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Nothing much has happened over the last few years in the Oric
adventure world. As a reminder of some of the big events, in 1998 we
saw the Scott Adams adventure series ported to the Oric
(Adventureland, Pirate Adventure etc) and the arrival of Pinforic
which allows many of the Infocom adventures to be run on an Oric
Disc system. Games you can play include Zork and Leather Goddesses
of Phobos. |
The Oric was an ideal machine for text adventures (with or
without graphics). The following points illustrate this:
1. Good keyboard, especially on the Atmos & Telestrat models.
2. Large memory. The 48K models had 38K available for BASIC
programs if Hi-Res graphics were required or 46K available if
graphics were not required. Clever use of machine code could wring
more memory out of the system if needed.
3. Good text display. 40 columns of clear, well defined characters
provided a relaxing text view for the eyes.
4. Disc system. Although a little late in the day, a good disc and
DOS combination was available for larger programs.
5. It was easy to write decent adventures using just BASIC. The
BASIC was just about quick enough to provide resaonable response
timesfor programs written in BASIC. This enabled a number of authors
to produce programs without having to learn machine code. |
If you are a fan of adventures then you'll want to know what
programs were available for the Oric. Many of these are available
for download online these days. Below you'll find my recommendations
for programs to try and further down the page a more comprehensive
list of Oric adventure programs, some good, some bad and some awful!
I don't have very much information on French (or other language)
adventures, but many of these were much more professionally produced
than programs from the UK.
Infocom Series:
The production of Pinforic allowed several Infocom adventures to be
run on the Oric. These programs are highly recommended for text
adventure fans, although a disc system is required. More details of
Pinforic can be found in a review elsewhere on this site, but here
is a list of adventures known to work using this interpreter:
Zork 1, 2 & 3 , Ballyhoo , Cutthroats , Deadline , Enchanter ,
Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy , Hollywood Hijinx , Infidel ,
Leather Goddesses Of Phobos , Lurking Horror , Moonmist , Planetfall
, Plundered Hearts , Seastalker , Sorcerer , Spellbreaker ,
Starcross , Stationfall , Suspect , Suspended , Wishbringer ,
Witness.
Scott Adams Series:
Remember Adventureland, Pirate Adventure and The Count? Well, an
interpreter for these programs has been imported to the Oric so you
can now play these games on an Oric, although there are no graphics.
Like Pinforic, a disc system is required. The full list of programs
available is as follows:
Adventureland, Pirate Adventure, Impossible Mission, Voodoo Castle,
The Count, Strange Odyssey, Mystery Fun House, Pyramid Of Doom,
Ghost Town, Savage Island Part 1, Savage Island Part 2,The Golden
Voyage, The Sorcerer Of Claymorgue Castle, Return To Pirates Isle,
Buckaroo Banzai, Questprobe 1: The Hulk, Questprobe 2: Spiderman and
a mini sampler adventure.
Mysterious Adventures Series:
Another range of adventures, this time from Brian Howarth. These
were actually released for the Oric rather than being later
importations such as the Scott Adams and Infocom series. They
incorporated graphics, although the programs could be run as text
only - a nice touch. Very similar in style to the Scott Adams games.
The following titles were released:
Arrow Of Death Part 1, Arrow Of Death Part 2, Circus, Escape From
Pulsar 7, Feasibility Experiment, The Golden Baton, Perseus &
Andromeda, Ten Little Indians, Waxworks and Wizard Of Akyrz.
Level 9 Series:
A range of excellent text adventures were available for the Oric 1
(only, sorry Atmos users) from Level 9. These were huge text
adventures with glorious descriptions and lots of objects and
puzzles to play with. These games are as traditional to the origins
of adventures as you can get. The series available for the Oric is
as follows:
Adventure Quest, Colossal Adventure, Dungeon Adventure, Lords of
Time and Snowball.
Tyrann and Tyrann 2: Le Fer D'Amnukor
Released by No Mans Land these are true role-playing games in the
swords and sorcery style where you have to take a group of
characters into dungeons in a quest for treasure and advancement
with minimal text. Tyrann 2 is in French only.
That little list should keep you busy for a while. Below you'll
find a link to a list of all the Oric adventures I am aware of. Let
me know if you know of any more. |
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