Nice History Lesson

[+dhe]

https://www.timeextension.com/features/interview-former-coleco-exec-bert-reiner-on-colecovision-nintendo-and-cabbage-patch-kids

 

 

[Rik]

Thanks for the link, great reading, i love articles like that

Edited November 17, 2023 by Rik
spelling error

[jerseystyle]

That was a really good read. I always wondered how they mass produced Cabbage Patch Dolls.

[else]

I don't understand how the Vice President of Product Development at Coleco seemingly doesn't even remember the Super Game Module.  Was it never a real product in the first place?  Coleco sure advertised the heck out of it back in the day for it not to be.  Something isn't adding up here....

[ColecoFan1981]

1 hour ago, else said:

I don't understand how the Vice President of Product Development at Coleco seemingly doesn't even remember the Super Game Module.  Was it never a real product in the first place?  Coleco sure advertised the heck out of it back in the day for it not to be.  Something isn't adding up here....

I too would like to know more about the real SGM, and why he apparently was unaware of it.

 

~Ben

[else]

Is it plausible that the Super Game Module was an elaborate ruse to distract the competition while the Adam was in development?  Maybe the Adam was the end goal the whole time.  I mean what else can explain the almost total lack of information about the SGM that has surfaced over the last 40 years.  And now we have a VP at Coleco (of product development, no less) not remembering it and going straight to the Adam.  Or maybe it's just a crazy conspiracy theory I dreamed up....

[Pixelboy]

I think it's more likely that Coleco ditched the Super Game Module (a.k.a. the original version of the Expansion Module #3) very early on when they realized that the waffer media was much too unreliable. And while they were considering switching to something else for the Super Game media, the decision was made to enter the home computer market. So the Super Game Module was just a quick blip in Coleco's history.

 

[NIAD]

6 hours ago, Pixelboy said:

I think it's more likely that Coleco ditched the Super Game Module (a.k.a. the original version of the Expansion Module #3) very early on when they realized that the waffer media was much too unreliable.

 

The developmental timeline of the SGM and ADAM overlap quite a bit, but with information of the SGM being much more prevalent early on in 1983 thanks to it being unveiled in February at a New York trade show while info about the ADAM was kept under wraps until the big surprise unveiling at the Summer CES in Chicago only four months later. Seeing as the SGM was reviewed by Electronic Fun in the June '83 issue and the ADAM at CES had a Digital Data Drive, it would seem that the Entrepo wafer tape drive wasn't given up on until perhaps late April or early May which would explain the numerous pictures of prototype ADAM Memory Consoles that look like they are using the Entrepo wafer taoe drive.

 

Seeing as the ColecoVision box from August of 1982 states "Expansion Module #3 converts ColecoVision into a personal computer (coming soon)", I've always been of the opinion that the ColecoVision computer was under development prior to the SGM and the SGM came about as a stroke of genius by someone at Coleco to make an enhancement (extra RAM and tape drive) available for people that wouldn't be interested in upgrading their CV to a computer. This would provide a much cheaper means for people to upgrade their CV and play all the enhanced "Super" games that were being/would be developed for the computer and possibly still have a path forward with a further upgrade to turn the CV/SGM combo into a computer since the SGM had an Expansion Interface.

 

So the Expansion Module #3 label changed numerous times.... CV Computer then Super Game Module and finally the ADAM expansion for the CV.

 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by NIAD

[else]

I agree NIAD.  It seems like the most logical conclusion.  The SGM may have originated from the marketing department trying to come up with a cost-reduced version of the Adam, for people that didn't want a full blown computer.  I've said it before, but over the years I've come to the conclusion that the EM3 version of the Adam IS the SGM.  Unfortunately it came saddled with a large printer and keyboard.  But if you ditch those two things, you're left with what I believe is essentially the SGM (I know it won't power up like this, but work with me 😀). 

[NIAD]

Actually the CV power supply will power the EM#3 Memory Console and IIRC the keyboard, but there isn’t enough power supplied to run the Data Drive.

 

But yeah, the EM#3 Memory Console is basically the SGM.