Colecovision

ADAM

· HIDDEN MESSAGE: In the ADAMcalc spreadsheet program, there is a key sequence which, if followed by the word "SURFNAZI", displays a screen listing the programmers' names.

· HIDDEN MESSAGE: The ADAMlink terminal program (used with the ADAMlink modem) has whole sets of unimplemented menus to select smart terminal emulations like VT52 and VT100, a dialing directory with the numbers for Dow Jones and The Source, and a 1K buffer initialized with nonsensical quotes from some English grammar book.

· HIDDEN MESSAGE: In the ADAM implementation of Digital Research's CP/M 2.2, there is a key sequence which, if typed while the system is booting, displays a graphic of a woman entitled "Pam's Face."

· HIDDEN MESSAGE: The SmartBASIC 1.0 interpreter has an unused message string "Hi Cathy"; the SmartBASIC 2.0 interpreter has it too, but also fills up unused space in the first page of RAM with "Hi Jan" over and over.  (It has been suggested that the persistently buggy quality of Coleco software was due to the programmers being more interested in Jan and Cathy than in tasks at hand.).

· HIDDEN MESSAGE: In the SmartFiler database program, there is a hidden database which contains programmers' favorite recipes, perhaps left over from the earlier Recipe Filer program.  I have not discovered a way to access this from the actual program, but the data is stored on the digital data pack if you look at the absolute blocks.  Viewed this way, there are also the remnants of whatever real-time debugger the programmers were using - there is a screen showing all the Z80 register contents and the flags.  There is also a block devoted to the programmers' names and how the work was allocated among them.

· 3 versions of ADAMBasic exist.

· 3 versions of ADAM CP/M exist.

· In Coleco's unreleased Graphics Processor cartridge (used to create, capture and/or edit high-resolution graphics screens), there is a configuration menu for a prototyped but never released serial/parallel interface board (setting baud rates, parity, stop, flow control).  Neatest of all is the SmartKey which is labeled VAX.

· In the unfinished (at the time of Coleco's demise) but now public domain version of the "Jeopardy!" game, there is a keyboard sequence which results in all the categories being about the programmers--favorite foods, hobbies, etc.

·  The SmartWriter word processor contains a remarkable subroutine called right after the power-up routines which bank-switch in this ROM and jump to the first byte of initialization code.  Coleco made a 300-baud internal modem for the ADAM (ADAMlink); every time you turn on the computer the modem is initialized, and then the modem port is read: if a valid ROM signature AAh 55h is received, then it assumes that a cartridge game program is being fed in through the modem!  The next 2 bytes are the load address, and the next 2 after that the length of the code; it is loaded in, the game operating system ROM switched in, and it jumps to the start of the game!  Someone suggested that perhaps Coleco was planning a company BBS whereby someone calling in with the ADAMlink modem could try out game demos by pulling the reset on the computer at the appropriate moment while on-line!


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