limited production capacity, Mr. Han- date for Adam, although analysts said
del said, the company is using the the machine should be available
same production lines for Adam that about Oct. 1.
it has been using for Colecovision. The Adam is one of a number of
Coleco Industries formally presented ''This was a plan we had set up in the ''second generation,'' or relatively
today the final version of its long- second quarter to accelerate produc- sophisticated, computer systems de-
awaited home computer system and tion of Colecovision and stockpile the signed for the home market. This fall
said it would sell for a somewhat machine to accommodate our needs the International Business Machines
higher price than analysts had been in the third quarter for Adam,'' Mr. Corporation is expected to announce
estimating. Handel said. ''We simply didn't have the Peanut, a scaled-down home ver-
Officials of Coleco, best-known for its any other space.'' sion of its popular personal computer.
video games, had shown an earlier With a disk drive and printer, how-Coleco is not the first computer
version of the home computer, called ever, the Peanut could cost upwards maker to incorporate a tape drive in
the Adam, but without one major of $1,500. its machine. Other manufacturers
element - its device for memory stor- have used tape systems for the stor- Close Look at the Computer
age. That came out today. Coleco age and retrieval of information, but
said it had developed a high-speed Coleco is also competing against the most of those systems have been
tape drive - similar to a tape recorder Commodore 64, currently the most slow and awkward to work with.
- that will shuffle information between popular computer in the under-
the memory and the screen of a com- That is because information stored on $1,000 market. A Commodore system
puter terminal as fast and efficiently a tape must be loaded in sequence similar to the Adam costs about $800
as the more complex, commonly used rather than at random, the way a disk at New York computer dealers.
floppy-disk drive.
At today's news A floppy disk
conference, stores memory on
held at Coleco's a record-like de-
headquarters vice.
here, reporters
Coleco, at a news and Wall Street
conference, also analysts were
said it halted one able to see
month ago its Adam closely
United States for the first
production of time and to
Colecovision, the handle it. Al-
company's popu- though the
lar home video Adam was in-
game, to make troduced to the
room for produc- public at a Chi-
tion of the Adam, cago electronics
which is Coleco's show in June,
first computer. You may first notice “garbage” (left) just scroll down to see the graphics (right) most show visi-
But the company tors were not allowed to touch it. operates. Coleco claimed today that
said it planned to resume production However, the machine made an im-its tape device overcomes the prob-
of Colecovision early next year. mediate splash at the show and on lem and operates as fast as a disk,
Wall Street because it was billed as a The production halt for Colecovision but company officials released few
complete home word- processing surprised analysts. For the last six details.
system, including a letter- quality months, it has outsold other home
The Adam, which has not yet been printer, for less than $600. video games. Coleco has been the
released for sale, will be priced by only major video game manufacturer But almost as soon as Adam was
retailers between $600 and $700, to avoid losses as demand has fallen introduced in June, analysts began
Coleco officials said. That is some-sharply for the games. About 500,000 expressing concern that the ma-
what higher than the $600 price tag of the $150 video games were sold chine's external tape-drive memory,
that analysts had originally estimated last year. used to store programs and other
when the Adam was announced in information, might be a liability be-
Morton E. Handel, Coleco's executive June. cause it was slower and less efficient
vice president for investor relations, Arnold C. Greenberg, president and than the floppy-disk drives used on
said sales of Colecovision remain chief executive officer of Coleco, said many other home computers. The
strong. But he said production of the the company had received firm orders new tape drive announced today was
game had to be halted so the com- for 400,000 machines. Coleco officials intended to dispel that concern.
pany could focus its manufacturing declined to specify a precise release
efforts on Adam. Because of Coleco's (Continued on page 32)
31 | Video Game Trader Magazine | June 2008 | www.VideoGameTrader.com
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