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Welcome to Defence Force!
This is a work in progress attempt at rewritting the main site.
You can find all the important sub sites can be accessed from the left hand bar.

The legacy content is still available on the old site but will hopefully be migrated and modernized over time.

If you are interested in knowing what is happening, you have multiple options:
  • Twitter (useful for downtime notices, new videos or blog articles announcement)
  • The Defence Force and OSDK Facebook pages
  • The Youtube channel
  • ...or just go through the change history down there!

2024

  Encounter update
Sat 9th November 2024   

  • Encounter is now visible on Steam! You can support the project by adding it to your Steam wish-list to increase its visibility!

  Les coulisses du jeu vidéo
Wed 6th November 2024   


  Upgrade Time: Encounter
Tue 22nd October 2024   


  Our time at Adeline software
Sat 12th October 2024   


  Demos
Sun 14th July 2024   

  • Added the FF8240.w demo released at the Sommarhack 2024 demo party

  Oricium (Uridium)
Mon 8th July 2024   

  • Added the Oric game Oricium to itch.io with a ready to use emulator

  Impossible Mission
Sat 22nd June 2024   

  • Added the Oric game Impossible Mission to itch.io with a ready to use emulator

  1337 (Elite)
Sun 30th June 2024   

  • Added the Oric game 1337 to itch.io with a ready to use emulator

  Blake's 7
Sat 15th June 2024   

  • Added the Oric game Blake's 7 to itch.io with a ready to use emulator

  Space: 1999
Fri 7th June 2024   

  • Added the Oric game Space:1999 to itch.io with a ready to use emulator

  Upgrade Time: Encounter
Sun 3rd March 2024   


  Keyboard handling
Sun 18th February 2024   

  • Part 2 of the blog article about accessing the Oric Keyboard

2023

  Flood Fill
Sat 4th November 2023   

  • A blog article about filling closed surface in HIRES on the Oric

  Encounter update
Mon 14th August 2023   

  • A blog article about the Encounter HD project, as well as the status of other unfinished projects

  Oriclopedia: Oric CAD
Sat 23rd July 2022   


  TapeRipper 2.0
Sun 22nd January 2023   

  • A small video showing how to extract tape content using TapeRipper.

  Happy New Year
Sun 1st January 2023   

  • May 2023 be remembered as a very nice year by everybody!

2022

  Oriclopedia: Athanor 1 & 2
Thu 29th December 2022   

  • A Oriclopedia video presenting the Athanor 1 and 2 games on the Oric, and how it compared to the Atari ST version.

  Forum upgrade
Sat 12th November 2022   

  • The phpBB forum was upgraded to the latest version (3.3.8)

  Demos
Tue 19th July 2022   

  • The 'demos' category has been split in two parts, one for the Oric demos and the other for the Atari demos.
  • The demos are also now sorted by release date, from older to more recent.
  • The missing 256 bytes demos are not present as well: Glitch Love (for the Oric), MindBender and MonoSlide (for the Atari)

  Forum upgrade
Wed 25th May 2022   

  • The phpBB forum was upgraded to the latest version (3.3.7)

  Oriclopedia: Nova 64 (2)
Sat 5th March 2022   


  Oriclopedia: Nova 64 (1)
Sat 5th March 2022   


  Oriclopedia: Hobbit
Sat 5th March 2022   


  Efficient rasterization
Wed 2nd February 2022   

  • A blog article about how to efficiently draw things in HIRES mode on the Oric

  Upgrade Time: Update
Tue 4th January 2022   


2021

  Weekend In Oslo
Sat 14th August 2021   


  Oriclopedia: Oric logo
Wed 30th June 2021   


  Oriclopedia: TV ad
Sun 11th April 2021   


  Glitch Love
Sat 13th March 2021   

  • Added the 'Glitch Love' 256 bytes intro in the Oric Demos tab.

