нEнCfГзь       Initializing Media      over box is mine.  The cover tells a story none of us wanted to see.  More on that later. ECN  continues  to  change.  We now are able  to  provide  screen graphics thanks to our new Mitsubishi video printer.  We will try not to overdo this but would like to provide at least one  screen picture  of each new software package reviewed.  If the  graphics start eating into our text too much we will limit it. Some of the pictures may not be first rate, especially if the screen image is low in contrast.  Be patieFIRST DIR  ЃUЄя BOOT       ђDIRECTORY  ШECN1-95A  ECN1-95bA ЂECNfirstBA.ECNfirstA EECNlastA  W

ECNlast2A aPJgoneA   nЂREADme1stAqЂBLOCKS LEFTr.cut back something else. If  you need an answer quickly say so in your letter and be  sure to enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope.  Such answers  will probably be hand written. We still operate our telephone hot-line on  Saturday mornings from 9 am until noon CST.  If your question can  be  answered by phone,  give us a  call.  No  collect  calls please. If you have a modem please do not contact me by E-Mail on Compuserve.  My  Compuserve and long-distance charges are getting out of sight. Write a letМ1 Ч68 Issue #6 - Jan./Feb. 1985 Ramblings From The Ridge by D. Sage, Editor As I indicated in the last issue, this issue is late. We will try to  get  back  on schedule as quickly as possible,  but  it  will probably take a couple of issues to do so. We  now  have  survived  a  full  year  and  intend  to  continue publishing  ECN and develop now software.  We have  gone  through three  cover  designs.  Our  current layout was provided  by  Ted Gocal. We appreciate his assistance. The artwork in the cnt, we will try to make adjustments but it will take some experimentation. I  have been very busy since our last issue.  I am trying hard to keep  up  with  your letters and  questions.  It  Is  not  always possible  to  do  so.  I read all of the mail and try  to  answer personally as much as possible.  If it appears that no answer  is required  or  you  have asked a general question that  should  be answered in ECN,  you may not get a personal reply.  In order  to have  time to write software,  I have to nter or call me instead of using E-MAIL. Some of you are worried about our continued support for the ADAM. Please do not worry.  We will be here to publish ECN and help you for a long time to come.  We all need to work together.  Let's do what we can to make as much software available as possible. Share your  programs with us and the rest of our  subscribers.  If  you send us a program that has commercial potential, we will tell you and  suggest  places  to contact that will help  you  market  the product.  ke it clear that ECN is the source for the program and that you give credit to the author. We also would hope that you would encourage these non-subscribers to subscribe to ECN.  After all,  $12.00  a year is pretty cheap. We don't make much on this but every little bit  helps  to cover our costs in purchasing products for  review and testing. In the last couple of issues I have suggested that we all start a letter writing campaign to a number of companies encouraging them to  support  the  ADAM.  A number program is now workable,  but is very complex  and difficult to use.  it is also  very,  very  slow.  I intend to try to simplify it as much as possible and provide some additional  utilities  that  will make it easier  to  use  before making  it available.  So there is hope for all those data  packs you have that cannot be accessed. I  also have been talking to a number of independent programmers, who like myself,  are interested in supporting the ADAM.  We need to  know  from you what type of software youMA 02142   Peggy Sheridan-Marketing Div. Parker Bros., Inc. 50 Durham Rd. Beverly, MA 01915  Margaret Torme Imagic 40 Gold Street San Francisco,  CA 94133   Stephen D.  Arnold LucasFilm Ltd.  - Game Group P.O.  Box 2009 San Rafael, CA 94912  Epyx 1043 Kiel Ct. Sunnyvale, CA 94089  Infocom  55 Wheeler St.  Cambridge,  MA 02138  Activision  Drawer 7286 Mountain View, CA 94042     Feel free to add to this list, but we know that Sierra, Epyx, and Infocom  have  already done conversions that are awaiting  enouer to me,  ATTN: Programming Help. If you are skilled in the hardware area, address the letter to ATTN: Hardware Help. It  has  come to my attention that some of you have been  sharing programs from ECN with non-subscribers through Compuserve.  While all  the  programs presented in ECN are copyrighted,  I  have  no objections to you sharing this material with other ADAM owners. I do not want to see anyone publishing these programs or in any way charging for their distribution.  In addition I ask that you maOtherwise  we will print your program in ECN or make it available on a program library data pack. As  I said earlier,  I have been busy programming since our  last issue.  The  result  of all this work is the  first  commercially available backup program for the ADAM.  The program is  described in our ad and in two independent reviews in this issue. I  have  also been working on a program that will retrieve  files and  programs  from data packs that are  unreadable  (those  that produce  1/0 errors).  This  of  companies  have  developed software  for  the ADAM but have been unable to get retailers  to carry  the items.  Some of these products include conversions  of top rated software available for other computer systems. Write to these  companies and urge them to make their  products  available through the various mail order companies that sell ADAM products. These software companies include:Sierra,  Sierra On-Line Bldg.  Coarsegold, CA 93614  Nancy Evans, Spinnaker  Software 215 First Street Cambridge,   would  like  to  see during  the  next year.  We also need to know what  hardware  you would like to have.  if you will write to me,  ATTN:  New Product Development, and give your ideas, we will make up a list to share among  all interested software developers.  Please do not include questions in these letters. If any of you are programmers and are interested  in participating in the program development  project, send  me  a  letter  describing  your  areas  of  expertise   and interests:  address the lettgh support to go to market. In addition write to the president of Coleco and tell him how you would  like to see continued products and support for  the  ADAM. Try to be positive and personal in your letters. Right  now many of us would like to have a printer interface that would allow us to connect other printers to the ADAM.  If  Coleco or  another party does not produce a universal printer  interface soon,  we  will  do everything we can to get this product on  the market.  If all else fails I'll get outproved,  they felt that the  home computer market was too unstable to continue in this area. Coleco has  indicated  that  they will continue to  provide  maintenance support through Honeywell's Service Centers.  Their contract with Honeywell has another four years left.  They also indicated  that their toll free hot line would continue for another year and that they  would  honor  all  warranties and  would  provide  software support  for  the rest of 1985.  We have been advised  through  a number of source,  right justification,  variable line  spacing, etc.),  SmartFiler utilites,  educational programs,  and tools to allow  non-programmers  to  take  advantage of  ADAMs  sound  and graphics. Don't forget,  we welcome your support,  contributions and input. So get busy and send us something soon.  Everyone will appreciate it.  You will be happy to know that the Sprite Editor I have been working on has been written.  It is still full of bugs and may or may not appear in this issue. If I get it completely readhe  Coleco  booth included:  "Berenstein  Bears Return to Spooky Old  Tree",  "Math Quest",   "The  Best  of  Electronic  Arts",   "Illusions",  "Dam Busters",  "Grog's  Revenge",  "2010:  The Strategy  Text  Game", "Cabbage Patch Kids Workout",  "Family Feud",  "Jeopardy",  "Root Beer Tapper",  and "Spy Hunter". Coleco also indicated that there would be other yet to be named titles available for the ADAM. Other  news  concerning  support for the ADAM  comes  from  Image MicroCorp.  They  announced  that th stay with us.  ADAM will survive if we all stay In touch and work together.  I  hope  to  see all of you In our  March  anniversary issue.by D. SageMuch of this report was made possible by Al Roginski, who offered to attend the Consumer Electronics Show on our behalf.  We  would like to thank Al for his efforts in bringing us the latest news. Coleco  was  distributing the infamous press  release  announcing their sale of ADAM inventory.  In the announcement they indicated that  although ADAM sales had im my trusty soldering  iron and  make  the  things myself.  We are also  considering  putting together an 80 column kit for the ADAM. These things do take time and experimentation and testing. Time seems to be in short supply around here,  but I will try.  If any of you want to help, let me know. Some  of you have expressed an interest in what projects we  have in  the  works for ADAM.  My list currently  includes  a  machine language  development system,  a utility package for  SmartWriter files  (centerings that it is unlikely that Coleco will  introduce any  new hardware that has not already been produced.  This would mean  that the universal printer interface,  80 column  card  and tractor feed have probably been scrapped.  Other products such as CP/M  2.2 and the updated telecommunications software were to  be shipped  in the near future.  Coleco has also indicated that they will be making technical support more readily available to  third party developers. The  list  of  "NEW"  products being shown at  ty I will try to stick it in. If not, I should have it in the next issue. We are still awaiting final word on a French version of  ECN.  If you are interested let us know so that we may pass the word along it it becomes available. Renewal Reminder If  your mailing label has an 8501 on it,  then this is your last issue, unless you have sent in your renewal. Remember we will not be  sending out any renewal notices.  We are looking  forward  to serving all of you for another year and hope that all of you willey would be producing  a  64k memory  expander  for  the ADAM and that it  would  be  available within  the  next  45 days.  They also indicated  that  a  speech synthesizer  and an RS232 interface would be introduced later  in the year. Both  Atari  and Commodore introduced new computers at the  show. Atari  was  displaying their new ST line of  computers.  This  is essentially  a color Macintosh look alike.  The 512k  version  of this  machine  is set to be priced at $1000.  A monitor and  disk drives arecide whether to buy items you want  now  at current prices or take the chance  of  waiting  for prices to drop.  Some items were produced by Coleco in only small quantities.  These  apparently  include 64k memory expanders  and AdamCalc.  Other  items such as modems and disk drives  are  more readily  available.  We have been advised that there will be  one more  production run of disk drives.  Look for the price of ADAMs to  drop  to  $300  by the first  of  February.  We  are  already beginning  to  see pr memory expansion up to 512k and will be priced around $250. There did not appear to be anything else at CES that was anything close to earth shaking. We expect to see more new products appear at the June show. West Hartford Happenings by D. Sage I  have  heard so many rumors about what is going on that  it  is difficult to figure out which story to believe.  Well here  goes. Coleco  has sold all inventory of the current ADAM  computer.  It appears that the inventory was purchased by 0DD LOT a division oe  on  Fractulus for the Colecovision/ADAM sometime  in  mid 1985. An independent software company is working on a telecommun ications  package  for  the ADAM that is similar  to  the  XModem package for other computers.  Another independent is working on a trivia game for the ADAM.  A number of major software titles  are expected  to  be  introduced  via mail order firms  in  the  near future.  We have been promised review copies, but cannot give any details at this point. The game Evolution has been intro other companies for the U.S.  rights  to  this latter   computer.   Coleco   may  retain  rights  for   overseas distribution. Both AT&T and GTE may be interested in this product since  it  also includes a built in telephone and  probably  will support some form of videotext. About  all  we  can do is take a wait  and  see  attitude.  There currently appears to be a great deal of confusion at Coleco about what exactly the sale of the current ADAM inventory means.  Those of you who own ADAMs will have to de to be priced at $200 each. Jack Tramiel indicated that the  machine should begin appearing in retail stores by April  of this  year.  The  machine uses a mouse and its processor  is  the Motorola 68000. Commodore  did not display their new AMIGA  super  machine.  This machine  is  expected  to  be introduced  later  in  the  spring. Commodore,  however,  appears  to have finally taken the hint and introduced  a  Commodore 64 compatible computer dubbed  the  128. This machine is supposedly capable of furtherices around $400 for stand-alone  ADAMs  and $300 for the Colecovison Expansion Module. At these prices I will probably buy at least two more ADAMs. You  all  will  be  happy to know  that  regardless  of  Coleco's actions,  there  will  be  software support  for  the  ADAM.  The following are bits and pieces that we have put together over  the last  several days.  This information comes from reliable sources and is not based on rumor. Lucasfilm  Ltd.  Game Division plans to introduce Ballblazer  and Rescuf REVCO.  Total  production  of all ADAMS,  once current parts  are used,  will  be around 400,000 units.  Approximately  250,000  of these have already been sold. Coleco is rumored to have built two other computers. The first of these is a disk drive version of the ADAM. The second is an Apple compatible computer that was shown in private at Las Vegas. It is rumored  that  this  second machine is also compatible  with  all current  ADAM  Software.  It  is believed  that  Coleco  will  be negotiating  with duced for the ADAM in Canada by Sydney Dataproducts,  315 Laurel  St.,  San Diego,  CA 92101.  International Computing will be supporting the ADAM through a number of introductions,  most of these will be in the area of text adventure games.  Star-Byte,  Inc. has indicated that  they will continue to support the ADAM and have a number of new  introductions  planned.  As stated earlier  Image  MicroCorp plans  to  continue  to support the  ADAM  through  hardware  and software introductions.  Westico,  25 Va  you  are ready to go with it. Return to Top Telecommunicating by D. Sage If  you  have a modem and have been on Compuserve,  you  probably have figured out that Coleco has apparently dropped the ADAM SIG. Even the earlier notice that appeared is now gone. Never fear,  ADAM owners have created their own SIG thanks to the cooperation  and  assistance of Family  Computing  magazine.  For those of you who didn't know it,  Family Computing has a  special group on Compuserve that includes an on-line magazine  We will of course keep you posted on any further developments. What About The Competition? by D. Sage My first question is:  If you are no longer in the business,  how can you have any competition? In any event the other computer companies in the home market  are still  there.  Apple  is busy as ever selling  IIe's,  IIc's  and Macintoshes.  IBM  has improved the Jr.  and cut its  price.  The product  is now selling as a low end version of the IBM  PC.  You can buy a Sanyo for about the same price as a Jf you use this service do so with some courtesy. Remember we are guests of Family Computing and should conduct ourselves with that in  mind.  Try to restrict your comments to those that will be of general interest. If you want to leave a message for a particular individual,  try  to  do  that through  E-Mail  rather  than  the bulletin board. Reading all these messages takes time and time is money. One day I spent three hours of connect time getting caught up on reading messages.  Since I don't have a local need to say more about them. Time will tell if their new products will  have a chance.  A color Macintosh would be hard to pass  up for under $1000. The  Sinclair  QL is being sold in Europe and is supposed  to  be available  by  mail order in the US this spring.  This is a  neat machine that I saw at Chicago last summer. Don't expect to see much new until CES in June or possibly at the European show in the spring. Most computer companies have learned that  it  is best not to introduce a new product  untiln Zant St..  Norwalk,  CT 06855, has announced that they have completed the conversion of a large  number  of CPM programs to the ADAM format and  that  they will  be distributing these products.  A listing of such programs will  be included in the CPM package put out by Coleco.  Some  of the programs listed by Westico are Wordstar,  Multiplan,  CBasic, Cobol,  Pascal,  dBase  II,  and many others.  It has  also  been rumored  that  a version of the MSX operating system may be  made available for the ADAM. and various bulletin boards.  To access the area currently being used by ADAM owners simply log on Compuserve and then type in GO FAM-200. This will take you to the Family Computing SIG. The ADAM group exchan ges  information  on the bulletin board for  specific  computers. When  you get the menu prompt select option 3.  You will then  be able to read messages from ADAM owners. Instructions are provided on  request  on  using the bulletin board.  You  can  read  other messages as well as compose your own. Ir. and have a full fledged IBM compatible, so why buy a Jr.? The IBM name of course. We Americans have this thing about names. The  Japanese  are still lurking off shore with their  computers. This is supposed to be the year they come ashore,  but who knows. They  may  be waiting for a better product before taking  on  the American  market.  Some Japanese companies seem to  be  satisfied with producing products for sale by American companies. I  have  already covered Atari and Commodore so there  is  little access number that  means I had three hours of long distance charges as well as three  hours  of  connect  charges.  Unfortunately  many  of  the messages  were little more than greetings.  Many of the  messages were also redundant.  I suggest you read previous messages before asking a question.  Often times you will find that your  question has  already been answered.  This bulletin board is no place  for profanity or rudeness.  If we don't conduct ourselves properly we could lose access to something we ag of how the conference works. Hope to see you all there soon. If  you  have the time and money you may want  to  explore  other parts  of  Compuserve.  I  think that you will find a  number  of interesting  services,   many  of  which  will  be  described  in Compuserve's   publications  which  all  Compuserve   subscribers receive. Programs, Programs, Programs We again have a number of user written progams to share with you. The  program listings for these appear at the end of  ECN.  David Jacksch  has tised  on  the  Family Computing  bulletin  board.  If  you  decide  to  attend  such  a conference  please abide by the rules that have been  established so that all can benefit. For the last couple of conferences, John Zimmerman of Tulsa has acted as moderator.  The rules that follow were  compiled  by  him and should be followed  during  any  such scheduled  conference.  After  you enter the conference made  (by typing "co") you will be on channel 30.  Conferences are held  on channel  3.  To  get there ER will  then  have  to be run ONLY when you need to set  up  a  new calendar. The instructions for EVENTS are provided in the program and are relatively self-explanatory.  Thanks for sending us these fine  programs and we hope that you and others will  continue  to share your efforts with all of us. Simple Maintenance For ADAM by Mike Lee While  most  of you have found that the ADAM system is  really  a trouble-free  computer system,  there is still basic  maintenance that every owner should perform. Obviou have to say when you are finished end it with  "go." This way others will know that you are done. 3. Remember that all of  us  pay for this service so keep your questions  and  answers short. If you have a personal question, save it for E-Mail. Don't waste  everyone's  time  asking  something that will  not  be  of interest to anyone but yourself.  Finally remember that this is a conference for ADAM users.  Please confine your questions to  the ADAM  and please be patient.  Eventually you will get the hanll need. The  Family  Computing  SIG  also  supports  on-line  conferences between  users.  ADAM  owners  have  already  held  a  number  of scheduled conferences.  In addition by typing in the command "co" at  the  bulletin board you can enter the conference mode at  any time. Often you will find other ADAM owners on-line to talk to. Several of us are trying to organize regular group conferences. I am  hoping that we can organize this on at least  a  once-a-month basis.  These  conferences  will  be  adver sent us two more fine graphics  programs  that  are quite interesting.  There are three graphics programs supplied by Charles  Steele.  Finally  Steve  Hanam has supplied  us  with  a program  to keep track of our daily activities.  This program  is called  EVENTS  and  is  accompanied by  another  program  called SCHEDMAKER.  The latter of these is used to create the data  file used  in  the  EVENTS program.  You will have to  enter  and  run SCHEDMAKER  before running EVENTS for the first time.  SCHEDMAKtype "/tun 3".  You will start  seeing messages  appear  on your screen.  Don't worry,  these  are  live transmissions from other ADAM owners.  To talk all you have to do is  type a line.  The line will be transmitted when you  hit  the return key. Now for the rules: 1. Ask for the floor before saying anything. John will let you know when it is your turn. To ask for the  floor  type  "floor,  please,"  and  then  be  patient.  You eventually get your turn. 2. When you finally get the floor, type in  what yously,  one  of the most important things to do for your ADAM is to keep it clean and dirt free.  During normal use,  it is not unusual to find paper lint and dust inside any of the components. Use  a  product known as "Dust-Off" to safely blow  away  harmful dust and lint. To help maintain the cleanliness, an investment in dust covers for your ADAM is more than justified. Another  worthwhile investment is a bottle or spray can of  anti- static  spray.  Not only will this product reduce the  amount  of dust the program very interesting and  useful,  but  I also found a bug that was very  annoying.  I called Coleco to try and get the problem resolved and they  could not  help  so  I proceeded on my own and found a remedy  for  the problem. The  problem  occured when I was using the  form  entitled  Cover Letter with Resume." All went well until I tried to enter my name at the end of the form. After my name was inserted and the "Done" Smart  Key  was pressed,  my name would disappear and the  cursor would move ty apply it to  each of your components.  Allow it to stand a  minute  before powering up the system again. A tape head cleaning outfit is a must with ADAM.  Failure to keep the  head clean will not only prevent the transfer of good  data, but  may  also  permanently damage a good program  (such  as  the SmartBasic  tape).  This  outfit  is also valuable  for  cleaning another  component  of the ADAM,  the reset  microswitch  on  the printer's  print head.  This small contact switch is found on the lower  lectory on the screen.  Move  the selection  pointer  to the last name on the directory then  press the  Down  Arrow key again.  This will load another page  of  the directory on the screen. "GET" the file labeled "cover." 2. When the form is on the screen, switch to "moving window", use the  Arrow  Key to move down to the "End Page"  symbol.  This  is where  the  problem is located.  There should be two  (2)  return symbols between "(name)" and the "End Page".  Insert a return  at this point. 3.  Remove the is article  or  before  attempting  to  make  modifications  to  any commercial program,  I STRONGLY urge you to make a backup copy of the program and modify the copy. I am not trying to sell our copy program,  but  from personal experience you could find  that  the original  tape  cannot be accessed after such  modifications  are made.  We  cannot  be  responsible  when you  fail  to  heed  our warnings. I  am writing concerning Coleco's newly released Smart Letters  & forms program fur ADAM. I have found  your ADAM can attract,  but the build-up of such static can drive  your  ADAM nuts!  One such symptom of static  build-up  is small  glitches seen on the monitor or TV  screen.  Another  more disastrous symptom is when the print head on the printer advances to  the far right of the carriage and begins bumping against  the end several times or even continuously while attempting to reset. A  quick but small mist of anti-static spray will completely cure this symptom. Spray the substance on a cloth and lightlo the beginning of the letter.  Using the Arrow  Keys to return to the end of the letter, I would find my name gone and also  one line from the bottom of the letter  missing.  Continued attempts  at  inserting would give the same results,  taking  one more line from the letter each time. Upon viewing this form and other forms in this program,  I  found the problem and used the following method to correct it: 1. Insert Letters and Forms program into data drive and using the SmartWriter  mode,  "GET" the direft side of the print head and Is mounted to  either  the print  head on early models,  or the extreme left of the  printer case  on  later models.  GENTLY clean the contact points on  this switch and allow it to dry completely before using the system. By using a little common sense housekeeping,  the ADAM should  be able to maintain a happy image and stay away from repairmen for a long time. Making Smart Letters & Forms Smarter by Alan Taylor Editor's  Note:  Before following the procedure described in thprogram tape and using a separate data pack,  save the revised form under the "cover" filename. 4.  Re-insert the Letters and Forms program tape and, again using SmartWriter,  "Get"  the  directory on the screen.  Position  the selector arrow on the "cover" file and press the "Delete" command key and "Final Delete" Smart Key.  This will,  of course,  delete the faulty form. 5.  Remove the program tape,  retrieve the revised form from  the separate data pack,  in the SmartWriter mode, and then re-"Store" it aphics appear on the screen and wipe out part of the text. When  this happened the right and left arrow keys would not  work and part of the top bar which indicates position would disappear. The  "Escape"  key would not work and the only way to  get  going again was to shut off the computer. When I changed either the right or left margins and then used the "Home" key to roll the text, part of the text would disappear and graphics would appear.  Again,  the only way out was to shut  the computer off. Sometiml appear at the top of the form in orange when loaded,  and the insert areas,  when enclosed in "( )",  appear orange and can be tabbed to, as with forms included an the program tape. The  forms  must  be  created on  SmartWriter  and  stored  under filenames  used  for  files on the  original  program  tape.  For instance,  one "home-made" form,  say for a letter to the  Mayor, would  be saved with the file name "Formal." This form could then be  loaded  by selecting the FORMAL INVITATION  from  the  SOCIAgan with  the  request that  a  new unit be sent back.  Honeywell sent me a  new  memory console and a new printer. I got back my old keyboard. Also three new  tapes (data pack,  SmartBasic,  and Buck Rogers)  were  sent along  with a note to discard the old ones.  Well I kept the  old tapes  since  there was nothing wrong with them.  The  turnaround time  was only 9 days and my only cost was the  UPS  charge.  The word processing version in this unit is #80. The  data  drive  in the new unit lasted for 2  М1 Ч67ADAM The Good And The Bad by Dennis Jurewicz I  believe that ECN should have a regular column that would allow people  such as myself and others to comment on the  problems  we have encountered and what has been done to correct them. I  got my ADAM in March 1984 and had no problem getting it set up and running.  Everything worked.  However,  as I used it I  found that  it did have a few bugs in the word processing program.  The version  I had was #59.  The "End of Page",  key sometimes  would make gron the Letters and Forms program data pack. This will correct the problem. I have called Coleco and told them what  I did and they were pleased that the problem was so  easily corrected.  Of  course I was too,  but this suggested a whole new idea  to  me.  I  have created my own "Letters and  Forms"  on  a separate data pack,  complete with automatic "inserts" using  the Tab  Key,  as  can  be  done within Coleco's  Letters  and  Forms program!  The title of my "home-made" forms,  when enclosed in "[ ]" wiles when I used the "Insert" key the computer stayed in the insert mode.  Same story,  turn it off. Text would also sometimes be  lost when using the "Insert" key,  The "End of Page" key  did not work in the Insert mode and only made garbage of the text. The printer worked well,  however,  after putting a multiple page form  through it,  the plastic paper guide started to tear.  This caused  the printer head to catch on the plastic and the  printer stopped running. I  sent  the computer to Honeywell in MichiL DIRECTORY,  after  the Letters and Forms program has been  booted and  the separate data pack inserted.  You'll have to make a note some place so you will know what form is located under what name, but you'll have your own personal customized form letters. A good way  to  list the file names is to print out the catalog  on  the program data pack while in SmartBasic. I  hope  you will find this information useful and that  it  will help others that have had the same problem I had. tapes  before  it stopped operating.  I sent It back to Coleco Customer Service and got  another one back in 3 weeks.  So far I have had the now data drive for two weeks and it is still working. The  new printer is a newer model than the old one I  sent  back. The  old one,  except for the ripped paper guide,  always  worked well.  This  newer  model sometimes makes a high pitch noise  and then will not operate.  The only way I have found to get it going again is to shut the computer off. None of the advice the potentiometer is connected in series,  any value over 300 ohms will work as long as it can be adjusted  down in  the neighborhood of 250 ohms.  For those who are lacking  the nerve  to open their ADAM,  they can connect the potentiometer by cutting  the video cable and splicing the potentiometer into  the cable.  If you use a pot with a metal case,  solder a ground wire to the metal case from the closest ground point.  The diagram  to the  left  indicates how to install the pot with the  connections in by Tommy L. Earnest, Jr. I have written the user's group in England about their group  and about their version of the programming language FORTH.  They said that  they  will be serving only the ADAM and have changed  their name to The Independent Coleco ADAM User's Club. Their membership cost is 12 pounds sterling, payable by banker's draft. The version of FORTH they were working on is  finished.  However, since  there  is  no  assembler for ADAM they had  to  write  the language  on  another computer.  WhAME    PLAYER  LEVEL   SCORE   Antartic Adventure      Jeff Platt      -       176,750 B.C.'s Quest For Tires  Jeff Platt      1       39,490  Buck Rogers, Super      Jeff Platt      4       10,167,642      Bump N Jump     Jeff Platt      4       216,896 Cabbage Patch   Jeff Platt      -       114,050 Carnival        Jeff Platt      4       22,410  Centipede       Jeff Platt      1       195,032 Chuck Norris    Jeff Platt      -       196,200 Congo Bongo     Joe Blenkle     1       7,010   Defender        Jil they get the better our chances. Remember when the C-64 came out  it  hardly had any software at all.  Just look  at  it  now. Return to Monitor Hookup by Carlton Caldwell Earlier  it was suggested that a pot could be attached to  ADAM's video output in order to reduce the signal to a monitor.  Here is the information many of you have been asking about.The  pot  value for the video output should be approximately  500 ohms.  300 ohms will probably work and as much as 1000 ohms  will also  work.  Since from Coleco has helped, so if anyone has any ideas I would like to hear them. Even  with  the problems that I have had I still think  that  the ADAM  is the best computer system for the home  user,  especially for the price. Editor's Note:  The problem with the printer sounds like a jammed paper  platten  gear.  The  nylon gears on  the  platten  can  be lubricated  with  a  small quantity of vaseline.  If  the  roller cannot advance when ADAM Is turned on, the printer will not work. FORTH Bulletin, Etc.side the ADAM.  This will of course void any warranty. Editor's Note: It is my understanding that the new ADAM monitor cable from Coleco  will  also take care of the problem of too hot  a  signal from ADAM. Cut the video out wire denoted by the X and solder the end coming from  the  circuit  board to both terminals 1 &  2  of  the  pot. Terminal 3 goes to the video out. PRODUCT REVIEWS WERE CUT OUT IN OIRDER TO SAVE  SPACE !!!!!!!!High Scores ColecoVision/ADAM High Scores                               Genever an RS232  interface  is available they will download the program to ADAM and test it out. They  hope  to have Forth available for distribution  early  this year. I  have also found a way to access SmartWriter without having  to press  the ESCAPE/WP button.  In typewriter  mode,  simply  press Control-[. I  have written many major computer software manufacturers  about making  their products available for ADAM.  Many seem interested, while some say production will begin soon.  Write them.  The more maeff Platt      -       1,005,200       Destructor      Jeff Platt      1       316,620 Donkey Kong, Super      Jeff Platt      1       1,201,800       Donkey Kong Jr., Super  Jeff Platt      4       481,300 Dukes of Hazzard        Jeff Platt      4       83,570  Front Line      Robert Cavenagh 1       110,500 Gateway to Asphai       Jeff Platt      -       150,275 Gust Buster     Jeff Platt      4       122,090 Heist   Joe Blenkle     -       96,782  James Bond 007  Joe Blenkle     1       57,550  Jumpman JTHEN LET yx=4 69        IF x>254 THEN 90 70     HPLOT 1, yx TO x, 1 75  HPLOT x, 1 TO 255, y 80 HPLOT 255, y TO xy, 190 85      HPLOT xy, 190 TO 1, yx 90       SCALE=20 92     r=r+1 93        ROT=r 95        DRAW 1 AT 125, 95 100   GOTO 30Program Listing - Schedule Maker & Events 10    REM SCHEDMAKER 20       REM RUN THIS BEFORE RUNNING EVENTS FOR FIRST TIME 30    PRINT "To Create a New Schedule File" 40        PRINT " Enter Y" 50     INPUT q$ 60     IF q$<> "Y" OR q$ <> "y" THEN END 100   d$=CHR$(4) 110 venagh 1       43,220  Roc N Rope      Jeff Platt      1       203,120 Rolloverture    Jeff Platt      1       42,300  Sewer Sam       Scott Swenson   -       15,779  Spectron        Jeff Platt      4       6,450   Slither Jeff Platt      1       158,420 Squish em       Jeff Platt      1       53,620  Tutankham       Jeff Platt      1       170,456 War Games       Robert Cavenagh 4       161,310,000     Wing War        Jeff Platt      -       150,200 Zaxxon, Super   Jeff Platt      1       143,200 High Scor 49      PRINT: PRINT d$; "close sched": GOTO 900 50     HOME: PRINT "WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF THE" 52      PRINT " MONTH "; 60     INPUT m 65      IF m<1 OR m>12 THEN 40 70       PRINT: PRINT 80 PRINT " WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF THE? DAY "; 82    INPUT d 85      PRINT: PRINT 90 IF d<1 OR d>31 THEN 70 100      PRINT " ARE YOU WORKING (1) ARE YOU" 102        PRINT " OFF (2) OR ARE YOU" 103 PRINT " NOT SURE (3)"; 104      INPUT t$ 106    IF t$="1" THEN t$="WORKING" 108 IF t$="2" THEN t$="OFF" 109     IF t$="3" THEN  40       HCOLOR=1 50     HPLOT 255-i, 160 TO i, 0 60     HPLOT 255-i, 0 TO i, 160 70     NEXT 80 FOR i=1 TO 80 STEP 4 90 HPLOT 254, 160-i TO 254, i 100  HPLOT 0, 160-i TO 254, i 110    NEXTProgram Listing - Graphics Program 1    HGR2 2  y=-4 3  xy=260 4        yx=195 5        x=-4 6  r=-1 10 REM   graphics by Charles Steele 30     LET c=INT(RND(1)*15)+1 35       IF c=4 THEN 30 40       HCOLOR=c 50     x=x+5 55        y=y+5 60        xy=xy-5 65      yx=yx-5 67      IF y>180 THEN LET y=181 68      IF yx<5 r.     Jeff Platt      3       1,055,175       Miner 2049er    Jeff Platt      -       451,885 Montezuma's Revenge     Joe Blenkle     -       449,650 Motocross       Jeff Platt      2       5:46    Pitfall Jeff Platt      -       113,458 Pitfall II      Joe Blenkle     -       195,665 Popeye  Jeff Platt      1       166,540 Q*Bert  Jeff Platt      3       1,096,030       Q*Bert's Qubes  Joe Blenkle     1       126,100 Quest For Quintana Roo  Tom Earnest, Jr.        1       91,900  River Raid      Robert Ca PRINT: PRINT d$; "open sched" 120       PRINT d$; "write sched" 130     PRINT "END OF DATA" 140 PRINT d$; "close sched" 150     END ------------------------------------------------------- 1   REM EVENTS by Steve Hanam 5     HOME 30 DIM w$(12, 31), a$(12, 31) 31   ONERR GOTO 49 32      PRINT d$=CHR$(4) 34       PRINT d$; "open sched" 36       PRINT d$; "read sched" 40       INPUT sh$ 42    IF sh$="END OF DATA" THEN 49 44 INPUT m 45      INPUT d 46      INPUT w$(m, d) 47       INPUT a$(m, d) 48       GOTO 40es as of Jan./Feb. 1985 Issue                          Program Listing - Art Gallery 2 REM       ART GALLERY 5 REM       By D. Jacksch 10      HGR2 20 h=INT(RND(1)*15+1): IF h=4 THEN h=1 25  HCOLOR=h 30     a=RND(1)*90: b=RND(1)*50+100 40 c=RND(1)*90: d=RND(1)*105+50 50 FOR i=1 TO 100 STEP 5 60        HPLOT 40, a+i TO b+i, 180 TO c+i, d TO 40, a+i 70       NEXT 80 FOR i=1 TO 2000: NEXT 90        GOTO 10Program Listing - Fans 2        REM FANS 4      REM By D. Jacksch 10    HGR 20  FOR i=1 TO 254 STEP 12t$="NOT SURE IF YOU'RE WORKING" 120      PRINT: PRINT 130        PRINT " WHAT IS THE SCHEDULE" 131       INVERSE 132     PRINT " DO NOT PRESS RETURN UNTIL" 134  PRINT " YOU ARE DONE" 135       NORMAL 140      INPUT c$ 150    PRINT: PRINT 160        REM w$(m,d)=working? 