The IT Crowd's Oric Atmos - Story, Repair & Review - As Seen On TV!

[@ThinkingBetter]

I got the Oric 1 and got quite obsessed with it. Back in the days I was in high school and remember how I could keep using it until 4am to get 3 hours of sleep before going to school. Most of my programming on it was in Basic but I also did a few assembler projects.

[@zxkim8136]

i drooled over this computer back in the day. it was an underrated computer at the time. glad you fixed this one mate. i think the COA is paramount to this computer.

[@joefish6091]

I had one, wonderful case exterior design, shame about the innards, the 1MHz 6502 teletext graphics and lowres bitmap, yuck, obsolete in 1982 let alone mid to late 80s. My theory is the Oric team were technology isolated, not up on the latest tech through the mid 80s, or not thinking forward, and were afraid to let down their Oric 1 owners by changing the hardware innards. and of course the obsession with expensive pay per minute dial up Teletext. Twenty years on and Cidco tried the same with their dial-up Mailstation at the dawn of the internet age, 'old people are too scared to use computers', maybe but they learned to use them. PS the Cidco Mailstation looks an awful lot like an Oric Atmos, worth picking up in a thrift store if find one, they are highly modifiable (CP/M) Z80 battery dial-up terminals.

[@Labruskie]

Being someone who grew up with the Spectrum, followed by the Amiga, I can't help but stress how utterly luscious the case design of the Atmos looked and still looks today. I kinda feel whoever designed the Pi 400, while saying they were hinting at the A600, deliberately made the base of it red as a nod to Tangerine...

[@ctrlaltrees]

I agree, definitely one of the best looking machines of the 8-bit era 👍

[@joefish6091]

A600 A1200 German design.

[@ExplainingComputers]

A very cool story.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thankyou. I hope I did it justice.

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Thanks for the video :) Great stuff. Glad you got it working and that the Oric has gone to a good home and is now getting the attention it deserves!

[@ctrlaltrees]

No, thank you for all that you do! It's only taken me 5 years... I'm very proud that everything in my collection is kept in working condition and the unknown status of this one was bugging me so I'm glad I finally got round to it!

[@gonzo_the_great1675]

Re: The advert at the end.... The serial atribute system on the text screen was a clever way of saving ram. It's the same system as used on teletext. Stitching to the graphics screen took a whole chunk of ram (10kB?) The manual for these were excellent. Schematics, a rom map, giving you all the useful subroutine call addresses and stack/register transactions. And a tutorial in assembler/machine code programming. Which taught me how to write a simple MC terminal program, tp go with my home brew serial port. Set me up well for my working life.

[@alancampbell1955]

Just found this video. I have one of these in the cupboard, boxed and with a couple of games. I taught myself Basic and wrote a crappy platform game in it. It was the seed which would later become a 25yr IT career. Great video!!!

[@ThinkingBetter]

I got mine in 1983 while in high school in Denmark. It made me quite passionate about computer science and lead me to a software career in embedded software engineering in consumer electronics, inflight entertainment and now automotive infotainment. I still have mine in the original box with some games on cassette tapes also here in California. I also wrote a few games in Basic on this thing. I often went on until 2am to wake up 7am to go to school. I also bought the Oric MCP-40 4 color printer/plotter.

[@6502Nerd]

Hiya matey - I forgot to put a comment to say great job on this video. Thanks for the mention and glad you showed some modern games as well as ones from back in the day - shows the real potential of the platform. I missed the old television advert right at the end until today - I remember it well!

[@MirlitronOne]

I must dig mine out and see if it still works. As compact microcomputers went, second only to the Acorn Electron.

[@rbp8883]

Thank you very much for this informative and fun video. Glad this Atmos is in good hands. I loved The IT Crowd - British comedy at its finest. Congrats on aquiring an Oric Atmos. You're one of us now. Once you go Oric... you never go back/escape.

[@ctrlaltrees]

You're very welcome and thanks for the kind comments, I had a lot of fun making this one. The Oric is a really lovely little system, it's a shame it wasn't more successful.

[@heckintech]

Oh wow, I am supremely jealous! Loved that show, but I REALLY love that machine! Absolutely beautiful. And that cassette deck you showed off next to it for a moment, what a beautiful matching combo. This aesthetic is precisely my jam! 😁 Great video!

[@Dev_olution]

This is the first of your videos I've seen and was so impressed, very nicely scripted and presented, get started on our back catalogue 😀

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks so much for the kind comments. Yes, this one was a real labour of love for me. I have a few more like this in the pipeline so watch this space!