  Oriclopedia: Oric Library
Sat 27th February 2021   


  Joysticks
Sat 2nd January 2021   

  • A blog article about Joystick interfaces

  Oriclopedia: Joysticks
Fri 1st January 2021   


2020

  Oriclopedia: Hebdogiciel
Fri 13th November 2020   


  Oric Library
Fri 6th November 2020   

  • Added a downloadable version of 'Le T-DOS et ses fichiers
  • Fixed a casing error in the downloadable versions of 'Manuel de Référence' and 'Travaux Pratiques' from André Chenière

  Keyboard handling
Sat 5th September 2020   

  • Part 1 of the blog article about accessing the Oric Keyboard

  SVN
Sun 9th August 2020   

  • It took some time, but the SVN repository is now back online, still accessible at svn.defence-force.org, but now hosted on OSDN.net

  The Geek Room
Tue 4th August 2020   

  • A new video where I present my retro/computer room and storage solutions

  Forum
Sun 28th June 2020   

  • The PhpBB forum is back online

  Domains
Thu 25th June 2020   

  • The osdk.org, blog and main site are not running again

  R.I.P. Miniserve
Sun 21st June 2020   

  • Miniserve, the webserver hosting the entire Defence-Force infrastructure has suffered a catastrophic motherboard failure

  Audio Sculpture
Sat 6th June 2020   


  Euphoria
Sun 31st May 2020   


  Dungeon Master
Tue 26th May 2020   

  • A new Upgrade Time video about Dungeon Master on the Oric and Atari (companion video to the Dungeon Master article)

  Dungeon Master Intro
Tue 26th May 2020   

  • A blog article about Dungeon Master on the Oric and Atari (companion article to the Dungeon Master video)

  Optimizing Buggy Boy (2)
Fri 15th May 2020   

  • A blog article showing how to apply optimizations on some old existing code

  Overlay Memory
Sun 10th May 2020   

  • A blog article with some information on how to use the top 16K of the Oric computers.

  Oriclopedia: Text Adventures
Wed 29th April 2020   


  Upgrade Time: FloppyBuilder
Sun 19th April 2020   


  Upgrade Time: Reboot Time!
Fri 10th April 2020   


  Oriclopedia: The Oric ULA
Thu 26th March 2020   


  Oriclopedia: Storage Devices
Sun 1st March 2020   

  • A new Oriclopedia video about the various types of device storages usable on the Oric machines

  Oriclopedia: Théoric
Sun 9th February 2020   


  Freeboot revisited
Sat 18th January 2020   

  • A blog article about using a GoTek drive alongside an Oric 3" Microdisc

  Oriclopedia: Nova 64!
Fri 10th January 2020   

  • A new Oriclopedia video about an Oric keyboard found in the USA, and a few Oric Nova 64 found in Slovenia

  Half a Life in Video Games
Sat 4th January 2020   

  • A blog article about my 25 years working in videogames

  Oriclopedia: SCART to HDMI
Sat 4th January 2020   


2019

  The Oriclopedia
Tue 3rd December 2019   

  • A blog article about The Oriclopedia series of videos

  Oriclopedia: Severn Software
Sat 30th November 2019   


  Fixing the Brionvega
Sun 6th January 2019   

  • A blog article detailling a rescue operation on a 2002 Brionvega Algol BV1 CRT television

  Oric tapes issues
Sat 23rd November 2019   

  • A blog article looking at how the Oric saves programs to tape format

  Oriclopedia: Microdisc
Wed 6th November 2019   


  Oriclopedia: ERE
Sun 3rd November 2019   


  Oriclopedia: Cables
Sun 27th October 2019   


  Oriclopedia: IJK Software
Sat 19th October 2019   

  • A new Oriclopedia video about one of the most famous british Oric game developper and publisher

  Shadow of the Beast
Sat 12th October 2019   

  • A blog article looking in details about how the Atari ST version of the game Shadow of the Beast was made

