Oric-1

Oric-1 Specifications

Oric-1 is a personal computer introduced by the British company Tangerine Computer Systems in 1983. It was designed as a lower-cost alternative to the popular Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum computers of the time.

With the success of the ZX Spectrum from Sinclair Research, Tangerine's backers suggested a home computer and Tangerine formed Oric Products International Ltd to develop the Oric-1. The computer was introduced in 1982. During 1983, approximately 160,000 Oric-1 computers were sold in the UK, plus another 50,000 in France (where it was the year's top-selling machine). This resulted in Oric being acquired and given funding for a successor model, the 1984 Oric Atmos.

Oric was bought by Eureka, which produced the less successful Oric Telestrat (1986). Oric was dissolved the year the Telestrat was released. Eastern European legal clones of Oric machines were produced into the 1990s.

The Oric-1 featured a 1MHz 6502A CPU, 48KB of RAM, and a cassette tape interface for storage. It also had a built-in BASIC interpreter and could display graphics at a resolution of 240x200 pixels with eight colors.

Despite its low price point and respectable specifications, the Oric-1 struggled to gain traction in the market. It was eventually succeeded by the Oric Atmos, which improved upon the original design by adding more RAM and an improved keyboard.