Microcomputer and the ORIC Adventure

The beginning :

I was born in 1970 and discovered the ZX81 in 1982 thanks to my father, an electronics technician who ordered this microcomputer as a kit. It sparked such curiosity in me that it became a relentless passion. When I was 12, I was doing small programs in basic and I spent most of my free time programming. The basics were given to me by my father and I have continued to evolve through the books.

In 1983 my parents gave me an ORIC-1. It was by far my greatest gift. I continued to program in BASIC and then in machine language. The ORIC was more than a continuation of the ZX81 but rather a revolution with its color graphics mode, sound generator, semi-mechanical keyboard to name a few.

I have made many programs in basic and machine language which I have shared with my friends in France and England but never published full versions.

Back then it was like an arcade game competition. We watched with great curiosity the games on consoles and arcades and then we tried to do the same. It was the race that would produce a super fast routine with no jerks of Sprite movement or screen scrolling.

In this period I was only 12 to 14 years old when I used the ORIC. I was just a young boy who outside of school spent the rest of my time playing or programming.

The LAST Warrior:

In 1983, while I was rubbing shoulders with a group of friends sharing our experiences on ORIC, I then launched the idea of creating a game. Only one of my friends agreed with the idea, however we did not really know at the time in What we were getting into and after a year of discussion on the subject I therefore find myself alone with a few images and a semblance of a scenario. I then decided to write the program but over the programming lines it became cumbersome and oriented me towards the creation of a configurable syntax engine.

In 1985 the game is about to end, it's called THE LAST WARRIOR and I show it to my friends at the time who encourage me to publish it. I am therefore sending the sources to all current publishers on ORIC, in France and England. For almost 2 years nothing happened, no one answered and then the game was selected by the HGC Software company, which published it late while the life of ORIC was drawing to a close.

Below please find some sample screenshots as well as the program with its introductory demonstration. Please don't criticize and see this as a technological achievement of a marriage between an ORIC and a 13 year old child. At the time the internet did not exist and the documentation system was very rudimentary, and the ORIC is just a 1MHZ computer with very poor graphics and sound performance.

I saw that the solution had been published for the English version:

N, W, W, W, TAKE MIRROR, N, N, POIN MIRROR, DROP MIRROR, E, N, HUG WALL, TAKE KEY, S, S, E, N, W, TAKE CLUB, E, S, W, W, S, TAKE KNIFE, E, E, E, ATTACK WARRIOR, DROP CLUB, N, N, W, W, CUT PLANT, DROP KNIFE, TAKE SAP, TAKE SEED, DRINK SAP, EAT SEED, N, TAKE PURSE, S, E, S, S, S, S, S, S, E, E, N, N, N, E, N, TAKE BOOMERANG, W, LOB BOOMERANG, DROP BOOMERANG, N, E, E, TAKE GLOVES, WEAR GLOVES, W, N, OPEN TRUNK, DROP KEY, TAKE HELM, WEAR HELM, S, S, S, S, S, S, S, W, W, SEARCH CRATER, TAKE SANDALS, WEAR SANDALS, N, N, N, W, W, TAKE TEETH, W, N, E, HUG WALL, E, SAY MAN, TAKE LAMP, W, S, S, E, N, EMPTY FLASK, SEARCH WELL, TAKE CRUCIFIX, S, W (last two could be SW), W, N, TAKE SKIN, N, DROP ARMOUR, JUMP RIVER, N, N, N, E, E, LOB LAMP, E, SCRAPE SKIN, TAKE SCALES, LOB TEETH, LOB SCALES, S, TAKE STATUE, INSERT CRUCIFIX, ENTER PASSAGE.

THE LAST WARRIOR, hits the market too late, it will not be very successful, it will only be published in England and will not spread elsewhere than on the British island.

For ORIC user you can download the link below and for the other whose haven’t a hardware ORIC you can look for emulator and the best is certainly ORICUTRON to run and play The last warrior adventure game : Goof Luke ! 

The funny point is that The Last Warrior have never been published in the French version. That version was archived only by me and the editors as LORICICIEL, COBRASOFT, IJK, INFOGRAMES, TANSOFT, PSS…etc. but I have seen the original version in French circulating on the net. I’m not looking for who have not respected the contract or gentlemen agreement but I'm only excited to recover my original version lost on damaged magnetic’s tape. I’ll be really happy to get it again. In case you have that version please don’t hesitate to contact me or send me it. 

The following :

Tangerine closes its doors and the French buyer takes the same path, the successor of ORIC, STATOS or rather TELESTART is just a hoax of a businessman and the focus of users is gradually turning to new machines such as AMSTRAD or later on ATARI and AMIGA.

In 1987 I sold the ORIC and bought an ATARI 520ST in order to stay in the microcomputer race. I am sadly leaving ORIC but with a lot of enthusiasm for ATARI.

The ORIC will remain my greatest Christmas present, the machine that allowed me to learn a lot in programming, left great memories and certainly guided my studies and my career. I will never forget it !

With hindsight :

Looking back, I think Tangerine missed the boat as did ATARI elsewhere. Both of them turned the market upside down when they arrived, but could have drastically changed the micro-computing if they hadn't screwed up.

TANGERINE could have avoided the arrival of AMSTRADs and slowed down the deployment of ATARI and AMIGA if STRATOS had been released on time with just a 65C816 and BITMAP type graphics.

ATARI could have learned from TANGERINE's failure by releasing their TT or FALCON at the right time with something other than simple ST upgrades. This would most certainly have avoided the success of home PCs and maintained real machines made for the computer enthusiast.

It is with the failure of these companies that today we only have two operators in the market. APPLE and the world of PCs. But the worst part is that the hardware tether has disappeared and only the operating system matters. MacOS, WINDOWS or LINUX, this is our choice today because we will not ask you on which platform your OS is operational but what OS you are using.

Personal opinion :

I have a very flattering look at what was possible to do with such hardware-limited machines. Today even if the power of the machines has been greatly increased tenfold, the result does not give us the same emotions.

And now :

I had turned the page, but regularly I wander around the sites of vintage computers to recall certain memories. Because for me this period of micro-computing is unforgettable and it always warms my heart to review what it was possible to do with so few resources.

Sometimes I think to myself that with my experience and the tools at our disposal today, it would be fun to program the ORIC again or even to evolve it.

In 2021 I decide to buy a new ORIC ATMOS, renew my interest in the machine, gather as much information as possible and make links with groups of enthusiasts on the net.

One goal, to enjoy ORIC, share together and have fun!