimes sold for $100 higher than their original list price. There was not enough ADAM Disk Drives in existence for the existing ADAM owners that wanted one. Once and awhile refurbished or used ones turned up. The Coleco ADAM disk drives were not perfect, sometimes new ones were broken and sometimes they only lasted a few years before needing repaired. Some third party companies for around $200, $300, or $400 were offering to remove the 160K Coleco disk drive from the original Coleco case and to convert the disk drive to 320K 5.25 inch double sided or 720K 3.5 inch disk drive option and to make modifications to the Coleco Adamnet controller board so the new larger sizes could be seen.

 

At some point a high-end third party company out of Reston Virginia became interested in making hardware products for the ADAM. It might have been around the year 1988. However, by the year 1991 Micro innovations had become the best third party hardware developer for the ADAM in terms of reliability, customer service, and easy to use quality products. Also their products were available in large QTY’s of several hundred’s of pieces for large mail order companies like ADAM House. However somewhere around 1994 Micro Innovations stopped making products for the ADAM and had a big close out clearance sale of all remaining inventory.

 

Micro innovations developed internal Memory cards for the ADAM as large as 2MB with a suggested list price of $249.95 (64K memory cards were as low as $29.95). In addition, Micro innovations had an internal Multi-purpose board that had two RS-232 serial ports and one parallel printer port (Plus it had a Boot PROM socket for items like Walter’s Software ADAM Desktop that uses the EOS 9 operating system). That MIB3 card had a list price of $74.95 and a sale price of $49.95. All excellent products. Micro Innovations also had 40MB hard disk drives for the ADAM and floppy drives up to 1.44MB 3.5 inch. The Micro Innovations disk drives were made using state of the art components and most of their disk drives still work fine today. These Micro Innovations hard drives and disk drives controller boards, power supplies, and cases are engineered from scratch and do not use any Coleco parts. With the Coleco disk drives one could only have a maximum of two disk drives connected at once with the ADAM computer. With Micro Innovations disk drives up to 4 disk drives could be connected to the ADAM. Micro Innovation disk drives would ship with the standard disk 1 and disk 2 prom, however one could special order a disk 3 and disk 4 prom that worked with special third party ADAM programs like File Manager. The 5.25 inch Micro innovations disk drives had an original list price of $199.95 and a sale clearance price of $124.95. These disk drives were double sided and could be ordered with a 160k, 320k, or 360K prom. Most people got the 320k prom since it was 100% compatible with existing Coleco ADAM software on 160K disk and one could use the full 320K of space for blank floppy disks if they wanted. The 160K and 360K proms were to read special IBM format 5.25 disks. The 720K 3.5 disk drives had a list price of $249.95. The top of the line 1.44MB 3.5 inch Micro Innovations disk drives became very popular in the 90’s and they had a list price of $299.95 and a clearance price of $199.95. However, they now sale on EBAY for around $500 when one does see them offered. The 1.44MB 3.5 inch drive can also read 720K 3.5 inch disks. Micro innovations over the years made changes to the floppy disk drive power supplies only once as far as I am aware. That is why some floppy disk drives have a DB9 power connector on the back since they use a different style of power supply.

 

Third party ADAM software companies started releasing programs on 3.5 inch media in 720K and 1.44MB format. If the program was only 720K or lower in size most companies released the 3.5 inch disk in the 720K E&T software format so that the disk could work on both 720K and 1.44MB floppy drives. Some companies took special orders for programs on 1.44MB 3.5 inch disks since native 1.44MB disks would load a little faster when compared to 720K disks.

 

Terry Fowlers famous Invoicer V3 was released on 3.5 inch media. Walter Software had a lot of programs available on 3.5 inch disks and they came factory sealed in shrink wrap plastic style bag. In addition, Walter Software and at least one other company released their 3.5 inch ADAM programs with a special copy protection scheme that looks for a bad sector on the disk in a certain spot and various other copy protection methods. Some ADAM owners were known for making unauthorized copies of software and passing the program around to other people, so third party companies like Walters Software protected their hard work by making it impossible for an ADAM 3.5 inch disk drive to copy the software (I am glad 3.5 inch disks are very reliable since many original third party releases cannot be copied). ADAM Formatter 3 on 3.5 inch media contained a special version of the program that would format up to 1.44MB 3.5 inch disks. Formatter 3 was the best EOS 9 based formatting program for ADAM floppy disks. It used nice fancy Smartkey’s, etc. File Manager 3.01 was also released on 3.5 inch floppies, however the picture below is of the 5.25 inch floppy disk version (File Manager 3.01 is also one of my favorite programs for the ADAM for backing up and editing programs. File Manager 3.01 also lets one use up to 4 floppy disk drives at the same time). Walters Software came out with a special 247K version of SpellingAID that literally took up 247K on the 3.5 inch disk (Once it was unpacked it required a 512K or larger memory expander). This 1988 SpellingAID program loaded all at once into the ADAM memory expander and for the first time Smartwriter owners had their first spell checking program for the ADAM computer. You need a minimum of a 512K memory expander to use this special version. RAMboot was also popular program on 3.5 inch media.

