Coleco Adam SMARTWriter
physical object
Identifier
2025.13.8Description
The Coleco Adam is a home computer and expansion device for the ColecoVision released in 1983. It was an attempt to follow on the success of the company's ColecoVision video game console. Industry legend states that Coleco named its first (and last) foray into the home computer market "Adam" because the system would take a bite out of Apple Computers. This of course wasn't the case. But the name did prove biblically accurate in that both Adams were massive disappointments to their creators.At $725US ($1800US today), the Adam was a great deal, bundled with a letter-quality printer, high speed built-in storage, and 64K of user RAM. A monitor was not needed since it attached to your TV producing 256x192 of resolution.
The Adam's CPU was the widely used Z80A microprocessor chip. Z80-family chips (made by Zilog) are found in TRS-80, Epson, Timex/Sinclair, Osborne, Kaypro, and many other personal computers of the era. An eight-bit chip, the Z80A cannot address more than 64K of memory at a time. Anything above the maximum addressable 64K must be bank-switched, or flipped in and out as needed. This is usually handled by the operating system. Other eight-bit computers overcome their 64K limits the same way (such as the Atari 1200XL and Commodore 64, which each have at least 80K of RAM and ROM).
Although the Adam has a high-speed serial bus specifically for Adam peripherals, it has no standard serial or parallel ports for printers, modems, and other standard peripherals.
The included daisy-wheel printer was very noisy and slow, printing about 10 characters per second, but it had a much better print quality than any dot-matrix printer at the time (a cheaper and more common printer of the 1980's).
The printer is connected to the Adam console via the AdamNet, a 62.5K bps, half-duplex, shared serial bus. Interestingly, the Adam printer is the power source for the entire system. There is no operating system built-in, just a word processor. You can load the SmartBASIC programming language (included) from cassette tape.
Data storage is via built-in cassette drives. Ordinary audio cassettes cannot be used, they are not of sufficient quality to reliably store computer data. Coleco sold high quality tapes at $10US a piece ($25US today) specifically made for the Adam, capable of withstanding the high-speed 20 ips (inches per second) read/write and 80 ips rewind speeds. These were still incredibly slow as compare to floppy drives of the time. The Adam actually generated a destructive pulse of electromagnetic energy on startup, erasing the contents of its tapes left in, or even near the system.
The Adam was not very successful, partly because of early production problems and reliability issues. Sixty per cent of Adams sold in the first year were returned to stores as defective. Coleco would later address many of these flaws, but sales were extremely weak once the bad news got out. By 1984, the electronics division of Coleco had lost over $258m. Coleco withdrew from electronics the next year. But not even the company's successful Cabbage Patch Kids dolls it released in 1983 could save it from the snowballing losses that began with the Adam. The Adam was discontinued in early 1985. In 1988, the company filed for bankruptcy.