Oric-1 / Atmos Core

[akeley]

I finally had some time to revisit this core and this time managed to get some games running. I could've sworn I'd seen a thread (or at least a chat) for it before, but can't find it anywhere.

I'm curious if anybody has heard about a MiSTer-specific software collection? I've got a couple of converted disk ones, but they contain only ~120 disks. For comparison, Gamebase Oric has ~1500 games. I guess most of the Oric soft was on tape only, but converting tapes seems like a bit of hassle, so here's hoping somebody maybe had a stab at it already?

Also, the SEDORIC 4.0 disk from github seems to only work in Atmos mode, and it throws up errors when I quit to BASIC and try DIR on disks. Is this normal?

[Moondandy]

Have grabbed this pack now, so it's all in .tap format and looking at the core GitHub:

About tape images
Loading from a tap file is NOT currently supported in this core. But you can convert .tap files to dsk with the OricDSK Disc Manager Tool. Then convert the resulting "dsk" to the supported "edsk" (CPC format) with HxCFloppyEmulator as explained above.

Tape to dsk conversion is also possible with tap2dsk from the Euphoric Tools pack.

This core does support real-world (physical) Tape loading (via audio cable on the RX pin).

I guess someone could convert the files to dsk but that does seem very labour intensive. Hopefully someone will look into .tap support.

[ron]

Use the HxC Floppy Emulator application and convert your ORIC.DSK to .EDSK ( like CPC ) ( That's a preservation format )
Resulting images will work as a charm.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/hxcfloppyemu/files/
https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_drive_emulator/

Regards.

[Neo666]

Search for htgdb-gamepacks on archive.org - the Full MISTer pack has a converted dsk set

[akeley]

I already have the converted disks. They are a fraction of Oric's library, which is mostly in. tap format. I made a request on github for adding .tap support. The core seems dormant atm, but you never know.

In the meantime, could somebody compile the Oric Disk Manager? Also, would it be possible to write a script for mass converting the .taps using the tap2dsk method (or maybe there is some other way to automate this task)?

[ron]

Have you tried dragging a .TAP file into the OricDSK tool?

Once you drag the .tap the content will be displayed on the disk. It is a very fast way to convert TAP to DSK. The resulting DSK has to be converted to EDSK.

[Moondandy]

Someone is interested in adding .tap support, but they are working on other things right now, so hopefully we will get this later in the year.

[akeley]

Have you tried dragging a .TAP file into the OricDSK tool?

I thought it needed compiling, but now I see there actually is a working version. I will try it later.

Good to hear that tap support might be coming eventually.

[JasonA]

I took on the task of adding tap support to this core.

Progress is going good, but it requires simulation to make sure the taps are being put in ram correctly, and that the core is able to reboot into the correct location. We have one machine code tap working already, and the reworked logic for more taps is working in the simulator.

Some parts of the core are in vhdl, which have been converted to verilog so that the simulation can happen for the whole core. We are currently debugging the conversion.

Thanks to everyone these last few weeks who have helped out on this upgrade. The tap library seems large, definitely worth the effort everyone is putting in.

[AmintaMister]

I took on the task of adding tap support to this core.

Progress is going good, but it requires simulation to make sure the taps are being put in ram correctly, and that the core is able to reboot into the correct location. We have one machine code tap working already, and the reworked logic for more taps is working in the simulator.

Some parts of the core are in vhdl, which have been converted to verilog so that the simulation can happen for the whole core. We are currently debugging the conversion.

Thanks to everyone these last few weeks who have helped out on this upgrade. The tap library seems large, definitely worth the effort everyone is putting in.

Thanks for your precious work!!!

[JasonA]

I just managed to get the whole core to simulate, but some small bugs that are not showing the video in the simulator.

I dont imagine much longer before we can start testing the tap library properly

[pgimeno]

Wouldn't it be simpler to add tap via simulated audio, instead of loading it directly into memory?

[JasonA]

Using the ioctl straight into a cache/ram is probably the quickest and easiest approach. The TAP format used in the Oric has a memory start and end address written, so its quite easy to read that, and store the bytes into the correct address.

The 6522 VIA in the Oric is connected to the audio tape input, and recreates the bytes as the audio is fed into it, so youre right, to get proper tape support would need audio simulated into the 6522 on port b.

There are various cores that have tape support, so if there is interest to have true tape support, I guess the code can be reused and adapted to work in the Oric core.

[JasonA]

I now have the oric core running with video in the simulator. one tap is loading fine into it, so i am now adding more logic to support more tap formats.

its much easier to work on this sort of logic once video is running in the simulator, so it shouldnt take long.

[Flandango]

If anybody is interested in trying out the new Tap loading core, you will find it attached.
It should work with most TAP files but there may be a few out there that may not work. If you come across any of those, please let me know and I'll look into it.
Also, there are programs that are split amongst multiple TA* files. Those need to be combined and modified. I have included a small python3 script that will merge some of them programs called mergeSplitTap.py. It is not a polished tool and it doesn't do any error checking and what not.