 

Around the mid 1990’s all the factory new Micro Innovations disk drives dried up. For another 20 years people looked for used disk drives on EBAY for as much as $500+. Even then, floppy disk drives for the ADAM computer were rare. In 2016 Microfox Technologies released the Coleco ADAM microSD floppy Emulator. This device is suppose to be better quality and faster than the Micro innovations 1.44MB floppy drive (However I cannot verify that claim since I have not taken the time to setup my ADAM computer and test the product out). If it works like it is suppose to then there is no need to even own a floppy disk drive anymore and for that matter no need to own a hard disk drive either. Sometime in the future I might try out the 2 microSD floppy Emulator’s I purchased back in 2016.

 

Attached are some pictures and a copy of Micro innovations documents that have been converted to PDF format.

Micro Innovations AdamNet floppy Disk Drive instructions.pdf

Micro Innovations Inventory close out price list.pdf

Edited August 26, 2017 by HDTV1080P

[adamcon]

GREAT description of the ADAM system and it's progression thru it's lifespan. You are "right on" about the impact that Micro Innovations had on the ADAM community; although others also had huge impact also. Eve Electronics pioneered sound cards, 80 column units, and speech synthesizers; Orphanware with disk drive conversions, printer cards, memory expanders, and Minnie Winnie hard drives; E&T Software with disk drive conversions and memory expanders. Micro Innovations implemented all those ideas and produced them and much more with Mark's expertise. Some of MicroFox Technologies hardware design is partially built on some of Micro Innovations designs (with Mark's permission) and partly on ideas from users - in particular, the idea to use compact flash cards, sparq and zip drives instead of a physical spinning hard drive.

[HDTV1080P]

Thanks for the post you are correct. In another thread I briefly mentioned EVE Electronics speech card, 80 column unit, etc. E and T had the first 720K disk drive conversion (Or at least the most popular conversion that became the standard prom format for the ADAM community for years). There was a lot of third party support for the ADAM thanks to peoples hard work. Unique to Micro innovations was that they were not converting a Coleco 160K disk drive to 320K or 720K. Mark was engineering disk drives from the ground up and was the first ADAM company to make a ADAMNet 1.44MB disk drive and ADAMNet hard drive. Also many people liked his 2MB memory expander that interfaced with the MIB3 card.

 

I have been away from the ADAM for awhile and perhaps other companies besides Microfox technology is still developing hardware for the ADAM like the Coleco ADAM microSD floppy Emulator product. Or perhaps MicroFox technologies is the last remaining hardware manufactory for the ADAM. I know ATARIMAX makes a SD cartridge and OPCODE games makes Supergame modules, and both of those products are very nice ColecoVision/ADAM products. I am talking about dedicated hardware products that only run on the ADAM and not ColecoVision.

Edited August 26, 2017 by HDTV1080P

[ValkerieSilk]

I just recently saw a Micro Innovations drive for the Adam on ebay in non-working order. Thank you for the post, very informative.

[HDTV1080P]

Tonight I just located the Micro Innovations official ADAMNet Floppy Disk Drive Product Description that was published on October 1^st 1992. I believe Micro Innovations began research and development for the ADAM computer around 1988 or 1989 time frame (I would have to do research for the exact date). Anyways Micro innovations began releasing floppy disk drives for the ADAM computer back in February of 1991. Attached is just a more detailed information on their floppy disks that work on 120 or 240 volts.

 

Of course as mentioned before sometime around 1994 Micro innovations stopped production on all ADAM hardware and software products.

