--- title: ORIC 1 categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - United Kingdom years: - '1983' cpus: - 6502A params: name: ORIC 1 company: /companies/oric company_name: Oric specs: - label: NAME value: ORIC 1 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Oric - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: United Kingdom - label: YEAR value: '1983' - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: Unknown - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: Oric Extended Basic v1.0 - label: KEYBOARD value: Chicklet keyboard, 57 keys. ESC, DEL ,CTRL, 2 x SHIFT, RETURN, 4 x arrow keys and one large spacebar - label: CPU value: 6502A - label: SPEED value: 1 MHz - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: Custom gate array chip - label: RAM value: 16 KB or 48 KB - label: ROM value: 16 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 40 x 28 - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 240 x 200 (high resolution) - label: COLORS value: '8' - label: SOUND value: |- Programmable Sound Generator AY-3-8912 (from General Instruments)\ 3 voices, 8 octaves + white noise - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 28 (W) x 17.8 (D) x 1.5 (H) cm / 848 g - label: I/O PORTS value: Bus, Printer, Tape, RGB - label: POWER SUPPLY value: 'External power supply unit : 9v - -(o- +' - label: PERIPHERALS value: 4-pen plotter printer, 3'' floppy disk drive unit - label: PRICE value: £129.95 for 16K model with starter pack (UK 1983) tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - emulators - links - docs photos: - title: ORIC-1 subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: FRONT subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: RIGHT SIDE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: REAR subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: BELOW subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: FRONT subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: DETAIL subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: EARLY MODEL subtitle: '' text: This is an early version, because the ORIC logo is black & white. Later versions have a colored logo. image: null - title: INSIDE ORIC 1 subtitle: '' text: |- Though its technical design is quite close to that of its major competitor, the <$223$>Sinclair Spectrum, the Oric 1 offers some advantages : sound dedicated chipset, easy to manage graphics and more convenient Basic language, despite some bugs. **(1)** TV signals RF modulator.\ **(2)** RGB video connector. Until later versions of the Atmos, an external power supply unit was needed to commute the TV in monitor mode through the scart connector.\ **(3)** Tape recorder DIN connector with remote control.\ **(4)** Parallel / Centronics printer connector, needs a special cable.\ **(5)** Expansion connector, used for example by the numerous disk-drives available for the Oric.\ **(6)** Power plug. Power is supplied by an external PSU.\ **(7)** 5 volts regulator with its cooler.\ **(8)** Two EPROM holding the Microsoft Basic language and Input/Output routines.\ **(9)** MOS 6502A 8 bit microprocessor.\ **(10)** Dedicated Input / Output management chip (keyboard, printer, video...).\ **(11)** Internal loudspeaker. Sound was one of the good features of the Oric systems, though there were no way to control the volume of this internal speaker.\ **(12)** AY-9512 sound chipset (3 voices, 7 octaves).\ **(13)** Video dedicated chip which manages texts, graphics and colours.\ **(14)** Eight 4164 memory chips (64000 cells x 1 bit) holding the 64 Kb. RAM memory used for user programs and text / graphic display.\ **(15)** Internal clock for microprocessor and various chips synchronization.\ **(16)** TV aerial connector.\ **(17)** The Oric keyboard is original. Solid and accurate, it allows a sure and quick typing, after an adaptation time. image: null - title: PROTOTYPE subtitle: '' text: Thanks to Paul Kaufman for this picture ! image: null - title: ORIC BREAD-BOARD SYSTEM subtitle: '' text: Thanks to Paul Kaufman for this picture ! image: null - title: ORIC-1 BOX subtitle: '' text: '' image: null adverts: - title: FRENCH AD (JULY 1983) subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: UK ADVERT, OCT 1983 subtitle: '' text: Notice that the pictured floppy drives have never been released. image: null - title: FRENCH AD (DEC. 1983) subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: 'FRENCH BROCHURE #1' subtitle: '' text: Thanks to **Jacques Sorro** image: null - title: 'FRENCH BROCHURE #2' subtitle: '' text: Thanks to **Jacques Sorro** image: null - title: 'FRENCH BROCHURE #3' subtitle: '' text: Thanks to **Jacques Sorro** image: null - title: 'FRENCH BROCHURE #4' subtitle: '' text: Thanks to **Jacques Sorro** image: null hardware: - title: JASMIN II F.D. UNIT subtitle: '' text: The Jasmin II was a 3" double-sided floppy drive unit. It was released in 1985, designed by T.R.A.N. and manufactured by Dattel, two french companies. Up to four units could be connected in chain. Each one featured an operating system called T.DOS then FT.DOS. Each diskette had a 357 KB capacity (2 sides x 41 tracks x 17 sectors x 256 bytes) image: /media/museum/hardware/oric_jasmin2_1.jpg - title: CUMANA