  Oriclopedia: Oric MCP40
Sun 6th October 2019   


  Oriclopedia: Loriciels
Sat 28th September 2019   


  Oriclopedia: The Oric Family
Sun 22nd September 2019   


  Oriclopedia: Tansoft
Sat 14th September 2019   


  OSDK 1.15
Sat 7th September 2019   

  • 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.
  • Changed back the default compile optimization level from -O3 to -O2 - there are still some cases of bad code generation
  • Fixed a problem with include/sys/sound.h containing invalid symbols that don't compile correctly

  OSDK 1.14
Sat 8th June 2019   

  • 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 - providing significantly better code generation, both in size and speed
  • The code generator macro file is now compatible with both XA and FRASM
  • Upgraded Link65 to the version 0.66: The new macro file generate lines that contain multiple instructions, the linker stopped at the first encountered instruction, this new version correctly parses that
  • Updated FilePack version number to 0.2 to 0.5 after somebody reported an issue with a veryyyyyyy old version which happened to have the same version number of a much more recent one.
  • Tap2Dsk 2.1.1: Added a fix to avoid the tool to stay stuck on tapes with incorrect size specified in their headers
  • Fixed a problem with itoa not correctly processing negative numbers (the '-'' was overwritten by the number printing routine). Also took the opportunity to optimize the code (removed the jsr itoa / rts as well as an unnecessary x register clearing (it's set to zero when we are back from udiv10)
  • Added support for %u to printf

  Server Failure
Thu 30th May 2019   

  • For some reason, the power supply of the webserver died, and in the process corrupted the filesystem. Took a bit of time, but thanks to rfm and tomreyn from #ubuntu (the freenode IRC support channel), we are mostly back in business.
  • I'll probably have to monitor the machine, do some more checks, and at some point replace the PSU by a new one (right now we are running from an old one that was laying in a cupboard...), so expect some occasional reboots.

  Power Brexit
Sun 6th January 2019   

  • A blog article explaining how to change the power cord of a Binatone Data Recorder

  Happy New Year!
Tue 1st January 2019   

  • Well, there are no news so far, but have a good one!

2018

  Optimizing Buggy Boy (1)
Thu 15th November 2018   

  • A blog article showing how to apply optimizations on some old existing code

  Performance Profiling
Sun 11th November 2018   

  • A blog article about optimizing your Oric code

  Tape Storage Hacking
Thu 1st November 2018   

  • A blog article about storing Oric game tapes

  OSDK 1.13
Sun 14th October 2018   

  • Upgraded Bas2Tap to version 2.1, with better handling of defines and DATA instructions
  • Added a missing EQ0W_C macro for the C compiler.
  • Added a missing reference to Sedoric in the library library index file

  OSDK 1.12
Sun 29th July 2018   

  • 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 used the wrong register to access the source pointer).
  • Fixed the BomberZ samples program to use the new Bas2Tap syntax
  • Fixed the library functions 'scanf' and 'sscanf' (For some reason these files had not been converted to use the XA syntax when we switched from FRASM)
  • Upgraded the version of Sedoric 3 used by Tap2DSK with the patch that improves the handling of the "insert master disk" prompt
  • Modified the Oricutron batch file to use PUSHD/POPD instead of CD, this makes it possible to start the emulator even when the project is on another disk drive location

  OSDK 1.11
Sat 17th March 2018   

  • 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 PictConv to version 1.0 (Fixed some error handling as well as a minor issue in the Atari multipalette conversion)

  Even more demos
Sat 3rd March 2018   

  • Most of the missing Atari demos (Phaleon, Charts, Save The Earth, ...), are now present in the Demos tab.

  Website revamp
Sun 25th February 2018   

  • Added a new 'Demos' tab, and added all the demo pages which were still on the old site. Now I just need to create pages for the 10 more recent demos which never received quite as much love!

  Website revamp
Sat 24th February 2018   

  • Did a massive revamp of the Defence-Force home page, it should now look and act more like an actual portal than it had for these few last years.

