Launched in 1983, the Oric 1 was a great success rewarding the
excellent quality-price ratio of its 48 Kb version (another with only
16 Kb exists). It looks like a light and compact home computer, with a
cream case and keys of the same colour. It had a reasonably high
resolution (for the time) of 240*200 with 8 colours and a quality
sound generator. Nevertheless a few defects existed (Basic, keyboard,
connections, reliability of the tapes' load...). The Oric 1 was
replaced in 1984. Its successor, the Oric Atmos, was just as compact
and entirely black with the exception of a few red keys, corrected
these while keeping compatibility. Therefore it was a very good choice
to learn programing and play games because of its wide range of
software in this domain.
Yet Oric went further than only being a home computer with its Stratos
(never sold) and Telestrat models. The last one, a modified Stratos
especially targeted at the french market, had increased capacities and
communication features. It could act as a videotext terminal for
MINITEL access, become a server and even manage a bulletin board
service. Even nowadays few computers can propose so much.
But competition was fierce (CPC, C64...) and 16 bits rising thus the
Oric's success looked more like a shooting star. It is estimated that
half a million Oric computers have been sold, with France and Great
Britain representing most of the world sales.
Specifications:
? 6502 A processor at 1 Mhz,
? 48 Kb of RAM whose 47 Kb could be used from the Basic in text mode
and 38 Kb in graphic mode, (16 or 48 Kb of MEM for the Oric 1)
? 16 Kb of ROM, Basic Microsoft extended (Basic 1.0 for the Oric 1),
? Dimensions (Dep*Wid*Ht) = 280*175*52 mm; Weight = 1.2 Kg,
? 240*200 with 16 colours high resolution (8 colours only for the Oric
1); text mode of 28 lines on 40 columns,
? QWERTY keyboard,
? AY 8912 sound processor allowing 3 tone channels plus noise
generation,
? Peritel plug, classics in/out such as for modem, allowing the
following extensions :
tape recorder,500 Kb double side Jasmin 2 disk drive, 210 Kb 3 inches
microdisks drive, video monitor OR14, printer MCP40, 4 colours tracer,
vocal extension...
Oric PPC 1.61 for mac os 8.6 or later
Oric PPC 1.62 for mac os 8.6 or later
Oric PPC 1.7.0 for mac os x 10.1 or later
Oric PPC 1.7.1 for mac os x 10.2 or later
Oric PPC 1.7.2 for mac os x 10.2 or later
Oric PPC 1.7.3 for mac os x 10.2 or later
Oric PPC 1.74 for mac os x 10.2 or later
Oric Universal 1.7.5 for mac os x 10.4 or later
Oric Universal 1.7.6 for mac os x 10.4 or later
Oric Universal 1.7.7 for mac os x 10.4 or later
Oric Universal 1.7.8 for mac os x 10.4 or later not in archive.
All Upload Oric from Richard Bannister Archive for mac
Compatibility
Architecture: PPC PPC (Carbonized) x86 (Intel:Mac)