EXPANSION BOX subtitle: '' text: This expansion holds a power supply unit and a dual expansion port allowing the floppy disk unit and another expansion device to be connected simultaneously. image: /media/museum/hardware/oric_atmos_cumanaexp_s1.jpg - title: VOCAL SYNTHESIZER subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/oric_synth_vocal.jpg - title: LIGHT PEN subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/oric_lightpen.jpg - title: 8 IN/OUT BOARD subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/oric_8_io.jpg - title: ORIC-1 MICRO DISC subtitle: '' text: This rare item didn't live long and was quickly replaced by the black Atmos version. image: null - title: ATMOS MICRODISC subtitle: '' text: |- The official Oric disk-drive. Soooo beautiful... Disc drive uses 320 Kb. formatted, double side 3'' diskette. In the first versions, operating system only managed sequential files. image: /media/museum/hardware/oric_atmos_microdsic_1.jpg - title: ATMOS PLOTTER subtitle: '' text: This is the same as the MCP-40 for the Oric-1. This type of plotter (4 colors) was widely used for the micro-computers... image: /media/museum/hardware/oric_atmos_mcp40_1.jpg - title: INSIDE ATMOS PLOTTER subtitle: '' text: |- The MCP-40 plotter uses a Japanese printing mechanism manufactured by Sharp. It's a little mechanical marvel able to print extremely precise four colour texts and graphics. Text is printed with 40 or 80 characters per line, at 10 characters per second speed. Characters size and printing direction may be modified (horizontal, vertical or diagonal). **(1)** Paper used is a roller of 115 mm width.\ **(2)** Printer command buttons.\ **(3)** Electromagnet that pushes the pen against paper for writing.\ **(4)** The print head moves laterally right across the paper width and swivels to carry out a pen colour change.\ **(5)** The head is connected through a cable to an engine which ensures its side moving by 0.2 mm steps.\ **(6)** A second engine controls top and bottom paper moving, also by 0.2 mm steps. image: /media/museum/hardware/oric_atmos_mcp40_2.jpg emulators: - title: Euphoric url: http://oric.ifrance.com/oric/emulator.html platform: MS DOS text: The best ORIC emulators - title: Oric/MacOS url: http://www.bannister.org/software/oric.htm platform: Apple text: Oric/MacOS is an Oric emulator for the Macintosh. - title: Xeuphoric url: http://www.teaser.fr/~amajorel/xeuphoric/ platform: Unix / Linux text: Oric emulator for X11 platforms - title: AmOric url: http://oric.ifrance.com/oric/EMULATORS/Amoric.lha platform: Amiga OS text: Oric emulator for the Amiga systems - title: ArcOric url: http://oric.ifrance.com/oric/EMULATORS/ArcOric12 platform: RISC OS text: Oric emulator for RISC/OS - title: AtOric url: http://oric.ifrance.com/oric/EMULATORS/atoric09.zip platform: Atari text: works with all Atari & Compatibles (Hades, Milan) - title: Oriculator url: http://code.google.com/p/oriculator/ platform: Multiplatform text: Oricutron (formerly known as Oriculator) is an emulator for the Oric series of computers. It is written in plain C, and uses SDL. It is designed to be portable. links: - title: Club Europe Oric Home Page url: http://ceo.oric.org/ text: Club Europe Oric (or CEO for short) is an Oric user group - title: Defence Force Oric url: http://www.defence-force.org/computing/oric/index.htm text: Some very interesting info here - title: Marc's Oric Page url: http://mapage.cybercable.fr/marcpage/oric.htm text: Personal home page with some original programs to download - title: My nostalgia Oric page url: http://www.geffers.demon.co.uk/oricpage.html text: From an old Tansoft programmer - title: ORIC International url: http://www.oric.org text: I think this is where you must go first. There is among other things, a huge software database - title: Oric WebRing url: http://v.webring.com/hub?ring=oric text: Everything for the Oric - title: Oric World url: http://oric.iFrance.com/oric/index_french.html text: The site of the famous Fabrice Frances (includes the Oric Story book) - title: Pascal's Oric Page url: http://pleclerc.free.fr/Oric/OricPage.html text: in french, with ROM file to make your Oric Euro-Compatible ! - title: Rhetoric url: http://www.rhetoric.8k.com/ text: The last remaining British Oric magazine. - title: Swedish Oric Homepage url: http://come.to/oric text: Home of the Swedish software archive - title: The Reluctant Dragon url: http://freespace.virgin.net/james.groom/index.htm text: Home of the Oric FAQ, the Oric Cheats Directory and more - title: TheSpider's Oric Web url: http://oricspider.home.insightbb.com/ text: Personal site dedicated to the Oric Atmos - title: Twilighte url: http://twilighte.oric.org text: Site of the excellent Oric programmer of Magnetix. Many useful info and impressive works ! - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: Discussion about Oric computers docs: - title: ORIC-1 BASIC PROGRAMMING MANUAL url: http://www.defence-force.org/computing/oric/library/lib_manual_oric/index.