What is a Colorcade Module?

[Banquo]

I recently came across two of these and I can find no information at all about them online except for a single mention in an old Coco magazine. I don't know what they are for and wondered if anyone here has heard of them. Anyone know what they are and if they are worth anything? They have a DIN connector to plug into a Color Computer joystick port I think, a potentiometer on the top (it says Burst Speed), and an Atari style joystick connector on the side. The only thing I can think of is maybe some kind of auto fire adapter? I really have no idea.

Edited December 26, 2018 by Banquo

[BassGuitari]

That's pretty cool! I think any Color Computer peripheral not made by or sold at Radio Shack is going to be quite obscure since they tended to be sold by mail-order through ads and classifieds in magazines and newsletters and such, in limited numbers, and to a fairly small group of users, relatively speaking.

 

My guess is this is an adapter for an Atari/Commodore 9-pin joystick with a built-in autofire, the rate of which being controlled by the dial. Never heard of it. But it's cool! It almost looks like it could have been a kit, or at least made from a generic project box to keep the cost down.

[Banquo]

That's pretty cool! I think any Color Computer peripheral not made by or sold at Radio Shack is going to be quite obscure since they tended to be sold by mail-order through ads and classifieds in magazines and newsletters and such, in limited numbers, and to a fairly small group of users, relatively speaking.

 

My guess is this is an adapter for an Atari/Commodore 9-pin joystick with a built-in autofire, the rate of which being controlled by the dial. Never heard of it. But it's cool! It almost looks like it could have been a kit, or at least made from a generic project box to keep the cost down.

 

You may be right, it does seem like it might have been a kit. I opened one of them up and the board says Made in USA 1983 on the bottom. Here's the top of the board:

 

[Shawn]

IIRC those where made and sold here in Ontario, Canada. And yes it is a DB9 to COCO adapter with afjustable autofire. I think they where made in Milton, Ontario to be more specific. I only know of that town as one of my old Jiu Jitsu instructors lives there and when I found out about these adapters originally I thought it was neat cause I knew someone from that City.

[RangerG]

Does it work?

[Banquo]

Does it work?

 

I don't have any Tandy computers to test them with but from looking inside I would guess they probably work fine unless those chips were bad.

[Shawn]

I was mistaken. This is the device pictured below that I was thinking of.

 

[tsteege]

It looks cool, I have never seen one. Might be fun to try on my CoCo 3.

[Banquo]

I finally found an old advertisement that confirms it is indeed an Atari joystick adapter with auto fire. (If anyone is interested it's on ebay now). I thought about buying myself a CoCo to use it with since I have always wanted one but I'm trying to declutter so the last thing I need is more computers, lol.