Recommendations for modern Adam use

[allansim]

So now that my Adam is clean and usable again I went through some of my DDP cassettes.  Some of them have bit the dust, others work OK.  I have 2 working tape drives but no floppy disk drive.  I want to be able to load DDP and .DSK program files from the PC to the Adam but it looks like the ADE and SD DDP devices have been discontinued.  It would also be kind of cool to copy my tapes to a file readable on a PC to see if the dead tapes really are unreadable before I decide to format them.

 

Should I just wait for the FujiNet wifi adapter which is now being tested to be sold or is there something else available I can try in the meantime?  I should also ask if anyone has made a diagnostic program that runs tests on the Adam hardware so we know our machines are 100% working.

[jblenkle]

3 hours ago, allansim said:

So now that my Adam is clean and usable again I went through some of my DDP cassettes.  Some of them have bit the dust, others work OK.  I have 2 working tape drives but no floppy disk drive.  I want to be able to load DDP and .DSK program files from the PC to the Adam but it looks like the ADE and SD DDP devices have been discontinued.  It would also be kind of cool to copy my tapes to a file readable on a PC to see if the dead tapes really are unreadable before I decide to format them.

 

Should I just wait for the FujiNet wifi adapter which is now being tested to be sold or is there something else available I can try in the meantime?  I should also ask if anyone has made a diagnostic program that runs tests on the Adam hardware so we know our machines are 100% working.

Not quite as fancy as an ADE, but Virtual Disk Drives are available here. http://ann.hollowdreams.com/adamsupplies.html

 

To my knowledge, however, they don't really handle DDP images...at least I've never got them to. But you can run disk images from them and you could copy files from your DDPs to disk images.

 

Or wait for the FujiNet which sounds like it will do everything except clean your house and wash the dog.

[NIAD]

You can actually build an ADE and 8BitMilli provided a great non-technical video that you'll want to watch:

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcOPctXP788CkTiQR_9CtWQ

 

The main sites for the ADE are on GitHub and will be needed as well:

 

https://github.com/Kalidomra/AdamNet-Drive-Emulator?fbclid=IwAR0YMIc-HI1ACdwOVlT82DCEd-uvHy6YFMc4ZmYyyv3831fkkQofSKySsGA

https://github.com/Kalidomra/ADE-Commander?fbclid=IwAR0nfDmWi5aFXhVWFfEoMbq8XaaEXMGDtwEKC8NTadtvaDes7YDghyoeXAw

 

There is no definitive plan for making a production run to sell and with all the supply issues being experienced, an official (not prototype) FujiNet ADAM device could be a ways off yet.

 

As far as test software, there are numerous Coleco made test programs, but you'll need someone to make you some DDPs. If you have the AtariMax Ultimate SD Cart, you can download all the test cart rom images, copy them to the SD Card and use them on your ADAM.

 

https://www.atarimax.com/colecosd/documentation/index.html

 

and a link to the Test Cart rom images.

 

http://adamarchive.org/archive/Adam/Cartridges/Coleco In-House/

 

[allansim]

Making an ADE doesn't look difficult or expensive at all.  I think I'll try that before FujiNet comes out.  Thanks for being so helpful, all!

[allansim]

I was able to make an ADE following 8BitMilli's video and it worked, and his video pointed out that in the official github instructions the connection diagram jpg, the wiring for the socket appears to be mirrored, so I was able to avoid wiring that incorrectly.  Thanks to him, jblenkle, and NIAD for all the good info!

[NIAD]

3 hours ago, allansim said:

I was able to make an ADE following 8BitMilli's video and it worked, and his video pointed out that in the official github instructions the connection diagram jpg, the wiring for the socket appears to be mirrored, so I was able to avoid wiring that incorrectly.  Thanks to him, jblenkle, and NIAD for all the good info!

Congrats on the build! There are a couple webites that you will want to visit for your ColecoVision and ADAM needs:

 

www.adamarchive.org

www.colecoadam.net

www.cvaddict.com

 

There are numerous other great sites, but these will be a great start and they provide links to numerous other sites... which saves me some time in typing them here.

 

[masteries]

As well you can use a Fujinet device that supports Coleco Adam,

adding WEB interface and services, and SD card to your Coleco Adam computer:

 

 

Edited March 15, 2022 by masteries

[rietveld]

On 2/1/2022 at 5:48 PM, allansim said:

So now that my Adam is clean and usable again I went through some of my DDP cassettes.  Some of them have bit the dust, others work OK.  I have 2 working tape drives but no floppy disk drive.  I want to be able to load DDP and .DSK program files from the PC to the Adam but it looks like the ADE and SD DDP devices have been discontinued.  It would also be kind of cool to copy my tapes to a file readable on a PC to see if the dead tapes really are unreadable before I decide to format them.