  Global Game Jam 2018
Tue 6th February 2018   

  • A blog article about my participation to the Global Game Jam 2018

2007-2017

2017

  Defence-Force.org
Sun 15th October 2017   

  • Added some redirects for all the game sudomains (1337.defence-force.org, ...) to now point to the new game pages on the main site

  OSDK 1.10
Thu 13th April 2017   

  • 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 tape format)
  • Added a new environment variable, OSDKXAPARAMS, which can be used to pass any arbitrary set of parameters to XA when the build script is called

  Oric graphics in details
Sat 8th April 2017   

  • A blog article describing how the Oric graphics system works

  OSDK 1.9
Sat 18th March 2017   

  • Upgraded XA to the version 2.2.4 (Extended the values for a number of hardcoded defines (labels, blocks, number of open files, etc...))
  • Upgraded Linker to the version 0.65 (Fixed some issues in the token pattern matching used to detect labels resulting in #includes containing relative paths to be incorrectly parsed)
  • Upgraded FloppyBuilder to version 1.1 (New format, new commands, sector interleaving, ...)
  • Upgraded PictConv to the version 0.24 (Fixed a problem in the color reduction code failing on a 32bit source image)
  • 6502 syntax coloring for Notepad++, by Jede

2016

  Defence-Force.org
Thu 21st April 2016   

  • Upgraded the server hardware and software

  OSDK 1.8
Sun 17th January 2016   

  • The build script is now correctly setting up XA: If you use 65816 or 65c02 instructions they will be refused with an error message
  • Upgraded Linker to the version 0.64 (fixed a bunch of problems with include files and external symbols)
  • Upgraded FloppyBuilder to version 0.19 (Better error handling)
  • Improved the FloppyBuilder sample program with a new API file to make it easier to use

  OSDK 1.7
Thu 7th January 2016   

  • Upgraded PictConv to the version 0.23 (Two new options for the Atari ST monochrome mode, -f2 and -s1)
  • Upgraded FloppyBuilder to the version 0.18 (Added a 'ReserveSectors' command that can be used to leave room on the disk for save games or stuff like that)
  • Added a FloppyBuilder sample program.
  • The OSDK is now going through the Coverity analyzer (https://scan.coverity.com/projects/osdk - a number of small issues have been corrected, but as all code changes that can lead to bugs).

2015

  Charsets
Thu 17th September 2015   

  • A blog article talking about character sets on the Oric

  Preprocessor abuses
Sat 15th August 2015   

  • A blog article about pre-processor and linking format in the OSDK

  Oric Library
Sat 13th June 2015   

  • Added a downloadable versions of 'Manuel de Référence' and 'Travaux Pratiques' from André Chenière

  OSDK 1.6
Sun 31st May 2015   

  • Upgraded PictConv to the version 0.22 (Fixed the -o0/-o1 documentation error, and made the -f5 charmap mode actually work)
  • Upgraded FloppyBuilder to the version 0.17 (data can now be extracted from an existing DSK file, parser and macro expansion improvements)
  • Upgraded ym2mym to version 1.6 (music can now be truncated and faded out)
  • Disabled the verbose messages displayed by old2mfm.

  Let's make noise
Sat 28th February 2015   

  • A blog article how to use the MYM player to have some music in your Oric projects

  OSDK 1.5
Sat 14th February 2015   

  • Upgraded PictConv to the version 0.21 (Support for AIC pictures and alpha channel in pictures)

2014

  Oric Library
Sat 15th November 2014   

  • Added a downloadable version of L'assembleur de L'oric 1 et Atmos (in French)

  OSDK 1.4
Fri 12th December 2014   

  • Upgraded Oricutron to version 1.2
  • Upgraded ym2mym to version 1.5
  • Updated the documentation

  OSDK 1.3
Sat 20th September 2014   

  • Updated code generator and macros for the C compiler (bug fix for the MicroChess program).
  • Many fixes to make the LINUX version a reality (case change for files, gcc compile fixes, ...).
  • Upgraded Bas2Tap and Tap2Dsk to give names to the generated tapes.
  • Upgraded Header to version 0.2: The address can now be specified with either $ or 0x as an hexadecimal prefix

  Oric Library
Thu 24th April 2014   

  • Added a downloadable version of the Oric Atmos manual (in English)

