Oric Games Trade

Want to talks about games you like, would like to see developed on the Oric, it's here.
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Dbug
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Oric Games Trade

Post by Dbug »

[The current list of trades is at the end of the post, names in bold are the firms offers I received]

A few years ago (time flies...) I started (again) collecting Oric games for the sake of preservation, but also for documenting and making articles about the various publishers, how games were released, their packaging, etc...

In the process I ended up with a bazillion of duplicates, and since there are regularly people here who ask "who has this game", "where can I find this game", etc... it looks like there's an actual need for physical games by people.

Since eBay is a very evil place (people trying to sell l'Aigle d'Or at 150 euros???), and since I'm looking for some programs which are missing in my collection, I'm going to give a shot at seing if we can do some trade.

Some software are obviously much more rare than other ("Manic Miner" vs "Welcome to Oric Atmos" for example), so the idea is not to do a 1 vs 1 trade, but just a trade where both party feels satisfied.
oric_duplicates_small.jpg
Here is a list of my duplicates as of today (I will update the list based on what happened):
----------------------------
IJK
- 4 Xenon 1
- 4 Zorgons Revenge
- 1 Trick Shot
- 1 Probe 3
- 1 Superfruit
- 1 Invaders
- 1 Ghost Gobbler
- 1 Fantasy Quest
- 1 Chess
- 1 Don't Press The Letter Q

Tansoft
- 5 Defence Force
- 9 Welcome to Oric Atmos
- 3 Rat Splat
- 1 Oric Base
- 1 Oric Calc
- 3 Super Advanced reakout
- 2 OricMunch
- 2 Ultima Zone
- 2 Killburn Encounter
- 2 Nowotnik Puzzle
- 1 Zodiac
- 2 Chess
- 2 House Of Death

Loriciels
- 3 Le Manoir du Dr Genius
- 1 Le Diamant de l'Ile Maudite
- 3 L'Aigle d'Or
- 2 Super Jeep
- 1 3D Munch
- 1 J'apprend l'Anglais
- 2 Moniteur 1.0

PSS
- 2 Light Cycle
- 3 The Ultra
- 3 Hopper
- 1 M.A.R.C

Ere
- 1 Triathlon
- 1 Macadam Bumper
- 1 Le Rendez Vous De La Terreur
- 1 Mission Delta

Softek
- 3 Galaxians
- 2 Acheron's Rage
- 1 Super Meteors
- 1 Dracula's Revenge

Ocean
- 1 Road Frog
- 1 Hunchback
- 1 Mr Wimpy

Severn Software
- 1 Oricade
- 1 Dinky Kong
- 1 Moria
- 1 Grail

Microdeal
- 1 Space Shuttle

Software Projects
- 1 Manic Miner

Durell
- 4 Harrier Attack!
- 2 Scuba Dive

Joe The Lion
- 1 Loki

Arcadia
- 1 Mushroom Mania

Orpheus
- 1 Krillys

Lothlorien
- 1 Two Gun Turtle

No Man's Land
- 1 Zoolympics

Melbourne House
- 1 The Hobbit (with the actual matching Tolkien book)

Norsoft
- 1 Tyrann

Landscape
- 1 Starter 3D

Domark
- 1 Dangereusement Votre

----------------------------
Note sure if that could interest any of you, but I do have some non Oric games as well:
- Stormlord (Spectrum)
- Impossible Mission (Spectrum)
- Manic Miner (C64)
- Super Sprint (C64)
- L'Aigle d'Or (Thomson MO5/TO7-70)
----------------------------

Please note the following information:
- Not all the games are in good shape: Some had corners of labels torn, were written on to indicate various information, etc...
- Some have the manuals, some don't
- For a few I only have the tape but not the inlay
- Some inlays don't match the game (ex: Oric 1 tape with an Atmos Inlay)
- Some inlays are faded out (probably sun exposure), scratched, or even have holes because they were incorrectly folded
- Some cases are damaged, but I plan on swapping out the case by one in good shape/appearance before sending
- I also have a few inlays without the tapes (Triathlon, Karate, ...)
- Some of the programs I consider as "free": If you want a Welcome to Oric Atmos, Chess (Tansoft) or House of Death (Tansoft) I can add them for free as part of a trade
- I can't guarantee that they load fine, or that a specific version loads on Oric 1, Oric Atmos, is a French or UK version (If you have strong preferences I can try to figure out, but well, all I have is an Atmos, so if it does not load, it may just be that it's an Oric 1 version, or maybe that it's broken?)
- For games I have in multiple versions, I will trade the ones in best shape first

