Coleco Adam

The Adam was a home computer manufactured by Coleco, both as a standalone system and as Expansion Module 3 for the ColecoVision video game console.

Why it both Failed and was Crummy

 * 1) The power supply was placed in the printer, and if the printer is not available or if it malfunctioned, the computer would simply not work. That is a major design flaw!
 * 2) The Adam generates an electromagnetic surge upon startup that could wipe any disks or tapes in or near it. Just imagine working on a book report with the Adam and poof! All your hard work has gone to waste, if you got careless, that is!
 * 3) *Not helping things one little bit, is that the earlier manuals instructed the user to put the tape in the drive before turning the computer on! That being said, later printings of the manual warn against leaving the tape in the drive, but it was too little too late at that point.
 * 4) The proprietary dual Digital Data Pack tape drives, though faster and of higher capacity than the audio cassette drives used by competing computers, were unreliable and defective. In other words, they were pieces of junk!
 * 5) * They also weren't as fast as floppy disk drives.
 * 6) Because of constant delays in the development of the system, Coleco kept missing the promised shipping dates for the Adam. Such incompetence!
 * 7) Software developers who received technical information on the Adam from Coleco had to agree to an extremely restrictive license. Coleco demanded the right to inspect and demand changes in their software, as well as forcing them to destroy inventories of software if Coleco revoked the license, and prohibited them from publicly criticizing Coleco in any way. That, ladies and gentlemen, was quite unfair!
 * 8) Once put into Word Processor mode, SmartWriter could not get back into the typewriter mode without the system having to be rebooted.

Trivia

 * Even though the Adam had failed, it gained a cult following with a community of people who still use it to this day.