Danny Van den Heuvel's Adam+ Aims to Bring back Coleco's Ill-Fated Adam Microcomputer and More

Industrial automation engineer Danny Van den Heuvel is working on an ambitious project to bring back the Coleco Adam microcomputer, using a combination of custom hardware and software emulation to build the open source Adam+.

"The Adam+ project is a modern reincarnation of the infamous Coleco Adam computer," Van den Heuvel explains. "With real hardware to run eight-bit emulator software, this device allows you to play your original Coleco & MSX cartridges. The project has just launched and is gaining traction as it is aimed to be an all-round eight-bit game machine supporting many old standards."

The Coleco Adam launched in 1983 as the follow-up to the ColecoVision games console, launched the year earlier. Where the ColecoVision was purely a gaming machine, the Adam was a fully-functional home computer — though, in reality, the hardware was effectively an expansion pack to the ColecoVision to add a keyboard, cassette drive, additional memory, and a printer.

Building the Adam around the ColecoVision gave Coleco a couple of advantages: A quicker time-to-market compared to scratch-built competitors and a well-established software library. Launch delays, however, meant it missed the crucial winter sales period at many retailers and, coupled with a last-minute price-hike, the device was not a commercial success. Technical problems, including unreliable storage, gave the Adam a short shelf life. The computer was discontinued by January 2985, just over a year after it eventually hit shelves and costing Coleco around $48.4 million in losses.

Despite this, the Adam had — and still has its fans, Van den Heuvel among them. "As [I] grew up with eight-bit machines like Amstrad, MSX, Commodore 64, and Coleco devices, [my] passion for such machines led to the idea of making a retro game PC console," he explains. "Resulting in a multi homed emulator called Adam+, the spiritual follow-up to the original Coleco Adam."

The Adam+ is a semi-custom device based on a LattePanda Delta 432 Intel-based single-board computer with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Housed in a casing inspired by the original Adam, it boasts impressive compatibility — including the ability to accept original Adam controllers, accessories, and software cartridges, as well as those made for MSX-standard systems. Everything is, however, emulated in software — though Van den Heuvel's custom daughterboards add in the necessary hardware interfaces, including a front-facing "Control Center" with OLED display.

The reliance on software emulation gives the Adam+ additional flexibility over a hardware-based recreation: Van den Heuvel has already confirmed plans to support emulation of additional systems, including MSX-standard hardware, while the underlying Linux operating system should be accessible to power users.

Van den Heuvel has published more details regarding Adam+ on his Hackaday.io project page, but has not yet shared design files nor photos of finished hardware — nor detailed under which license the project will be released as open source.