14 Sep
1999
14 Sep
'99
2:53 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: Glenatacme(a)aol.com <Glenatacme(a)aol.com>
I'm not familiar with the Adam. When you say it
"really didn't work," do
you
mean:
1) it was poorly designed
2) it was poorly manufactured
3) it was a PITA to use or program
The easy answer would be all three, but it was a decent 1983-4 design, the
printer quality control left a lot to be desired, but it was a daisy wheel
printer for a very cheap price back then. (note: the Adam came with the
printer, basic, and a word processor for $800 in 1984, the KayPro 2X with a
Juki 6100 Daisy wheel printer I replaced the Adam with costs $1750.)
I found you would not want to trust the printer to print out your work on
deadline. It might take you a long time to get the formatting correct.
It was definetily a PITA to use and program, and program you did. At least
you typed in basic programs form listings in books and magazines.
My first and last project was to type in a basic progam to make a mailing
list for my customers. I never could get it to work and finally found the
authors telephone number and called him. He immediately admitted the
program didn't work as Coleco had shipped a different version of basic than
the one they had given him to work with. He also confirmed that the printer
was "very difficult" to get to print correctly. He also admitted that he
was without a current Adam as he himself had returned two machines for
refunds.
I think later the basic was improved and the printer was improved.
"Really didn't work" sounds as if _nothing_ useful could be done with the
machine, no matter the skills and/or perseverance of the user.
I think as time went on, there were some useful filing, spreadsheet, and
better word pocessing progams for the Adam. They could not have been any
worse anyway :-)
There was a lot of talk of CP/M for the Adam while I had one, I don't know
if that ever happened.
More plainly stated: are these things _totally_ _crap_ ??? I like
collecting the smaller machines, but don't wish to waste my time if the
Adam
"really doesn't work."
No, not total loss, but darn close IMHO. As I remember, I could always type
something into the Adam, and then play hell trying to get the thing to give
it back to me out of the printerr in some kind of recognizable form.
With all the activity yet, they are not rare I guess. Perhaps the Adam
bomb has earned it's place in any well stocked collection. There appears to
be plenty of information on the Web surprisingly, to get you started visit:
http://www.flash.net/~coleco/start.htm
Good luck,
Jim Rossbach, Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club, www.TonkinYachts.cjb.net
You've heard it said that the early bird gets the worm? Well the second
mouse gets the cheese ! (W. Rian Adams)