Lance Ewing

They are a thing of beauty. Can't wait to give them some personality 😎

Picture of two similar looking assembled PCBs in DIP-40 footprint, one with the text PIVIC, the other with the text OCULA. Both have an RP2350B MCU but have different interfacing logic on the left side of the board.

The prototypes for the OCULA/PIVIC twins have arrived and show first signs of life! So it seems at least power, clock and USB have not been butchered in the design or production 🥰
@lance-ewing.bsky.social

That's a great point. I got addicted to buying the Oric Atmos because of its looks 😆. Probably why I have three of them. I think the Oric Atmos is my favourite case of the 8-bit machines of that era.

Found the URL on Sean's site:

www.seanriddle.com/6845/

I started reverse engineering this chip a few years ago. I didn't finish & moved on to other things but feel free to use the SVG from my repo:

github.com/lanceewing/h...

If memory serves me right, I think I got Sean Riddle to decap my chip. The images are on his website somewhere.

I'm tempted to try this RP2350 approach for the VIC chip myself. It has at least been added to my growing list of possible retro projects, so maybe one day.

@tynemouthsw.bsky.social, I thought you might be interested in this approach with regards to your Mini VIC project. It's an alternative to using FPGA. The software emulation would obviously need to be spot on, but if this ends up working for the Oric ULA, then why not the VIC 6560/1?

This is awesome, and OCULA is the perfect name. I love the play on words. I will be keeping a close eye on progress.

Oh yes, in fact it was literally within arms reach of where I was sitting when I read your post just now! The sample AGI source code is what fascinated me when I bought this 35 years ago. That and the screenshots of the SCI picture and view editors.

I enjoyed it back in the day. I played the sequel first though and prefer it. I purchased the San Francisco game not long after it was released. My knowledge of San Francisco landmarks is thanks to that second game! They're certainly quite different from other Sierra AGI games.

We had that Scramble game growing up. I spent a lot of time playing it.

We also had the Grandstand Firefox F-7 game, which I preferred, but I did enjoy the Scramble one. I seem to recall the Scramble one being more difficult though.

I now have the music from these games stuck in my head 😂

Thanks. Yeah, I assumed that this was possible from something I read but hadn't yet tried it. I'll give it a go.

The external connection back in is a "feature". The first device has svideo & composite video output, with the short cable to feed it back in for HDMI output, if required, which for me will probably always be the case. I thought I'd keep the connection external though, just in case they're needed.

What do other people use for connecting the Oric video output to HDMI? I'm using something custom, constructed by joining two other devices together 😂

tbh, the output isn't perfect but it works. I feel like there must be a better option.

#Oric
#RetroGaming
#RGB2HDMI

I probably could have tidied up the Cumulus cable a bit, but with the LOCI, it is so compact, self contained and easy to use out of the box.

I'm sure I'll be tempted to get the Oric out a lot more now.

#Oric
#LOCI
#RetroGaming

(Cumulus on the left, LOCI on the right)

One thing I like very much about the LOCI is how small and self contained it is. The device I had previously was always a bit fiddly to use.

#Oric
#LOCI

(The LOCI is on the right)

Ah, I'm not quite up to date then. Thanks for the tip. I'll have to keep a regular eye on it. I realise this is quite new, so will be changing a bit over coming months.

Now that I've got the Oric Atmos working with the LOCI, it's time to try out the new Encounter release by @dbug.defence-force.org. Old school retro adventure with amazing graphics. I love it!

#Oric
#OricAtmos
#LOCI
#RetroGaming
#AdventureGames

With the firmware now up to date, it is time to try loading tape files again. This time it is working, e.g. the Stormlord tape loads, as shown below. The Hobbit also loaded.

#Oric
#LOCI
#RetroGaming

My first few attempts at loading a tape file didn't work, so I thought it was time to upgrade the firmware. The update process was trivial and appears to have worked without issue. The versions have indeed changed in the LOCI UI from what was shown in my earlier photo.

#Oric
#LOCI
#RetroGaming

Loading from disk appears to work fine, with the few demos that I have tried so far.

#Oric
#LOCI

I'm about to try out the LOCI for the first time with one of my Oric Atmos machines. Let's see what this thing can do! First check, the red button brings up the LOCI UI. Looking good so far.

#Oric
#RetroGaming

"The Solitude" house is supposedly haunted, and it is this aspect that the game's storyline picks up on. The player controls a resident ghost that has amnesia. The aim is help the ghost remember how they died.

During development of the game, I drew the rooms out in a notebook. The floor plan is actually based on a real building called "The Solitude", built by John Penn in the 1780s, now part of the Philadelphia Zoo.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sol...

I thought I'd try out my 2022 js13kgames entry "I've Been Ghosting" in the browser app on my Samsung TV. Turns out it works quite well.

js13kgames.com/2022/games/i...

#pointandclick #adventuregame #adventuregames #js13k #gamedevjs

A few years ago, I was busy attempting to reverse-engineer the schematic of the Commodore VIC 20's 6561 video chip from a photo of the silicon die. I mostly finished that effort and produced the image below of the silicon die showing the functional blocks labelled.

#VIC20 #Commodore #VIC #MOS6561

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! 🎄🎁🎅

From AGILE, the web-based Sierra On-Line AGI game interpreter:

agi.sierra.games/play/christm...

#SierraOnline #ChristmasCard

I've always liked this little Xmas card.

Recently, I wrote a Sierra AGI game interpreter that runs in a web browser, so can play the old AGI games online, including this Xmas card.

Try it out below:

agi.sierra.games/play/christm...

#SierraOnline

I had a quick look on there just now and couldn't find them. Maybe they're more rare than I thought.

The programmer's manual is a bit used, as I certainly used it a lot back then. I wrote a tool to convert Visual Composer ROL music files to the Sierra On-Line AGI game sound format, for fan game creators to use.

I also have the books for the Composition Projects and Jukebox. #AdLib #SierraOnline