Oric-1 / Atmos Core

[Malaespera]

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.

Hi Jason.
The source code on mister's github is old and has a bug in the disk controller. Rampa has been waiting for months for Sorgelig to approve the pull requests that he has continued to make in the core. I suggest you use the source code from here:
https://github.com/rampa069/Oric_MiSTer

[JasonA]

Thanks for the heads up.
I will see what I can do to get the changes synced also.

[JudgeDrokk]

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.

Fantastic work chaps - congrats to all concerned. ORIC, a much loved British classic.

[EeDee]

With the work done by @flandago, @rampa069 and @jasonA it will be a much improved Core. Thanks
I wonder, though, whether it would be possible to add a floppy drive B? One floppy is good but two would be most welcome especially for software requiring Sedoric/system disc

[Flandango]

I had some free time this weekend, so I synced over the TAP file and alternate Rom loading code with the Main code.
While I was at it, I added 3 more Floppy Drives, the ability to write protect each individual drive and also updated the framework.
Since adding all those extra menu options (4 drives and 4 write protects) overcrowded the OSD, I moved some stuff to a Settings sub menu.
If anybody wants to try/test it out, I have it attached below.
If all goes well, I will do a pull request and see if Sorgelig approves it for release.

[EeDee]

I'm no Oric oficionado but after some testing all seems to be working well.
@Flandango thanks for taking your time to put it all together, especially the working additional drives. Great job!

[waynej4]

Works great for me too with the testing I've done.

[AmintaMister]

What about the disks? Do you have to insert Sedoric in drive A and the game in drive B?

[EeDee]

What about the disks? Do you have to insert Sedoric in drive A and the game in drive B?

Not for all games. With some, if you try to boot them from A- you'll get a DOS is ALTERED alert so you will then need to boot Sedoric in A- and run the game from B-

[AmintaMister]

What about the disks? Do you have to insert Sedoric in drive A and the game in drive B?

Not for all games. With some, if you try to boot them from A- you'll get a DOS is ALTERED alert so you will then need to boot Sedoric in A- and run the game from B-

Yes, it's the error I get! Is there a particular version of Sedoric needed?

[EeDee]

What about the disks? Do you have to insert Sedoric in drive A and the game in drive B?

Not for all games. With some, if you try to boot them from A- you'll get a DOS is ALTERED alert so you will then need to boot Sedoric in A- and run the game from B-

Yes, it's the error I get! Is there a particular version of Sedoric needed?

I've tried 3 and 4, both work fine. When Sedoric starts up press any key, then B- and then type DIR which will list disk content, type command file name and it should load fine

Additional point: If you have disk reading errors check out the, now updated, Readme. I have read it and it has reminded me how I've overcome them in the past.
I mentioned above that Sedoric 3 works fine but I think I recall converting it first. Sedoric 4, provided in the repository, will work okay

[AmintaMister]

Not for all games. With some, if you try to boot them from A- you'll get a DOS is ALTERED alert so you will then need to boot Sedoric in A- and run the game from B-

Yes, it's the error I get! Is there a particular version of Sedoric needed?

I've tried 3 and 4, both work fine. When Sedoric starts up press any key, then B- and then type DIR which will list disk content, type command file name and it should load fine

Additional point: If you have disk reading errors check out the, now updated, Readme. I have read it and it has reminded me how I've overcome them in the past.
I mentioned above that Sedoric 3 works fine but I think I recall converting it first. Sedoric 4, provided in the repository, will work okay

I'll try, THANKS!

[AmintaMister]

Not for all games. With some, if you try to boot them from A- you'll get a DOS is ALTERED alert so you will then need to boot Sedoric in A- and run the game from B-

Yes, it's the error I get! Is there a particular version of Sedoric needed?

I've tried 3 and 4, both work fine. When Sedoric starts up press any key, then B- and then type DIR which will list disk content, type command file name and it should load fine

Additional point: If you have disk reading errors check out the, now updated, Readme. I have read it and it has reminded me how I've overcome them in the past.
I mentioned above that Sedoric 3 works fine but I think I recall converting it first. Sedoric 4, provided in the repository, will work okay

Ok, I've tried various .dsk from the famous https://www.oric.org but none of them works ("track14 error", "unknown format"), maybe have I to convert before in another format?

[Flandango]

Almost all images found online for the Oric are in another format (usually MFM_DISK) and they have to be converted to the CPC image format as indicated in the README file.

[spikemorrissey]

Every disk I load - (I mount the disk, then hit F10, then F11) gives me the message 'Insert System disk' and I can't run any disk

Can anyone advise please?

[EeDee]

Every disk I load - (I mount the disk, then hit F10, then F11) gives me the message 'Insert System disk' and I can't run any disk

Can anyone advise please?

You need a version of Sedoric (disc OS) of which you'll find Ver. 4 in the dsk folder of the Oric Repository.
Mount Sedoric in Drive A: and your disc of choice in Drive B: then hit F11
The command B- will switch to Drive B: and from there you can get a DIRectory and run programs.
Some, but not all discs, will autorun
Hope that helps

[spikemorrissey]

Every disk I load - (I mount the disk, then hit F10, then F11) gives me the message 'Insert System disk' and I can't run any disk

Can anyone advise please?

You need a version of Sedoric (disc OS) of which you'll find Ver. 4 in the dsk folder of the Oric Repository.
Mount Sedoric in Drive A: and your disc of choice in Drive B: then hit F11
The command B- will switch to Drive B: and from there you can get a DIRectory and run programs.
Some, but not all discs, will autorun
Hope that helps

Thank you so much. I tried this with Mr.Wimpy and I got it to load.
Unfortunately I cannot get my joystick to work with the Oric - does it need special configuration please?

[Bristles]

The Oric didn't have a joystick connector, it needed Tangerine Computer Systems to develop their own, and it was fairly late in the Oric's life.
I believe only a handful of games supported joystick control, and Mr Wimpy was keys only. You might be able to map the stock Mr Wimpy keys to your joystick using Mister's joystick map function.

[EeDee]

The Oric didn't have a joystick connector, it needed Tangerine Computer Systems to develop their own, and it was fairly late in the Oric's life.
I believe only a handful of games supported joystick control, and Mr Wimpy was keys only. You might be able to map the stock Mr Wimpy keys to your joystick using Mister's joystick map function.

True. Take a look here:
https://osdk.org/index.php?page=articles&ref=ART17
and at this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_xfpVoIJbSw
Although there is also this:
viewtopic.php?p=79251#p79251
Maybe I should try it out myself

[EeDee]

I have been trying this Core out again, lovely thing, but have noticed that the OSD "Reset & Apply" seems to have no effect on anything. Is that intentional?

[Flandango]

Not intentional. Minor fix...just needs a line swap. PR submitted for next update. In mean time a CTRL-ALT-ALT should do.

[EeDee]

Thanks Flandango