  Defence-Force.com
Wed 16th April 2014   

  • Defence-Force.com is now operational - kind of

  OSDK 1.2
Sun 16th March 2014   


  OSDK 1.1
Mon 24th February 2014   


  OSDK 1.0
Sun 23rd February 2014   

  • Oricutron 0.9 is now used by default instead of Euphoric, you can set OSDKEMUL to choose between EUPHORIC and Oricutron.
  • Added FloppyBuilder 0.15 - A new tool to generate bootable floppies with full access to overlay memory.
  • Added Ym2Mym 1.4 - A new tool to convert Atari ST and Amstrad musics to a format suitable for the Oric.
  • Upgraded PictConv to the version 0.19 (New 'img2oric/libpipi' algorithm)
  • Plus quite many internal changes (linux compatibility, bug fixes, ...) which should not impact the end user of the SDK

2013

  Oric Library
Fri 29th March 2013   

  • Added a downloadable version of Au coeur de l'Oric Atmos (in French)

  Oric Library
Sun 10th March 2013   

  • Added a downloadable version of the issues 13, 153 and 273 of the CEO Mag

  Oric 30th birthday
Sun 6th January 2013   

  • The Oric 30th birthday page is now online
  • The Facebook page is now online


I wish you all the best for 2013.
Don't forget you can use Defence-Force's forum and wiki!


2012

  OSDK 0.20
Sun 8th April 2012   



I wish you all the best for 2012.
Don't forget you can use Defence-Force's forum and wiki!


2011

  OSDK 0.19
Tue 18th January 2011   

  • Upgraded XA to the version 2.2.3
  • Added TapTool 1.0 - Should work as a drop-in replacement for Tap2CD, in the future will provide in one tool all the functionalities of Tap2Wav, Tap2CD and Tap2DSK.
  • Added DskTool 1.0 - Should work as a drop-in replacement for Old2Mfm, in the future will provide in one tool all the functionalities of Old2Mfm, Raw2Mfm, CRCFix, Init, MakeDsk, ...

  OSDK 0.18
Sat 15th January 2011   

  • Upgraded Euphoric to the version 1014
  • Upgraded MemMap to the version 0.004
  • Upgraded XA to the version 2.2.1
  • The handling of the stackframe should not be more robust, fixing the random variable corruption that happened in code using many functions calls and local variables.
  • The libraries now contains a 32 bit multiplication routine, and a Microsoft compatible random number generator.


I wish you all the best for 2011.
Don't forget you can use Defence-Force's forum and wiki!


2010

  Improved schematics
Sun 2nd May 2010   

  • Thanks to Paul Carpenter you can now dowload an improved versions of the RGB converter in the video hardware section.

  Downloadable books
Wed 28th April 2010   

  • Thanks to François Schuler you can now dowload the PDF versions of every issues of Théoric in the Oric library.

  OSDK 0.17
Fri 12th February 2010   

  • Added taptap.exe in the bin folder.
  • Added a 256 bytes assembler sample demo.
  • Updated Xa.exe.
  • Updated tap2dsk.exe.
  • Updated Link65.exe - it accepts now up to 10000 labels instead of 2000.
  • Updated FilePack.
  • Updated PictConv.
  • Updated MemMap.
  • Updated Bas2Tap - it can now add colors to comments.
  • Modified make.bat to make it work with the new disk building system.
  • Modified osdk_euphoric.bat to restore the current directory on exit.
  • Fixed the build scripts for some of the samples, that pointed on the wrong location for data files.
  • Fixed lib.h, peek/poke/deek/doke should now work correctly.
  • Removed the Visual Studio project files from the sample.

  Downloadable books
Sat 6th February 2010   

  • Thanks to François Schuler you can now dowload the PDF versions of every issues of Micr'Oric in the Oric library.

  Downloadable books
Fri 5th February 2010   

  • Thanks to Alfonso you can now dowload the PDF versions of the sixth issue of Micr'Oric in the Oric library.