Now, in regard to the games/programs I'm looking for, here is a small list:
----------------------------
- Detective Story (No man's land)
- Don Juan (No Man's Land)
- Le Fer d'Amnukor (Norsoft)
- Psychiatric (sprites)
- Masterpaint (Ere)
- SAGA (Ere)
- Le Millionaire (Ere)
- Lost In Space (Salamander)
- Fishy Business (Salamander)
- Dungeon Adventure (Level 9)
- Ring of Darkness (Wintersoft)
- 3D Battlestar (Topaz)
----------------------------
if you have other things that you think are worth trading, just tell, I'll check (I have a fondness for programs with nice box art, like most Ere informatique games for example), and things that come complete with manuals are welcome (example: Oric-CAD) :)

Regarding the prices, I suggest we use common sense and avoid being offensive by generously offering 1 euro for Manic Miner: I did not get these games for free, it just happens that sometimes when you want to get one particular program, you have to get a 4th copy of Zorgon's Revenge in the process - and I still had to pay for it -.

Regarding the trade, you tell me what you'd like and what you have to propose in exchange, I take close up photos of the games, you do the same, and we agree for the exchange. I'm not sure for the postage, one one hand I like to use tracked package because that avoids misfortunate event leading to angryness and lack of trust, on the other hand that costs an arm and a leg when sending and receiving packages with Norway.

Actual requests I received (in order of arrival):
----------------------------
Steve: Interested by French games [except "L'Aigle d'Or" and "Le Diamant de l'ile Maudite"] "The Ultra" (French) <-> has "Lost in Space" and "Ring of Darkness"
Ibisum: The more the merrier
Fra: Interested by "Le Rendez Vous De La Terreur"
----------------------------

Done deals:
Symoon: "Manic Miner", "Jogger", "Acheron's Rage" [Red Atmos], "World Geography", "3D Maze" [French] <-> "Terminus", "Le Diamant de Kheops", "Objectif Élysée", "Loritel", "Apprendre le Basic sur Oric"
Baz: "Cobra Pinball", "Flipper" (Loriciels) <-> "Oric-CAD" (with manual)
Steve: Lorigraph, Frelon, Doggy, Super Jeep, Triathlon, Le Manoir du Docteur Genius, Le Secret du Tombeau, Galaxion <-> Oric Base Manual, Oric User magazines, Oric Owner magazines, Theoric #2, a few books, and most importantly Lost in Space
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Dbug
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by Dbug »

I updated the top post by removing the software which were gone (and adding a couple on my wish list, as well as some non Oric games I have to swap as well):
- I received today's Oric CAD from Baz (with the manual) and he should have received my two flipper games
- Packaged swapped with Symoon's are currently traveling in Europe (or mostly wasting time in custom centers)

So I guess it's up to the next, so if neither Steve or Ibissum have software to swap, we will have to come up with some financial valuation :)
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by ibisum »

For the record, I have nothing to swap. :( I'm trying to build a collection by taking whatever spares you have left - and I'm quite fine with paying for them. Just tell me what you've got left over to help me start my collection and what you want for them.
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by Steve M »

Yeah, I'm willing to pay.
What's the Lost in Space situation? Did you get one from Baz?
I have one to swap if needed but can't find the other title.
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by Dbug »

Steve M wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:03 pm Yeah, I'm willing to pay.
What's the Lost in Space situation? Did you get one from Baz?
I have one to swap if needed but can't find the other title.
From Baz I got Oric CAD with the manual (which is in better condition than the one I got earlier).

If you Lost in Space is in decent condition, it's definitely worth a swap against more than one program.