170        w$(m, d)=t$ 180 REM a$(m,d)=EVENTS 190  a$(m, d)=c$ 195 HOME 200        PRINT " WOULD YOU LIKE ANOTHER DAY ?" 205       PRINT " TYPE 'Y' OR 'N'" 210    PRINT: PRINT 220        GET q$ 230      IF q$="Y" OR q$="y" THEN 50 235 HOME 24NT: PRINT: PRINT 1060    PRINT " Press 'Return' to continue"; 1065       INPUT a$ 1070   HOME 1075       SPEED=140 1080  PRINT " This in a program to schedule": PRINT 1090      PRINT " daily events. You will have": PRINT 1100        PRINT " the opportunity to add": PRINT 1110     PRINT " events to any day of the year." 1120    PRINT " The computer will recall any": PRINT 1130       PRINT " day and display the events": PRINT 1140 PRINT " as you desire.": PRINT: PRINT 1150      PRINT " Type 'ADD' if you want  PRINT " YOU ARE SCHEDULED FOR: " 405    PRINT: PRINT a$(m, d) 410       PRINT: PRINT: PRINT " WOULD YOU LIKES TO SEE ANOTHER" 415       PRINT "DAY ? (ANSWER 'Y' or 'N')" 430   PRINT: PRINT 440        GET q$ 450      IF q$="Y" OR q$="y" THEN 235 452        GOSUB 2000 453  PRINT " THE COMPUTER IS STORING YOUR" 456       PRINT " SCHEDULE" 465   d$=CHR$(4) 466  PRINT: PRINT d$; "delete sched" 470     PRINT d$; "open sched" 480      PRINT d$; "write sched" 485     FOR m=1 TO 12 500       FOR d=1 TO 31 510      ="y" THEN RETURN 2130    HOME 2140       PRINT " I HOPE THIS PROGRAM WAS": PRINT 2150    PRINT " HELPFUL.": PRINT 2160   PRINT " BE SURE TO REMOVE YOUR DISK": PRINT 2170        PRINT " BEFORE TURNING OFF THE": PRINT 2175     PRINT "COMPUTER.": PRINT 2180   END 9000        PRINT " YOU DID NOT ENTER DATA FOR" 9010        PRINT " THIS DAY." 9020 INPUT " PRESS RETURN TO CONTINUE"; r$ 9030      GOTO 240Program Listing - Graphics Demo 10      HGR2 15 REM   graphics demo by Charles Steele 120       x=85 125      **** ***  ***   ** " 960        FOR d=1 TO 3000: NEXT d 970     HOME 978        VTAB 6 980      PRINT "  ########################## " 990       PRINT "  #                        # " 1000      PRINT "  #   WHERE I AM SUPPOSED  #" 1010       PRINT "  #                        #" 1020       PRINT "  #          TO BE         #" 1030       PRINT "  #      by Steve Hanam    #" 1040       PRINT "  #                        #" 1050       PRINT "  ##########################" 1055       PRINT: PRINT: PRINT: PRINT: PRI0        REM  info retrieval 250 HOME: PRINT " ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS TO GET" 260        PRINT " YOUR SCHEDULE": PRINT: PRINT 265        PRINT "0 to Quit" 300   PRINT " WHAT MONTH ## ONLY"; 310        INPUT m 315     IF m=0 THEN 1070 320    IF m<1 OR m>12 THEN 300 330     PRINT: PRINT 340        PRINT " WHAT DAY ## ONLY 350    INPUT d 360     IF d<1 OR d> 31 THEN 340 370    PRINT: PRINT: PRINT 375 IF w$(m, d)="" THEN 9000 380    PRINT " YOU ARE " 385   PRINT ""; w$(m, d); "." 390     PRINT: PRINT 400       to": PRINT 1160  PRINT " schedule events.": PRINT: PRINT 1170    PRINT " Type 'SEE' If you want to": PRINT 1180  PRINT " view a days schedule." 1181     PRINT "Type 'QUIT' to Stop" 1185        SPEED=250 1190  INPUT m$ 1200   IF m$="ADD" OR m$="add" THEN 50 1205    IF m$="QUIT" OR m$="quit" THEN 452 1210 IF m$="SEE" OR m$="see" THEN 250 1220   HOME: PRINT "PLEASE FOLLOW DIRECTIONS": GOTO 1150 2000  HOME 2100       PRINT " HAVE YOU ADDED NEW DATA Y/N": PRINT: PRINT: PRINT 2110  GET d$ 2120     IF d$="Y" OR d$ IF w$(m, d)="" AND a$(m, d)="" THEN 560 520     PRINT "ONE MORE INPUT" 525      PRINT m 530     PRINT d 540     PRINT w$(m, d) 550      PRINT a$(m, d) 560      NEXT d 570      NEXT m 580      PRINT "END OF DATA" 590 PRINT d$; "close sched" 600     GOTO 2130 900   HOME 901        CLRERR 905      VTAB 8 910      PRINT "    *  * **** *    *     **" 920 PRINT "    *  * *    *    *    *  *" 930        PRINT "    **** ***  *    *    *  *" 940        PRINT "    *  * *    *    *    *  *" 950        PRINT "    *  *   y=150 179       rs=15 190       HCOLOR=6 200    FOR g=0 TO 3.2 STEP .04 210     r1=SIN(g)+COS(g) 220    r9=rs*r1 230    x9=r9*COS(g): y9=r9*SIN(g) 231  c=c+1 232       IF c=1 THEN GOTO 245 240        HPLOT x+x9, y-y9 242    HPLOT x+x9+1, y-y9 TO q, w 245  LET q=x+x9: w=y-y9 250  NEXT 255        LET t=t+1 260   IF t=2 THEN 285 270     LET rs=5: c=0: x=90: y=145 280  GOTO 190 285    t=0: c=0 290    y=150: x=165 295        rs=20 300       FOR g=0 TO 3.2 STEP .04 310     r1=SIN(g)+COS(g) 320    r9=rs*r1 330 ne 10 repeats.  Line 20  sets the value of K to the integer value of I divided by four. Since K is used to set the color value and color values must range from 0 to 15 then line 25 is necessary to prevent K from becoming larger than 15.  Line 30 is used to change K when it equals four because 4 is black and will erase the picture we are trying to draw.  Any color  other  than 15 could have been chosen.  Line 35  sets  the color value to K and line 40 sets the scale value to 20. In  line 50 the object will b  105,140,117,134,117,134,133,138 1040     DATA   133,138,149,129,149,129,159,137,159,137,159,127Program Listing - Graphics 5    REM  graphics by Charles Steele 10      HGR2 20 HCOLOR=15 50    b=0 110 FOR t=0 TO 500 STEP .12 111     HCOLOR=15 115   LET q=ABS(INT(66+67*COS(t)))+60 120     LET a=ABS(INT(66+67*SIN(t)))+60 125     LET x=x+5 126   w=w+5 127       IF x>187 THEN LET x=1 128       IF w>187 THEN LET w=1:GOSUB 500 130     HPLOT a, x 131  HPLOT z, v TO a, x 133  HCOLOR=9 134    HPLOT q, w 135  HPLOTics Demo 3 10   HGR2 20   T = 0 30   T = T + 1 40   L = 0 50   IF T > 15 THEN 180 60   FOR J = 1 TO 4 70   M = 31 - T 80   FOR I = 1 TO 16 - 90   K = T 100 HCOLOR=K 110 IF I< = 8 THEN M=M-1 120 IF I > 8 THEN M=M+l 130 SCALE = M 135 L = L + 1 140 ROT = 0 + L - 1 150 DRAW 1 AT 125, 100 160 NEXT I 170 NEXT J 175 GOTO 30 180 TEXT This  program  is a variation of program #2 only there is  a  lot more going on in this one.  I hope you will be able to follow the discussion  because  this program contains a lot of М1 Ч70Program Listing: Graphics Demo 2 1 REM    Graphics Demo 2 5    HGR2 10  FOR J=l TO 1000 15  FOR I=l TO 64 20  K=INT(I/4) + 1 25  IF K > 15 THEN K=15 30  IF K = 4 THEN K=15 35  HCOLOR=K 40  SCALE=20 50  ROT = 0 + I-1 60  DRAW 1 AT 125, 100 70  NEXT I 75  NEXT J 80  TEXT In line 5 the high resolution graphics mode is turned on. In line 10 a loop is started that will be repeated 1000 times. In line 15 a loop is started that will be executed 64 times.  This loop will start  over everytime the loop at li   x9=r9*COS(g): y9=r9*SIN(g) 331  c=c+1 332       IF c=1 THEN GOTO 345 340        HPLOT x+x9, y-y9 342    HPLOT x+x9+1, y-y9 TO q, w 345  LET q=x+x9: w=y-y9 350  NEXT 355        LET t=t+1 360   IF t=2 THEN 400 370     LET rs=5: c=0: x=172: y=142 380 GOTO 300 400    HCOLOR =5 450   READ q, w, e, r 460     HPLOT q, w TO e, r 470  GOTO 450 1000   DATA   159,137,105,140,105,140,105,137 1010     DATA   105,137,159,127,159,127,165,124 1020     DATA   165,124,175,122,175,122,185,122,185,122,194,130 1030     DATA e rotated as the value of I  changes from  1  to 64.  Line 60 draws the square just like in the  first program.  Lines 70 and 75 are the end of the loops which  started at lines 15 and 10. Line 80 restores text mode. This  program  draws a square of one color then draws  additional squares at different rotations.  The colors of the squares change gradually.  once  a rotation is completed the process is  started all over and repeated for a total of 1000 times.Program Listing: Graphics Demo 3 1   REM  Graph r, e TO q, w 136  z=a 137 v=x 138 e=w 139 r=q 140 NEXT 150        GOTO 10 500     v=1 510 e=1 520 RETURNhe  Japanese  are still lurking off shore with their  computers. This is supposed to be the year they come ashore,  but who knows. They  may  be waiting for a better product before taking  on  the American  market.  Some Japanese companies seem to  be  satisfied with producing products for sale by American companies. I  have  already covered Atari and Commodore so there  is  little tricks  that will be helpful in writing your own programs. Line 10 turns on high resolution graphics.  Line 20 sets T  equal to  0.  Line 30 adds 1 to T.  Line 40 sets L equal to 0.  Line 50 checks to see if T is greater than 15.  Of course right now T  is only  1  but it will increase as the program runs.  When  T  gets bigger  than 15 the program skips to line 180.  At line 60 a loop is  started.  In line 70 M is made equal to 31 minus  T.  On  the first  pass this would be a value of 30.  In line 80 anoAdam would not  get  here.  If  you  believe  everything  you  read  in  the newspapers then  you would have-been certain that Coleco was having trouble delivering Adams. We ordered the expansion module for our Coleco vision  through  a catalogue.  On December 17 Adam  arrived  only three  days  after the delivery date we had  been  given.  Coleco apparently  has  been air freighting large numbers  of  Adams  in order to insure delivery before Christmas. We  were  naturally eager to get our Adam assembled e square we drew became bigger as it was  rotated; in   this   program  we  are  attempting  to  keep   the   square approximately the same size throughout its rotation. In  line 135 one is added to L which will be used to control  the rotation in line 140. L will actually vary from one to sixty-four for each of the fifteen colors we will cycle the program through. In addition since M is being reduced at line 70 by the value of T the  square  will  be  made smaller each  time  a  new  color  is selected.  Ly more of a nuisance than anything else. The  keyboard  has easy to use cursor controls and  the  enclosed instructions never seemed to explain the purpose of the joystick. In  reality the joystick can be used for cursor control and as  a numeric keypad. I prefer not to use it for those purposes. If you do not touch type and need to enter a lot of numbers then you may find it to be of some value. Overall the assembly went rather well. I really think the "system interlock  tray" is an excellent idea.  One thr  of  the larger one.  This will go on until all of the  15 colors  have been used.  The color that has a value of 0  is  not used since that is the same color as the screen, black.Next  month  we  will  have more programs for  you  to  try  out. Experiment a little with these three and see what happens.Product Review: Bringing ADAM Home by D. Sage Product: ADAM Manufacturer: Coleco We,  like  the rest of you,  bought our Adam and had to bring  it homend put it together. For a while it looked like our ther loop is  started.  At line 90 K is made equal to T.  In line  100  the color value is set to K. In line 110 I is checked to see if it is less than or equal to 8; if it is then 1 is subtracted from M. In line 120 I is checked to see  if it is greater than 8;  if it is then 1 is added to M.  In line 130 the scale value is made equal to M. What we are doing in lines 110 to 130 is adjusting the size of the object being  drawn depending  on the rotation of the object.  In program #2 you will recall  that thand  running, but  at the same time we wanted to keep track of any problems  we might encounter in the process.  What follows is a discussion  of those events. The  Adam we ordered was expansion module #3 for the Colecovision video game system.  The first thing we did was to carefully  read the  "set-up manual" and the inserts and special labels  included with  the Adam.  Because of limited space,  our computer room  is already overflowing,  we decided that the joystick attachment for the keyboard was reallines  160 and 170 end loops starting at lines 80  and 60. Line 175 acts like a loop sending the program back to line 30 where the value of T will be increased by one again. This will go on  until  T is bigger than 15 (line 50).  The program will  then terminate at line 180 with the text mode being restored. This  program  draws  a  square of one  color  rotates  it  while changing  its size.  When one rotation is completed the color  is changed  and a smaller square is rotated through a cycle  in  the centeing that should  be pointed  out is that the instructions say to turn off the  on/off switch on the Colecovision game system;  they should also say the switch  should never be turned on.  I suggest that it be taped so that it stays off.  Another thing you should do, if you have not, is  to write down the serial numbers for all  the  components.  I would  also suggest that you write down each item's model number. If  you ever need service for your Adam you will  most  certainly need  to  have this informatioapes it is  not backed  up  safely.  A  data pack can fail or  be  damaged  quite accidentally. We  were disappointed that Coleco did not indicate  what  ribbons and print wheels are compatible with Adam. Some Diablo (HyType I) print wheels seem to work well. If you are aware of other printer supplies  that  are compatible with Adam just let us know and  we will pass the information along to everyone else. If  you ever try to replace a print wheel be  extremely  careful. When  you tip the mechanism backwardr.  It  also worked  quite  well.  We then turned off Adam,  inserted  a  game cartridge  in the Colecovision unit and turned on Adam.  Much  to our  surprise the electronic typewriter appeared.  After  careful consideration we pressed the game cartridge reset button and that solved the problem.  One word of caution is in order. ALWAYS turn off Adam before inserting or removing game cartridges.The  next test was the operation of the data-drive and  a  "super game pack" that came with Adam.  Adam was turneleco has done a  relatively good job insofar as this review has gone.  We will have more next issue.  If  you  have had any interesting experiences setting  up your Adam write them down and send them in. In order to summarize our comments, cautions and tips we have repeated them in the list below.Turn off Adam before inserting or removing cartridges. Start cartridges by pressing the game cartridge reset button. Do  not put digital data packs in the drive before it  is  turned on. Remove  digital  data  paem forced us to press  the reset button and reload our document from the  digital data  drive.  We  have  not had any printer problems  since  that incident.  This does bring up one point, ALWAYS periodically copy your  work  to a data pack and ALWAYS copy it  before  using  the printer. This is a good practice on any computer. You  should probably try to get some extra data packs so you  can make backup copies on separate packs.  From my own experience, if it  is  not backed up at least twice on separate tn easily available.  I could  never understand why serial numbers are always hidden. After much checking and rechecking,  Adam was assembled and ready to go. We turned on the power and there on our television was the electronic typewriter screen. The manual says a title screen will appear first but it never did.  If anyone has ever seen the title screen we would like to know what it says.We  tried  out the electronic typewriter and it  seemed  to  work fine.  Next  we tried the "SmartWRITER" word processos it may catch on the  roller and  hang  up.  Before tipping the print wheel mechanism back  be sure that the print wheel is all of the way on. When reinstalling the print wheel be careful to align the wheel correctly and place it on firmly.  Oh yes,  in case you didn't notice, the printer is very loud. Don't worry its supposed to be loud. In  conclusion  I would like to say that I am  generally  pleased with  Adam.  The  problems encountered had more to  do  with  the manuals  than the computer itself.  Cod on,  the digital data pack was inserted and the computer reset button was pressed. The game loaded and everything worked fine except that our reset- button sticks and has to be released manually. Most of the first week Adam was with us we spent working with the word processor.  All generally went well. The word processor is a nice  feature,  so much so that Adam would be a bargain with that feature  alone.  The only problem that occurred while  using  the word processor was a locked up printer. This problcks from the drive  before  turning  the computer off. Keep  data packs away from Adam when not in the drive,  away from televisions,   speakers,   magnets,   and  any  other  source  of electromagnetic radiation. When in doubt don't. If  you have expansion module #3 tape the on/off switch  on  your Colecovision to off. Periodically backup any files or programs on a data pack. Use caution in changing print wheels. You  may  use  Diablo HyType I print wheels in place of  the  one supplied by Coleco. If  you ick. There did seem to be occasionally a delayed response to the joystick movement. With Subroc the WICO seemed to function a great deal better  than the   Coleco   joystick.   I  was  able  to  increase  my   score substantially without any discomfort.  Playing Buck Rogers was  a real  killer.  Since  this  game requires the use  of  both  fire buttons,  not only do you have to hold on to the joystick but you also  had  to use those funny fire buttons.  This soon caused  my left hand to develop quite painWICO Corp.,  Consumer Products Div.,  6400 W.  Gross Point Rd., Niles, Illinois 60648 and carries a one year warranty. As  most of you probably know by now the joysticks that came with your  Colecovision  are  good for some games  and  terrible  with others.  In  an attempt to resolve this we will be trying  out  a number  of joysticks produced by other manufacturers.  This month we  selected  the  WICO  Command  Control  Joystick/Keypad.  This joystick comes ready to plug in to your Colecovision/Adam. The ur hand.  I have tried other WICO joysticks and have liked the feel and  response. If you have tried this particular model and had different results let us know. As it stands now I would not recommend it. Popeye  is  a registered trademark of King  Features  Syndicated, Inc.  SUBROC is a trademark of Sega Enterprises, Inc. Buck Rogers is a trademark of the Dille Family Trust. Lady Bug is a trademark of Universal Co., Ltd. Product Review: Subroc by D. Sage Product: Subroc Manufacturer: Coleco Requirements:lastic that bends  slightly when pressed.  The only way I could tell if  they were  working was by the action on the screen.  In order to  hold onto the joystick I often found myself pressing the  buttons.  In games where you can have continuous fire this is not so bad,  but in  games where you have to release the button each time it was a problem. I used the WICO joystick to play SUBROC, POPEYE, BUCK ROGERS, and LADYBUG.  With Ladybug the response of the joystick was about the same as with the Coleco joystare unable to obtain replacement ribbons,  call  Coleco's toll free hotline 1-800-842-1225. Keep small objects, paper clips, bobbie pins, etc. away from Adam or they may be accidentally dropped into the components. Keep food, drink and pets away from Adam. Product Review: WICO Command Control Joystick/Keypad for Coleco vision by D. Sage Product: Joystick Manufacturer: Wico Corp. Requirements: ADAM/Colecovision Media: Hardware Warranty: One Year The WICO Command Control Joystick/Keypad is manufactured by  ful cramps. The  WICO seems to be a poor choice for games that require  using fire  buttons  other than the one on the  joystick  itself.  With Popeye the joystick definitely is an improvement,  although there still seems to be an occasional problem with response. Overall  I  find it difficult to make a  recommendation  on  this product.  As  with  most joysticks I keep getting the  impression that none of the manufacturers ever really try to play games with them.  They should have a more natural feel in yojoystick is arranged differently than Coleco's.  The WICO has the  keypad on top and a joystick-rather than a disk on  the  end nearest you. There are two sets of "fire" buttons located on each side  of the keypad with an additional fire button in the end  of the  joystick.  The product seems to be fairly durable.  The fire buttons  on  the  side  do not give  any  sensory  feedback  when pressed.  They don't click and you can't tell for sure whether or not you have released them. They appear to be molded p ADAM/Colecovision Media: Cartridge Warranty: 90 days While  Coleco could not reproduce the 3-D effect provided by  the arcade version of Subroc they nevertheless have done an admirable job.  This  cartridge  is  a shoot-em-up first person  space  and underwater game.  You have crosshairs on your screen in order  to sight in the oncoming enemy space ships. Flying  saucers  and submarines move both left and  right  across your line of fire. The submarines fire torpedoes at you which can be  evaded by taking en and Popeye must catch all the ones  for that  round while avoiding Brutus and objects thrown by  the  Sea Hag.  Popeye has one can of spinach available for each round that he  can  use to deck Brutus.  You,  of course,  control  Popeye's movement  and  can  make him punch the  bottles  using  the  fire button. In the third level there are also vultures to avoid. There  are three screens that repeat provided you make it through the  first  three rounds.  The first screen  shows  Popeye's  and Olive's  houors do tend to appear a little washed out. This  game qets quite difficult in the higher  rounds.  Soon  you find that about all you can do is deflect on-coming shots. As you approach  these higher rounds it is probably best to stay in  the air ignoring the submarines.  You can still blast the bonus craft as  they  pass by.  The command plane that appears at the end  of each  round is relatively easy to knock off if you get it  early. Don't  delay because if you miss it early you gain  fewer  points and  it  and  the  game play is a lot of fun.  I recommend  it  very strongly. If you disagree write and tell everyone why. Popeye  is  a  registered trademark of and is  licensed  by  King Features Syndicate,  Inc.  Parker Bros. is a registered trademark of Parker Bros., Inc.  Glitches, Bugs, Errata, Etc. by The Staff We  have  been gradually going through the Basic manual  for  the Adam  and testing several features to see if and how  they  work. Since the operating system for the data pack drive appeared to bker Brothers Requirements: ADAM/Colecovision Media: Cartridge Warranty: 180 days Popeye is a video game cartridge produced by Parker Brothers  for the Colecovision/Adam system,  Parker Brothers cartridges carry a 180 day replacement warranty. If  you  enjoyed Donkey Kong or any of the other climbing  games, you will probably like Popeye.  Parker Brothers has done  another excellent job in this version for Colecovision. The theme is rather simple,  Olive drops hearts, notes or letters depending  on  the screflight.  The enemy spacecraft fire at you at differing rates depending on the type of ship and the round.  You also encounter mines that either have to be blasted or avoided. In  addition to the attackers there are a number of  other  craft that  float  by  periodically.   Shooting  these  will  gain  you additional  points.  The graphics are relatively  good.  Oncoming craft  get  larger  as they approach.  Many  objects  may  appear simultaneously  on  the screen giving you plenty to worry  about. The colses on opposite sides at the top of the  screen.  The rest of the screen is composed of steps and walkways.  The second screen  has  a building as a background with several  levels.  In addition there is a seesaw that Popeye can jump on. If he bounces high  enough he can catch Sweet Pea and gain  extra  points.  The third screen is a boat which makes up a series of levels.  I like all the screens but the second one is really alot of fun. I  really liked this game.  The graphics are good,  the music  is good  becomes quite difficult to hit as it moves out  of  your range of fire while still blasting at you. Subroc  carries Coleco's standard 90-day warranty.  I have  never had a Coleco cartridge fail and like most such cartridges if used properly  they  will last a long time.  If you like  first-person blasting  games  this cartridge is worth having.  I like  it  and would recommend it. Subroc and Sega are trademarks of Sega Enterprises, Inc. Product Review: Popeye by D. Sage Product: Popeye Manufacturer: Pare very  similar  to the one used by Apple for its disk  drives,  we thought we would test the file storage capabilities of the Adam. The first problem we encountered dealt with the digital data pack drive and Basic.  After loading Basic and then removing that data pack  and  inserting a blank data pack we would  get  I/O  errors anytime we attempted to access the drive. This problem was solved simply by opening and closing the data pack drive door. During our tests we also identified a problem with the versestion mark generated and no prompt of any kind on the  screen.  Instead the  next  data  record from the data file would be read  by  the input statement. In  the  case of our version of Basic for  the  Adam,  the  input statement  is  generating a question mark and placing it  in  the screen buffer. For every "INPUT" statement executed an additional question  mark  is  being placed in the  buffer.  None  of  these question  marks  appear  on  the screen until  the  next  "PRINT" statement is encountered. PRINT "FINISHED" After you have entered, saved and run this program enter the next program and save it. 10   rem *read a data file* 20   ds$=CHR$(4) 30   PRINT ds$;"OPEN TESTFL" 40   PRINT ds$;"READ TESTFL" 50   FOR x=l to 5 60   INPUT n$(x) 70   NEXT x 80   PRINT 90   PRINT ds$;"CLOSE TESTFL" 100 FOR j=l to 5 110 PRINT n$(j) 120 NEXT j After this program has been entered and saved, run it. If you get any question marks (?) on the screen you have a problem. In our case there  would be 5 question marks printtware or product in any way but can only report its  availability.  This is not intended to represent a  complete list of all companies. If you are aware of others let us know.Software Sirius Software, 10364 Rockingham Dr., Sacramento, CA 95827 MicroLab, Inc., 2699 Skokie Valley Road, Highland Park, Il 60035 Parker Bros., Beverly, MA 01915 Atari, Inc., P. 0. Box 2943, So. San Francisco, CA 94080 CBS Software, One Fawcett Place, Greenwich, Connecticut 06836 Interphase Technologies,  Inc., 6391-F Westminstewhen you use an "INPUT" statement to enter data from the keyboard  there will be a prompting question mark on the  screen. Basic  normally checks to see if the "INPUT" statement is looking for  keyboard  or  file input.  In case  of  keyboard  input  the question  mark  is sent to temporary storage called a buffer  and then  is  sent to the screen for display.  You would  then  enter whatever data is necessary.  Normally if the "INPUT" statement is looking  for  input from a data file there would be  no  quion of Basic  that we have.  The problem is not a major one and we  have already developed a fix for it., In order to find out if you have a  problem  it is necessary for you to write a data file to  your blank  digital data pack.  Enter the program below,  save it  and then run it. 10   rem *write a data file* 20   ds$=CHR$(4) 30   PRINT ds$; "OPEN TESTFL" 40   PRINT ds$; "WRITE TESTFL" 50   PRINT "Mary" 60   PRINT "had" 70   PRINT "a" 80   PRINT "little" 90   PRINT "lamb" 100 PRINT ds$;"CLOSE TESTFL" 110 The buffer is then output to the screen and cleared.  The "PRINT" statement  at line 80 in the second program causes  the  question marks  to  be output on the screen.  The new line 85  clears  the screen and anything in the buffer. Our solution does not alter the actual data it simply gets rid of the excess garbage. b Product Manufacturers and Distributors The  following companies are currently known to make software and other products for the Adam/Colecovision. We cannot guarantee the quality of the sofed on one line  immediately preceding  the  text.  If  you did not  get  any  question  marks everything is all right, but if you did insert the following line in the second program:85 HOMENow run the program again. Your screen should clear and the text, "Mary had a little lamb," should be printed without any preceding question marks. While  this is not a serious problem it nevertheless needs to  be fixed.  If  you are interested in finding out where the  question marks come from then read on. Normally r Hwy, Richmond, B.C., Canada V7C4V4 Imagic, 981 University Ave., Los Gatos, CA 95030 N.A.P.  Consumer Electronics Corp., P. 0. Box 6950, Knoxville, TN 37914 Sierra On-Line, Sierra On-Line Bldg., Coarsegold, CA 93614 Spinnaker Software Corp., 215 First St., Cambridge, MA 02142Joysticks Discwasher, 1407 No. Providence Rd., Columbia, MO 65205 WICO Corp.,  Consumer Div.i 6400 W.  Gross Point Rd.,  Niles,  IL 60648br modifying software. The best way to sell a product and stay in business is to listen to the buying public. If we do make a mistake we will correct it but we plan on making it clear if a product is bad. After all, this newsletter is for users. A few words about our title and subtitle are in order. We spent a good deal of time trying to develop a title for this newsletter that would accurately reflect what we are all about. Many of our early ideas focused on Adam and Eden. Most of these were too restrictiveМ1 Ч69 Issue #1 - March/April 1984 Ramblings From The Ridge by Darrell Sage, Editor This is the premiere edition of your newsletter. I would like to welcome you personally to Expandable Computer News (ECN). To those of you who are our charter subscribers we would like to say thanks. We hope that you will be pleased with your newsletter. one of the things you can do to make our effort a success is to write to us. Send us your comments and suggestions. Elsewhere in this issue you will find guidelines foel that it is important that our independence from manufacturers be stressed. While initially our focus will ]be on the Adam, we did not want to start off by restricting ourselves solely to that product. In this industry it is difficult to imagine what tomorrow will bring. Since I am the editor of this newsletter it is probably appropriate that you know a little bit about me and how I got started in this business. I have been involved with one aspect or another of data processing since 1968. In some ways thtter. At some point we hope to be able to pay a fee to our contributors. Our goal is to serve you. We want to make you aware of new products as soon as they are available and we want to tell you whether or not they are worth your money. We recognize that different people like different things so if you like a product that we didn't, tell us. We urge companies whose products are reviewed to respond to our comments and those of our readers. We also urge these companies to consider the reviews when designing on easily available.  I could  never understand why serial numbers are always hidden. After much checking and rechecking,  Adam was assembled and ready to go. We turned on the power and there on our television was the electronic typewriter screen. The manual says a title screen will appear first but it never did.  If anyone has ever seen the title screen we would like to know what it says.We  tried  out the electronic typewriter and it  seemed  to  work fine.  Next  we tried the "SmartWRITER" word processo or did not convey the fact that this is a computer newsletter. Then we began thinking about Colecovision and its built in expendability. We felt that those computers that are the most adaptable and expandable are the most likely to succeed in the home market. The more we thought about it the more we liked the idea of expandability. Finally one morning around 6 A.M. it came to me just like it appears on the cover sheet. The subtitle was added to convey several things, one of which is our independence. We fer submitting reviews of products, programs and articles which you have written. Because of our efforts to keep this publication as inexpensive as possible, we cannot pay you for your contributions. We will however attempt to publish everything that you send in so that you will be rewarded by seeing your name in print. As our newsletter continues to grow, we will select some of you to become regular contributors. These persons will be supplied with new products for review or be given a by-line in the newsleat makes me an old timer. Much of my experience has been in the design and programming of specific applications. My experience includes assembly language programming as well as applications languages such as Fortran, Basic and others. I have not had any formal training in data processing or programming. In many ways I feel this lack of training is an advantage. I have been able to look at specific applications more from the user's standpoint than from that of the systems analyst's or programmer's. In many wyping the Colecovision unit on its expandability and a soon to be announced keyboard attachment. Subsequently Coleco announced and began advertising the super game pack expansion module. This module contained expansion memory for the Colecovision game unit and a high speed tape drive which at that point consisted of the Exatron stringy floppy. The stringy floppy or wafer tape drive consists of a continuous loop tape system. It was believed that the super game module would become a major part of the computerughly explained that was totally useless. On the other hand, I have also seen programs written by hackers that were excellent. I would be the first to say document your programs, but make sure it does what is needed first. If that makes me a hacker then so be it. My goal is to bring the mystery and wonder of computers to you in a useable fashion. I also want to make sure that you are aware of what a product does and how well it works before you buy it. We will also try to find ways to fix problems that devethereafter Coleco announced that it would delay introduction of the super game expansion module and direct its efforts to the Adam. In order for the company to take advantage of the upcoming Christmas season it had to have a working prototype in a very short time. Initially the company hoped to begin shipping the Adam in August. The data storage problem was partly resolved by switching to the current digital data pack drive. This device uses an expensive pre-formatted tape cassette and operates with a direcuters.  