 J                                                                               ER AND THE ISLANDS SENIOR ADAMPHILES is an informal association, created for the purpose of exchanging information, suggestions, and other material, amo\r~05,80\\ 
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I recently received a catalogue from a company known as ELECTRIC IMAGE, Box 890, Palmerston, ON, N0G 2P0. (519) 343-2406.\\ 
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They offer a wide range of software and some hardware for the ADAM. I suspect that they carry minimal stock of the items they advertize and just order from the suppliers/manufacturers as the situation requires. Some of the manufacturers and the titles are entirely new to me.\\ 
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I checked several of their prices, in Canadian dollars, with US prices in other catalogues, and came to the conclusion that there were no real bargains here. Their mark-up appears to vary from US+24% to US+28%. And I have some concerns that not all of their offerings are "kosher". For example, they offer THE PICK, which runs under ADAMcalc, for $19.95. Complete with ADAMcalc, but without the ADAMcalc manual, they offer a package price of $39.95. This makes me suspicious that the ADAMcalc is not an original copy, but I have no way of proving that. \\ 
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In addition, they offer, under the heading of "Cartridge Games converted to TAPE and DISK format", a selection of games which according to the Coleco Checklist, are not in the Public Domain, and should not be sold except in their original form, CARTRIDGES, sold by or under licence from the copyright holder 
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I will pass the catalogue to Michael Lyons for our Product Library.\\ 
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I also received a new catalogue from a company run by Ken Batcher, Librarian of The Loyal ADAM User's of the Golden Horseshoe, (LAUGH), and Convention Director of ADAMCON 02. The company is called ADAM Distribution And Marketing, or A.D.A.M. for short. They also have a wide range of ADAM supplies available, but in this case, the prices are generally the same figure in Canadian dollars, as they would be in US dollars from a US supplier, including the manufacturer. So that is a reasonable discount for you to consider. In any case we should support Canadian suppliers to the greatest possible extent, especially if there is a price advantage. Michael has this catalogue now.\\ 
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According to David Sands, writing in the Edmonton ADAM User's Group (EAUG), newsletter, ADAM'S LEAF, Gary Bowser has completed his ADAM IMAGE MAKER, and it is now for sale from him at 432 Jarvis Street, Suite 502, Toronto, ON, M4Y 2H3, phone (416) 960-0925. The price is $250 CDN plus $9.00 Shipping.\\ 
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Apparently Gary also converts ADAM disc drives into 720K, 3 + 1/2" units for $120.00 CDN. I have no idea about shipping and handling costs. And finally, Gary has 64K Memory Expander Boards for $30.00.  That's a good price. Now that the Orphanware 64K board is in the public domain, we may see more of these inexpensive boards.\\ 
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John Forsythe sent me a copy of a letter he had received from Thomas Electronics of 151 Devonshire Cres., SASKATOON, SK, S7L 5V6, phone (306) 384-9322. The letter was in reply to his phone enquiry regarding the ADAMOUSE. It seems that the ADAMOUSE has become very popular and is now selling for $69.95 CDN for the internally connected version, and $79.95 CDN for the version that simply plugs into a gameport.  ADAMOUSE does not require an external power supply, or a battery as do many others.  They are working on several programs designed to take advantage of the capabilities of the ADAMOUSE, which is fully-proportional, and 100% compatible with ALL joystick controlled software.\\ 
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Thomas Electronics are developing a Graphics Utility which will allow high-resolution graphics picture creation, storage, retrieval and conversion. They are also in the final stages of completing a MOUSE MANAGER package which will be a complete file and media management system, with built-in support of ALL types of drives, including hard and ram drives. Work has also started on a mouse-driven word processing package using the ADAMOUSE, and consideration is being given to developing a terminal program controlled by the mouse. All in all it looks exciting, and the price of the ADAMOUSE is certainly very competitive.\\ 
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According to Richard Clee, the President of MTAG, Allied Business Machines, of La Mesa, CA, the company from whom I ordered the Diablo ribbon cartridges, also carry another high quality, inexpensive replacement ribbon cartridge for the ADAM. It is the PELIKAN 521 which sells for 30.00US per dozen, plus S & H. He assures me that the PELIKAN is a superior ribbon to the original Coleco, and MTAG are supplying this product to Canadian Tire, on special orders. MTAG also supply CTC with LORAN datapacks, which they purchase direct from Loranger. Maybe we should consider ordering some for club use.\\ 
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I have now installed 3" muffin fans, purchased from Jameco Electronics, in two of my ADAM printers, and have both my "ready-use" ADAMS powered by printers once again. This gives me the flexibility to choose between using the ADAM printer or the dot-matrix, without switching computers. I found that I could mount these units entirely within the upper printer case, which made the installation easier than that described in ADVISA 1-9. The total cost was a under $10.00CDN per unit. I chose to install an additional power cord and separate switch. They work fine and my power supplies stay really cool.\\ 
 
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As you will see on the last page of this issue of our newsletter, Bob Stroud and I have agreed to bring the publishing date forward, so that we can distribute copies of the newsletter, to those attending our meetings, in the even numbered months. We felt it might be an added incentive for members to attend the meetings, and would save a little of the club funds in postage.\\ 
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HAPPY HACKING.\\ 
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DAVID COBLEY\\ 
fans, purchased from Jameco Electronics, in two of my ADAM printer
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