ADAMnet Floppy Disk Drive Product Description October 1, 1992.pdf

Edited August 30, 2017 by HDTV1080P

[Bill Loguidice]

Tonight I just located the Micro Innovations official ADAMNet Floppy Disk Drive Product Description that was published on October 1^st 1992. I believe Micro Innovations began research and development for the ADAM computer around 1988 or 1989 time frame (I would have to do research for the exact date). Anyways Micro innovations began releasing floppy disk drives for the ADAM computer back in February of 1991. Attached is just a more detailed information on their floppy disks that work on 120 or 240 volts.

 

Of course as mentioned before sometime around 1994 Micro innovations stopped production on all ADAM hardware and software products.

 

It's amazing that they were releasing stuff in the early 90s. I would have thought that by the end of the 80s the viable market would have dried up. I can't imagine them selling more than a few hundred drives at best, although maybe that was enough for a few years of survival.

[MiniRPG]

Micro Innovations was my father's company. The last project he worked on was the AdamNet hard drive, which he could never get working quite right. I remember when he was thinking of designing interface cards for computers that did not yet have hard drive support. I begged him to do one for the Coleco ADAM, and I guess you could say, the rest is history.

[HDTV1080P]

 

It's amazing that they were releasing stuff in the early 90s. I would have thought that by the end of the 80s the viable market would have dried up. I can't imagine them selling more than a few hundred drives at best, although maybe that was enough for a few years of survival.

One of the very last products that Micro Innovations made for the ADAM was a ADAMNet hard drive that worked with EOS Coleco programs not just CP/M 2.2 or the TDOS operating system for the ADAM. However the internal expansion cards are much faster then ADAMNet, so even though the ADAMNet hard drive worked with EOS and many ADAM programs, the only negative is it was much slower when compared to a ADAM hard drive that used an internal slot (However it’s my understanding that the ADAMNet hard drive was faster when compared to floppy disks).

 

I do not remember the exact sales numbers that Mark Gordon told me, however if my memory is correct I thought they sold under 1,000 floppy ADAMNet disk drives. I doubt it was several thousand but under 1,000 for floppy disks is most likely correct. It might have been only 300-500 Micro Innovations hard disk drives sold. All these numbers are estimates, and Mark Gordon knows the true numbers that were sold.

 

Now if these Micro Innovations disk drives would have existed back in 1985 instead of 1991, they could have easily have sold over 10,000+. From 1984 to 1991 it was extremely hard to find a Coleco floppy disk drive since they were made in low QTY’s. When the Micro innovations 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppy disk drive came out it was so much better quality then Coleco’s 5.25 inch 160K disk drive, that no one really cared to own a Coleco 160K disk drive anymore (Even the Micro Innovations 5.25 inch 320K disk drives which was 100% compatible with Coleco disks was much better quality then the original Coleco disk drives).

Edited August 30, 2017 by HDTV1080P

[HDTV1080P]

Micro Innovations was my father's company. The last project he worked on was the AdamNet hard drive, which he could never get working quite right. I remember when he was thinking of designing interface cards for computers that did not yet have hard drive support. I begged him to do one for the Coleco ADAM, and I guess you could say, the rest is history.

We went to the same ADAM users group back in the 80's. I remember once and awhile picking up Micro Innovations products from your father. He had a neat workshop, and there was almost always a new product he was working on. In those days it was like a 15 or 20 minute drive to get to the Micro Innovations location.

Edited August 30, 2017 by HDTV1080P

[HDTV1080P]

Connecting a keyboard or disk drive to the Coleco ADAM using the ADAMNET interface

The ADAM computer memory console has two RJ12 jacks (one in the front and one on the left side). These two RJ12 jacks are for connecting the Coleco ADAM keyboard, Coleco disk drive, Micro innovations disk drives, and the new MicroFox Virtual ADAM microSD Disk Drive (and any future RJ12 style ADAMNET products that might be released). Almost all ADAM RJ12 style hardware devices have a bidirectional RJ12 input and bidirectional RJ12 output jack (the only exception to that rule is the keyboard with no RJ12 output jack. Only a bidirectional RJ12 input jack on the keyboard). For example, up to four floppy disk drives and one Coleco ADAM keyboard can be daisy chained together and only one RJ12 jack is used on the memory console (but most people plug the ADAM keyboard directly into the front RJ12 jack located on the ADAM memory console).