I wish you all the best for 2010.
Don't forget you can use Defence-Force's forum and wiki!


2009

  Atari ST demos
Tue 24th November 2009   

  • A new page is available in the Atari section, with the 20th anniversary demos of the Atari ST and STE.

  misc
Thu 13th August 2009   

  • Thanks to the author of PJirc you can now discuss with other Oric users on the IrcNet channel #oric.

  Downloadable magazine
Thu 2nd July 2009   

  • Thanks to Alfonso you can now dowload the PDF versions of the first issue of Micr'Oric in the Oric library.

  Downloadable books
Thu 4th June 2009   

  • Thanks to Alfonso you can now dowload the PDF versions of Getting more from your oric in the Oric library.

  Downloadable books
Mon 25th May 2009   

  • Thanks to Wascol you can now dowload the PDF versions of Oric Atmos - votre micro-ordinateur and Oric Atmos - vos programmes in the Oric library.

  misc
Tue 10th March 2009   

  • The link to the 3D engine list on the useful videogame links was not working anymore. Thanks to Ellie for signaling the issue and providing me with a cool replacement !

  Caloric source code
Mon 9th March 2009   

  • The Caloric source code is now available on the Subversion repository. Thanks Jede.


I wish you all the best for 2009.
Don't forget you can use Defence-Force's forum and wiki!


2008

  Hyper-Basic manual
Mon 19th May 2008   

  • Added a downloadable version of the Hyper-Basic manual. It's available in english and french in the Oric Library. Thanks to Brana for the translation !

1997-2007

2007

  Demo updates
Sun 12th August 2007   

  • Added a photo of the team on the Next demogroup page
  • Updated the Barbitoric Demo page with the youtube video
  • Updated the Buggy Boy Demo page with the youtube video

  New games available
Sat 17th March 2007   

  • Better late than never, the Oric games page has been updated.
    You can now dowload both 4k Kong and CycloTron games, complete with screen shots, documentation and source code.

  Misc stuff
Sun 4th March 2007   

  • Updated my online resume
  • The OSDK now has its own domaine

  R.I.P.
Mon 26th February 2007   



    A dear friend of mine, Jean-Michel Hervé, aka Tuo^Mandarine, passed away this morning. He is sorely missed.


      Barbitoric video
    Sat 17th February 2007   

    • Updated the Barbitoric Demo page with a downloadable video


    I wish you all the best for 2007.
    1997-2007
    Ten year anniversary for Defence-Force !


    2006

      OSDK 0.16
    Wed 13th December 2006   

    • Replaced a part of the build process that was crashing Wine. It is now possible to compile an Oric program with the OSDK on a Linux machine.
    • If you have DosBox installed, it is now possible to run Euphoric in a windowed mode.
    • Updated the documentation with more interpage links.
    • Upgraded Euphoric to the version 1007
    • Added Bas2Tap as a native part of the OSDK. It is now possible to generate programs from a BASIC source code easily.
    • Added a lot of options to fine tune the output of Bin2Txt, including the possibility to generate BASIC files.
    • PictConv can now export pictures as BASIC DATA lines.
    • PictConv can convert colored pictures that are not 240 pixels wide

      OSDK 0.15
    Wed 2nd August 2006   

    • Corrected a stupid mistake that led to invalid code generation

      OSDK 0.14
    Thu 1st June 2006   

    • Some new features in PictConv:
      • If there is something specified after -o3 or -o4 modes, it's used as a label name to use when generating source code data.
      • If there is a 'z' specified after -f0 mode (monochrome conversion), it means that bit 6 should not be set in converted bytes
      • Added -n switch to set the number of values per line (stolen from Bin2Txt !)
    • Update the documentation page about PictConv, it was severly lacking some important details -like file formats-

      OSDK 0.13
    Sun 4th June 2006   

    • Corrected a bug in the makefile (introduce in version 0.012) that make it impossible to compile C programs
    • It is now possible to use .ASM extension for assembly source code, in addition to .S
    • Added pictures of Windows 2000 and Windows XP system properties in the installation page.