[@Jenny_Digital]

To be fair, it’s not an amplifier in the lead but rather a need for a voltage not derivable from the Oric RGB port. The SCART standard _requires_ a signal to select RGB mode or it’ll attempt to display colour composite instead. Also, there should be something additional to reduce the TTL level signals coming out to 1V p/p that the SCART port requires. This is usually just a resistor per colour channel. I hope this helps people.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks for the info, that makes a lot of sense. 👍

[@tinysmallfryskitchen8610]

My parents bought me an Oric 1 alas that died shortly after we got it, I took it back and got the Oric Atmos. I loved that machine. I’d often work through the night programming it. I wrote my own drip up machine program for it using the built in sound effects.

[@tinysmallfryskitchen8610]

That should say Drum Machine, but drip up could be a new musical genre

[@antogden]

I remember seeing that auction when it was up, love my Atmos, it was my first computer, bought in Blackpool back in the 80s. Got one now but not my original, Erebus or Cumulus required really. 😁

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks for sharing! They're certainly really great little machines. The Erebus and Cumulus look like fantastic projects, I'd probably invest in one or the other if I had more time to spend with my Oric. Loading TAP files from a computer works pretty well for my needs tbh!

[@gonzo_the_great1675]

The disc drives were very rare. But interestingly, plugging the drive in, would tristate the unternal rom and map in a smaller external boot rom and the rest of the 16K taken with external ram (in the drive). Meaning that you installed the new rom image (OS) from a disc. Still have my Atmos and was one of the few to get the disk drive too. I needed a serial port for mine, and built a veroboard one from a magazine article (ETI?). All good training for a 14yo geek.

[@lezbriddon]

remember mine, was using the printer port to do channel scanning on a cb radio as things like autoscan were not a really thing in the 80's, all went well when it was on its wall plug, I never realised that some 'designer' had thouyght it a good idea to put the voltage regulator on the negative side, so when I wired it up to the 12cb power supply I caused a ground loop and fried it

[@emolatur]

6:13 as you're measuring the original regulator... your narration suggests you're thinking of the pinout of the positive (78xx) regulators. The first test you took (thinking it was the output, per narration) was actually with + probe on the output and - probe on the input. If the input is -8V and the output is -5V, this would, in fact, measure 3V (the difference). The second test has your + probe on ground and - probe on input. The reading confirms that the input is, in fact, around -8V. It appears that the original regulator was working correctly.

[@ctrlaltrees]

I agree, I think I got myself confused there with the pinout. Thanks for the info 👍

[@darranstyler]

I had an Oric 1 in the early 80's. With very few games available it taught me to code first in Basic and later machine code

[@jonbrawn4301]

Great video Rees , well done, I owned an Atmos when they first came out, I remember I wanted a ZX spectrum but they had sold out and the Atmos was the same price. Many hours were spent typing in reams of code and then having lots of "syntax errors"..... The keyboard was superb compared to the ZX (we had the ZX81 then the Spectrum in my school), I also like the Tangerine version of Basic, in my view it was more intuitive. People have mentioned loading the programs from cassette was a challenge, the volume had to be on max ( I cut the jack plug off a set of earphones to plug in and silence the noise !). Regarding games ... Zorgons Revenge was great, the 50 game cassette was good, I remember "A view to a Kill" was quite bad !

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks for the kind comment about the video and thanks for sharing! I just caught the end of the 8-bit era with the Acorn Electron but I must confess the Atmos did pass me by at the time. It's now one of my favourite machines in my collection - I agree that the keyboard is excellent!

[@cretski67]

Very nice appreciative review of the wonderful Oric Atmos, fella. Well done. You must try Dracula's Revenge and Don't Press the Letter Q (I think by the same author as Defence Force). Masterpieces! Enjoy your Oric days, C-A-R, and a machine with a special ATMOSphere(!), Baz.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks for the kind comment! Yes, as someone who knew absolutely nothing about the Atmos I have to admit I was very impressed. It's a great little machine! I'll definitely give those games a try next time I have it out 👍

[@005AGIMA]

Awesome video. What a great back story to the machine. IT crowd was such an awesome show. The Oric looks like it really holds up. Like a spectrum without colour clash dare I say it. Subbed.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks for your kind comments - and the sub! The IT Crowd was great - I was a huge fan at the time and still watch them from time-to-time. Exactly my kind of humour. I was really impressed with the Oric too - it's probably on-par with the BBC Micro graphically. I think the audio might actually be slightly better!

[@DavidHembrow]

"Without colour clash"? No. It just has different colour clash. The oric has serial attributes not only in Teletext character mode but also in the graphics mode. Anything which is to be a different colour has to be preceded by a special character appearing as a "space"on screen which sets the colour of everything else following on the same line. That's why the rope in hunchback has strange rainbow colours - the same colours as the character further left.

