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History of video games/Platforms/Coleco Adam

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History

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Development

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$150 million was borrowed by Coleco, with a significant portion of that funding production facilities for the Coleco Adam.[1]

CES 1983 Incident

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A demonstration of the Colecovision cartridge for Donkey Kong created an initially small but history changing dispute between Atari and Nintendo over the rights to the game, leading to the two companies failing to sign a deal which would have made Atari responsible for distribution of key Nintendo products during the 1980's.[2][3]

Launch

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The Coleco Adam was launched in October 1983[4] at a cost of $750.[5]

Legacy

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Immediate Aftermath

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On January 2nd, 1985 Coleco would discontinue the Adam.[6]

Community & ADAMCon

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The Coleco Adam maintained a small but dedicated fanbase, with an active community hosting ADAMcon conventions long after the discontinuation of the system.[7] The first ADAMCON occurred in Orlando, Florida from October 7th to 10th in 1989.[8][9] A convention was held as recently as 2015, when AdamCon 27 was held in the state of Michigan, USA.[10]

Technology

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Compute

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The system was powered by a Zilog Z80A CPU, which was clocked at 3.58 megahertz.[5]

A then sizable 80 kilobytes of RAM was included,[5] though just 64 kilobytes was accessible to the user.[4] The 64 kilobytes of user accessible RAM was still comparable to other computers of the era, such as the Commodore 64, which has 64 kilobytes of RAM in total.

Printer

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The external printer was an integral part of any functioning Adam computer, as it also housed the computer power supply.[4] The printer is noted for being very loud in operation.[7]

Power Supply

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The system was well known for generating an electromagnetic pulse when it was powered on, leading to it corrupting or erasing nearby magnetic media.[11][5]

References

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Wikipedia has related information at Coleco Adam

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Coleco Adam

  1. ↑ Lueck, Thomas J. (9 December 1983). "COLECO CAN'T SAVOR A SUCCESS". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/09/business/coleco-can-t-savor-a-success.html. 
  2. ↑ McFerran, Damien (3 February 2020). "Remember When Atari Turned Down Nintendo And Sega?". Nintendo Life. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/02/feature_remember_when_atari_turned_down_nintendo_and_sega. 
  3. ↑ "The ColecoVision/Nintendo Partnership and the Atari Clone" (in en). Lifewire. https://www.lifewire.com/history-of-colecovision-729731. 
  4. ↑ a b c "Coleco Adam computer". oldcomputers.net. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  5. ↑ a b c d Modine, Austin (4 February 2008). "Remembering the Coleco Adam" (in en). www.theregister.com. https://www.theregister.com/2008/02/04/tob_coleco_adam/. 
  6. ↑ Sanger, David E. (3 January 1985). "COLECO GIVES UP ON THE ADAM". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/03/business/coleco-gives-up-on-the-adam.html. 
  7. ↑ a b "The Cult of Coleco Adam". Coding Horror. 6 March 2006. https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-cult-of-coleco-adam/. 
  8. ↑ "Adam News Network volume 90 issue 02". www.adamcon.org. http://www.adamcon.org/ann/9002.html. 
  9. ↑ "ADAM computer convention pictures and stories (ADAMCON)". AtariAge Forums. https://atariage.com/forums/topic/269296-adam-computer-convention-pictures-and-stories-adamcon/. 
  10. ↑ "AdamCon - Coleco Adam Convention News and Adam News Archives". web.archive.org. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  11. ↑ Edwards, Benj (15 June 2009). "Fifteen Classic PC Design Mistakes". Technologizer by Harry McCracken. https://www.technologizer.com/2009/06/14/fifteen-classic-pc-design-mistakes/. 


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