Oric 1

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Oric-1

The Oric 1 is a home computer that appeared in 1983 and was popular mainly in the UK and France . It was made by the British computer manufacturer Tangerine Computer Systems , based in St Ives , Cambridgeshire . The Oric 1 was the successor to the Microtan 65 and the predecessor of the Oric Atmos .

When the ZX 81 became more and more successful in England, the Tangerine company wanted to counter this and developed the Oric 1, a competing product, which should also be in the price segment of 100–200 pounds.

Technical specifications

Oric 1 motherboard.

The Oric 1 is based on the 8-bit processor 6502 A with 1 MHz clock frequency and was offered in two versions with 16 KB and 48 KB RAM . The graphics resolution is 38 × 27 characters in text mode and 240 × 200 pixels in graphics mode, with eight colors being displayed. The chip used by the Oric 1 for sound is the AY-3-8912 . This can generate tones in a range of 7 octaves up to 125 kHz and has 3 independent tone generators and a noise generator. The Oric provides four predefined sound effects (ZAP, PING, SHOOT, EXPLODE). A loudspeaker is built in. The 16 KB variant could not be expanded.

The operating system with the basic interpreter Oric Extended Basic , a Microsoft BASIC V1.0, is housed in a 16 KB ROM chip. This version of the ROM has a reputation for having a very error-prone error checking routine for the cassette control. After the Atmos went on sale, version 1.1 could also be purchased by Oric 1 customers using an additional ROM chip and plugged into a free socket in the motherboard.

The various peripheral devices were partially addressed and controlled with special DOS . (See graphic below).

Interfaces

Rear view of the Oric 1 / Atmos

The Oric 1 was equipped with interfaces to the outside world that was common in the 1980s for western home computers. This included:

Peripherals (selection)

Oric controllers and DOS variants

There were also a number of peripherals for the Oric 1, including a .:

The ORIC 1 was the predecessor of the Oric Atmos, which was released a year later, in 1984. The big difference between the two was the keyboard: While the Oric-1 had a keyboard with small hard plastic buttons (similar to a pocket calculator ), the Oric Atmos had a normal typewriter keyboard.

price

The Oric 1 was first featured in the British magazine Popular Computing Weekly on January 13, 1983 and cost £ 99.95 in the 16 KB version and £ 169.95 in the 48 KB version.

In Canada, the Oric 1 in the version with 48 KB RAM was for 395.95 CAD offered

Although no exact absolute sales figures are available, it was clear shortly after its publication that the 16 KB variant was not as well received on the market as hoped.

Well-known programmers

Éric Chahi developed software for the Oric 1, especially in the first few years after the computer appeared, before turning to other systems.

Programs for the Oric 1 (selection)

Due to the fact that the Oric 1 was based on the 8-bit microprocessor 6502 , a microprocessor that is also used by many other home computers, such as the Apple II or the C 64 , a large number of programs was basically a large number of programs from the outset, after appropriate adjustments, can also be used by the Oric 1. In addition, programs are largely interchangeable between the Oric 1 and the Oric Atmos. These included:

Games (selection)

  • Breakout
  • ICB bridge
  • Defense Force , 1983, Tansoft
  • Hopper
  • The hobbit
  • House of Death , 1984, Tansoft
  • 3D maze
  • Oric Chess
  • Nowotnik Puzzle , 1983, Tansoft
  • Oric Flight
  • Oric Munch , 1983, Tansoft
  • Super Advanced Breakout , 1983, Tansoft
  • Council Splat! , 1983, Tansoft
  • Ultima Zone , 1983, Tansoft
  • xenon
  • Zodiac (Adventure), 1983, Tansoft

Applications (selection)

  • Tunesmith 2
  • Oric Base , Tansoft
  • Oric Calc , Tansoft
  • Oric Mon , Tansoft
  • Easytext , Transoft

Programming languages ​​(selection)

Literature (selection)

  • John Scriven: ORIC-1 - Basic Programming Manual . Ed .: Oric Products International. Sunshine Publications, London (English, 165 pp., Online [PDF; 3.3 MB ; accessed on January 31, 2020] original literature by the manufacturer).
  • Bob Maunder: The Oric-1 Companion . LINSAC, Middlesbrough 1983, ISBN 0-907211-03-8 (English, About Oric 1).
  • Ian Adamson: The Companion to the Oric 1 . Pan, London 1983, ISBN 0-330-28270-0 (English, About Oric 1).
  • RA Penfold, JW Penfold: An introduction to programming the ORIC-1 . Bernard Babani, London 1983, ISBN 0-85934-104-6 (English, programming of the Oric 1).
  • From England: Oric 1 and Atmos . In: HC My Home Computer . 6 (June), 1984, pp. 108-109 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Print media

A main print medium for the Oric was RhetOric . It was published every two months by post and provided readers with everything they need to know about computers. The longest published magazine was Oric User Monthly with a total of 145 issues. It was discontinued in October 1999. The magazine Oric Owner, published by Tansoft every two months, was also very well received . The main features were interviews with people about the orics and listings of applications and games for the still young computer.

Emulators

There are emulators for Windows , Mac OS , Linux , AmigaOS , MorphOS , Haiku and Android , with the Oricutron emulator being the one that is still being continuously developed.

Web links

Commons : Oric computers  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Oric 1 is 30 years old
  2. ↑ BINARIUM. German Museum of Digital Culture, description of the exhibit Oric-1. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  3. ^ John Scriven: Oric-1 Basic Programming Manual. Sunshine Publications Ltd., Ascot 1983, p. 154, p. 34. The memory for the screen contents is organized in 40 columns and 27 lines. The Oric-1 has three text modes. In the text mode "Text", the memory locations of the first column of the screen memory are used to store the background color of the respective line and the memory locations of the second column are used to store the foreground color of the respective line. This means that 38 x 27 characters with 8 colors can be displayed on the screen. In the text modes "Lores 0" and "Lores 1", 39 x 27 characters can be displayed with a predefined black background in a standard or special character set. In Lores modes, only the first column of screen memory is needed to store color information and a font attribute. The more frequent statement that the Oric-1 has a resolution of 40 x 27 characters in text mode does not apply.
  4. ^ Steven Blake: Learning to Use the Oric 1 Computer. Gower Publishing Company Limited, Aldershot 1983, ISBN 0-566-03495-6 , pp. 83, pp. 59-61.
  5. ↑ Andreas Burgwitz: A small, very big: ORIC-1. In: c't - magazine for computer technology 1984, issue 1, p. 25.
  6. ^ John Scriven: Oric-1 Basic Programming Manual. Sunshine Publications Ltd., Ascot 1983, p. 38, p. 155.
  7. ↑ a b Oric 1 - not just a Tangerine dream . In: Popular Computing Weekly . tape 2 , no. 2 , January 13, 1983, p. 12–13 (English, online at archive.org [accessed January 31, 2020]).
  8. ↑ Canadian advertisement for the Oric 1
  9. ↑ 16K Oric - doubts over future . In: Popular Computing Weekly . tape 2 , no. 11 , March 17, 1983, p. 1 + 5 (English, online at archive.org [accessed January 31, 2020]).
  10. ↑ Oric FAQ
  11. ↑ Oric Owner. In: Defense Force. Retrieved January 31, 2020 (English, scans of the Oric Owner's editions, published 1983-1985).
  12. ↑ Emulation Camp
  13. ↑ Oricutron developer versions