Regarding pricing of games, I've not really thought about it, but basically I think we can all agree that there are various "grades":
- Very common stuff ("Welcome to Atmos")
- Common ("Defence Force", "Xenon", "The Ultra")
- Unfrequent ("Manic Miner","Oric CAD","MrWimpy")
- Rare (like some of the Level 9 adventure games, or things with hardware and manuals and dongles)

My objective is to be honest on prices, but one need to remember that most of these games originally came from eBay auctions, and just to make some of you scream, I had to pay 31 pounds (postage included) just to get one of the Manic Miner, and some of the other games I had to buy a complete lot to get just one or two I wanted.

Imo, fair prices for Oric games are between 5 and 40 euros depending of the game rarity, state and completness (and "Welcome to Oric Atmos" for free :D) with obviously nothing worth 40 euros in what I have in my list, most of the games are not that rare, the hardest to find was things like Tyrann, Starter 3D, Manic Miner, Mr Wimpy, The Hobbit with the book, Lorigraph (unfortunately without a manual).

And despite what ebay says, l'Aigle d'Or is not rare at all!
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by Antiriad2097 »

I'm surprised at some of these. I have The Hobbit (with the book) and Mr Wimpy from new, I always assumed they were very common games being licences, good games, and ones that were quite popular on other systems. It never occurred to me they were in any way rare compared to things like M.A.R.C or Fireflash, which in my head seemed more exotic as they were obtained via mail order instead of in the high street.
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by Symoon »

I noticed that French games seem usually rare for people in UK, and UK games (apart from huge hits) seem rare for French people ;)
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by Dbug »

Well, on that one I judge the rarity by simply looking at ebay (.fr/.co.uk mostly), sell my retro, etc... for about two years.
Some of the stuff you find again and again, and some thing is just very infrequent.
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by Steve M »

Some games like Manic Miner have become rare because t hey were popular and everybody wants it, but there aren't enough to go round.
Collectors of software want the Oric version of Minic Miner even if they don't have an Oric.

The rare programs usually didn't sell many. Either because they were a small company with little or no advertising or they were no good or attractive games.
Some programs were really poor quality - of the type-in standard i.e no better than program found in the books. Others were old games, like Pontoon that aren't really attractive to people wanting arcade games. Utilities tend to be rarer too.

I don't remember many French games being advertised in the UK. We got some of the No Man's Land titles, which were advertised here. Many of the French classics weren't hits here because they weren't translated. Tyrann was but didn't make a big impact. I guess we'd already had similar games and the UK market was more interested in onscreen action. So even Tyrann is rare in the UK.

I find it a bit ironic that some of the worst software has become the most valuable.
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by mikeb »

Steve M wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2019 2:43 pm Some programs were really poor quality - of the type-in standard i.e no better than program found in the books.

I find it a bit ironic that some of the worst software has become the most valuable.
Well, I really must dig out my "Cascade: 50 Games For The Oric" tape then, as that fits the above description :)

There were 50 games. It was for Oric. But -- of course -- the screenshots use were inevitably of the Speccy/Commodore/other version of the tape, and most of the games seemed to entirely lean on TEXT mode ... and I'm not sure that redefined characters were much of a priority to jazz things up.

"Your mission is to guide your character '@' between the '#' and grab the '&' without hitting the '%'. Good luck!" kind of stuff ...

On the plus side, the free CASIO calculator watch was more useful.
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by Symoon »

mikeb wrote: Sun Sep 22, 2019 5:25 pm Well, I really must dig out my "Cascade: 50 Games For The Oric" tape then, as that fits the above description :)

There were 50 games. It was for Oric. But -- of course -- the screenshots use were inevitably of the Speccy/Commodore/other version of the tape, and most of the games seemed to entirely lean on TEXT mode ... and I'm not sure that redefined characters were much of a priority to jazz things up.

"Your mission is to guide your character '@' between the '#' and grab the '&' without hitting the '%'. Good luck!" kind of stuff ...
There were two versions of the programs. What I guess was an early version - exactly what you describe ;) But another version had more elaborated progams - nothing that would make them really better, but I recall sound and coulours were added. Can't recall if I updated Oric.org with it.
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Re: Oric Games Trade

Post by Steve M »

My original tape only loaded about 7 games. There was one that seemed OK, but I only got it to load twice, I think.
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