ORIC TAPES COLLECTION ----------------------- 1. The project. --------------- This is an old project I had, and that I finally decided to work on: transferring all my Oric tapes to PC (for use with Euphoric, for instance) before the tapes were too old to work. Not only the programs, but also scanning the inlays, the tapes, the manuals, so that even if my collection disappeared, I would still have it, somwhere on a CD. The other idea was to provide programs that had a reliable source - many programs on the Internet have an unknown source, have been altered, or don't work correctly. Here, you can be sure the program source is an original tape, and that I've done my best to make them 100% error-free. Note that you won't find all Oric programs here, but only the ones I own. Some big classics are missing, but you should find some rare programs too. It's quite simply my collection. Some problems may remain, or some tapes are missing the documentation, etc. Each program has an "x_info.txt" file that describes how the program was transfered, if some things are missing (when I know they're missing!), compatibility between Oric-1 or Atmos, and all sort of details and strange things about the game or the boxes. If you notice mistakes, if you find versions I don't have, if you see a bugged transfer, if you have a missing documentation, please send me an email! (see below) 2. Files detail. ---------------- Each game has its directory, named as... The program's name! (amazing). Programs that exist in several versions with little differences will share the same directory. Versions that are very different (such as French/ English version, etc.) will have a specific and separated directory. Inside each directory you should find: A. a TAP file ------------- (or several ones for multipart programs). They should be named in less than 8 chars in order to work easily under DOS (which is Euphoric's running system so far). Read Euphoric's documentation on how TAP files work if you have problems (especially for multipart programs). I can't gaurantee that for multipart programs some file won't have to be renamed after their Oric loading name (the one used to CLOAD, that appears on th status line). Sometimes you'll find another TAP file of the same program, when too many transfer errors were found (often taken from the Internet, that seem to work fine but unverified). B. optional: a WAV file (zipped) -------------------------------- Sometimes special loading routines don't allow the TAP conversion. The programs have then to remain as WAV files, to be used with Euphoric's hardware tape (see Euphoric documentation about it). C. the inlay files (.JPG) ------------------------- The inlay file is a .JPG file named as the TAP file. When something was printed on the other side of the inlay, it will be named "x_inlay_b.jpg". Name may vary when several inlays exist. All the inlays are scanned at 300 DPI, saved in JPEG with a compression level of 15%. A few large inlays are scanned at only 200 DPI, because the software I use didn't support too large files at 300 DPI! D. tape files (.JPG) -------------------- The tapes are scanned and named "x_tape_a.jpg" for side 1, and "x_tape_b.jpg" for side 2. When several versions of tapes exist, they usually are named "x_tape_a1.jpg", "x_tape_a2.jpg", an so on. Scanned at 300 DPI, too. E. documentation files (.JPG or .GIF) ------------------------------------- The docs are sometimes big. That's why some of them are only scanned in monochrom format and saved as GIF files. The reading quality on the screen is not perfect, but it's OK if you print them. Usually, colored pages are scanned in JPG to keep the colors, or in GIF 16 colors when there are only a few ones, and in GIF as soon as it's black and white. So the manuals can mix JPG and GIF files. A few big manuals that were in black on yellow background for instance, have also been scanned in monochrom (black and white) to save disk space. The manuals are usually scanned at 300 DPI (some were scanned at lower resolution and I didn't have the nerve to scan them again so far), and are named "x_manual00.jpg" (cover), "x_manual01.gif", and so on. Since manual scannings have been done during several years, these details may not be exactly respected for them all. Old transfers also have some TXT files as manuals, which have been OCRed. F. information file (.TXT) -------------------------- It's the file that describes everything special you should know about the transfer and the files in the directory. ("x_info.txt") G. General Look picture (.JPG) ------------------------------ This is quite simply a picture of the tape and its package, to have a general view of what it looked like, along with the box. Named "x_gl.jpg". Sometimes you'll find several GL pictures, when funny details have been shot. H. other -------- Other files can be found here and there: ads, recordings of the vocal synthesizer, etc. 3. The future. -------------- So far I have only scanned the things that were directly related to the program, the docs or the package. In the future, one could imagine to add press reviews, advertisings, etc. I haven't done it so far because this would have been a neverending work! In the future, I would also be OK for you to send me tapes that are not here, I'll transfer them and send them back to you. But you have to know before that it might take a while, according to my spare time. I know Jean Boileau and Luc Buisson also started to transfer their tapes to PC, I guess we'll have to merge our work some day! 4. Distribution. ---------------- This work has been done especially for the Club Europe Oric members, and should not be distributed to people that are not members of the CEO without the CEO agreement (see http://ceo.oric.org). Of course all this has been done for sharing. But I'd ask you please to avoid distributing only parts of this work. The main objective was to have files with known source, and details about the docs and package. 5. Thanks and contact. ---------------------- Thanks go to people that helped here and there by providing tapes, docs, and other: Jean Boileau, Fabrice Francès, Luc Buisson, Jede (oric.org), Romuald Liné, Mickaël Pointier (D-Bug), www.oric.org, Hakan Karlsson, Scott Davies, Christian Lavernos, André Chéramy, Philippe Rischebe, Hervé Buffet, Lionel Rey, Laurent Moreau, Dominique Lamy, Xavier Glattard, Bernard Fermaut, André Lemret, Thierry Bestel, Jonathan Bristow, JC Meyrignac, René Pechberti, www.retrogamingworld.co.uk, WDA Association, Patrick Hellmann, Lionel Ponnelle, Franck Woodcock, all the ones I forgot and all the remaining Oric users (especially the Club Europe Oric!). If you want to contact me, no problem. Please contact me before sending any files, my account is often full and your sendings may be lost. So here it is. Enjoy ! Simon symoonmyself at hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/Paris/7150/orice.htm To contact the CEO: http://ceo.oric.org