      OSDK 0.12
    Sun 4th June 2006   

    • Corrected a bug in the linker that made it impossible to use the linker with only one source file
    • Corrected a bug in the #file command in XA, it now correctly displays the file and line if an error happens during the second pass
    • Corrected a bug in the handling of static function pointer generating bad code (1.29 code generator by Fabrice)
    • Added an option to display the size of generated programs in Header

      OSDK 0.11
    Wed 1st March 2006   

    • Corrected a bug in the data unpacking code (overflow when offset was equal to 4096 exactly)
    • Corrected a bug (hack) in XA that make it crash when processing too many levels of macro expansion
    • Added a way to generate masks from a bitmap in PictConv
    • Added support for Atari ST compatible bitmap data in PictConv
    • Added an option in Bin2Txt to set the number of values per line of data
    • Added a new program in the OSDK, MemMap with the associated osdk_showmap.bat to show how memory is used

      Defence-Force's forum
    Sat 7th January 2006   

    • A big addition to this site: We now have a discussion forum! Find out what's going on, voice your opinions, enjoy...

      Phaleon Gigademo
    Sun 1st January 2006   

    • Updated the Phaleon Gigademo page with a lot of screen shots


    I wish you all the very best for 2006.


    2005


    No update was done in 2005.

    (This is the year I moved to Norway, I was very very busy)


    2004

      Oric gallery update
    Sat 4th September 2004   

    • Added a picture by Mermaid in the oric gallery

      Member list
    Sun 15th August 2004   

    • A page with the Defence Force team members in the Oric section

      Buggy Boy
    Sat 14th August 2004   

    • A page about the Buggy Boy demo in the Oric section

      New magazine
    Mon 31st May 2004   

    • Added a 'Personal Software' magazine issue dedicated to the Oric in the Oric library

      Updated resume
    Sun 23rd May 2004   

    • Updated my Curiculum Vitae page !

      OSDK 0.10
    Thu 1st January 2004   

    • Corrected bug in the memset routine: it was trashing the first byte that follow the routine.
    • Added screenshots of Euphoric menu, boot sequence and debugger in action

      OSDK 0.9
    Thu 1st January 2004   

    • Corrected a bug in the data unpacking code
    • Corrected a bug in the EQW_DI macro instruction
    • Modified the linker to handle pure assembly code projects (SET OSDKLINK=-B in the configuration file)
    • Modified the linker to make it not complain about .( and .)
    • Modified the linker to add #file directives in order to get valid error messages (file/line) from XA assembler
    • Modified the linker to makes it accept /* */ comments (was previously crashing badly)
    • Modified the assembleur to accept the #file directive
    • Modified the makefile to accept a OSDKCOMP variable to handle compiler optimisation settings
    • Updated Euphoric to release 1.004a
    • Added 'testing' mode to PictConv
    • Added a 'do not save header' mode to FilePack
    • Added a new sample project: 4KKong game

    2003

      More books
    Mon 13th October 2003   

    • Added two books in the Oric library.

      More art
    Mon 13th October 2003   

    • Added two pictures from D. Vasiljevic in the oric gallery.

      More art
    Sun 30th March 2003   

    • Major update of the Oric Gallery page.
    • Creation of an Atari gallery page.
    • Oric and Atari pictures have been removed from the picture section.

      Barbitoric best of
    Wed 22nd January 2003   

    • Updated the Oric Gallery page with Barbitoric demo pictures.

      Barbitoric demo
    Sun 19th January 2003   

    • A page about the Barbitoric demo is now available in the Oric demo section.


    I wish you all a very nice year 2003.


    2002

      OSDK 0.8
    Fri 1st November 2002   

    • Corrected bug in the code generator: floating point code is now working.
    • Made some improvements in the build and execute batch files.
    • Added already made Visual Studio projects and workspaces.

