This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Oric ORIC 1 computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

How about the succes this computer had here in the Netherlands!

The Oric is one of those things that you ''fall in love with'' when you are a disaffected teenager. You choose a machine that isn''t exactly the coolest or most popular around but clearly is ''something else''.
How many ways do we "lurve" thee, Oric?
Check out the threads and posts here to find out, guys:

http://atari.boards.net/thread/2446/oric-count-ways-love-thee

I remember when I got my first Oric-1 (I was still in school then) and immediately took it apart. Back then it was all magic. Computers these days don''t inspire me in the same way. Sigh!

I met the guy who wrote the ROM and he was rude to me! He nearly crushed my dreams but luckily failed.

Greetings,

2013 marks the 30th birthday of the Oric 1.
Some of the Oric community main sites have joined to organize some celebrations during 2013.

You can read more about it on the official celebration page (english and french) here:
http://oric30years.defence-force.org

We also have a facebook page with regular posts about the Oric machines, their history, peripherals, etc...
https://www.facebook.com/OricBirthday

I have an Oric-1. I bought the Oric rather than a Sinclair ZX Spectrum because I liked the proper bus expansion connector on the back and I wanted to experiment. It''s actually my second one since the cassette input failed in a few weeks on the first. The replacement failed too but by then the Oric-1 circuit diagram had been published in Oric User Magazine and comparing the diagram with what was actually in my Oric-1 (it wasn''t quite exactly the same) I could see part of the cassette interface that looked badly designed so I tried fixing it and it worked!!! The solution, if you have an Oric that won''t load from cassette is to fit a pull-up resistor on the input from the cassette interface to the 6522 VIA chip. I just soldered the resistor under the PCB across pins 18 and 20 of the 6522 VIA. I used 2k2 but 4k7 would probably be plenty. The original design used only the on chip pull-up but I knew from experience that the pull-ups in the 6522 were often very weak.

I remember a friend of mine had one of these. What most impressed me was that there were four built in commands for making sound effects: "shoot", "zap", "ping" and "explode".

The Oric 1 was the first computer I owned. Brought into New Zealand by Barson Brothers of Papakura. There were rumours in the 90''s that they still had a warehouse full of them.
What sold me on the Oric was the sound, there was a real paper cone speaker about 3-4cm in diameter. It was LOUD! At certain frequencies I could vibrate the Oric across the desk, much like a cell phone on vibrate. Most of my programming was generating interesting sounds. You could get 4 bit digital waveforms out of the sound chip by rapidly (machine code) changing the volume register. So I learnt 6502 assembly on the Oric. I had the assembler and Forth language plus a few games
I thought the embedded colour attributes was an interesting technical response to the demands of hires graphics, 8 colours on screen, and memory conservation. To change the color of a pixel, somewhere to the left of that pixel you changed the foreground/background colour. This took up 8 pixels and set the foreground/background ($ flash) for the rest of the scan line or until another attribute code is found.

Bought one of these for the younger offspring and it eventually went faulty.

I still have the replacement model (which featured a proper keyboard) but, unfortunately, the other half threw out the games and operating tapes for it.

Ahhh the memories!,this was my very 1st computer that my Dad bought me 2nd hand, I can still remember going to the original owners house to see it working, after having this for a while I then had a Spectrum+

Hello, I've just been given an Oric 1 from my friend and I can't seem to get it working. I plug it in okay and connect it to the tv but i don't get any picture. I can tell the machine is turned on because there is a very quiet buzzing sound coming the inside. Any advice will be very much appreciated, thanks.

This was the first computer I paid for. I learned most computing on a ZX81 I borrowed from a friend. I had to wait way too long for it to arrive after I ordered it (as I did when I bought s Sinclair QL) but I loved it, despite the really clunky keyboard.

'Bang', 'ping', 'zap' etc.... who can forget these built in sounds?

Hello again, since my last message, I have found many Lode Runner clone games
and create the LodeDome web-site with them.
Look there, if You wish to play the LR games for ORIC and other old computer platforms.

I remember repairing hundreds of these. The machine used low-grade RAM chips which tended to fail - sometimes all at once. The tell-tale faulty RAM could be detected by the temperature of the chips. Some ran red hot and could be detected with a fingertip, but on others, the easiest way to tell was by applying an even coating of freeze-it spray across all of the chips, and seeing which one(s) cleared the quickest.
The replacement RAM had to be put in IC sockets, as the PCB through hole plating didn't survive more than one desoldering/soldering cycle.

Please Help me to find work version of "Eddy Lode" game (Lode Runner game clone).
From http://romualdl.oric.org/progs/oric_eddylode.html

In reply to Stuart it could be that the pins that connect the keyboard to the computer have worked their way out from their socket slightly, this used to happen to mine a lot when I used it, you will need to open the case and push them back into place. I have a couple of oric one's and a couple of atmos's I've managed to get one of each working however I only have two games one called Zorgons Revenge (which works) and the other is a version of galaxsaians (which dosent-you cant get the ship to go left after you move it to the right) If anyone has any other software and would like to send me a copy or would like a copy of either of my games pleade let me know at glyncowan@hotmail.com

Thanks

I've still got an old Oric 1 48K but the keyboard is not working (it boots up OK). I THINK that it may be the keyboard chip, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any ideas? Or, if it sounds like the chip may be the problem, any ideas where I can obtain another one??