 

The ADAMNET cable is a 6 pin RJ12 Reverse cable

6 pin RJ12 reverse telephone cables can be found online in sizes between 3 feet and 200 feet. However, I have never tested a cable over 25 feet with the ADAM (and a cable longer than 25 feet might not work). Also the shorter the cable the less loss per foot occurs (but since ADAMNET is a digital signal its either going to be a perfect transmission, no useable signal at all, or digital data error artifacts). When using 35 year old computer equipment a 3 feet cable might work better instead of a 7 feet or 25 feet cable because very old electronics do not work as well sometimes. I successfully tested both a Coleco ADAM keyboard and a Micro Innovations disk drive with this 7 feet cable for only 53 cents and this 25 feet cable for only $1.48. At this time I have no plans on testing a cable longer than 25 feet. The 25 feet ADAMNET cord between the keyboard and memory console worked perfectly. It was kind of nice to have a 25 feet cord on the ADAM keyboard when playing around with the built in SmartWriter word processor and other programs. I also hooked up a 25 feet cord to the Micro Innovations ADAMNET disk drive. From 25 feet away, the Micro Innovations disk drive was able to make a perfect bit-to-bit copy of a disk (and the read and write blocks were perfect with no errors).

 

However, for cosmetic reasons one might want to use a 6 pin reverse RJ12 Coiled cord with the Coleco ADAM keyboard. As far as I am aware only 5 feet black for $12.99 and 14 feet black for $19.99 is available. The original Coleco ADAM keyboard used a gray color coiled cord that is no longer being manufactured in that color as far as I am aware. However ECOLECO has the original Coleco ADAM coiled keyboard cords for only $7.95 plus shipping (that is a good deal, since the RJ12 reverse coiled cord is a rare type of cable to find).

Edited February 3, 2018 by HDTV1080P

[adamcon]

 

Connecting a keyboard or disk drive to the Coleco ADAM using the ADAMNET interface

 

However, for cosmetic reasons one might want to use a 6 pin reverse RJ12 Coiled cord with the Coleco ADAM keyboard. As far as I am aware only 5 feet black for $12.99 and 14 feet black for $19.99 is available. The original Coleco ADAM keyboard used a gray color coiled cord that is no longer being manufactured in that color as far as I am aware. However ECOLECO has the original Coleco ADAM coiled keyboard cords for only $7.95 plus shipping (that is a good deal, since the RJ12 reverse coiled cord is a rare type of cable to find).

 

The ADAMnet cables in a 3 ft length, 6 wire connectors and a silver gray color to match approximately the color of the original Coleco disk drive cables. https://www.trianglecables.com/catalog/product/view/id/67836/s/rj12-line-cord-6-conductor-reverse-3-ft/category/1339/ OR

https://www.showmecables.com/by-category/cables/telephone/rj12-line-cord-6-conductor-reverse OR

search Ebay for 6 wire reverse phone cable, there are lots of them 7' to 25'

Edited February 4, 2018 by adamcon

[HDTV1080P]

I tested the MicroFOX Virtual ADAM microSD Disk Drive emulator, and they work fine with ADAMNET cables up to 25 feet in length. All three websites, Monoprice, ShowMe Cables, and Trainagle Cables all have the exact same color RJ12 reverse cable. All 3 websites call the cable color Silver Satin. The advantage of Monoprice is that the cables are around 4 times cheaper in price and appear to have the same quality; however, the disadvantage of Monoprice is that for some reason they only carry RJ12 reverse cable in 7 feet and 25 feet length. Now the ShowME Cables and Trainage Cables website are exactly the same in price and website interface. Both of those websites offer RJ12 cable lengths all the way up to 200 feet. In addition, they have the 3 Feet length cable that some people might prefer. Both of those websites also have the black coiled RJ12 reverse cable. But if EColeco still has the gray or Silver Satin Coleco coiled cable for the keyboard, then it would be ideal to get that cable from them.

 

The Micro Innovations 1.44MB 3.5 inch disk drives use to hold the place for top of the line ADAMNet drive, that is until December 2016 when the new MicroFOX Virtual ADAM microSD Disk Drive emulator was released. The MicroFox Virtual ADAM microSD Disk Drive is awesome and clearly is the top of the line ADAMNET drive for the 21^st Century (or unless someone comes out with something better, which is highly unlikely since the ADAM will be 35 years old in October of 2018).