West Hartford Happenings by Darrell R. Sage In case you did not know, West Hartford, Connecticut is where Coleco is located. This article will therefore deal primarily with news from and about Coleco and its computer and video game products. Though rumored to be in development for some time, Adam was first shown at the summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last June. At that point an actual working production model did not appear to exist. For some time prior to that event the company had been hays that is what led me to become involved in publishing a newsletter for the Adam. I have seen a lot of software that just did not take into account the needs of the user. It was inflexible. The user had to tailor his application to the software rather than being able to tailor the software to a specific need. Hackers have been much maligned in recent times. I am often unsure what some people consider to be a "hacker." Nevertheless, I have seen software that was highly structured, well documented and thoro component. In the meantime the stringy floppy was coming under some criticism for its apparent lack of reliability. The company, Exatron, had been marketing its devices for the Commodore Vic-20 and other computer systems. All at once it seemed to disappear from the market. Because of the problems that were developing with the stringy floppy, Coleco began to seek other solutions for its data storage device. Unfortunately this appears to have taken place right before Adam appeared at the summer CES. Shortly lop with products you have bought. We feel that the review section of the newsletter will make your subscription more than worthwhile. Company magazines and magazines supported primarily through advertising revenues are simply not as likely to give an honest review of a product that makes them a living. We feel strongly that computer users need a source of information and assistance to turn to other than the manufacturer. The inspiration for our effort came largely from a similar magazine for Commodore comptory in much the same manner as a disk drive. Later Coleco intends to introduce a disk drive which should help reduce the cost of developing and marketing software. Disks cost considerably less thin data packs and extra data packs are nearly impossible to obtain at this time. Colecovision found that its problems were not solved completely. They still had to pass FCC requirements before the Adam could go into production. Rumor has it that final approval did not come until late October 1983. Such a late startng groups. These groups differ partly because of the price differences but also in how they view the product. It is this perspective that has led to the success of some products and the failure of others. One of the first buying groups to arise was composed of lower end commercial and business buyers. Such consumers bought Apples, Pets, Radio Shack TRS-80s, IBM PCs and other computers in that price range for primarily business applications. The group immediately above them had been used to receiving data prfloating around and being reported by the press and other mass media. One account I saw indicated that the expansion module version of the Adam would not be produced at all until 1984. We received ours in December 1983 as did others. There were also a number of accounts printed that indicated-there were problems with the hardware. One account indicated that the word processor could only store one page of text at a time in memory. This of course is not true. We are NOT in this business to sell the Adam, but Commodore 64 and Vic-20s, Texas Instrument's 99/4A, and lower priced Radio Shack computers began moving into the upper income home market. These products were used heavily for game playing and were still perceived by the general public as expensive toys even though most of them were fairly powerful machines for the price. The price cuts made by Commodore greatly broadened the base of this buying group and forced price cuts by the competition. The result of this price war led to the withdrawal of Texas Instrlored. We will try to keep you posted on any developments. There is still no word on disk drives. We hope they have them out soon and go for some kind of a standard format. What About The Competition? by Darrell R. Sage This column will be dedicated to covering developments in the rest of the industry. I have been watching the industry for some time and have a few introductory comments that I would like to make. I feel that the market for home and personal computers is composed of several overlapping buyi had a major impact on production and delivery of the Adam in time for Christmas. Nevertheless the company did make the effort and ended up air freighting large numbers of Adams to retailers. At the 1984 Winter Consumer Electronics Show, Coleco officials indicated that the company was only able to produce 95,000 Adams in 1983. They went on to say that they would have the capacity to produce as many as 140,000 Adams a month in 1984. It is unfortunate that there has been so much misinformation about the Adam ocessing support from main frame computers and mini-computers. This group has turned to IBM PCs, Apple's Lisa, and a variety of other computers that are promoted for heavy business applications. Directly below these two groups are people who could afford Apples, Radio Shack TRS- 80s, and other computers for a mixture of applications including game playing. The cost of machines in this category greatly hindered general expansion into the larger home market. Soon lower priced computers like the Atari series, we will try to provide you with factual information. So far we think the Adam is a great little machine. I suspect many of the rumors may have been started by the competition or have been due to the press's general ignorance about computers. Coleco is generally keeping quiet about what it is to now. They have indicated that they obtained the rights to "Dragon's Lair". The possibility of a video disk interface or a low cost video disk player compatible with the Adam are among alternatives currently being expuments from the home market with major financial losses. Atari also took it on the chin but did not withdraw. I really think TI and Atari misjudged the buying public. Their losses were partly due to poor marketing and partly to greed. Commodore marketed a good product with low priced peripherals while the other companies charged ridiculous prices for cables, expansion boxes, peripherals and anything else while trying to compete in the broader market that Commodore was creating. Ultimately Atari had to retre market it by "mail order?" Even though it is supposed to compete with Adam, I will have to wait and see. I am still not sure who the IBM PC Jr. will be competing with. I really suspect it will compete more with the IBM PC and maybe Radio Shack and Apple. Actually it doesn't look like a very good idea to me. A full fledged Jr. will cost as much as some of the IBM PC look-alikes. Leading Edge is marketing a PC that is compatible with most PC software and peripherals. The Leading Edge PC comes with monitor, 1 in major competition with Commodore. I think their markets will differ. Adam will probably be more in competition with Atari, who doesn't seem to know who its market is, the Aquarius, and computers yet to come. I really believe that the Adam is moving to a new market area and that Coleco has done an excellent job of identifying that market and following an appropriate market strategy. If none of this makes any sense, I apologize. What I am trying to say is I think Adam will do well unless someone else goeswn entirely from the videogame and electronics market. 20th Century Fox has discontinued production of video game cartridges. Commodore has delayed indefinitely the introduction of the recently announced 264 and 364 computers. Timex has decided to discontinue marketing Sinclair computers. Milton Bradley had dropped production of the Vextrex video game system developed by GCE. The failure of the Vextrex appears to have been due to inadequate promotion and support for a quality product. Programs, Programs,duce a "touch-screen" this spring and has a couple of new computers ready for introduction. If the new 264 and V364 compete directly with the C-64. I think it will be a big mistake for the company. I think they ought to go after the IBM PC Jr. Atari will be marketing home versions of arcade games developed by Nolan Bushnell's company as well as part of a line of robots. Sinclair has announced the QL computer priced at about $550. The QL is supposed to be a 128k thirty-two bit machine. The current plan is tonch and retool developing an improved XL series. Atari also began marketing software for their competitors' machines. I still have doubts about Atari's approach to marketing and look for them to eventually get out of the hardware end of the business altogether. How does the Adam fit into all of this? Well, I believe that although its market will certainly overlap with that of the Commodore 64 and Atari XL series it really is being focused at a new group of buyers. I really do not think that the Adam will be28k, seven expansion slots, disk drives, DOS, Basic, word processor, internal clock, etc. all for $2895. Radio Shack has announced the Model 2000. This computer is another IBM competitor with 128k, two disk drives, 16 bit processor and more for $2750. Jack Tramiel, founder and president of Commodore, announced his resignation as president and member of the board of directors. We will try to watch the impact of his retirement and report it here. Mattel has sold the rights to the Intellivision and has withdra after the same market in a better and cheaper way.On to the news, rumor and gossip. Rumor - The founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell, may be trying to team up with Australian publisher Rupert Murdoch who is trying to acquire Warner, the parent company of Atari. Mattel has sold all rights to the Aquarius to Radofin Electronics. Warning - The British invasion of computers may come before the Japanese. Some of the British products look pretty good. Commodore's sales doubled last year. The company plans to intro Programs Each issue of this newsletter will provide you with a number of program listings of fully tested and debugged programs ready for you to enter and run on your Adam computer. Unlike some magazines we will thoroughly proofread our program listings before they go into print. If you have programs that you have written and would like to share them with others, just send them in. Include a little information about yourself and we will test your programs and print the best ones here. Please, do not send ur modifying software. The best way to sell a product and stay in business is to listen to the buying public. If we do make a mistake we will correct it but we plan on making it clear if a product is bad. After all, this newsletter is for users. A few words about our title and subtitle are in order. We spent a good deal of time trying to develop a title for this newsletter that would accurately reflect what we are all about. Many of our early ideas focused on Adam and Eden. Most of these were too restrictive   FOR J = 1 TO 1000 70   NEXT J 75   NEXT I 80   TEXT Line 5 sets high resolution graphics mode. Sounds complex but it simply means that each dot on the screen can be controlled to draw pictures or whatever you want. Line 10 is the start of a loop that will be carried out 42 times. The program will run from line 10 down through line 75 at which point the program will return to line 10 and begin again until it has done that 42 times. Line 20 sets the color of the dots that will be drawn using the formula. T life.  I owe my wife a great deal  for her  assistance in producing the publication and for her  support throughout  these  four  years in  making  ECN  a  success.  This publication   took  many  long  hours  to  write,   assemble  and distribute,  and throughout all of those hours she worked with me and encouraged me to make ECN what it was.The  idea  for ECN came from David Ahl  (Creative  Computing  and currently  publisher of Atari Explorer) and Jim and Ellen Strasma (the former publishers of the Mi 100. Line 60 starts a delay loop that ends at line 70. Delay loops are used to slow down graphics so that you can see the changes as they occur. Line 75 is the end of the loop started at line 10. Line 80 turns off the high resolution graphics screen and returns to text format. As this program executes a series of ever increasing squares will be drawn on the screen. In addition the color of the new squares will change.  Kxs any programs written by someone else or taken from a magazine or book. In addition to our program listings we will provide a line-by- line explanation of the program so that you can use the information provided to learn more about writing your own programs. This issue's programs will demonstrate some of the graphics capabilities of the Adam.Program Listing: Graphics Demo 1 1    REM GRAPHICS DEMO 5     HGR2 10   FOR I=l TO 42 20   HCOLOR   1 + INT(I/3) 30   SCALE=I 40   ROT = 0 50   DRAW 1 AT 125, 100 60М1 Ч67 Issue #24 - January/February 1988 Dedication by Darrell R. Sage ECN  Would never have come into being or continued as long as  it has  if  it  hadn't been for the influence and  assistance  of  a number of people. This, the last issue, is dedicated to them.The  fact that I undertook a project such as this,  I owe most of all to my father,  Donald R. Sage, and my grandfather, Stephen R. Sage, who taught me that it is better to try something and fail than to not try it and  have regrets later inhe value of 1 is added to the integer value of I (from line 10) divided by 3. This means that the color value will range from 1 to 15. Line 30 sets the scale value to the value of I which will range from 1 to 42. The scale value determines the size of the line or object that will be drawn. Line 40 determines the angle at which the line or object will be drawn. A line or object can be rotated over 64 different positions. Line 50 instructs the computer to draw shape 1, a square, starting at column 125 and rowdnight Gazette).  During the days when the Midnight was published by the Strasma's it was a  symbol of what an independent user publication should be.Carol Quinn spent many hours helping us collate, staple, fold and stuff  ECN.  Jim Ketcherside spent weekends and evenings printing ECN  and  did so at a price that allowed us to  have  the  lowest subscription rates around.Our  first subscriber contributions appeared in Issue  #2.  Those came  from:   Joe  Blenkle,   Jason  Hirsch,   Dick  Jones,  Nick Muuse.  Many thanks to all of you who helped me do all  of this.Ramblings From The Ridge by D. Sage It's  hard  to believe that I've been doing this  for  over  four years.  Our  first  ADAM,  a Colecovision Expansion  module,  was delivered in December 1983.I  started  working  with computers way back in  1967  or  68  at Southern  Illinois University.  I wrote my first program in  PL/I and  ran  it on an IBM mainframe.  In those days we  worked  with punch  cards  and did a lot of analysis on tabulatingeston, Illinois, and Robert Marentes of Phoenix, Arizona. At  last  count  there were over 60 of such groups  currently  in existence in the US, Canada, England and Australia. Many of those groups have been a valuable asset to ECN.Other subscribers who deserve special recognition are Joe Blenkle (again)    for   many   reviews,    tracking   hi    scores,    a telecommunications column and other articles;  Jeff Silva;  Steve Chamberlain;  Maureen Zabel;  Ken Petersen; David Jacksch; Norman Castro;  Raymone   various   options.   The calculations had to be manually checked to make sure the  program produced correct results. In those days SPSS had a lot of bugs.When  I  wrote my Master's Thesis,  I had to punch all of my  own data and lug that box of cards all over  campus.  Naturally,  the key  punch machines that were easy to get access to were  located across  campus  from where we ran our jobs.  Oh well,  it  was  a learning experience that became valuable later on.  When we moved to  Missouri  and  I sdicated  to the  many  Coleco  Hot  Line operators  who  took  all those calls from ADAM  owners  and  who worked hard to find answers without losing their patience; to the many Coleco employees who worked on the ADAM and were rewarded by being fired or laid off;  and to the Coleco employees who ignored company policy and helped me get technical information about  the ADAM.  This  issue  is  even  dedicated  to  the  Greenbergs  who conceived  the  idea of a computer that would be inexpensive  and easy  to cciariello,   Kerry   Takenaka,   Harry  McDonald  and  Richard Weiderman.  Joe and Harry became major contributors to ECN in its early  days  and Joe continued to make many  contributions  until just recently.  I spent many hours on the phone talking to  Harry about upcoming products, particularly the modem. Harry spent many hours  at  the library and on the phone checking  out  background information on the ADAM and its evolution.The  first legitimate user groups were started by Harry  McDonald of Charl  equipment. While at the university I worked for an outfit that did a lot  of surveys. We tabulated our results using a sorter and then I would use  a programmable calculator (a desk top Olivetti) to do all of the statistics.  The programs were stored on mag cards.  Later we got  an  early  version  of SPSS for the  mainframe  which  is  a statistical  package that looks a lot like Fortran in the way  it does  things.  I  had  to  help test SPSS  by  loading  data  and calculating   statistics   using   thd So; George Knochel; Mike Elsila; Francis Sifers; Al Roginski;  Derrick Hall;  Tommy Earnest;  John Moore,  who has provided  many articles on CP/M and hardware projects as well  as helping  many  ADAM  owners  with  questions  and  problems;  Tom Gilmore;   Mike  Degner;   David  Clark;   and  the  many   other contributors  and  subscribers who made all of this  possible.  I would also like to give special thanks to the 13 of the  original 150 subscribers who are still with us.This  issue  is  also  detarted to work on a  doctorate,  I  quickly became involved with doing stuff on the computer again. Then when I went to work for the state in personnel,  I got a contract with the  university  for computer time so I could  do  some  analysis necessary  on  my job.  All we had in our office  was  tabulating equipment  and when it came time to computerize,  I was  drafted. All  of  the initial software that was written for my office  was done in Fortran.  If you've never programmed in Fortan,  you have reallyn the basis of ADAM's success  or lack of it.  Coleco decided to drop ADAM in 1984  and ECN  still  managed to last another  three  years.  Other  "ADAM" publications  managed to attract more subscribers than  ECN,  but ECN did publish - and on a relatively regular schedule.Unfortunately,  our  advertising  probably reached  only  between thirty  and  fifty thousand of those who bought ADAMs and at  our peak we had about 1500 subscribers. If we could have reached more ADAM  owners,  we could have had a muthe warranty period was up,  so I got a replacement which is also dead  now.  I started out writing a few reviews for the  Midnight Gazette  and  even did a lot of the revisions to the  HES  Writer manual  (HES  went bankrupt later during the glut of 64  software that devloped).  When I first saw ads for Colecovision,  I knew I had to have one.  Coleco had already indicated they would have  a keyboard for it and that sounded like a pretty good deal. By then I  had learned a little assembly language programmDuring our existence we produced the first public domain software for the ADAM. That software has been distributed widely by groups all over the US and Canada. We produced the first and the largest selling  copy utility (PACKCOPY).  Our utility to read other disk formats  (CONVERT) was used by AUGMENT to create their ADAM  CP/M public domain software library and they used PACKCOPY to dupli cate much of their library.  All of this has been a lot of  work, but  it  has also been a lot of fun.  We have made  are.ECN  has grown and changed throughout these four years.  When  it started,  it had a subtitle,  "An Independent Newsletter for  the ADAM  and  Other  Computers." Originally I had  planned  to  keep things  open  ended and to cover other home computers as well  as the  ADAM.  As things went on,  it became obvious that  it  would require  a  great  deal more time than I had available  to  cover anything more than the ADAM and do it justice.  That decision, it turned out,  meant that ECN lived and died o missed a great experience.  It's not the easiest  language to do things in, but it is very powerful and fast. You can't work with text very well, but you sure can manipulate data.When  Commodore first started cutting the price of the Vic-20,  I decided to get one.  It was great. I already had an Atari VCS for games,  but  the Commodore would let me program and  learn  other languages.  Then  Commodore came out with the 64 and I bought one of the first ones on the market in my area.  It dies just  before ch larger  subscriber  base. Nevertheless, we feel that we have done as much and in many cases more  than  our  competitors in providing  our  subscribers  with support.  Garden  of ADAM had nearly two thousand subscribers  at its  inception  and only produced one issue (and to my  knowledge refunded no subscriptions).  AUGMENT started almost a year  after ECN and at its peak had over 5,000 subscribers.  Yet, they lasted only two years. Serendipity, I believe only produced three issues of their newsletter.ing and thought that  the  Coleco  system  would be a good  one  for  doing  some software development. Coleco  wouldn't cooperate.  They ignored my letters  and  calls. Nevertheless,  I felt the system had potential.  I had subscribed to the Midnight Gazette for the Commodore computers for some time and  finally  decided  that there would be a need for  a  similar publication  for  Coleco's computer.  When the ADAM  was  finally shown  in early 1983,  we decided to go ahead with a  publication and here we friends  with people  all over the US,  Canada and even England and  Australia. Some  of  you  have called and talked with  us,  not  just  about business,  and  many  others have written.  I hope that you  will continue to keep in touch and let us know what you're doing.  Who knows,  if we are ever in your town,  we might call and drop  by. Which  reminds me.  I want to thank those of you who have invited us to visit you or stay with you in Chicago and Las  Vegas.  Some day we may take you up on that.bown to the Smokey Mountains   again,   then  maybe  to  California  and  Washington eventually. No, not all in one year.I  guess this is finally the end.  We will miss ECN and  we  will miss  seeing  your names on the labels as we put them on for  the last time.  We will also miss your calls and your letters. It has been  a great four years and we have enjoyed it.  You  have  made this  possible  and  we thank all of you for  supporting  us  and sharing  your thoughts,  articles,  suggestions and problemsМ1 Ч67IMPORTANT NEWS:  REFUND POLICY No we didn't forget.  For those of you whose subscriptions run past this issue (#24),  you will find in  your envelope a refund check covering payment for any  issues for which you subscribed beyond #24. The refund is prorated, that is  the  individual  cost  of an issue is  $2.50  when  purchased through  a  subscription.  If  you had one  issue  left  on  your subscription  (it  would  have run through issue  #25)  then  you received a check for $2.50;  two issues - $competing XT and AT compatible machines running  MS  DOS continue at a high level.  Sales of  Compaq  and other compatible PCs continues to increase at IBMs expense. While the  larger  companies  are banking on the  PS/2s,  many  smaller companies  don't  like  changing  horses  in   midstream.   There continues  to  be doubts as to whether the new  operating  system will provide any real advantages. IBM introduced the PS/2 line as part  of their move to integrate all of heir hardware from PCs to minis  to Where  do  we  go from here?  Well in the short run  we  plan  on remodeling  our house.  I started that project about seven  years ago  and it's time to get going on it again.  I plan on  spending this  spring  outside walking through our woods  and  fields  and doing  a  little gardening.  I haven't done any woodworking in  a while and I hope to have time for some of that too.  We also want to travel.  My wife has never been to Colorado,  so hopefully  we will get out there and I would like to go back dng groups. These groups differ partly because of the price differences but also in how they view the product. It is this perspective that has led to the success of some products and the failure of others. One of the first buying groups to arise was composed of lower end commercial and business buyers. Such consumers bought Apples, Pets, Radio Shack TRS-80s, IBM PCs and other computers in that price range for primarily business applications. The group immediately above them had been used to receiving data pr with us. Maybe someday there will be a Ramblings From The Ridge again. See you then. Industry Observations by D. Sage In spite of the "crash" on Wall Street, consumer electronic sales continue  to  increase  with  computer  sales  outrunning   other consumer  products.  Computers continue to do well and while they will have their ups and downs,  they are becoming a necessity for an increasing number of businesses.IBM's  PS/2 and its new operating system continue to  be  greeted with pessimism.  Sales of 5.00 and so on. Unlike other publications we are not fading away without notice.  We are refunding any outstanding payment, not ignoring it or arbitrarily substituting  something you didn't want in place of it.  Since we are   discontinuing   the  publication,   we  feel  it   is   our responsibility to return your money. To our knowledge, we are the only  publication rgat has done so.  Of course if you don't  want the  refund that is your business.  Thanks for the  business.  We hope you have enjoyed ECN. mainframes.  Some see this as positive for IBM  in  the long run, but doubt the value of such a move so far in advance of the  availability  of  the  new  operating  system.  That  OS  is supposedly  very large,  buggy and slow on the new systems.  True the  PS/2s can run PC DOS,  but so can all the  compatibles.  The clone  makers have already solved the problem of  producing  PS/2 compatibles  and will do so only if it appears to be a profitable move.IBM is big,  but they are not infallible.  Remember Jhey  have  a cpu and a lot of  memory,  but  these  are getting cheaper and that will bring down the cost of the printers as well as the heavy competition that is developing.  It won't be long  until multi-color laser printers become readily  available. Now the prices are out of sight.Well, this column has come to an end. Elsewhere is this issue you will find my views on what awaits us in the future. Future Computing by D. Sage What will tomorrow bring?  That's a pretty broad question.  Let's restrict  e battles. Where is Commodore's big ad campaign? Will Commodore be able to move the Amiga into the business market or will it fail there and also lose the home market completely to Atari and the cheap PC compatibles? Commodore recently selected a new manager to run the company.  My guess is it's too late.  They should  have kept Rattigan.  It will be hard for them to  recover the ground they lost when he was fired.Amstrad  has  been  quite successful in the  PC  compatible  home market. Their U.S. sales hsixteen  bit computer  for around $700.  One "K" of processing power has  gone from  about $20 to around seventy cents in just about  siz  years time.  At the same time the processing speed and power of the cpu has increased dramatically. In two or three years, the price will be about twenty cents per K and cpu's will be full thirty-bit.Home  computers with multiple processors will soon become common. As processors become faster and cheaper,  their use will  expand. Uses  for computers will become more vaSega's sales are growing and Atari and the revived  Intellivision are  selling  also.  They key will also be the availability of  a variety  of  quality  games.   Release  of  older  games  is  not sufficient to interest the public.  In that respect, Nintendo and Sega have the greatest variety and some of the highest quality of games outside of computer based games.As  the cost of copy machines continues to drop,  look for  laser printers to get cheaper also.  Laser printers of course cost more because  tr. Until IBM can provide businesses and consumers with useful reasons to  make the change,  I doubt if there will be any stampede to buy the new systems and their OS. If you don't need to hook it up to a bigger IBM system, then why buy it?Apple  is continuing to make inroads in the business market  even among the larger companies. Look for this to continue.In the home market,  Atari continues to do battle with Commodore. The only problem is Atari seems to be firing all of the shots and winning all of ththe question to what will happen with computers in  the future?  Particularly,  let's look primarily at computing in  the home.Obviously  computers  are  going to continue to  to  be  cheaper. Tomorrow's  dollar  will  buy  a lot more  computing  power  than todays. Six years ago you could buy a 16K eight-bit computer with no drives or accessories for about $300. Four years ago you could buy  a 64K eight computer for about $300 and that price  declined to  around  $150.  You  can now buy a one  megabyte  ave continued to grow and they recently bought  out their US distributor in order to have greater control over marketing and distribution.  Atari also bought a west  coast computer chain in order to enhance their distribution and service network.The video game market is also expanding.  Nintendo, with an early start,  continues  to hold the lead.  They have released a  large number  of  games going into the Christmas season and many  third party companies have games on the shelves or soon to be released. ried.  The availability of cheap laser disk drives will make available inexpensive and  easy to use data dases.  But,  the real growth in the use of computers in the home will come in the area of robotics.A  few  years back everyone thought that the home robot  industry was on the verge of exploding.  Not just yet. Robotics requires a degree  of intelligence that is not yet available  at  affordable costs.  Useful  home robotics requires lots of  memory,  multiple processors and parallel processing capabi particular  job,  applying  less power when there is no load  and more power when the load is increased.  Washing machines will  be able  to determine how dirty your clothes are,  and will add  the right amount of detergent,  agitation, and select the appropriate water  volume and temperature.  Everything in the home will  have built  in  diagnostics.  Before something wears out you  will  be notified   of  the  specific  problem  and  its  solution.   Some appliances  may  even be capable of diagnosing  ads. They will have to be smart enough to learn their environment rapidly using something other than the slow trial and error method currently in existence.  Robots will also have to be capable  of doing something useful;  they will have to go  beyond the  current stage of being simply expensive toys.  Most  of  the advancements  in this area will come from the development of aids for the handicapped.  Robots will learn to "listen" for doorbells and telephones,  notifying the deaf owner that someone is calliou won't have to move the furniture,  they will do it for you.  They will troubleshoot varius problems using a broad and diversified data base.  They will babysit,  entertain and educate your children.  Ultimately their capabilities will be limited only by our ability to dream up new applications.Many  of these developments will come in the next  20  years.  At first  they will be available to only those who can now afford  a home computer.  Home computers will become inexpensive enough for even  the  pooy are critical  to the advancement of that field.Our  image  of  robotics will change from that of a  tin  can  on wheels  to  a variety of automatic immobile  household  aids.  We already  have programmable thermostats.  Soon we will have  smart houses  that  will  be able to route heating or cooling  to  only those  areas of the house where there are  people,  reducing  the waste  of scarce resources.  Many appliances and power tools  are already  smart.  They  apply  only  the  power  necessary  for  alities that have not yet arrived.  These  problems could be solved in the next five years, but  will likely not begin to have any impact until  we  approach the twenty-first century. Robots that wander aimlessly, do simple tricks,  and  require complex programming by the owner will never be  successful.  Part  of  the  progress in  this  area  will  be dependent upon low cost,  light weight,  long lasting rechargable batteries.Robots will have to be smart enough to understand a wide range of verbal commannd  repairing  a problem.Yes,  eventually  there will be the traditional trash can  shaped robots. Or at least something like that that will be mobile. They will  clean  your  floors and dust your  house  without  breaking anything.  Some  day  they  may  even be capable  of  doing  your shopping.  They will inventory your food supply and keep track of necessary  home maintenance.  They will mow your yard and  vacuum your leaves.  They will be able to communicate verbally and in an intelligent fashion.  Yng and translate the caller's voice into a visual display. They will learn  to  monitor the well being of an invalid  or  aged  owner, taking  automatic  action to seek help if something  goes  wrong. They  will  learn to cook and feed the  quadraplegic.  They  will allow  the blind to see and the mute to speak.  Developments  are already coming rapidly in thse areas,  but many of them are still awkward,  slow  and expensive.  Many of these developments do not appear initially relevant to robotics,  but ther to have and use.  The industry will  continue  to grow.  The  necessity  for  programmers  will  decline  as  large development systems become more efficient.  The real need will be for  people  with ideas and the ability to translate those  ideas into  practical useful applications.  The computer  will  program itself  or  design  other computers capable of carrying  out  new functions efficiently. Computer games will stretch the imagination. They will be able to tailor their difficulty to the skills of ply  ADAMCON  01 backwards,  so  ADAMCON 10  HAD to be in the same hotel and  same venues as ADAMCON 01.   IT WORKED, and that was the way PJ's mind worked !!Pat promoted the use of the ADAM at every turn,  and even as  the sysop  for the ADAM forum on Compuserve along with Rob  Friedman.  She  eventually  left  the MOAG group over  copyright  issues  of programs  but continued to actively promote and support the  ADAM community.PJ  was  instrumental in a lot of the programs that ADAM has  for graphicals  that we will have to resolve.  All of  this  new technology will have its disadvantages as well as its advantages. It  will  be  our responsibility to see that  our  technology  is managed carefully and for the benefit of our society and the rest of  the world and that it not be abused and used for  destructive purposes.  Remember  that the industry that gave us our computers also  produced some of the worst pollution that we have ever  had to  deal  with.  In the future let us hope that we all  learn  tend ADAMCON 14 in Grand Rapids in 2002 due to doctors orders, but was apparently doing OK...or that iis  what  she told us to belay our fears.   Around  the  1st  of December,  Jerry  received a call from her informing him that the cancer  had  returned and she had eye and hearing  problems  from brain cancer.   Just before Christmas 2002,  Rich got a call from PJ's husband Bob that she had died the Saturday before Christmas.ADIOS PJ, We in the ADAM computer community WILL never forget you ND your effortМ1 Ч68Some NEWS YOU DIDN'T NEED.............BUT NEED TO KNOW..We  are  sad to report the untimely death of our own Patricia  J. Herrington.   PJ or Pat;  as she was known;  was one of the first ADAMITES  on the scene,  was the editor and mover for a  time  at MOAG,  the "Metro Orlando ADAM Group" of Orlando FL.    PJ helped organize  and host the very first ADAM convention to ever be held and  also  INSISTED that ADAMCON 10 be  held  in  Orlando.    Her thinking   pattern..........ADAMCON  10  was  simthe player. They will be more  interactive and more interesting.  Shoot em ups will  still exist, but they will be more realistic. Graphics will continue to improve  until they far exceed current levels of  resolution  and speed.  Even television viewing will be more interactive. Viewers will  become  participants  in some shows without  leaving  their living  rooms.  Nevertheless,  3D movies will probably still  not catch on.All of these new developments will raise a variety of social  and ethical  issue  use.   She was the go-between for the  ADAM  community with Sol Swift of DIGITAL EXPRESS fame - the author of Power PAINT,  Clipper,  etc.   She was also an idea lady and programmer type  in her own right as shown by her own graphics software sold under the EZEZOD GRAPHICS label with such programs as Powertools, Yuletools, Chromantics, etc.  Pat  told us all at ADAMCON 13 in Cleveland that she  had  cancer and  surgery was scheduled for fall 2001.   All seemed well  with good  reports.   She did not atto manage  our technology wisely and that we don not  sacrifice  our environment  and  human  lives  in order  to  reap  the  possible benefits.Goodbye and Thanks to Everyone - The End!ari. Mattel has sold all rights to the Aquarius to Radofin Electronics. Warning - The British invasion of computers may come before the Japanese. Some of the British products look pretty good. Commodore's sales doubled last year. The company plans to intros to promote the ADAM computer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!of the "crash" on Wall Street, consumer electronic sales continue  to  increase  with  computer  sales  outrunning   other consumer  products.  Computers continue to do well and while they will have their ups and downs,  they are becoming a necessity for an increasing number of businesses.IBM's  PS/2 and its new operating system continue to  be  greeted with pessimism.  Sales of o come along for the ADAM in its first year of existence. Not only can you now back up your commercial and self-written software quickly and easily, you can now transfer most DDP programs to disk and run them much faster than in their original format.
It should be made clear though that Packcopy is intended solely for backing up software. Any sales of backed up software is piracy and software companies will not hesitate to prosecute those involved.
Editor's Note: PACKCOPY currently will not copy some SupeМ1 Ч67          JANUARY 2003 ADAM NEWS NETWORK++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++This  month we have the first issue of Expandable Computer  News; the  last issue of that newsletter;  AND the Jan 1985  newsletter with  Darrel's  views of Coleco dumping our ADAM.   Also we  have some sad news about a founding member; it is alwasy hard to watch the  community  dwindle,  but especially hard when a  well  known member leaves us for whatever reason.  AND then of course we have rker Brothers
Media: Cartridge
Requirements: ColecoVision/ADAM, joystick
Warranty: 180 day
Price: $34.99 at Sears
Rating: 10
If you like Q*Bert, you will absolutely go bonkers over Parker Brothers new game, Q*bert's Qubes.
Like Q*bert, the object of the game is to change the color of the various cubes as you hop on them. The difference in this game is that as you hop from cube to cube, the cubes rotate. Depending on which way you jump, the various color sides of the cube come up.
The object of the g 3.) The instructions are well written and follow the backup procedure step-by-step.
At the time I was testing this program I found it impossible to backup Super Games. Darrell Sage informs me however that the program will back them up. My early version of Basic (Dec. 1983) apparently has bugs in the HIMEM and LOMEM areas which are crucial to the completion of backup of Super Games. It is my understanding that the newer versions of Basic handle the program perfectly.
Packcopy is one of the best programs tcompeting XT and AT compatible machines running  MS  DOS continue at a high level.  Sales of  Compaq  and other compatible PCs continues to increase at IBMs expense. While the  larger  companies  are banking on the  PS/2s,  many  smaller companies  don't  like  changing  horses  in   midstream.   There continues  to  be doubts as to whether the new  operating  system will provide any real advantages. IBM introduced the PS/2 line as part  of their move to integrate all of heir hardware from PCs to minis  to r Games. These games were produced on short tapes. One example is Donkey Kong Jr. We are looking at this problem and will provide updates to PACKCOPY as soon as we have found a solution to this problem. PACKCOPY is now available with a two disk drive copy routine. We did not want to distribute the program until this feature had been fully tested. Tests have now been completed and the program has been updated. 

