Coleco · 1983–1985 · Estimates range from under 100,000 to about 350,000
Coleco's all-in-one home computer bundled a printer, tape drives and a word processor for the price of a single competitor — then shipped late, broke often and helped drive the ColecoVision's maker towards bankruptcy.
Coleco announced the Adam at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1983. On paper it was a remarkable package: a 64 KB computer built around ColecoVision-compatible hardware, a full keyboard, a daisy-wheel letter-quality printer and a high-speed tape system called the Digital Data Pack. Two tapes came in the box — SmartBASIC and Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, billed as a "Super Game" that used the extra storage. The system shipped in October 1983 at $725. The launch went badly from the start. Coleco had planned to sell 500,000 units by Christmas 1983 but shipped about 95,000. Defect rates were high enough that one store reported five of six units returned. The machine generated an electromagnetic surge when switched on that could erase any tape left in the drive, a problem the manual addressed by telling users to insert tapes only after powering up. The power supply was housed in the printer, so a failed printer left the whole computer unusable, and that printer managed only about ten characters per second. Coleco lost $35 million in the fourth quarter of 1983 and a further $13.4 million in the first nine months of 1984. It discontinued the Adam in January 1985, with total losses attributed to the computer put at $258 million. Coleco recovered briefly on the strength of Cabbage Patch Kids but filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1988.