I have discovered my letter in issue 36 about Oric HIRES routine, has an error. POINT is placed at #EB1F, whereas it is actually located at #EBF1. I have also found the routines for four more Basic instructions:

The accumlator holds the contents of the Key buffer in the case of KEY$ and GET.

GET, in fact, polls KEY$ until a key is pressed. On return from KEY$, the N flag is set if a key is pressed.

Some Oric programmers, whether machine code or Basic, may find using the KEY$ instruction before an INPUT or GET to clear the buffer, useful. After a video game, for instance, so that, for example, the letter F doesn't appear after an 'Enter your name' prompt on new high score.

One unpublished fact about the 16K Oric-1 that I recently discovered, is that the RAM repeats ZX81-style. This means that POKE 48000,65 will place the letter A into the top left hand corner of the screen, irrespective of whether you are using a 16 or 48K machine. So any 48K game which can fit into the 16K machine can be ported across with no screen POKE modifications.

Andrew McDermott
Nr. Farringdon, Oxon

When using the addresses for the Basic routines given about, it is usually necessary to place the data to be used into a parameter table.

With regard to POKEing the screen, if you POKE both locations (high and low) your basic program may be corrupted (nobody here seems to know why and all suggestions will be gratefully received.) If, however, you only use one (high or low) there seems to be no problem. - KG