Product Review - Q*Bert's Qubes
by Joe Blenkle
Product: Q*Bert's Qubes Game
Manufacturer: Pathis here information file.  HAPPY WINTER YA'LL  !!!!!!! as the way PJ's mind worked !!Pat promoted the use of the ADAM at every turn,  and even as  the sysop  for the ADAM forum on Compuserve along with Rob  Friedman.  She  eventually  left  the MOAG group over  copyright  issues  of programs  but continued to actively promote and support the  ADAM community.PJ  was  instrumental in a lot of the programs that ADAM has  for graphicalame is to line up rows of the same color in a tic-tac-toe fashion. How many rows you need depends on what level of the game you're at. A bonus round comes at the end of every four screens (one game level). The object of the bonus round is to change as many cubes as you can to the target colors before your time runs out. Completing the four rounds of each level is important here as it adds to your bonus tine. One significant factor in the bonus round is that you can't move off the cube you're on until the core are three race lengths to choose from. Finally, Pitstop gives you a choice of three different types of circuits to run. I currently do not own the ColecoVision Expansion Module #2 (driving module), but I believe that you can play this driving game quite well without it (maybe even better).
The instruction booklet (as with most EPYX games) is quite good, and covers all aspects of the game. It covers both the joystick and driving module options equally well. The cartridge, however, does have a few slight  the screen except Q*bert.
Q*bert's Qubes is a very entertaining game. A lot more fun than the original. If you haven't already bought Q*bert, take a look at this game first...you won't be disappointed. 