 

I see the drive comes bundled with a massive amount of licensed and public domain programs. I was still using the original File Manager 3.01 on disk from the year 1991. I was not aware that File Manager version 4.026 was released back in 2010 (I wonder what was improved in version 4.026). For $130 plus shipping the MicroFox Virtual ADAM Disk Drive is a bargain. Back in the early 90’s people were paying around $299.99 for a 1.44MB 3.5 inch disk drive. On the LCD screen it even shows the block number that is being read. Really cool product, I am surprised that after getting my two in December 2016 that a little over a year later I finally getting a chance to play around with it.

Edited February 4, 2018 by HDTV1080P

[MiniRPG]

Micro Innovations was my father's company. The last project he worked on was the AdamNet hard drive, which he could never get working quite right. I remember when he was thinking of designing interface cards for computers that did not yet have hard drive support. I begged him to do one for the Coleco ADAM, and I guess you could say, the rest is history.

 

Correction: I went off to college (Ringling School of Art & Design) while he was working on the AdamNet hard drive. I remember him giving up on the project, saying that he couldn't quite get it working right. Little did I know that while I was studying, he got it to work. Last time I saw him I asked him about this, and he said, "Oh, yeah. I eventually got it working." That was a big surprise to me. I thought it was no more than a temperamental prototype that never made it to production. So glad to be wrong about this.

[adamcon]

 

Correction: I went off to college (Ringling School of Art & Design) while he was working on the AdamNet hard drive. I remember him giving up on the project, saying that he couldn't quite get it working right. Little did I know that while I was studying, he got it to work. Last time I saw him I asked him about this, and he said, "Oh, yeah. I eventually got it working." That was a big surprise to me. I thought it was no more than a temperamental prototype that never made it to production. So glad to be wrong about this.

Well, although the ADAMnet hard drive never made it into production, it is a working model, albeit without TDOS onboard. As a working ADAMnet hard drive it is a very good piece of ADAM hardware. I have one which dribbled downstream and into my hands some years ago, and kudo's to your dad for a model well done. The why and where of not producing them is history only your dad may know, but the hard drive is a nice "one or two of" piece of history.

[HDTV1080P]

The problem with any classic computer system including the Coleco ADAM, is that the older the system gets the less people end up using it. The ADAM had a strong user base of around 500,000+ around 1985. However as we got to the early to mid 90’s much better systems like Windows for IBM computers became available.

 

If Micro Innovations products would have been around in 1986-1988 then a massive amount of disk drives and hard drives would have been sold. For starting up around 1989 Micro innovations did very well. However when the ADAMNet hard drive was ready for mass production, the problem was in it was around 1993 or 1994 and many of the ADAM users had moved on. The ADAMNET hard drive was not released because of lack of demand and Mciro innovations started closing down around 1994 or 1995.

 

I well always remember Micro Innovations as being the best hardware developer for the ADAM computer with quality state of the art products. I realize that shortly after 1985 there were other great companies like Eve Electronics and others. However back in 1983-1991+ I was mostly using my ADAM computer for its awesome videogame quality, some word processing, and some Basic programming once and awhile. There was so much hardware and software available for the Coleco ADAM that I did not have the time and resources to try everything out. In certain areas Jim from NIAD has more experience with the ADAM then I did since working for NIAD he had the opportunity to try more hardware and software products that he also many times wrote professional reviews.

Edited July 26, 2018 by HDTV1080P

[MiniRPG]

My father also designed a 32K cartridge board that never went into production. Nothing groundbreaking, just a cartridge that I might use for a future project. 6-8 months ago I asked him if he'd be interested in creating a new design to accommodate larger capacity chips via bankswitching. He said he'd think about it. I haven't followed up with him, but it wasn't a stern "no." He's retired now, so he might be interested in doing some tinkering--if he doesn't have to put up the money for it, of course.

[MiniRPG]

Sorry, duplicate post.

Edited July 26, 2018 by MiniRPG

[NIAD]

I asked him if he'd be interested in creating a new design to accommodate larger capacity chips via bankswitching. He said he'd think about it. I haven't followed up with him, but it wasn't a stern "no."

Really no need to do so seeing as the MegaCart PCB is available to use.

