Talk:Coleco Adam
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[edit] Topics
Hi, big coleco fan here. I adjusted the article slightly:
Another odd quirk about the printer is that it operated like a type writer. The user would type a key, and it would appear on the paper.
That's because you are in the electronic typewriter program. Pushing Escape/WP takes you to the word processor, which functions a lot like a modern word processor. I mentioned the typewriter in the article.
And in the specs, the external expansion port on the side of the stand alone version was not mentioned. I'm not complenely positive it wasn't on the expansion though, as I've never owned one. (The inside of a standalone has a modified colecovision circuit board, with the expansion slot, which is connected to the ADAM circuit board with a ribbon cable, which has the external port on it. And I really don't know how they got away with that...)
And, I didn't think it was neccessary to put in the article, but, I'd like to mention that the tape erasure issue also exists on some floppy drives of that era. Stray write signals from the heads will happen when they are powered up, but there is no mechanism to keep them away from the tape/disk to prevent this. (As with modern drives). Some of the tape drives in existance parked the tape over the leader when done, but this is not possible on the coleco. There still is that magnetic surge of course.
I'll probably continue improving this article. I also have a nice permanently connected and properly placed (on a bookshelf) ADAM in my room, should I post pictures of it? I see the picture on the article is the expansion module, and is not hooked up!
Phroziac 20:58, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
- If it's a good picture, why not? More information about the item is better! rewinn 03:48, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
- About the tape/leader issue. IIRC, a "selling point" of the Digital Data Packs was supposed to be that their neutral position was in the center of the tape, with half of the tape on either side, instead of at one end of the tape. The idea was that it'd cut average access time in half, or something. It's one of those great ideas that didn't necessarily work; perhaps part of the problem was the stray erasure problem you mention? Also, the DDPs looked just enough like standard tape cassettes to invite price comparison, but were much more expensive. That only increased the annoyance when things didn't work, and was probably a bad marketing/design decision (one of many for Adam). I had a lot of fun with mine but hoo boy! did it tank in the marketplace! rewinn 23:11, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
Early Adam computers had numerous QC problems: tape drives snapping tapes, printer power supplies overheating, etc. Many early adapters returned theirs to the store. Does anyone have a ADAM today? Is it stable? :( Pelladon 23:49, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Video processor
The TI-99/4A used the TMS9918A, not the TMS9918. There are significant differences between them. The TMS9918 was used in the TI-99/4 Home Computer. Since the A version is covered on the Texas_Instruments_TMS9918 page, the link could be fixed simply by removing the A in TI-99/4A. Or the link could be altered to add the A to the chip name.