 

Should I just wait for the FujiNet wifi adapter which is now being tested to be sold or is there something else available I can try in the meantime?  I should also ask if anyone has made a diagnostic program that runs tests on the Adam hardware so we know our machines are 100% working.

i would wait for the fujinet as it is almost out of the Beta stage

It is very functional right now and has a working Telnet client for it

i have been able to use the fujinet successfully as a standalone storage solution as well as with both a hard drive and disk drive 

 

i 

 

 

[rietveld]

here are a few videos of how i am able to use the fujinet

 

 

 

 

 

 

[masteries]

 

As Rietveld illustrated, the current Fujinet firmware is very capable in the Coleco Adam:

 

 

More videos:

 

 

 

 

 

[rietveld]

I saw that someone cross posted this to the main Fujinet Discord

 

Seems to be a lot of interest in your multi platform device

 

I think people with multiple 8 bit systems see the value in this as opposed to buying a dedicated device for each computer

 

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by rietveld

[Aaron Spinks]

I am curious on millis guide to build the ade he mentioned future wifi capabilities possibly. Is that still in the works?

[NIAD]

9 hours ago, Aaron Spinks said:

I am curious on millis guide to build the ade he mentioned future wifi capabilities possibly. Is that still in the works?

Not with the ADE or any of the ADE builds by John Lundy. IIRC Milli was tinkering with some stuff re a WiFi adapter, but I haven't seen him mention anything about this in a while and probably because of:

 

1 - The MIB238 with WiFi Modem

GitHub - epearsoe/MIB238

 

2- The release of numerous FujiNet ADAM devices made by Mozzwald, John Lundy (tekman) and Masteries.

[rietveld]

17 minutes ago, NIAD said:

Not with the ADE or any of the ADE builds by John Lundy. IIRC Milli was tinkering with some stuff re a WiFi adapter, but I haven't seen him mention anything about this in a while and probably because of:

 

1 - The MIB238 with WiFi Modem

GitHub - epearsoe/MIB238

 

2- The release of numerous FujiNet ADAM devices made by Mozzwald, John Lundy (tekman) and Masteries.

I have both, the MIB and Fuji, and would suggest the later option 

 

If all you are looking for is an ADE style SD card solution then the Fuji is the clear choice with its built in WiFi  since it emulates 4 drives while providing internal and Cloud style storage 

 

If you want to be able to have a Telnet connection using an external 80 col display then the MIB is superior for that but obviously lacks any kind of storage capacity for software and as such will still need an external device for that 

 

 

 

[Aaron Spinks]

29 minutes ago, NIAD said:

Not with the ADE or any of the ADE builds by John Lundy. IIRC Milli was tinkering with some stuff re a WiFi adapter, but I haven't seen him mention anything about this in a while and probably because of:

 

1 - The MIB238 with WiFi Modem

GitHub - epearsoe/MIB238

 

2- The release of numerous FujiNet ADAM devices made by Mozzwald, John Lundy (tekman) and Masteries.

Thanks for the answer. Was just curious. I do have a fujinet on the way this week from masteries though. Looking forward to it!

[rietveld]

You can get a somewhat readable 80 colum display while Telneting if you use the Netcat terminal software on the Fuji combined with a decent upscaler and a VGA monitor

[NIAD]

21 hours ago, rietveld said:

You can get a somewhat readable 80 colum display while Telneting if you use the Netcat terminal software on the Fuji combined with a decent upscaler and a VGA monitor

Appreciate Thom including an 80 column version of Netcat, but as you have listed out, you will either have to own or buy additional equipment in order for it to be legible. Even Netcat64 is hit or miss depending on the display, especially the screen size, that is being used. To be fair, the MIB238 with built-in WiFi Modem or with an external WiFi Modem require additional hardware such as a Win PC or Terminal.

 

I own multiple variations of the ADE drive as well as FujiNet devices. IMHO, if I just want to use some software or play some games, the speed of the ADE combined with ADE Commander is my go to setup. I don’t see that changing but i do have a second system setup with the Internal FujiNet and just need some free time to take a deep dive into all the FujiNet features… sometime in the Fall.