[@Jenny_Digital]

Almost the same…. There were service details that were applied to the Orics along the way. By the time the Atmos came along, most of these were figured out and applied to it. Also, later Atmos boards used two four bit wide DRAM chips rather than eight one bit chips, making the machines that little bit cooler and more efficient.

[@michaeltb1358]

Not sure which model I had, but it was a good starter. You should mention that it was more popular in France, as they needed the RGB input for their SECAM TVs.

[@OzRetrocomp]

I've always admired the Atmos from afar (it was never released in Australia, and just barely released in NZ AFAIK), but I have to say that the geek cred is cranked right up to 00001011 on your example. Great video.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks so much - glad you appreciated the video! I assume from your comment that The IT Crowd made it to Oz?

[@OzRetrocomp]

@@ctrlaltrees It did ... although mainly via BitTorrent at first (or so I'm told). *whistles innocently*

[@josephlucas502]

Nice video. I had never heard of the Oric line of computers before today. Thanks!

[@TheFrenchy82]

I started on a oric 1 and the moved on a Oric Atmos, back in the days... I traded my atmos for another computer : atari 520 ST....! Souvenirs.... Sadly we never had the "The IT Crowd" show in France...

[@ColdRFusion]

Great work, the Oric is intriguing & looks great!

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thankyou, it certainly does, it was a really great machine for the time! I'm really glad I finally decided to get it up and running.

[@AtariLegend]

That was a really cool video. I'm slowly catching up. I loved the intro with the IT crowd, very entertaining. I have recently begun watching the show on Netflix, had never seen it before. I'm a big fan of British comedy (The fast show, Little Britain, the office, ricky Gervais ...) but I missed this one. Your technical skills are way above my league, but it is all very well presented! Oh, and since you are an Atari ST and Manic Miner fan, did you know this game was released on the Atari ST as well 2 years ago? We have a review up on our website ... A very nice conversion ... Anyway, gonna watch some more 'Rees' videos now ;-)

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks for your kind comments! I wasn't aware of the ST port of Manic Miner, I'll go and check it out now. 🙂

[@paulstubbs7678]

I picked up an Oric Atmos at a radio swapmeet, never heard of them before that, I grabbed it for it's very nice keyboard. I was going to strip it and use it's parts for projects - that is till I started to be bittern by the retro computing bug, and found out what I actually had in the Oric. I have yet to get mine going, as the combined horizontal & vertical sync output is not compatible with any monitor I have. I was able to download a manual for it, but as yet no software.

[@joefish6091]

Look for a LCD TV with composite input, yellow socket. there is RGB output on the DIN socket, so SCART or DVI, or it could be wired up to a 15 pin VGA with a special cable.

[@woodsmal]

Excellent video. I have a friend who bought two Oric Atmoses and I'm buying "the broken one" from him. I'm hoping I can apply some of your techniques to repair what ever the problem might be. Wish me luck.

[@Kppot]

Is it TSN1 2450? Also, it is not a built in amplifier for SCART connector, it is simply SCART enable signal which requires external 5-12V

[@ctrlaltrees]

I used TSR 1-2450, I'm not sure if you could use a TSN and reverse the input polarity maybe.

[@DbugII]

Nice video, and nice that you managed to get most games running. Regarding Defence Force, not sure why it failed for you, I know it's a game that loads on multiple blocs, with the intro screen loaded and displayed while the rest loads, so maybe there was an issue there with the conversion to wav format, hard to say. Have you tried the tap file on a emulator before? If a tap fails to load in emulation, most probably the generated wav will also fail :)

[@ctrlaltrees]

Hi, and thanks again for your advice. I will definitely try the TAP file in an emulator. It was one of the first games I tried while I was still having some problems, it seems everything is working great now so I will try it again. I might have to do some game reviews for a follow-up video.

[@ibisum]

@@ctrlaltrees What you need is an Erebus and then a Cumana Reborn. ;)

[@johnbee1574]

Nice stuff. It might be obvious to most but it’s important to remember this was way before the internet. If you missed the adverts or didn’t get the magazines you might never have know it existed. It’s something I missed out on back then not that I would have been able to afford one any way lol

[@escapementwheel]

I finally got my hands on an Atmos! The sound commands work, and the sound chip and BASIC commands seem fine, but alas, I can't get a picture. Do you have any advice for me on where to look in the machine? Thanks!