To use the script, extract it and the files you want to merge (for example Airfox.tap, Airfox.ta1 or Megabase's Megabase.tap, Megabase.ta1, Megabase.ta2....you get the point), then run python3 mergeSplitTap.py Airfox.tap and it will generate a Airfox_FULL.tap which you can use with the core.

For most TAP files out there, you can simply load them with CLOAD "" (that is 2x double-quotes) and most will automatically run, if not, then simply type run and cross your fingers.

[Chilli_Vibes]

Just gave the above a quick try. Some random taps from the Oric Gamebase 3 tape collection, and all of them worked perfectly.
It seems like a lot of tapes are still missing in any Oric collection, out there in the wild - Edit: Found some more on an Oric Website.
Thanks for the rbf.

[AmintaMister]

If anybody is interested in trying out the new Tap loading core, you will find it attached.
It should work with most TAP files but there may be a few out there that may not work. If you come across any of those, please let me know and I'll look into it.
Also, there are programs that are split amongst multiple TA* files. Those need to be combined and modified. I have included a small python3 script that will merge some of them programs called mergeSplitTap.py. It is not a polished tool and it doesn't do any error checking and what not.

To use the script, extract it and the files you want to merge (for example Airfox.tap, Airfox.ta1 or Megabase's Megabase.tap, Megabase.ta1, Megabase.ta2....you get the point), then run python3 mergeSplitTap.py Airfox.tap and it will generate a Airfox_FULL.tap which you can use with the core.

For most TAP files out there, you can simply load them with CLOAD "" (that is 2x double-quotes) and most will automatically run, if not, then simply type run and cross your fingers.

Thanks!!!

[EeDee]

We don't have to suffer those long and noisy loads anymore but it sure is great to be able to do so for some reason
Most computers I experienced in the past loaded from tape so therefore, in my opinion, if the Core of one of these machines lacks a tape interface it feels like an incomplete recreation and I was under the impression that recreating the original is (as far as is possible of course), at least, part of the aim of the whole project.
@flandango you have added more authenticity to this Core. Thank you

[Malaespera]

Congratulations, the tap loader works great.
As an additional feature you would consider adding switching between qwerty and azerty keyboards.

[pgimeno]

Congratulations, the tap loader works great.
As an additional feature you would consider adding switching between qwerty and azerty keyboards.

Unfortunately the ROMs are built-in. Given that there's a good bunch of them in different languages, making them loadable via the menu would be a plus. It would also avoid potential copyright issues with the current core.

[Flandango]

Unfortunately the ROMs are built-in. Given that there's a good bunch of them in different languages, making them loadable via the menu would be a plus. It would also avoid potential copyright issues with the current core.

This is a build I made a few weeks back that allows the use of external bios/roms.
The OSD menu was re-arranged a bit to try to make it cleaner, if no major bugs or complaints about the exist, I can push the code up to Jason.
I tested it using roms from Mame.

[pgimeno]

Thanks so much Flandango. I've checked it and indeed the French BASIC ROM recognizes an AZERTY keyboard which is what Malaespera asked.

[tontonkaloun]

Hello
How to build oric alternative Bios ?

[Flandango]

Hello
How to build oric alternative Bios ?

You don't have to build anything, just find the mame rom file orica.zip and use one of the rom files inside that suits your needs.

[kathleen]

Tanks @Flandango, just tested on my side with the Mame bioses and it works like a charm.
This is really nice to see either the US kbd or French kbd recognized as they should.

[Malaespera]

I have tried the tap and bios loader on the new core and they work great.
The only thing that seems broken is the disk controller. Neither sedoric4 nor large disk images work.
I have attached the latest version of Rampa's core (not yet published) in which the disk works fine.

[FPGA64]

So
I loaded Xenon 1 from Tap and began playing. Wierd thing is the cursor keys. Left moved left, but had to use down on the keyboard to move right. Is there a reason for that ?

[Flandango]

So
I loaded Xenon 1 from Tap and began playing. Wierd thing is the cursor keys. Left moved left, but had to use down on the keyboard to move right. Is there a reason for that ?

Yes, it was intentionally designed that way to annoy people.
Just kidding. The games/software was designed that way due to how the keyboard is laid out.
The Left and Down arrows are on the left side of the space bar, while the Up and Right arrows are on the Right side.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oric1.jpg

[EeDee]

Thanks for the ROM swap facility @Flandango

[JasonA]

Most of the changes I made to the Oric core earlier this year were in attempts to get TAP loading supported through the OSD. It required a bit of conversion to Verilog from VHDL in order to simulate the core on Verilator. My initial approach to parse the TAP format and bypass traditional cassette loading methods was getting too complicated so I went back to a cassette loading approach. The comparisons with ADC took longer than anticipated and my timing was off. Thankfully, Flandango stepped in to help me out. As many of you know, Flandango really understands how cassette loading signals and timing work, and hats off to him for getting this feature in place.

I will sync with Flandango to simply get the TAP support added to the official repo I think, as most of my code is related to Verilog, and not really needed on the official repo.

Hopefully this TAP functionality will be in the main repo soon.

Thanks to all of you for testing this important and sought after feature.