View source for Oric-1/Atmos

[[File:Oric vs Speccy.jpg|right|thumb|ZX Spectrum 48K vs Oric 1]]
[[Image:Oric Atmos.jpg|right|thumb|The iconic Oric Atmos]]
[[File:Oric telestrat.jpg|right|thumb|Oric Telestrat]]
[[File:Oric-hebdogiciel.jpg|right|thumb|Breaking news]]

The Oric-1 and Oric Atmos were [[6502]]-powered competitors to the 48kb [[ZX Spectrum]]. The Oric 1 has very much the same form factor, including calculator-style keys, but the Oric Atmos provides a full-travel keyboard.

The Oric was originally one of the competitors for the contract to be the [[BBC Micro]] that was ultimately awarded to [[Acorn]].

The Oric machines were not successful in the UK during their commercial lifetime but obtained a dedicated following in France by luck: the Orics were the only machine in their price range to ship with an RGB output socket, which made them the only machine in their price range to be usable with French SECAM televisions, via their SCART(/Péritel) sockets.

Fun fact: The name of the French software house [[Loriciel]] is a portmanteau of Oric and logiciel (the french word for software).

In January 1985, it was announced that the grand total number of Oric-1 and Oric Atmos units sold since 1983 was around 350 000. [https://www.quantum-bits.org/?p=5065 Source]

In June 1985, Oric was acquired by Eurêka and became French. The production of the Atmos models was then moved to France, which became the only country manufacturing Oric computers. The British, wanting Oric computers, had to import them! Subsequently, Eurêka revived the former name Oric International and continued the development of their next model, the Telestrat (formerly Stratos).

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== Hardware ==

The Oric used an unusual mixed text/graphics display mode that utilises inline colour attributes.

The Oric's display is 40 bytes across. Each of those bytes may be a control code (to change foreground or background colour, enable or disable graphics mode, etc) or actual content. While in text mode, the content is a character code and the character graphic is looked up indirectly. While in graphics mode, the content is a direct representation of the pixels on that line.

Due to the need to include both control codes and completely-addressable graphics, in graphics mode each byte contains only six pixels ― a seventh bit is used optionally to invert the available colours. So the 40-byte display is at most 240 pixels. In practice it is usually less because of the need to establish foreground and background colours in the leftmost columns.

An [[AY]] is provided as the sound chip, exactly as on the [[CPC]], and at same frequency.

The Oric is also notable for shipping initially with a buggy ROM that made loading and saving from tape extremely unreliable. This was corrected in later manufacturing runs.

<gallery>
File:Oric Microdisc.jpg|Oric Microdisc 3"
File:Oric microdisc 3.5.jpg|Oric Microdisc 3.5"
</gallery>

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== Clones ==

The Atmos was licensed in Yugoslavia and sold as [[Nova 64]]. The only difference is the logo indicating ORIC NOVA 64 instead of Oric Atmos 48K. This is to indicate the installed 64 KB of RAM – which was also true of the Atmos –, 16 KB of which is masked in both by the ROM at startup, leaving 48 KB to work with the BASIC language.

Yes, a 48K Oric actually has 64K of RAM and yes, you can use it. [https://wiki.defence-force.org/doku.php?id=oric:faq_official#qwhat_is_the_extra_16k_of_ram_what_does_it_do Source]

In Bulgaria, an unlicensed Atmos clone named [[Pravetz 8D]] was produced between 1985 and 1991.

<gallery>
File:Oric Nova 64.jpg|Oric Nova 64
File:Oric atmos vs pravetz 8d.jpg|Oric Atmos vs Pravetz 8D
</gallery>

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== Links ==

*[https://youtu.be/pGd7oQpQLJ4 Oric 1 System Review] by [[Nostalgia Nerd]]
*[https://youtu.be/JJ2q0qMC97Y THE ORIC-1 COMPUTER (story, hardware, BASIC, games and demos)] by [[Olipix Retrotech]]
*[https://youtu.be/DpTt9_ptq4M Over 50 Oric games in under 30 minutes]
*[https://youtu.be/wiOqVO4VHCw TV advertisement Oric]
*[http://oric.free.fr/ Oric world]
*[https://wiki.defence-force.org/doku.php?id=oric:main Defence Force wiki] Oric wiki
*[https://library.defence-force.org/ The Oric Library]
*[[Media:Oric - Service manual.pdf]]
*[http://oric.free.fr/HARDWARE/ula.html Oric 1/Atmos Unofficial ULA Guide]
*[https://oric.signal11.org.uk/html/ula-dieshot.htm ULA Decapped!]
*[[Media:R6522 VIA datasheet.pdf|6522 VIA datasheet]]
*[https://forum.defence-force.org Defence Force] [https://ceo.oric.org/community/ Club Europe Oric] [https://oric.forumactif.org/ Forum Oric] Oric forums
*[https://www.oric.org Oric International] Complete software collection
*[https://oric.games/ JOric] Online Oric emulator

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[[Category:Non CPC Computers]]