Product Review - Pitstop
by Tom Maditz
Product: Pitstop Game
Manufacturer: EPYX, Inc., 1043 Kiel Ct., Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Media: Cartridge
Requirements: ColecoVision/ADAM, joystick
Warranty: 1 year
Price: $34.95 at Camelot Music
Rating: 6
First of all, I must admit the main reason I purchased Pou are not currently a fan, get a few friends together and get involved in some fast paced competition, and remember (as the instruction booklet so wisely points out - Whew!) races can be won or lost in the pits. 

Product Review - Address Book Filer
by Lee Smith
Product: Address Book Filer With Autodialer
Manufacturer: Coleco
Media: Digital Data Pack
Requirements: ADAM
Warranty: 90 days
Rating: 9
The address book filer is a very good way to organize your records. It organizes your phone numbers a course too long, you'll either exhaust your fuel supply, or your tires will wear to the point where they will blow out, causing you to crash (bumping into other cars or the edge of the track only causes your tires to wear faster, but does not constitute a crash). Both are mistakes which will cost you the race and keep you from making top dollar on the Grand Prix Circuit.
The game allows from 1 to 4 players (with each driver taking a turn at the wheel). It gives you a choice of three difficulty levels. Thelors have been matched.
Coily the snake has been replaced by Rat-a-tat-tat the Rat who can be temporarily eliminated by jumping off a cube just as he jumps on it. Meltniks can put an end to Q*bert if they touch him, but melt into cubes that have the same colored tops as they. Shoobops are Q*bert's other enemies as they busily try to undo all Q*bert's hard work by changing the colors of the cubes as they land on them. Q*bert's only friend is the familiar green ball that will temporarily freeze everything ondrawbacks. Under the one player option things can got a little boring unless you are the type who likes to keep track of your own progress. The multiple players options, meanwhile, give the racers the sense of competition, by letting them see who can reach the winner's circle. It would, however, be more fair and more competitive if each driver could pick his/her own difficulty level.
So, if you are a road race fan (I never was until now), this cartridge gives you a pleasant change from all the others. If yitstop was it had been greatly marked down from Its original selling price of $34.95 to $9.95. I would advise all ADAM and Colecovision owners to keep their eyes open for a deal (or deals) like this. At the regular retail price. I am not sure the cartridge should be put on your list of cartridges you just have to have (unless you're a race game fan), but at $9.95 it is a STEAL!
What sets this road race game apart from all the others is it becomes necessary to pit and resupply your racer. If you stay on thend addresses with the capability of automatically dialing your selections. The program requires an extra data pack for saving up to 504 records. You may also include birthday dates, etc. under the heading of "note." You can search by firtst name, last name, city, note. Using the note feature allows you to set up different categories (ex. doctor, bills, Christmas, ADAM, etc.).
The program also gives you printing capabilities to make your mailing labels. You can also make personalized form letters. This is v played and there is even a feature that allows you to check how much space is left (the program can accomodate 1,000 notes).
The music program is self-loading. All you need do is press the reset button on the computer. Saving and getting songs is very easy and the program automatically adjusts to whatever storage device you are using. Or if you want to load your program from disk and store on a DDP, you need only press a button to change your option. To save a song, all you do is press SHIFT and STORE/GETth this program and believe it would benefit everyone who needs to be a little more organized! 

