Pinforic by Jose-Maria Enguita and Fabrice Frances Released 1998 Pinforic is going to be one of the greatest software releases for the Oric - ever. Perhaps I am biased as I am interested in adventure games but there you go. Pinforic is not a game. However it does enable you to play games - lots of games. Lots of GOOD games. Pinforic runs only on the Oric Atmos using SEDORIC. If you have a Telestrat you can use the Stratoric cartridge to turn it into an Atmos. If you have an Oric 1 or a tape only system then you're in trouble. Upgrade now! Pinforic is an interpreter. It allows Infocom Standard Series games or games which use the Infocom Standard Series protocol to run on the Oric. How? Well, rather than write an adventure program from scratch every time they wanted to produce a new adventure game, Infocom produced an interpreter. What it did was act as an adventure game operating system and contained all the routines that were actually needed to run an adventure game. All that it needed was the data for the actual adventure itself - the room descriptions, object names & locations and so on. Infocom went on to produce a number of games, all using this interpreter (or updated versions of it) with a relevant datafile containing the game itself. The Standard Series interpreter is very impressive (by the standards of the 80's) & brought to home computers many of the features previously only available in mainframe adventure games. A large vocabulary can be stored & full sentences can be understood as well as the usual VERB/NOUN input. One of the advantages of this system was that for the games to run on a different type of computer, all (all he says, as if it was that easy!) that was needed was to write an interpreter on that machine - it would be able to understand the adventure datafiles already written. All that was then required was for the datafiles to be converted to that machines format. So much easier than having to re-write every game from scratch. Now an interpreter has been produced for the Oric - Pinforic and it is available from Fabrices site on the Ensica server. The download zipfile includes Pinforic on a SEDORIC disk image for Euphoric (you can use the standard conversion tools to produce a real Oric disc). Just boot up SEDORIC, then spit out (literally or virtually) the SEDORIC disc & insert the Pinforic disc. Load the interpreter then insert the disc containing the adventure game itself - the download contains two sampler discs & the full version of Zork 1. Press a key & the adventure begins - it's as simple as that. To play the other games you need to convert the datafile yourself from another machines disks (full instructions given in an accompanying text file in the zipfile) or download one off the web that has already been converted. Pinforic is probably the easiest utility you will ever have to use on the Oric - just load it, then press a key when you have swapped the Pinforic disc for an adventure one. There's nothing more to say really. Pinforic gives you the ability to play Infocom games & does it flawlessly (well I haven't found any bugs yet). There are other adventures which use the Infocom interpreter out there too. Just check that they use the Standard Series (also refered to as Z-Code Interpreter Version 3) & not the Plus, Gold or Graphic Interpreters & they should be convertible & usable. Happy adventuring! Here is a list of Infocom games which should be compatible with Pinforic:- 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.