For Nerds and Old Gamers - Did you want a Coleco ADAM

Right around the time my parents were considering buying a computer they Coleco ADAM was being advertised. It looked neat. Even as a kids I knew it was a weak computer, but it was one of the first "everything in the box" computers that was out on the market. Even the best quality at lowest cost computer the C64 cost a good be more on you bought a printer, tape drive or floppy, and a decent monitor instead of the display being a TV.

I wanted one, but it is good I never got one as a kid, but damn did I want one. (As it turned out a got an Apple IIc in July of 1984, so I was good after that point.) But I just though the ADAM looks pretty cool. Hell, with a proper EM shield and the power supply not being in the printer it might have been low-end decent.

The Coleco ADAM is another thing I wish I had bought when it failed and went on sale. I think by the end you could buy a Coleco ADAM -one that was better than the launch systems- for $300. Just as a toy to screw around with, ADAM would have been worth it. That the thing about early computers every damn year there would be one TWICE as good. My family bought them Apple IIc in 1984, but I used that damn thing until 1991 as my daily-driver because it cost an arm & leg. I really wanted an Atari 1040ST or Amiga 1000 by 1988, I wanted a new everything by then. My IIc was old, my StyleWriter printer was expensive to use, and new games and software was rarer - IIc was dead-end after 4 years. You could add abilities to Apple II machines, but you were really sinking money (expansions were not easy or cheap) into a dead end.

Still back to the topic, I wish I had bought teh ADAM when sit was dirt cheap, just to have one.

I wanted all these weird machines that had gaming applications but my stupid dad had an MS-DOS PC for work and he said that we couldn't get another computer and that I could just play games on that dumb businessy thing (or my NES).

What I REALLY wanted was a Tandy, because we would go to Radioshack and see all the beautiful colors and games on display but nope, we never got one, just a series of DOS and then Windows PCs.

Well screw you dad. What did you know? It's almost 40 years later and Tandy and Coleco are at the top of the computer and gaming worlds while when was the last time anyone heard the name "Microsoft," especially associated with gaming?

Does anyone even remember that Microsoft used to make software for machines you could play games on?

I sure showed him!

ADAM was my first computer. I don't remember having a single game or program other than the Buck Rogers game that was a pack-in. I mostly used it to write book reports and stuff.

Wow, that great! How loud was the printer? I'm guessing a daisy-wheel printer was like a machine gun? My Apple IIc Image Writer (or StyleWriter?) was about as loud as the avaerage 9-PIn printer- SCREECHY! If there is on thing that chanbged about computer in teh last 40 years ist the sounds, today's tech is so quiet. ;-)

@bigsocrates: I too loved to walk through a Radio Shack back in they heyday. It was one of the few places at that tiem where teh computesr we set up to mess arlund with. The little electronic educational toys where plugged in. You coudl at leats look teh the RC cars and tracks. A Radios Shack was laon a software store. They would have C64, Apple, Tandy, and PC software. Tandy was a good brand for having less expsive color computers too. And, I liked 99% of the stuff in a RS, CB Radios, 8-Tracks, Boomboxes, weird batteries, educational soldering sets,, etc.

I remeber in 1982 my friend got a electronics lab from Radio Shack, it was advertised as a digital computer...you could bodge wire logic programs into it. He and I, spend a day or two making a few projects.

I don’t remember why (probably cost) but my parents got me a VIC-20 followed by an Apple II+ clone a few years later.

Never really wanted an ADAM but we would sometimes rent the Colecovision from the local video store over the weekend if I behaved that week.

@monkeyking1969: Oh, it was loud as hell! The tape drive also made it sound like the computer was revving up for takeoff!

I don't know about the ADAM, but my first video game console was supposed to be the Colecovision, but it broke before I became old enough to understand what video games are. Instead, my first console ended up being the NES, complete with lightgun, R.OB, and Gyromite and Duck Hunt as packed-in games. It was a great Christmas present.

I would love to own one as a collectible item if I was a real rich man.