[@TedSeeber]

The built in speaker is a cute feature

[@josephlucas502]

I've never heard anyone pronounce WAV files that way before. I've only ever heard it pronounced wave. I wonder if that pronunciation is more common across the pond (from US)

[@ctrlaltrees]

I think it's probably just a "me" thing, I've always said it that way 😄

[@OzRetrocomp]

I've heard it pronounced "wav" and "wave" here in Australia, but "wave" is more common. Kinda like how Aussies insist on the American prounciation of router, because the British pronunciation sounds like a rude slang word. 🤣

[@robertstevenson6715]

Has the Original Oric-1 then took Oric up on the offer of sending it back to them and paying to upgrade to an Atmos !! It was so much better :-)

[@8BitNaptime]

Ohh I like that BASIC. "EXPLODE"

[@SLRModShop]

[French translation] 3D Fongus : "Try to find caves and get as many points as possible" "5 rotations of flight [arrow left and right] among rocks and rhinoceros lead to the crystal field. 5 hits will be fatal. Good luck and beware of the sea fungus." About the "5 rotations of flight", they used the word "lunes", which commonly means "moons" (moon plural...) but I found that it could mean "rotation" in very niche sports so maybe this word mean "rotations" and not "moons" which seems to make more sense even though there is a moon in the background... Maybe it means that you're going to fly for 5 days (and nights) or 5 lunar cycles (140 days)... "5 lunes de vol" is a very weird expression, never heard it before and doubt I will happen again. Piste = Trail / Cactus = Cactus / Herisson = Hedgehog / Cristal = Crystal / Gegene : mortel = Electricity generator : deadly / Sous terre = underground / Entree grotte = Cave entrance / Champignon = Fungus-mushroom / Clef : reparation = Wrench : reparation / Fongus : corrosive = Sea fungus : corrosive If you're like me, even though it's not really important, you'd like to know, now you know =)

[@ctrlaltrees]

You're one of my patrons!? How did I not know!? 🤣

[@ctrlaltrees]

Oh, I knew "grotte" was "cave" but didn't come across any. I didn't play it for long to be fair. I assume all of the interesting stuff is in the caves? I need to play it a bit more I think.

[@SLRModShop]

@@ctrlaltrees Yeah, when you said "complete strangers are sending me money" I thought "How rude !" ahahaha Don't worry, I had my suspicion that you wouldn't connect the dots and realize it was me =) I wouldn't get my hopes too high for the content of the caves... When I was kid, I got Stargate on Gameboy (a puzzle game), I really liked that movie and when I realized that it wasn't anything like the movie I was so disappointed. My brain came up with a coping mechanism, I assumed there would be a "mode B" to unlock once you finish the "mode A" and of course, the theoretical mode B was filled with what my imagination could come up with... Side scroller action game that would be awesome ! First, there was no mode B, I played it so much hoping that I ended up liking the game and realized that it wouldn't have lived up to my expectations anyway. That day, I became a man =) Nah, I'm just being silly here ahahaha. All that to say, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that caves are just like the rest of the game but on a black background =)

[@ctrlaltrees]

Hey, let me dream will you! Maybe I won't play it now actually... Then the caves can be whatever I want them to be. Seriously though, apologies for not connecting the dots. I really appreciate your support. I don't really have any aspirations of making money from KZbin but the fact that there are people out there who appreciate what I'm doing enough to actually pay me for it has been hugely motivating to me, more than you'll probably ever realise. But don't feel obliged, I appreciate with the situation as it is that money is tight for a lot of people so I won't take it personally if you have to stop. :) (I'm very good at talking myself out of money btw, this you will learn)

[@ctrlaltrees]

Oh, and I really appreciate the translation effort too! My French isn't all that bad to be honest, my parents had a house there for years and I've spent a lot of time there. It was the "sous terre" and "entree grotte" parts that got me thinking that there might be a bit more to this game, but I only really thought about it afterwards when I was editing the video.

[@RichardHallas]

When listing all the machines that used the 6502, why overlook the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron? They’re among the most important.

[@joefish6091]

