Was the Coleco ADAM printer really that bad?

[Frozone212]

This question is not about the computer, I am asking about the printer. regardless of the boneheaded decision to make the printer the power supply, how well did it actually function? was it really that loud?

 

I look forward to your stories

[CraigL]

I had the Adam when it came out and used it for several years, writing term papers, newsletters, etc.  The print quality was better than the 9 pin dot matrix printers common to inexpensive computers. The downside (aside from the truly idiotic decision to make it the power supply) was that it was slow and loud. My mom asked that I try not to print after everyone went to bed because you could hear it throughout the house--and this was a fairly large 5br 4500 sqft house!

 

Still, I never had a problem with my Adam and still have it to this day. I might have been one of the lucky ones.

 

 

[jblenkle]

Yes, it was loud...but I loved it all the same. It was cool to have a letter quality printer. I used it frequently for all kinds of things - letters, mailing labels, printing text files off disks. A lot of people complained about its loudness and slow speed, but seriously...it was part of the frickin' system and I didn't care about its shortcomings!!!

[NIAD]

To echo everyone’s else feelings:

 

- Yes, it wasn’t the best decision to place the system power supply in the printer, but I understand the money saving decision. Ideally, the printer would have been a separate purchase from the computer… give potential purchasers options instead of being forced to buy an all in one solution although this would have changed Coleco’s marketing idea for the ADAM. It also would have been financially easier for a lot of people to piece together a system as the need arose instead of one big purchase.

 

- The printer is loud, but most lower end daisy wheel printers of this era were loud… just not as loud due to further cost savings by Coleco to not insulate it better.

 

- Again, compared to other lower end daisy wheel printers of the era, it was a little slower, but again due to cost savings from bundling an all in one system.

 

IF the Printer would have been a separate purchase, then obviously the computer power supply would have been separate. I would also have to think that the construction and speed of the printer would of had to be improved to sell as a separate product.

 

With all that said, I used the Printer a lot for school work, so I was glad to have it and the ADAM was my first computer (only minimal experience with others in High School), so I really didn’t know any better at the time.

[ls650]

11 hours ago, Frozone212 said:

This question is not about the computer, I am asking about the printer. regardless of the boneheaded decision to make the printer the power supply, how well did it actually function? was it really that loud?

 

I look forward to your stories

As I recall, at the time it was advertised as an educational "word processing" home solution. 

'Hey everyone, buy this for your kids, and they can use it to type up their papers for school while having fun learning about computers and oh yeah, also playing some videogames"...

I know one guy who had one back in the early 80s, using that argument to convince his parents to pay for it.