[HDTV1080P]

Sometimes tinkering can turn into, reopening Micro Innovations. If by some remote chance Micro Innovations did enter back into the ColecoVision/ADAM business, a bank switching cartridge above 32KB would be ideal. However OPCODE Games has already created bank switching Super Game cartridges up to 8MB in size that also holds game screens and high scores. Current new 21^st Century games for the ColecoVision/ADAM use 64KB, 128KB, 256KB, 512KB, and coming soon in theory 1MB. But who knows maybe there would be a demand for Micro innovation brand cartridges that would be sold to anyone and available for immediate purchase.

 

Many people today are using the ATARIMAX Ultimate SD Wafer Drive (also called Ultimate SD cartridge). This ATARIMAX product currently lets one use 32GB SDHC Wafer cards for around $10. A programmer literally can use the entire 32GB SDHC Wafer card for one large game by paging in 4MB of data at a time and then as needed keep loading another set of 4MB of videogame screens. In addition the SDHC Wafer card games can be used on billions of Windows, MAC, and portable devices with a ColecoVision emulator installed.

 

I wish Micro innovations if they did start making products again for the ColecoVision/ADAM, would come out with a plug in HDMI 80 column output adapter, a 4 port USB ADAMNET hub for the ADAM to use standard USB keyboards, USB mice, USB printers, USB 1.44MB 3.5 inch floppy drive, and a USB hard drive or solid state drive. It would be really cool to have a USB 3.0 to ADAMNET interface. I would also like to purchase a 2MB or even 16MB ADAM memory expander.

 

Of course the Coleco ADAM is a smaller niche now in 2018 compared to the early 90’s, that is why many people are working on the ADAM and ColecoVision games (New ADAM games have been released but over the last several years most dedicated ADAM games have been ported over to the ColecoVision with SGM so that ColecoVision owners can experience the best videogames up to 256KB in size that were released between October 1983 to Jan 1985). But I would support the Micro Innovations company with purchases of new ADAM products if Mark's company every did decide to go down that road.

Edited July 26, 2018 by HDTV1080P

[HDTV1080P]

Really no need to do so seeing as the MegaCart PCB is available to use.

The following website has been down for awhile. Hopefully it well come back up in the near future.

 

ADAM Computer Website - http://www.sacnews.net/adamcomputer/index.html

Edited July 26, 2018 by HDTV1080P

[MiniRPG]

Really no need to do so seeing as the MegaCart PCB is available to use.

 

There are other features I'd like to add, but I'd really like to brainstorm with him to see how far we could take it. If the MegaCart PCB does everything I'd need, then by all means. This project was something I discussed with him off and on for many years to support a cartridge-only version of my work-in-progress Dragonmaster, which I am reviving after a long hiatus.

Edited July 26, 2018 by MiniRPG

[HDTV1080P]

In someways it would be nice to have more larger size cartridges on the market to choose from. Some people in 2018 are making hardware, software, and doing marketing for the ColecoVision/ADAM. If Micro Innovations did come out with a new cartridge it would free up some peoples time to do more programming on the ColecoVision/ADAM. This is like the good old days in the 80's and early 90's and for some reason people are coming back to their first computer or one of their first computers they spent a lot of time with.

Edited July 26, 2018 by HDTV1080P

[HDTV1080P]

Really no need to do so seeing as the MegaCart PCB is available to use.

While I realize the MegaCart and Super Game Cartridge up to 8MB does exist and at least 3 game publishes are using them for the ColecoVision/ADAM (OPCODE Games, Team Pixelboy, and CollectorVision). My question is if one wants blank game cartridges, then what website does one go to order the 8MB Super Game Cartridge or the MegaCart? Does one contact OPCODE Games directly and setup a special order for cartridges? Or does OPCODE Games have an exclusive agreement with 3 main ColecoVision/ADAM game publishers?

 

There might be a market for blank Micro Innovations game cartridges for the ColecoVision/ADAM. Micro Innovations could sale to anyone that needs a cartridge.

[MiniRPG]

Sometimes tinkering can turn into, reopening Micro Innovations.

 

That's exactly the idea, but focused on new challenges. I can't promise anything, but I can at least make use of his unused cartridge board design. It would be nice to have brand new Micro Innovations products once again, especially cartridge boards that are readily available and don't get caught up in politics. Again, this is a starting point, which may lead to bigger things. We'll see.

[NIAD]

Is Dragonmaster the Adv/Role playing game that you were working on in the early 90s and demoed at, me thinks, Adamcon o4 in Cleveland?

 

I hear you re. the Cart PCB stuff.