Product Review - Videotunes
by Joe Blenkle
Product: Music Composer
Manufacturer: Future Vision, P.O. Box 34, N. Billerica, MA 01862
Media: Digital Data Pack or Disk
Requirements: ADAM
Price: $34.95
Rating: 10
If you're into music, or even if you're not, Future Vision's Videotunes program should be a worthwhile addition to your software library.
What can Videotunes do? It would be easier to list what t major points.
I have used music composition software for other computers and find Videotunes to be as good or better than the ones written by such companies as Electronic Arts. This program is extremely easy to use. The data pack version is a little slow when it comes to loading and saving on DDP.
The one thing this program lacks is a print feature. It would be nice if it provided some kind of printed output.
My only other comment is if you are looking for a music composition program, buy this one. You e your song, add other information such as the composer, date it was composed or whatever you llke. It's possible to change the octave the song plays in up or down as well as the key it is played in.
The options for Videotunes are almost too numerous to list, ranging from playing single notes on the screen to a screenfull or the entire composition. Forget to put a note in? No problem, you can insert them anywhere in the tune.
You can vary the length of the note being played, the speed in which the song isery useful if you are planning to send a lot of letters of the same nature but with different addresses. This program will allow you to merge with Smart Letters and Forms also.
I did experience one problem with the autodialer which was not hard to correct. The dialer did not make good contact until I added a 1/8 inch piece of cardboard of the bottom of the leg of the autodialer. This problem may be do to me having the expansion module. The game tray raises the unit by about 1/8 inch.
I'm very impressed wi. To get a song you simply press STORE/GET for the menu. Videotunes is a fantastic program for the ADAM computer and despite some initial hesitations about ordering it, I now have no regrets about it. It can provide many hours of fun from either composing your own songs or simply entering others from sheet music.
Videotunes rates a perfect 10 on the scale for ADAM software.

