Coleco Adam System Testing

Switching to the Coleco Adam this week while I wait for a parcel to arrive for my NABU. I recently acquired a lot of Adam computers in unknown working order. In this video I test all four machines and show off some of my modern peripherals for the Adam.

[@Technoid_Mutant]

Coleco was married to those 16k drams, but there's a simple avenue to install 5volt drams provided. Remove L2 and L3, desolder all video drams, install sockets, install drams, install strap to supply 5volts. Coleco intended at some point to move to 5volt memory in order to simplify the power supply. With 5volt vdrams, you now need only 12vdc and 5vdc for power. You can omit 12volts too, so long as you have no need of the physical DDP decks (as with Fujinet).

[@ClarksvilleTN]

Great video. Thanks for sharing that.

[@RetroIslander]

Thanks for watching!

[@MegaSunspark]

Nice video on Coleco ADAM. In the early to mid 1980's ADAM came 3rd in a 2 horse race, as they say. When I say 3rd, I'm bring generous. The real battle was between Commodore and Atari. I had Commodore 64 and my friend had Atari 400 with the chicklet membrane keyboard. Of course, we both mostly played games on them. Convinced parents it was a great tool to do school work too. Actually, I did do a lot of my high school and college work on my 64. The GEOS graphical OS they had helped a lot in making the 64 readily usable for school and office type of work.

[@RetroIslander]

The early home computer era was full of competitors with new products launched every year. I grew up in a Tandy household myself, but I love all of the old platforms now! The ADAM is a favourite of mine, as there is a real diamond of a computer buried in a flawed design that ended up dooming it from the start. I have a number of Commodore and Atari home systems too, though, which I'll try to feature in later videos.

[@CanadianRetroThings]

4 working Adam Computers, very nice pickup! After only about 40 years of wanting one I should be adding one to my collection soon (hopefully I get lucky and it won't be hard to get working).

[@RetroIslander]

It's an interesting system, for sure. You just have to figure out an alternate power solution (unless you also find the printer), and I recommend the Fujinet for loading software. It works great!

[@HerculesMays]

@@RetroIslander Is there a way to still use the printer while also having an alternate power supply? I managed to find a fairly cheap Coleco ADAM that comes with the printer and I'd love using it since I don't actually have a printer at home.

[@mikedefoy]

I sold my Atari 2600 to buy the Coleco console that had the Zaxxon game because they said it would be expandable to a computer system, but never pursued it when the Amiga computer came out. Thanks for the video, I had never seen it before, and didn't know that it did eventually come out. Mine was black and if I remember correctly, it sat down into a base computer expansion console. Would like to see productivity software and what it can do video.

[@RetroIslander]

Yes, they sold an expansion for the Colecovision that turned it into an ADAM. I actually have one, but I'll need to get my Colecovision working again before I can try it out. Future video idea.

[@shaun4bigblocks993]

What brand us that sweater? I like it, very unique and appears to be high quality late 90s.

[@djholcomb]

Do you have any leads on where to buy the James Walters Coleco Adam power supply from?