Why is the Coleco Adam so popular?

From: Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list_at_lafleur.wfi-inc.com>
Date: Tue Sep 14 11:57:40 1999

It was the Adam! Seriously, though, I think it was particularly accessable
to people because it grew out of Coleco's popular (and just damn good)
video game system. It wasn't nearly as forbidding as a "real" computer
system. I myself had a Colecovision from the early 80's that I recently
hawked on eBay. Can you blame me? I got a hundred bucks for it with a few
games and the Atari module. I've got another in the garage that works
better, and the game roms play better on a PC/emulator combo anyway. I
used the money to pay the shipping on some "real" computer (classic, of
course) gear.

This is interesting: call the 800 number from the sticker on the bottom of
a Colecovision/Adam. It's now a company called "Adam's House" who are more
than happy to mail you out a catalog with ridiculously-high prices on
refurbished Coleco systems and peripherals. Just screwing around with some
friends one day we gave it a call - we were playing Donkey Kong at the
time - and were totally shocked that someone actually picked up the line,
let alone resold Coleco stuff!

Aaron

On Tue, 14 Sep 1999, Jim wrote:

> Sorry for the previous post, it got away from me before I was finished :-(
>
>
>
> This might be a bit off of at least the current topics, but probably the best place to ask this question.
>
> I have to admit I bought one of the Coleco Adam computers in the summer of 1984 (The Adam bomb). I soon found that it really didn't work and like most I returned it to Toys-R-Us for a refund.
>
> I bought a KayPro 2X then and was very happy with it. I used the KayPro up until 1993.
>
> Recently I searched for information on the Kaypro on the Web and other than some pictures of the old machines I really found very little about the KayPro computers or company.
>
> But then tonight I noticed a link to a Web site on the darn Coleco Adam and I found that there are still many devotees of the little system, many Web pages, and even complete systems for sell!! These people are still having conventions!! I would think it would be the other way around. It seems as the Kaypro should still have it's UG's and Web sites and the almost worthless Adam would be long forgotten.
>
> Can somebody tell me why the Adam has enjoyed so much loyalty from people 14 years after the two year poduction run ended in bankruptcy?
>
> I really am mystified by this.
>
> Jim
>
Received on Tue Sep 14 1999 - 11:57:40 BST