Product Review - Videotunes (6-2)
by D. Sage
Rating: 9
Joe's review is difficult to follow. He seems to have covered most of thehe program does not do...compose music for you. Videotunes does just about everything else. You need only listen to the selection of pre-recorded songs to get an idea of Videotunes capabilities (and ADAM's fine sound potential as well).
It is very easy to use, allowing manipulation of notes on the screen via either the keyboard or joystick. Notes are placed on a scrolling music sheet and the program allows the full use of ADAM's sound potential, playing up to three notes at the same time. You can even titlwill have a hard time finding anything better for the ADAM. Return to Top 

Product Review - Trek
by Neal Fredericks
Product: Space text adventure game
Manufacturer: Victory Software
Media: Digital Data Pack
Warranty: Replace defective product
Price: $24.95 from M.W. Ruth Co.
Rating: 8
Trek is a space text adventure game where you command the controls of the Star Ship Enterprise. The game is written in BASIC, so you must load SmartBasic before loading the game.
The instructions are adequate, but other ADAM programs, the Smart Keys make it extremely easy to use. I have had some experience with Multiplan and found their manuals to be quite confusing. With ADAMCalc you can design and use a spread sheet after a very short trial. The manual is clear and easy to use, yet quite detailed. The authors have even provided several sample spread sheets that you can load and modify for your own purposes. I plan on doing a follow up review of this product after I have had the opportunity to explore its features mKlingons you have to destroy.
The game screen then comes on and you begin to play. Located on the screen are your SCANNERS, direction finder, GALACTIC MAP, years left, number of Klingons, torpedoes and the damage control report. The computer then asks for a command. You have 4 choices: W-Warp, P-Phasers, T-Torpedoes, and Q-Quit. Each command is followed by more commands.
The only way to win is to destroy every Klingon without running out of years or energy. I have yet to conquer the Klingon invasion.
My e various screens have changed. In this version there are three game screens - underwater, surface and airborne frogger. For some reason I could just never get into this game. I found myself taking it out and replacing it with the original Frogger. While it offers more diversity in scenes, I found it tiresome. My suggestion is to try it before you buy it.  

Product Review - The Basic ADAM
by D. Sage
Product: The Basic ADAM - A Self-Teaching Guide
Authors: William Abikoff and Gary Cornell
Publisher: W period of time. I found no bugs in my preliminary tests, but this does not mean that bugs will not show up later. Secondly, ADAMCalc was written by Lazer MicroSystoms for Coleco. Some of you know that Lazer also was responsible for SmartBasic. I hope they did a better job on ADAMCalc than was done on SmartBasic. Eventually we will find out.
In order to test ADAMCalc, I ran through the samples provided in the manual. From all appearances this is asuper spread sheet. Not only is it versatile, but like most do not follow the loading instructions for the game. Here are the correct commands:

load game
load trek
run
run game
(Trek title screen appears)
run trek
Second title screen appears)
Game begins

Make sure all the commands are in lower case. Once the game begins you must pick a difficulty level, 0-9, and then a galaxy, 000-999. Each galaxy is different. The computer then tells you what each symbol means, location and status of the star bases, how many years you have to win, and finally how many ore fully. However, my initial reaction is extremely positive. If you need a spread sheet this is it.

Product Review - Frogger II: Three Deep
by D. Sage
Product: Game
Manufacturer: Parker Bros.
Media: Cartridge
Requirements: ColecoVision/ADAM, joystick
Warranty: 180 day
Price: $24.95 w/$10 rebate
Rating: 5
Frogger II - Three Deep is a variation on the original Frogger. This adaptation is not nearly good as another sequel - Q*Bert's Qubes. The purpose remains about the same only the objects in thonly complaint is the loading time of the game. It takes about 10 minutes to load if you enter each command correctly. 

Product Review - AdamCalc
by D. Sage
Product: Spreadsheet
Manufacturer: Coleco
Media: Digital Data Pack
Requirements: ADAM
Warranty: 90 day
Rating: Preliminary 10
ADAMCalc may be the finest software product yet to come from Coleco. I have qualified this statement and my rating for a number of reasons. ADAMCalc has many features and it is difficult to test all of these in a shortiley Press
Length: 524 pages
Price: $14.95
Rating: 7
Books, books, and more books. How could there be so many books for a computer that was not a "success." On top of all of that, most of the books are either introductory or Basic tutorials. As of yet no book has appeared for the ADAM that deals with technical aspects.
What about this book. Is it any good or is it just like all the others? The book is well written and easy to follow with lots of examples. It includes a number of appendices, a glossary,very well written although of somewhat limited purpose. The instructions were quite clear and easy to follow. The disk includes another program, filemaker, that is used to set up new calendar files that are used by the ADAMAGENDA program. If you are in need of a scheduling program you may want to give this one a try. The software can be ordered directly from the U.S. ADAM Network. They have indicated they plan to introduce additional software, including software for LOGO in the future.
High Scores
by Joe eally a bad idea. Computers do not belong on a carpet because of static and dust. A carpet could also block ventilation, causing the printer to overheat. This could also cause a fire hazard. The authors also indicate that daisy wheels are easy to change. They obviously did not change wheels on an early ADAM. The newer ones are easier to change but still not easy. They also indicate that the ADAMnet is the "outlet from the ADAM into the telephone lines." I hope no one tries plugging their ADAMnet into their  Rogers, Super	Jeff Platt	4	10,167,642	
Bump N Jump	Jeff Platt	4	216,896	
Cabbage Patch	Jeff Platt	-	114,050	
Carnival	Jeff Platt	4	22,410	
Centipede	Jeff Platt	1	195,032	
Chuck Norris	Jeff Platt	-	196,200	
Congo Bongo	Joe Blenkle	1	7,010	
Defender	Jeff Platt	-	1,005,200	
Destructor	Jeff Platt	1	316,620	
Donkey Kong, Super	Jeff Platt	1	1,201,800	
Donkey Kong Jr., Super	Jeff Platt	4	481,300	
Dukes of Hazzard	Jeff Platt	4	83,570	
Front Line	Robert Cavenagh	1	110,500	
Gateway to Asphai	Jeff Platt	k
Requirements: ADAM
Price: $8.00 data pack; $7.00 disk
Rating: 8
This program was written by Jeff Harris for the U.S. ADAM Network's public domain software library. The U.S. ADAM Network is a user group; Raymond So is the current president.
The program was supplied to us on disk and includes instructions in a SmartWriter file. Essentially the program allows you to set up and maintain a calendar of activities for an entire year. You can make entries and retrieve the information by date. The program is  a reference guide and an index. Since this is part of Wiley Press's Self-Teaching Guide series it also includes exercises to determine if you have learned what a chapter was all about. The book is well organized and contains much useful information although little that hasn't already been covered in other books.
There are a number of statements in the book that are inaccurate or were not well thought out. The authors suggest that the printer can be placed on the rug on the floor to reduce noise. This is rBlenkle
Anyone wishing to add their name to the high score list should send the game, score and level to Joe Blenkle, P.O. Box 41746, Sacramento, CA 95841. PLEASE DO NOT USE EMAIL. Thank you. Due to the ever growing number of games, we are now limiting the list to newer releases. A complete list can be obtained by sending an S.A.S.E. to the above address.
ColecoVision/ADAM High Scores				
GAME	PLAYER	LEVEL	SCORE	
Antartic Adventure	Jeff Platt	-	176,750	
B.C.'s Quest For Tires	Jeff Platt	1	39,490	
Bucktelephone. This line is used by the disk drives. The only other problem I have with the book is the fact that some of the dialogue is a little too cutsy.
Overall this book is at least as good as many of the others on the market for the ADAM. My suggestion is to take a look before you buy to see if it will meet your needs. 

Product Review - ADAM Agenda
by D. Sage
Product: Scheduling and Calendar Software
Manufacturer: U.S. Adam Network, 71-11 Ingram St., Forest Hills, NY 11375
Media: Data Pack or Dis-	150,275	
Gust Buster	Jeff Platt	4	122,090	
Heist	Joe Blenkle	-	96,782	
James Bond 007	Joe Blenkle	1	57,550	
Jumpman Jr.	Jeff Platt	3	1,055,175	
Miner 2049er	Jeff Platt	-	451,885	
Montezuma's Revenge	Joe Blenkle	-	449,650	
Motocross	Jeff Platt	2	5:46	
Pitfall	Jeff Platt	-	113,458	
Pitfall II	Joe Blenkle	-	195,665	
Popeye	Jeff Platt	1	166,540	
Q*Bert	Jeff Platt	3	1,096,030	
Q*Bert's Qubes	Joe Blenkle	1	126,100	
Quest For Quintana Roo	Tom Earnest, Jr.	1	91,900	
River Raid	Robert Cavenagh	1	43,2Cosby Ave.  St. Catherines, Ontario  Canada L2M 5R7 	Metro Adam User's Group  Russell Williams  414 W. 149th St.  New York, NY 10031  212/208-0645 (9am-5pm M-F)  Adam Users of El Paso  Dick Lewin  6308 Falling Star  El Paso, TX 79912  Victor L. Watford  P.O. Box 777  Russellville, AL 35653  Genesee Valley Adam Users  Donald K. Zimmerman  5132 Jordon Road  Silver Springs, NY 14550  Danny Levitt  4525 S. White Pine  Tucson, Al 86730  602/790-9678  Tri-Angle Adam Users  Gary E. Hill  L-5, Oak Grove  Chapel HilUser groups can keep this machine alive. If you need help, join one or start one.
Shortly after going to press last issue, we received the first issue of Garden of ADAM, the newsletter for the Adam Users of America group. Although late in appearing this publication is a step in the right direction. However, we have yet to receive the second issue of this publication and have been receiving a number of complaints about the delay. Everyone needs to have some patience. I can attest to the fact that publishing******************  *THE ADAM DEPOT*  ********************
WE SELL ADAM HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE AT UNBEATABLE PRICES!!!  ADAM DISK DRIVE - $244.95  ADAM LINK MODEM - $84.95  64K MEM. EXPANDER - $154.95  EXTRA DATA DRIVE - $164.95  EXPERTYPE - $32.95  SMART LETTERS & FORMS - $22.95  SMART FILER - $17.95  ADAM CALC - $32.95  DRAGON'S LAIR - $27.95  CP/M 2.2 & ASSEMBLER - $57.95  BEST OF BRODERBUND - $27.95  ADAM COMPATIBLE CP/M  SOFTWARE AT LOW PRICES!  SHIPPING $2.00 PER ORDER  PA. RESIDENTS 6% TAX  CATALOG .ackers  David Kennedy  236 McKibben St.  Suite 19  New York, NY 11206  Jerry Pritchard  East Texas ADAM Users  4105 Forrest Trail  Marshall, TX 75670  Dennis A. Jurewicz  4553 Forest Hill Dr.  Pekin, IL 61554  Richard Bains  7210 Bulen Drive  Anchorage, AK 99507  Brian Stranahan  8580 Buggy Whip Rd.  Alta Loma, CA 91701  714/989-1394  Compuserve 72456,567  H.A.A.U.G.  c/o Thomas Rutan  1805 14th Ave. N.  Texas City, TX 77590  J.A. Girard  1420 Ave. Langevin Sud  Alma.Quebec,Can G8B 6B1  Perry L'Herault  61 20	
Roc N Rope	Jeff Platt	1	203,120	
Rolloverture	Jeff Platt	1	42,300	
Sewer Sam	Scott Swenson	-	15,779	
Spectron	Jeff Platt	4	6,450	
Slither	Jeff Platt	1	158,420	
Squish em	Jeff Platt	1	53,620	
Tutankham	Jeff Platt	1	170,456	
War Games	Robert Cavenagh	4	161,310,000	
Wing War	Jeff Platt	-	150,200	
Zaxxon, Super	Jeff Platt	1	143,200	
High Scores as of Jan./Feb. 1985 Issue				

User Group News
The list of user groups continues to grow. We are glad to see this in light of developments at Coleco. l, NC 27514  919/968-0299  Robert Dunstan  95 Harland Crescent  Ajax, Ontario,  Canada L1S 1K2  Compuserve #75026,3435  Derek Townsand, Editor  NAUG Magazine  c/o TRIEDD Industries  Box 820  Claresholm, Alberta  Canada T0L 0T0  (I yr $17 - 6 issues)  Dave Sandahl  USNH  Box 2844  FPO Seattle, WA 98778  Downtown Minneapolis AUG  Thomas C. Gilmore  1424 West 33rd St.  Minneapolis, MN 55408  Frank Fleich  13381-19 Magnolia Ave.  Corona, CA 91719  Mike Laurier  7350 Roi Rene  Anjou, Quebec, Canada  H1K 3G6	
** a periodical is a great deal of work. Let's hope that the second issue appears real soon now.
And now for our list of groups:
Belleville AUG  Norman Castro  809 West 33rd Ave.  Bellevue, NE 68005  402/291-4405  Bill & Nancy Rahn  12426-15th St. S.  Afton, MN 55001  612/436-6577  Robert R. Marentes  9425 N. 38th Ave.  Phoenix, AZ 85021  The (717) Adam Users  Steve Chamberlain  120 E. 4th St.  Bloomsburg, PA 17815  Alan L. Taylor  612 7th Ave. NE  Stewartville, MN 55976  507/633-8415 After 6pm  ADAM Microh25  THE ADAM DEPOT  419 RIDGWAY AVE.  JOHNSONBURG, PA. 15845  VISA (814) 965-2487 MC  *** SUPER FAST DELIVERY ***
Glitches, Bugs, Errata, Etc.
Older versions of SmartBasic have problems handling LOMEM and HIMEM. Programs using these statements will not always work the way they should. (Version 79 or higher will work).
Current versions (79) of SmartBasic will generate non-existent errors if you try to edit a program after LOMEM or HIMEM have been changed. The errors generally appear when the program is ruLE=20
92	r=r+1
93	ROT=r
95	DRAW 1 AT 125, 95
100	GOTO 30

Program Listing - Schedule Maker & Events
10	REM SCHEDMAKER
20	REM RUN THIS BEFORE RUNNING EVENTS FOR FIRST TIME
30	PRINT "To Create a New Schedule File"
40	PRINT " Enter Y"
50	INPUT q$
60	IF q$<> "Y" OR q$ <> "y" THEN END
100	d$=CHR$(4)
110	PRINT: PRINT d$; "open sched"
120	PRINT d$; "write sched"
130	PRINT "END OF DATA"
140	PRINT d$; "close sched"
150	END
----------------------------------------------------
1	REM EVENTS by Stevevanced Telecommunications Software, 23 Chelton St., West Hartford, CT 06110.

Ken Petersen has had difficulty saving large SmartWriter files (27 blocks). This results in the machine locking up and the file being lost. Anyone else having this problem?
Early versions of SmartFiler had many bugs. Sorts don't work properly among other problems. If you have had problems try to got a replacement.

Does anyone know how to hook up ADAM to a 12 VDC power supply safely? Let me know so I can pass the word along. 1 THEN 70
100	PRINT " ARE YOU WORKING (1) ARE YOU"
102	PRINT " OFF (2) OR ARE YOU"
103	PRINT " NOT SURE (3)";
104	INPUT t$
106	IF t$="1" THEN t$="WORKING"
108	IF t$="2" THEN t$="OFF"
109	IF t$="3" THEN t$="NOT SURE IF YOU'RE WORKING"
120	PRINT: PRINT
130	PRINT " WHAT IS THE SCHEDULE"
131	INVERSE
132	PRINT " DO NOT PRESS RETURN UNTIL"
134	PRINT " YOU ARE DONE"
135	NORMAL
140	INPUT c$
150	PRINT: PRINT
160	REM w$(m,d)=working?
170	w$(m, d)=t$
180	REM a$(m,d)=EVENTS
190	a$(m, d)=c$
195	HOME
80	FOR i=1 TO 80 STEP 4
90	HPLOT 254, 160-i TO 254, i
100	HPLOT 0, 160-i TO 254, i
110	NEXT

Program Listing - Graphics Program
1	HGR2
2	y=-4
3	xy=260
4	yx=195
5	x=-4
6	r=-1
10	REM   graphics by Charles Steele
30	LET c=INT(RND(1)*15)+1
35	IF c=4 THEN 30
40	HCOLOR=c
50	x=x+5
55	y=y+5
60	xy=xy-5
65	yx=yx-5
67	IF y>180 THEN LET y=181
68	IF yx<5 THEN LET yx=4
69	IF x>254 THEN 90
70	HPLOT 1, yx TO x, 1
75	HPLOT x, 1 TO 255, y
80	HPLOT 255, y TO xy, 190
85	HPLOT xy, 190 TO 1, yx
90	SCAn and will usually reference a line with a READ statement. The solution is to reset HIMEN or LOMEM before editing a program. Use the program in your BASIC manual to determine the correct values for LOMEM and HIMEM.
Never save a file with the same name more than once to the same data pack, unless you want to have disastrous consequences. This especially applies to SmartWriter.
The new Coleco Telecommunications software is available by sending a check or money order for $9.00 to: Coleco Customer Service, Ad Hanam
5	HOME
30	DIM w$(12, 31), a$(12, 31)
31	ONERR GOTO 49
32	d$=CHR$(4)
34	PRINT d$; "open sched"
36	PRINT d$; "read sched"
40	INPUT sh$
42	IF sh$="END OF DATA" THEN 49
44	INPUT m
45	INPUT d
46	INPUT w$(m, d)
47	INPUT a$(m, d)
48	GOTO 40
49	PRINT: PRINT d$; "close sched": GOTO 900
50	HOME: PRINT "WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF THE"
52	PRINT " MONTH ";
60	INPUT m
65	IF m<1 OR m>12 THEN 40
70	PRINT: PRINT
80	PRINT " WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF THE? DAY ";
82	INPUT d
85	PRINT: PRINT
90	IF d<1 OR d>3

Program Listing - Art Gallery
2	REM       ART GALLERY
5	REM       By D. Jacksch
10	HGR2
20	h=INT(RND(1)*15+1): IF h=4 THEN h=1
25	HCOLOR=h
30	a=RND(1)*90: b=RND(1)*50+100
40	c=RND(1)*90: d=RND(1)*105+50
50	FOR i=1 TO 100 STEP 5
60	HPLOT 40, a+i TO b+i, 180 TO c+i, d TO 40, a+i
70	NEXT
80	FOR i=1 TO 2000: NEXT
90	GOTO 10

