OSDK - The Oric Software Development Kit

OSDK Version 2.0 Please check this article for a full dive-in on all the changes.

The long-awaited "better OSDK" is now available, and it comes with so many changes that instead of polluting the change history, I decided to dedicate an article for it.

OSDK Version 1.23 Upgraded XA to version 2.3.1: Many bug fixes: defined() in #if, 0x prefix parsing, division by zero, macro expansion in strings, and more 65816 instructions disabled by default (use -w to enable) Added .assert, .bin, cheap local labels (…

OSDK Version 1.22 Upgraded XA to version 2.3.0: Added support for the defined() operator in preprocessor expressions Added support for the #elif preprocessor directive Upgraded Linker to version 1.2: Added support for a '#pragma osdk replace_characters_if…

Working with emulators is nice, but it's even nicer when you can use your vintage hardware and storage media!

OSDK Version 1.21 Upgraded Linker to the version 1.1: The 'Unresolved external: ' now also specify the filename and line number of the first place where the symbol was requested, as well as the total number of references.

Arrows and space bar are sufficient for most games, but sometimes you need to access the complete keyboard.

Today we will see how to convert a complicated algorithm from BASIC to C, then to 6502 assembler, and the optimization process involved.

OSDK Version 1.20 Upgraded Bas2Tap to version 2.2, with improved error messages, and support for easily importing and calling assembler modules Upgraded XA to the version 2.2.6 which now returns an Error code value 1 if a source file is missing Upgraded F…

I was writing an article about how to create an efficient Flood Fill routine on the Oric, but then I realized that many of the optimizations were generic and could be part of a dedicated article about how to write efficient rasterization code.

OSDK Version 1.19 All the binaries are now compiled with Visual Studio 2019 instead of 2010.

OSDK Version 1.18 Upgraded Linker to the version 0.67: It now indicates that error messages come from Link65, should make diagnostic errors easier Upgraded Header with an option to specify BASIC (-b0) or BINARY (-b1) Upgraded the compiler to version 1.39…

Many of the 80ies micro computers had dedicated connectors for joystick controllers, but unfortunately the Oric were not one of these.

OSDK Version 1.17 Added INCW_Z and DECW_Z to the C Compiler macros file A new environment variable, OSDKLIB, can be added to point to a custom library folder (used to compile pinforic which comes with its own lib16 library) Linux makefiles for the samples…

When people decide to make a game on the Oric, on of the first issue they stumble upon is how to deal with keyboard input.

In 1996 I released a small prototype of what could be Dungeon Master on the Oric.

Now that the final scroller is finally running at an acceptable speed, the second most pressing issue is the Mandelbrot fractal part.

A commonly misunderstood element of Oric computers is the actual memory layout and amount: Does the Oric has 48KB or RAM, as the Atmos label says, or 64KB as claims the Oric Nova 64?

OSDK Version 1.16 Upgraded ym2mym to version 1.8 (New retuning options supporting Spectrum and MSX machines) Download OSDK 1.16

OSDK Version 1.15 Upgraded the C compiler to version 1.38 by integrating all the latest changes from Fabrice Frances: Fixes some issues found by Goyo and Retroric regarding encoding of data tables by the compiler.

OSDK Version 1.14 Upgraded the C compiler to version 1.36 by integrating all the latest changes from Fabrice Frances: Better code generator float/int conversion fixes better error handling Changed the default compile optimization level from -O2 to -O3 - p…

On the weekend of 2-3 November 2018 the Demosplash party was held at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

A few weeks ago NekoNoNiaow asked on the Defence Force forums if there was any profiling tools available for Oric programs "aside from the reliable but quite basic OSDK clock() function".

OSDK Version 1.13 Upgraded Bas2Tap to version 2.1, with better handling of defines and DATA instructions Added a missing EQ0W_C macro for the C compiler.

OSDK Version 1.12 Upgraded Bas2Tap to version 2.0, with support for labels, defines, escape codes and binary optimization Updated macros for the C compiler from version 1.29 to 1.30 (fixes in the ADDW_IID, SUBW_IID, ANDW_IID, XORW_IID and ORW_IID which us…

OSDK Version 1.11 Upgraded FloppyBuilder to version 1.2 (fixed issues with gap2 and crc values) Upgraded Bas2Tap to version 1.0, now correctly handles corrupted programs using out of range tokens as well as saving to a file instead of stdout Upgraded Pict…

Like in 2015 and 2016, I spent the last weekend of January at the Global Game Jam.

OSDK Version 1.10 Upgraded XA to the version 2.2.5 (Added a new '-cc' command line parameter to allow compatibility with the CC65 toolchain) Upgraded PictConv to the version 0.25 (Fixed the off-by-one error in the tape header when Exporting Oric images to…

This article was first written in July 2002 as a 'how to' for the artists working on our first big Defence-Force demo, was translated to english in 2005, but was never really officially published until today.

OSDK Version 1.9 Upgraded XA to the version 2.2.4 (Extended the values for a number of hardcoded defines (labels, blocks, number of open files, etc...))