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/oric-1_basic-programming-manual.jpg text: |- [**ORIC-1 BASIC PROGRAMMING MANUAL**](http://www.defence-force.org/computing/oric/library/lib_manual_oric/index.htm)written by John SCRIVEN  compiled/archived by Unknown\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Defence Force](http://www.defence-force.org/) - title: MANUEL DE L'ATMOS (FRENCH MANUAL) url: http://www.defence-force.org/computing/oric/library/lib_manual_oric/index.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/oric-atmos_manuel.jpg text: |- [**MANUEL DE L'ATMOS (FRENCH MANUAL)**](http://www.defence-force.org/computing/oric/library/lib_manual_oric/index.htm)written by Ian Adamson / Oric International  compiled/archived by William Saint-Cricq\  type of document : PDF\  source : [Defence Force](http://www.defence-force.org) - title: ORIC ATMOS & ORIC-1 - GRAPHICS AND MACHINE CODE TECHNIQUES url: http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/oric-1-atmos_geoff-philips_1.jpg text: |- [**ORIC ATMOS & ORIC-1 - GRAPHICS AND MACHINE CODE TECHNIQUES**](http://www.1000bit.net/support/manuali/manuali.asp)written by Geoff Phillips  compiled/archived by Geoff Phillips\  type of document : PDF\  source : [1000Bit](http://www.1000bit.net/) - title: MANUEL D'UTILISATION DU SEDORIC (FRENCH) url: http://www.defence-force.org/computing/oric/library/lib_dos/manuel_microdisc_et_sedoric/index.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/oric_microdsic-manuel.jpg text: |- [**MANUEL D'UTILISATION DU SEDORIC (FRENCH)**](http://www.defence-force.org/computing/oric/library/lib_dos/manuel_microdisc_et_sedoric/index.htm)written by Fabrice BROCHE & Denis SEBBAG  type of document : HTML\  source : [Defence Force](http://www.defence-force.org) - title: MICODISC MANUAL url: http://www.defence-force.org/computing/oric/library/lib_dos/index.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/oric_microdisc_manual.jpg text: |- [**MICODISC MANUAL**](http://www.defence-force.org/computing/oric/library/lib_dos/index.htm)written by Oric Products International Limited  type of document : PDF\  source : [Defence Force](http://www.defence-force.org) - title: ORIC MCP-40 COLOUR PRINTER OPERATION MANUAL url: /media/museum/docs/oric_printer-mcp40_manual.pdf cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/oric_mcp40_manual.jpg text: |- [**ORIC MCP-40 COLOUR PRINTER OPERATION MANUAL**](/media/museum/docs/oric_printer-mcp40_manual.pdf)written by Oric Products International Limited  type of document : PDF\  source : [Defence Force](http://www.defence-force.org) comments: - author: Danilo (Netherlamds) date: Saturday 19th January 2019 text: How about the succes this computer had here in the Netherlands! - author: 8Bit Baz (Hull, UK) date: Friday 16th February 2018 text: |- 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 - author: DigitalDunc (England) date: Friday 19th September 2014 text: |- 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. - author: Mickael Pointier (Norway) date: Tuesday 8th January 2013 text: |- 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 - author: Brian Gregory (UK) date: Saturday 6th November 2010 text: 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. - author: salsaman date: Friday 15th October 2010 text: '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".' - author: Jeremy Thomson (New Zealand) date: Monday 30th August 2010 text: |- 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. - author: Stuart date: Monday 14th June 2010 text: |- 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. - author: Adrian Pitman (Somerset,UK) date: Saturday 27th December 2008 text: 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+ - author: Stephen Lambert (UK) date: Thursday 24th January 2008 text: 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. - author: Mark Urquhart-Webb (UK) date: Friday 4th May 2007 text: |- 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? - author: anasana (Ukraine, Odessa) date: Friday 17th June 2005 text: |- 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. - author: Nigel (New Zealand) date: Tuesday 27th April 2004 text: |- 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. - author: anasana (Ukraine, Odessa) date: Wednesday 18th June 2003 text: |- Please Help me to find work version of "Eddy Lode" game (Lode Runner game clone).\ From http://romualdl.oric.org/progs/oric_eddylode.html - author: Glyn Cowan (Glasgow) date: Tuesday 11th March 2003 text: |- 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 - author: Stuart (UK) date: Wednesday 6th March 2002 text: 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?? related: - /museum/oric-atmos - /museum/oric-nova-64 oc_id: 180 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230605143231/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=180 date: '2023-06-05' --- This British computer was one of the most popular computers in Europe in the beginning of the 80's. It was a small computer, which was a competitor of the [Sinclair Spectrum](/museum/sinclair-zx-spectrum/). The two models (16 and 48) had the same technical characteristics.\ A small plotter was available for this computer. Notice that the sound chip was the same one used in the [Amstrad CPC](/museum/amstrad-cpc-464/), [MSX computers](/museum/msx-1/) and [Atari ST](/museum/atari-520-st-st-stm/)! Its ROM was very buggy, & was later replaced with the [Oric Atmos](/museum/oric-atmos/).