This is a list of home and business computers listed in the 20 Simple Electronic Projects for the ZX81 by Stephen Adams (April 1982) APPLE ALL S100 based computers 38OZ 77/68 79/09 ABC 24 Acorn system 1 ACT 800 ACT sirius 1 ADLER alphatronic AEX-09 Altos ACS 800-2 Altos ACS 8000-10 ATOM B.B.C. Microcomputer BASF 7120 Canon BX3 Comart communicator Compucorp 625 Computermart 2000 DS Cromeco SC Cromenco system zero, system 2 DAI personal computer Digital Microsystems DSC-4 Dynabyte Equinox 200 Exidy sorcerer Gemini 801 Haywood 3000 Hewart 6800S HP85 IMS 5000 IMS 8000 Ithaca DPS1 Mega micro Microaxis 1 Micron Microtan 65 Millbank sys 10 MPC 09 MSI 6816 MSI system 12 Nascom 1 NEC PC 8001 Northstar Horizon Olympia BOSS Onyx C8000 Onyx Sundance Oscar Pasca Pascal micro engine Periflex 1024/6436. Periflex 630z564 PET Powerhouse 2 Powerhouse 3 Quasar QDP-100 S/09 SBC 100 SEED system 1 SGS Nanocomputer SHARP MZ-80B Sinclair ZX80 Sinclair ZX81 Superboard system 3, system Z2H2627 Tandberg TG 8450 TANDY TRS80 Colour Computer 74. Cifer 2684 TANDY TRS80 Model 1 TANDY TRS80 Model 3 TANDY TRS80 Model II Terodec CPC-1000 Terodec DPS 64/2M TI99/4 Tuscan CP/M starter UK 101 Vector MZ Vector system Vic 20 VIDEO genie VIP Windrush 6801 Z-PLUS ZCB Zebith WH-11A Zilog MCZ

[@agustinalonso8155]

Hello, First of all, I am using the google translator since I am Argentine and I speak Spanish. I found an oric Atmos computer from the year 86, this one does not work. I would like to use it as a USB keyboard, I am having trouble figuring out how to connect it in any way, could you help me?

[@retrocomputinggrotto]

Did I hear right - it has the same CPU as used in a Tamagotchi?! Until now I had not even thought to use a laptops headphone socket to 'play' tap files in to a retro home computer - great tip! :) Xenon1 is actually one of my all time favourite games and spent hours playing that on my Oric-1 - now I realise I can use a laptop to play a tap file I might have to dig it out and see if it still works!

[@ctrlaltrees]

That's right! The Tamagotchi basically reimplements a 6502 core along with everything else it needs on a single chip, it's all programmed in 6502 assembly language. I've just had a quick look and it seems it wasn't just the original Tamagotchi but a lot of the later incarnations too!

[@wallybazoum]

I bought the Atmos in '84 for £220,still have it,boxed and virtually unused, also have tape recorder and games on cassettes, wonder if it's worth anything.

[@joefish6091]

They are collectible, if mint then definitely. wait for better financial times then sell, or keep as a curio.

[@wallybazoum]

@@joefish6091 👍

[@beer_goggler]

The best game for the oric is Zorgons Revenge, and I'm still ashamed at the number of hours I spent playing it as a kid. Only ever completed it 2 or 3 times as its devilishly difficult.

[@OggyGTA]

YES! I used to play this on the Atmos. The defender clone was cool.

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

Thats rad !

[@neilarcher2551]

My 1st ever home computer. I had to send it back for a faulty keyboard and Oric went bust so I never got it back.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Wow, did you at least get your money back?

[@andrewhofmann5453]

No show made me gut laugh as hard as IT Crowd. I love that show.

[@10p6]

interesting. I have yet to hack an Oric.

[@MacSociety]

well done! Subbed!

[@ctrlaltrees]

Awesome, thank you!

[@smalcolmbrown]

try hells temple

[@greenaum]

Hm, shame they only ran the 6502 at 1MHz when other computers like the BBC ran theirs at 2MHz, and even the Atari 400 / 800 from 1979 managed 1.79MHz. Would have maybe made the scrolling a bit smoother. Also a shame they didn't go with 16 colours. Still for the price, at the time, it would have competed well with the Speccy if it had had some more software. And I thought it was French too!

[@joefish6091]

The French were into them, they had a version of it. a later version too. dial-up pay to use teletext was the thing about the Oric, their selling point. PRESTEL The 1MHz 6502 obsolete in 1982... the teletext graphics chip is the biggest down side if you want pictures, text is fine. the ZX Spectrum wasn't a great deal better. odd hardware. The Amstrad CPC series are the best 8 bit computers.

[@patrickdeunhouwer5926]

good video not so familiar with the Atmos, picture shown quality in the video looks very good (almost like you used a simulator :-), but I guess you captured it from the real device)....

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks! Yes, no emulation here, not that I have a problem with it but I enjoy the challenge of using original hardware where possible. I can't remember what the exact capture setup was for this video as it was a while back but probably RGB SCART into OSSC and then into my USB3HDCAP. 🙂

[@pete8475]

I have never heard .wav pronounced the way you do it in this video. Everyone I know in Canada says "wave".

[@ctrlaltrees]

Well now you have

[@pete8475]

@@ctrlaltrees Is that the standard way across the pond?

[@uni-byte]

It's pronounced 'Zee-non' like the gas.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Not in the UK it isn't.