Technology | Nostalgia | 1980s | Life Story
Remembering the Oric-1: A Home Computer Rival to the ZX Spectrum
A personal reflection on the Oric-1 computer and its competition with Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum
This is an updated version of an article I wrote a few years ago for some of my now-defunct blogs.
Playground Rivals
The Oric-1 was a direct competitor to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Like its rival, it was released in 1982, with a choice of 16 or 48 KB of RAM. It also had a similar price tag.
Although a reasonable amount of software was released for the Oric, far more was available for the Spectrum.
At my high school, quite a lot of children had either a ZX Spectrum or an Oric-1. A few had other machines, such as the BBC Micro or VIC-20.
After finding out about the Oric’s superior sound facilities, I wished I’d chosen one instead of a Spectrum. I always wanted to try one out, but I never did back then.
I was also interested in comparing the Oric’s 1 MHz 6502 microprocessor with the Z80 found in the Spectrum. (I would eventually learn more about the 6502 when I got a Commodore 64.)
