Software houses

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coolman66
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Software houses

Post by coolman66 »

While I've heard of software house from the UK and France I've not heard of any from rest of Europe is there any ?
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Re: Software houses

Post by ThomH »

coolman66 wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 5:35 pm While I've heard of software house from the UK and France I've not heard of any from rest of Europe is there any ?
You mean just those that released Oric software? All I can think of offhand is AD Elektronikk, which was a Norwegian company that published four or five educational titles.

EDIT: Five, according to oric.org.
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Steve M
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Re: Software houses

Post by Steve M »

There were some releases in Norway, but I'm not sure how many were translated versions and how many were originals.
AD Electronikk, Dart Software, Data Dynamikk. ON Software was released via OUM in the UK (I think all titles were by Arnt Erik Isaksen)

There was a couple of titles in Germany Mobyx Systems and KDB Software.
There was a game called GoBang, I think that was from Germany but I'm not sure if it was a commercial release.

I'm not sure if any of the Swedish titles were commercial releases(?) There was one from J R Software

I think a few Tansoft titles were released with a different cover - I'm not sure if I saw a Spanish cassette - but I might be imagining it. But you also get the Pravetz 8D software (Atmos clone).

So basically we are looking at software released on UK or French software houses. Some of it is by programmers from elsewhere, like Damsel in Distress.

There were Oric sold in Europe by OPEL, and I have seen different versions of the power supply and a Danish Atmos manual, so there may be some other titles out there, but I guess they must be rare!
I did hear rumours of an Australian Oric User Group which wrote their own software etc, but I've never found anyone who could confirm its existence and say what software they had.
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Dbug
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Re: Software houses

Post by Dbug »

Steve M wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2020 12:42 am I did hear rumours of an Australian Oric User Group which wrote their own software etc, but I've never found anyone who could confirm its existence and say what software they had.
I knew of Austrian Oric User Groups, but not Australian, would be interesting to know who they got the machines out there.
Maybe that's the origin for The Hobbit?
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Re: Software houses

Post by ibisum »

There's an Austrian Oric User Group? I need to know who these strange people are, stat! Unless you're referring to me (I'm in Vienna), in which case: I'm the only member so far!

I did start an Oric User Group in Perth, Australia, in '83. We mostly just copied each others tapes though hehe...
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Re: Software houses

Post by Dbug »

Actually I was wrong, it was only in Germany, more precisely in Hamm, Giessen, Duisbug and Hagen. (And they had their own magazine "Atmosphäre")
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Steve M
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Re: Software houses

Post by Steve M »

Dbug wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:22 am
Steve M wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2020 12:42 am I did hear rumours of an Australian Oric User Group which wrote their own software etc, but I've never found anyone who could confirm its existence and say what software they had.
I knew of Austrian Oric User Groups, but not Australian, would be interesting to know who they got the machines out there.
Maybe that's the origin for The Hobbit?
Yes, I did wonder if there was some confusion with the two as I've never come across anything Oric from Australia - but as an English-speaking country it could have been a market Oric tried to get into. I really don't know.
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ibisum
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Re: Software houses

Post by ibisum »

The distributor of Oric in Australia was a family friend, which is why I started off 'real' computing with Oric as a teenager. Me and my family drove with my Dad across the Nullabor from Perth to go visit him in Melbourne and pick up my Oric-1 direct from the warehouse, and literally every hotel television on the route back was hijacked for the purpose of my coding experience on the way home. :)
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