Barn find. Coleco Adam...

[Tomaso]

To the Guru's...

Epic noob here,

I grabbed this after a local posting on facebook said "old a** computer. Free."

My dilemma is I know it's a Coleco Adam but not sure where to begin after I try cleaning her up. Please see the pics below... The string for the printer head is broken but should be a easy fix. I will also remove the rust from the printer rails and clean them up as well. It came with a Buck Rogers super game pack cassette and as well as the Adam SmartBasic cassette, manuals, cables etc. I understand not to power it up with cassettes in the machine. 

TIA

Regards,

Tom

 

 

 

[+Vorticon]

Nice find! Well, I suggest you go through the setup manual that I see you have

Once everything is connected as it should, power up the printer, and if everything goes well the typewriter will show up on screen. Type something on the keyboard and it should get printed immediately on the printer. Next put the Buck Rogers tape in the tape drive and reset the computer using the reset button on top of the console, and the tape should load automatically and the game will start which will be an opportunity to check your joysticks as well.

If you get that far, then you likely have a good system and your journey will be off to a good start. 

[NIAD]

Make sure the black rubber timing in the Data Drive is in place... it is next to the read/write head. If not present or in bad condition, do not use a data pack in the drive!!!

[Tomaso]

On 7/21/2019 at 8:13 AM, Milli Vee said:

Shake test it! The cooling fins on come off the CPU and VDP when they sit for years and they will short things out. Make sure nothing is floating around before powering it up.

 

Also to here is my guide on restringing the printer

 

 

Milli

Your video was of tremendous help! It got the printer working again. I thought the broken string on mine would have been a easy fix but a nightmare until I saw your video. I'm going to follow your suggestion and replace the rubber o-ring band with a new one as the printer starts strong when I manually turn the ribbon then it fades rapido. The rubber is probably worn out. Thanks for taking the time making the video. Huge help.

[Tomaso]

Thank you everyone! The old bird fired right up tonight and thanks to Milli Vee's youtube video as well. Had my boy even play Buck Rogers. I'm getting old...I thought it wasn't that good of a game when I was a kid and frankly it still sucks. Haven't figured out the volume situation yet. I have the "monitor" cable hooked up to the TV but no sound. Probably something minor I missed. The gatling gun sounding printer is a huge hit in our house. Totally retro and the kids think its awesome. The wife has banned me from using it at night though.

Keyboard works, smartbasic and buck rogers work as well, one controller perfect, second controller doesn't move right. So far thats what I've seen. I'll probably have a few more questions later. Thanks again amigo's.