Program Listing - Fans
2	REM FANS
4	REM By D. Jacksch
10	HGR
20	FOR i=1 TO 254 STEP 12
40	HCOLOR=1
50	HPLOT 255-i, 160 TO i, 0
60	HPLOT 255-i, 0 TO i, 160
70	NEXT
200	PRINT " WOULD YOU LIKE ANOTHER DAY ?"
205	PRINT " TYPE 'Y' OR 'N'"
210	PRINT: PRINT
220	GET q$
230	IF q$="Y" OR q$="y" THEN 50
235	HOME
240	REM  info retrieval
250	HOME: PRINT " ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS TO GET"
260	PRINT " YOUR SCHEDULE": PRINT: PRINT
265	PRINT "0 to Quit"
300	PRINT " WHAT MONTH ## ONLY";
310	INPUT m
315	IF m=0 THEN 1070
320	IF m<1 OR m>12 THEN 300
330	PRINT: PRINT
340	PRINT " WHAT DAY ## ONLY 
350	INPUT d
360	IF d<1 OR d> 31 THEN 340
370	PRINT: PRINT: PRINT
375	IF w$(view a days schedule."
1181	PRINT "Type 'QUIT' to Stop"
1185	SPEED=250
1190	INPUT m$
1200	IF m$="ADD" OR m$="add" THEN 50
1205	IF m$="QUIT" OR m$="quit" THEN 452
1210	IF m$="SEE" OR m$="see" THEN 250
1220	HOME: PRINT "PLEASE FOLLOW DIRECTIONS": GOTO 1150
2000	HOME
2100	PRINT " HAVE YOU ADDED NEW DATA Y/N": PRINT: PRINT: PRINT
2110	GET d$
2120	IF d$="Y" OR d$="y" THEN RETURN
2130	HOME
2140	PRINT " I HOPE THIS PROGRAM WAS": PRINT
2150	PRINT " HELPFUL.": PRINT
2160	PRINT " BE SURE TO REMOVE YOUR	FOR m=1 TO 12
500	FOR d=1 TO 31
510	IF w$(m, d)="" AND a$(m, d)="" THEN 560
520	PRINT "ONE MORE INPUT"
525	PRINT m
530	PRINT d
540	PRINT w$(m, d)
550	PRINT a$(m, d)
560	NEXT d
570	NEXT m
580	PRINT "END OF DATA"
590	PRINT d$; "close sched"
600	GOTO 2130
900	HOME
901	CLRERR
905	VTAB 8
910	PRINT "    *  * **** *    *     **"
920	PRINT "    *  * *    *    *    *  *"
930	PRINT "    **** ***  *    *    *  *"
940	PRINT "    *  * *    *    *    *  *"
950	PRINT "    *  * **** ***  ***   ** "
969
242	HPLOT x+x9+1, y-y9 TO q, w
245	LET q=x+x9: w=y-y9
250	NEXT
255	LET t=t+1
260	IF t=2 THEN 285
270	LET rs=5: c=0: x=90: y=145
280	GOTO 190
285	t=0: c=0
290	y=150: x=165
295	rs=20
300	FOR g=0 TO 3.2 STEP .04
310	r1=SIN(g)+COS(g)
320	r9=rs*r1
330	x9=r9*COS(g): y9=r9*SIN(g)
331	c=c+1
332	IF c=1 THEN GOTO 345
340	HPLOT x+x9, y-y9
342	HPLOT x+x9+1, y-y9 TO q, w
345	LET q=x+x9: w=y-y9
350	NEXT
355	LET t=t+1
360	IF t=2 THEN 400
370	LET rs=5: c=0: x=172: y=142
380	GOTO 300
400	HCOLOR =5ME
1075	SPEED=140
1080	PRINT " This in a program to schedule": PRINT
1090	PRINT " daily events. You will have": PRINT
1100	PRINT " the opportunity to add": PRINT
1110	PRINT " events to any day of the year."
1120	PRINT " The computer will recall any": PRINT
1130	PRINT " day and display the events": PRINT
1140	PRINT " as you desire.": PRINT: PRINT
1150	PRINT " Type 'ADD' if you want to": PRINT
1160	PRINT " schedule events.": PRINT: PRINT
1170	PRINT " Type 'SEE' If you want to": PRINT
1180	PRINT " m, d)="" THEN 9000
380	PRINT " YOU ARE "
385	PRINT ""; w$(m, d); "."
390	PRINT: PRINT
400	PRINT " YOU ARE SCHEDULED FOR: "
405	PRINT: PRINT a$(m, d)
410	PRINT: PRINT: PRINT " WOULD YOU LIKES TO SEE ANOTHER"
415	PRINT "DAY ? (ANSWER 'Y' or 'N')"
430	PRINT: PRINT
440	GET q$
450	IF q$="Y" OR q$="y" THEN 235
452	GOSUB 2000
453	PRINT " THE COMPUTER IS STORING YOUR"
456	PRINT " SCHEDULE"
465	d$=CHR$(4)
466	PRINT: PRINT d$; "delete sched"
470	PRINT d$; "open sched"
480	PRINT d$; "write sched"
485 DISK": PRINT
2170	PRINT " BEFORE TURNING OFF THE": PRINT
2175	PRINT "COMPUTER.": PRINT
2180	END
9000	PRINT " YOU DID NOT ENTER DATA FOR"
9010	PRINT " THIS DAY."
9020	INPUT " PRESS RETURN TO CONTINUE"; r$
9030	GOTO 240

Program Listing - Graphics Demo
10	HGR2
15	REM   graphics demo by Charles Steele
120	x=85
125	y=150
179	rs=15
190	HCOLOR=6
200	FOR g=0 TO 3.2 STEP .04
210	r1=SIN(g)+COS(g)
220	r9=rs*r1
230	x9=r9*COS(g): y9=r9*SIN(g)
231	c=c+1
232	IF c=1 THEN GOTO 245
240	HPLOT x+x9, y-y0	FOR d=1 TO 3000: NEXT d
970	HOME
978	VTAB 6
980	PRINT "  ########################## "
990	PRINT "  #                        # "
1000	PRINT "  #   WHERE I AM SUPPOSED  #"
1010	PRINT "  #                        #"
1020	PRINT "  #          TO BE         #"
1030	PRINT "  #      by Steve Hanam    #"
1040	PRINT "  #                        #"
1050	PRINT "  ##########################"
1055	PRINT: PRINT: PRINT: PRINT: PRINT: PRINT: PRINT
1060	PRINT " Press 'Return' to continue";
1065	INPUT a$
1070	HO
450	READ q, w, e, r
460	HPLOT q, w TO e, r
470	GOTO 450
1000	DATA   159,137,105,140,105,140,105,137
1010	DATA   105,137,159,127,159,127,165,124
1020	DATA   165,124,175,122,175,122,185,122,185,122,194,130
1030	DATA   105,140,117,134,117,134,133,138
1040	DATA   133,138,149,129,149,129,159,137,159,137,159,127

Program Listing - Graphics
5	REM  graphics by Charles Steele
10	HGR2
20	HCOLOR=15
50	b=0
110	FOR t=0 TO 500 STEP .12
111	HCOLOR=15
115	LET q=ABS(INT(66+67*COS(t)))+60
120	LET a=ABS(INTCON 14 in Grand Rapids in 2002 due to doctors orders, but was apparently doing OK.  Around the 1st of December, Jerry received a call from her informing him that the cancer had returned and she had eye and hearing problems from brain cancer.  Just before Christmas 2002, Rich got a call from PJ's husband Bob that she had died the Saturday before Christmas.


ADIOS PJ, We in the ADAM computer community WILL never forget you or your efforts to promote the ADAM computer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Some  NEWS YOU DIDN'T NEED........................... BUT NEED TO KNOW...................................


We are sad to report the untimely death of our own Patricia J. Herrington.  PJ or Pat; as she was known; was one of the first ADAMITES on the scene, was the editor and mover for a time of MOAG, the "Metro Orlando ADAM Group" of Orlando FL.   PJ helped organize and host the very first ADAM convention to ever be held and also INSISTED that ADAMCON 10 be held in Orlando.   Her thinking pattern....e screen and wipe out part of the text. When this happened the right and left arrow keys would not work and part of the top bar which indicates position would disappear. The "Escape" key would not work and the only way to get going again was to shut off the computer.
When I changed either the right or left margins and then used the "Home" key to roll the text, part of the text would disappear and graphics would appear. Again, the only way out was to shut the computer off.
Sometimes when I used the "Insertaphical use.  She was the go-between for the ADAM community with Sol Swift of DIGITAL EXPRESS fame - the author of PowerPAINT, Clipper, etc.  She was also an idea lady and programmer type in her own right as shown by her own graphics software sold under the EZEZOD GRAPHICS label with such programs as Powertools, Yuletools, Chromantics, etc.  

Pat told us all at ADAMCON 13 in Cleveland that she had cancer and surgery was scheduled for fall 2001.  All seemed well with good reports.  She did not attend ADAM(66+67*SIN(t)))+60
125	LET x=x+5
126	w=w+5
127	IF x>187 THEN LET x=1
128	IF w>187 THEN LET w=1:GOSUB 500
130	HPLOT a, x
131	HPLOT z, v TO a, x
133	HCOLOR=9
134	HPLOT q, w
135	HPLOT r, e TO q, w
136	z=a
137	v=x
138	e=w
139	r=q
140	NEXT
150	GOTO 10
500	v=1
510	e=1
520	RETURN

ADAM The Good And The Bad
by Dennis Jurewicz
I believe that ECN should have a regular column that would allow people such as myself and others to comment on the problems we have encountered and what has been done to correct them.
I got my ADAM in March 1984 and had no problem getting it set up and running. Everything worked. However, as I used it I found that it did have a few bugs in the word processing program. The version I had was #59. The "End of Page", key sometimes would make graphics appear on th......ADAMCON 10 was simply ADAMCON 01 backwards, so ADAMCON 10  HAD to be in the same hotel and same venues as ADAMCON 01.  IT WORKED, and that was the way PJ's mind worked !!

Pat promoted the use of the ADAM at every turn, and even as the sysop for the ADAM forum on Compuserve along with Rob Friedman.  She eventually left the MOAG group over copyright issues of programs but continued to actively promote and support the ADAM community.

PJ was instrumental in a lot of the programs that ADAM has for gr" key the computer stayed in the insert mode. Same story, turn it off. Text would also sometimes be lost when using the "Insert" key, The "End of Page" key did not work in the Insert mode and only made garbage of the text.
The printer worked well, however, after putting a multiple page form through it, the plastic paper guide started to tear. This caused the printer head to catch on the plastic and the printer stopped running.
I sent the computer to Honeywell in Michigan with the request that a new unit b Forth available for distribution early this year.
I have also found a way to access SmartWriter without having to press the ESCAPE/WP button. In typewriter mode, simply press Control-[.
I have written many major computer software manufacturers about making their products available for ADAM. Many seem interested, while some say production will begin soon. Write them. The more mail they get the better our chances. Remember when the C-64 came out it hardly had any software at all. Just look at it now. Returomer Service and got another one back in 3 weeks. So far I have had the now data drive for two weeks and it is still working.
The new printer is a newer model than the old one I sent back. The old one, except for the ripped paper guide, always worked well. This newer model sometimes makes a high pitch noise and then will not operate. The only way I have found to get it going again is to shut the computer off. None of the advice from Coleco has helped, so if anyone has any ideas I would like to hear them.
ohms. For those who are lacking the nerve to open their ADAM, they can connect the potentiometer by cutting the video cable and splicing the potentiometer into the cable. If you use a pot with a metal case, solder a ground wire to the metal case from the closest ground point. The diagram to the left indicates how to install the pot with the connections inside the ADAM. This will of course void any warranty. Editor's Note: It is my understanding that the new ADAM monitor cable from Coleco will also take care their version of the programming language FORTH. They said that they will be serving only the ADAM and have changed their name to The Independent Coleco ADAM User's Club. Their membership cost is 12 pounds sterling, payable by banker's draft.
The version of FORTH they were working on is finished. However, since there is no assembler for ADAM they had to write the language on another computer. Whenever an RS232 interface is available they will download the program to ADAM and test it out. They hope to havee sent back. Honeywell sent me a new memory console and a new printer. I got back my old keyboard. Also three new tapes (data pack, SmartBasic, and Buck Rogers) were sent along with a note to discard the old ones. Well I kept the old tapes since there was nothing wrong with them. The turnaround time was only 9 days and my only cost was the UPS charge. The word processing version in this unit is #80.
The data drive in the new unit lasted for 2 tapes before it stopped operating. I sent It back to Coleco Custn to 

Monitor Hookup
by Carlton Caldwell
Earlier it was suggested that a pot could be attached to ADAM's video output in order to reduce the signal to a monitor. Here is the information many of you have been asking about.

The pot value for the video output should be approximately 500 ohms. 300 ohms will probably work and as much as 1000 ohms will also work. Since the potentiometer is connected in series, any value over 300 ohms will work as long as it can be adjusted down in the neighborhood of 250 Even with the problems that I have had I still think that the ADAM is the best computer system for the home user, especially for the price.
Editor's Note: The problem with the printer sounds like a jammed paper platten gear. The nylon gears on the platten can be lubricated with a small quantity of vaseline. If the roller cannot advance when ADAM Is turned on, the printer will not work. 

FORTH Bulletin, Etc.
by Tommy L. Earnest, Jr.
I have written the user's group in England about their group and about of the problem of too hot a signal from ADAM.
Cut the video out wire denoted by the X and solder the end coming from the circuit board to both terminals 1 & 2 of the pot. Terminal 3 goes to the video out. 

PRODUCT REVIEWS WERE CUT OUT IN OIRDER TO SAVE  SPACE !!!!!!!!

High Scores
ColecoVision/ADAM High Scores				
GAME	PLAYER	LEVEL	SCORE	
Antartic Adventure	Jeff Platt	-	176,750	
B.C.'s Quest For Tires	Jeff Platt	1	39,490	
Buck Rogers, Super	Jeff Platt	4	10,167,642	
Bump N Jump	Jeff Platt	4	216,  graphics by Charles Steele
30	LET c=INT(RND(1)*15)+1
35	IF c=4 THEN 30
40	HCOLOR=c
50	x=x+5
55	y=y+5
60	xy=xy-5
65	yx=yx-5
67	IF y>180 THEN LET y=181
68	IF yx<5 THEN LET yx=4
69	IF x>254 THEN 90
70	HPLOT 1, yx TO x, 1
75	HPLOT x, 1 TO 255, y
80	HPLOT 255, y TO xy, 190
85	HPLOT xy, 190 TO 1, yx
90	SCALE=20
92	r=r+1
93	ROT=r
95	DRAW 1 AT 125, 95
100	GOTO 30

Program Listing - Schedule Maker & Events
10	REM SCHEDMAKER
20	REM RUN THIS BEFORE RUNNING EVENTS FOR FIRST TIME
30	PRINT "To C782	
James Bond 007	Joe Blenkle	1	57,550	
Jumpman Jr.	Jeff Platt	3	1,055,175	
Miner 2049er	Jeff Platt	-	451,885	
Montezuma's Revenge	Joe Blenkle	-	449,650	
Motocross	Jeff Platt	2	5:46	
Pitfall	Jeff Platt	-	113,458	
Pitfall II	Joe Blenkle	-	195,665	
Popeye	Jeff Platt	1	166,540	
Q*Bert	Jeff Platt	3	1,096,030	
Q*Bert's Qubes	Joe Blenkle	1	126,100	
Quest For Quintana Roo	Tom Earnest, Jr.	1	91,900	
River Raid	Robert Cavenagh	1	43,220	
Roc N Rope	Jeff Platt	1	203,120	
Rolloverture	Jeff Platt	1	42,30ееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееее90: d=RND(1)*105+50
50	FOR i=1 TO 100 STEP 5
60	HPLOT 40, a+i TO b+i, 180 TO c+i, d TO 40, a+i
70	NEXT
80	FOR i=1 TO 2000: NEXT
90	GOTO 10

Program Listing - Fans
2	REM FANS
4	REM By D. Jacksch
10	HGR
20	FOR i=1 TO 254 STEP 12
40	HCOLOR=1
50	HPLOT 255-i, 160 TO i, 0
60	HPLOT 255-i, 0 TO i, 160
70	NEXT
80	FOR i=1 TO 80 STEP 4
90	HPLOT 254, 160-i TO 254, i
100	HPLOT 0, 160-i TO 254, i
110	NEXT

Program Listing - Graphics Program
1	HGR2
2	y=-4
3	xy=260
4	yx=195
5	x=-4
6	r=-1
10	REM 896	
Cabbage Patch	Jeff Platt	-	114,050	
Carnival	Jeff Platt	4	22,410	
Centipede	Jeff Platt	1	195,032	
Chuck Norris	Jeff Platt	-	196,200	
Congo Bongo	Joe Blenkle	1	7,010	
Defender	Jeff Platt	-	1,005,200	
Destructor	Jeff Platt	1	316,620	
Donkey Kong, Super	Jeff Platt	1	1,201,800	
Donkey Kong Jr., Super	Jeff Platt	4	481,300	
Dukes of Hazzard	Jeff Platt	4	83,570	
Front Line	Robert Cavenagh	1	110,500	
Gateway to Asphai	Jeff Platt	-	150,275	
Gust Buster	Jeff Platt	4	122,090	
Heist	Joe Blenkle	-	96,ееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееее0	
Sewer Sam	Scott Swenson	-	15,779	
Spectron	Jeff Platt	4	6,450	
Slither	Jeff Platt	1	158,420	
Squish em	Jeff Platt	1	53,620	
Tutankham	Jeff Platt	1	170,456	
War Games	Robert Cavenagh	4	161,310,000	
Wing War	Jeff Platt	-	150,200	
Zaxxon, Super	Jeff Platt	1	143,200	
High Scores as of Jan./Feb. 1985 Issue				

Program Listing - Art Gallery
2	REM       ART GALLERY
5	REM       By D. Jacksch
10	HGR2
20	h=INT(RND(1)*15+1): IF h=4 THEN h=1
25	HCOLOR=h
30	a=RND(1)*90: b=RND(1)*50+100
40	c=RND(1)*ееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееееее