| Another delve into little differences in
the way Oric software was released. We’ve seen that
it was the release of the Atmos that prompted software
houses to repackage their material. The first thing that
some did was to check if it worked with the Atmos and if
it was OK then they just stuck a sticker on the outside
of the cassette box saying “Atmos compatible”. |
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Amongst the firms that did this were
Personal Software Services, or PSS to you and me. You’ll
notice that the box still says “for ORIC-1” and
indeed it still works on the old ROM version. In fact
this particular title has anOric-1 version for 16K or 48K
on one side and the new “Oric V1.1 ROM & Atmos”
version on the side shown. |
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| And there it is on the right with a
stunning red label. This seems to be in line with the
Atmos colour scheme. The other side contains the original
Oric-1 version which needed updating for the Atmos. But
wait a minute, the old Oric-1 cassettes wouldn’t
have the Atmos colour scheme, would they ? Indeed not.
Well not quite. In fact the previous labels were a
reverse image of the red one. i.e. they were black with
red text upon them. It is an easy way to see if you have
an early cassette or a later one. What I’m not sure
about is if these changes came about all at the same
time, or if they were gradually fazed in. Later PSS
titles would have a yellow stripe around the bottom
featuring the ‘for Oric Atmos’ slogan. (See M.A.R.C)
I have yet to establish if any of those came with the old
style blue label box. I very much doubt it. |
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Here then is the original Light Cycle
cassette. You may notice it has the same code number (018)
and the same copyright date so you can’t rely on
that to tell if you have an early version. You need a bit
more detective work. With this one you can tell the Atmos
version easily - because it says it on the label.
Sometimes things aren’t so simple and you can get
easily fooled. I’ve had one or two that must have
been in the wrong box !!! |
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| I think that all PSS titles eventually
had the red label. The later ones would never have had
the black label, so it makes for an interesting addition
to the collection getting the various versions gathered.
As ever, if you know any other details please let me know.
I never noticed any differences until recently ! Anyone
that is interested in buying, selling or swapping
cassettes get in touch with me, or Jim Groom who is also
interested in collecting originals. |