      OSDK 0.7
    Fri 1st November 2002   

    • Corrected bug in the code generator: function pointers are now working correctly.
    • Corrected bug in the code generator: NULL pointers as parameters are now working correctly.
    • Corrected bug in memset, it was crashing !
    • Added configuration information on how to use VisualC++ and UltraEdit for editing.
    • Added some definitions in the glossary.
    • Added a page with the 6502 instruction set.

      OSDK 0.6
    Fri 1st November 2002   

    • Corrected bug with -u option of FilePack (was not working anymore)
    • Corrected various problems in the documentation (spelling, html errors)
    • Added version number on the first documentation page.

      OSDK 0.5
    Fri 1st November 2002   

    • Corrected error in Bin2Txt documentation
    • Corrected problem with the 'tmp' folder that was missing in the Zip archive
    • Added FreeImage.dll (needed for PictConv)

      OSDK 0.4
    Fri 1st November 2002   

    • Updated code generator and macros for the C compiler.
    • Updated tape header manager, can now remove headers and set autorun flag
    • Added FilePack, Bin2Txt, PictConv, WriteDsk, Tap2Cd and Tap2Wav
    • Added this documentation :)
    • Added two samples (picture display, and file decompression)
    • Added 'file_unpack' function
    • Corrected bug in 'clock' function
    • XA symbol table is now compatible with Euphoric debuger format

      Assembly 2002
    Sun 11th August 2002   

    • Assembly 2002 invtro is now available in the Oric demo section.

      STNICCC 2000
    Sun 30th June 2002   

    • Some photos taken during the STNICCC 2000 and Volcanic 4 demo parties in the Oric section.

      Demo links
    Sat 29th June 2002   

    • Update of the links into the demo scene section.

      Very Important Party
    Fri 28th June 2002   

    • Some photos taken during VIP3 and VIP4 demo party in the Oric section.

      Filepack
    Mon 24th June 2002   

    • A new tool is available in the Oric programming section: A file packer.

      Oric Gallery
    Sat 22nd June 2002   

    • A new section: The Oric Gallery.

      User manuals
    Sun 16th June 2002   

    • Two new books in the oric library: Cumana disk drive and MCP40 printer user manuals.

      VIP 4
    Thu 13th June 2002   

    • Since the VIP 4 demo party is now finished, you can now download our Oric demo on it's dedicated page.

      Golden Web Award
    Thu 30th May 2002   

    • I've been awarded the 2002-2003 Golden Web Award. That's cool !



      Misc
    Mon 27th May 2002   

    • Few more pictures in the passion section. One link to the Paint Shop Pro web site.

      Oric manual
    Mon 20th May 2002   

    • Ten new books (Pravetz 8D, manuals) in the Oric library.

      French videogames
    Sun 12th May 2002   

    • Update of the Time Commando page in the video game / adeline software section.

      Oric DOS manual
    Wed 1st May 2002   

    • The Oric Dos 1.1 can now be downloaded in the Oric library.
    • Added a picture of my MegaSTE in the Atari hardware section.

      PictConv
    Sun 21st April 2002   

    • PictConv can now be downloaded in the Oric development section.

      Bulgarian Madness
    Sat 20th April 2002   

    • Photos of Pravetz 8D motherboard in the Oric Hardware section.
    • A new book in the Oric library: The Pravetz 8D user manual.

      French videogames
    Sun 7th April 2002   

    • A new company: Babylon Software.

      French videogames
    Mon 11th March 2002   

    • Three new companies: 4x technologies, in utero, et yeti interactive.
    • The patched version of Phaleon demo is available: Start your emulators !

      French videogames
    Sun 17th February 2002   

    • Update of the Little Big Adventure page.
    • The videogame company list was split in two parts. The living and the deads.

      French companies
    Wed 6th February 2002   

    • Update of the page about Lankhor (R.I.P.).
    • A new video game companie: T-Bot interactive.

      OSDK 0.3
    Sat 12th January 2002   

    • Lots of modification. The setup/use is a lot simpler than before.
    • A complete manual with pictures explaining how to configurate the OSDK to use from Visual Studios.
    • Euphoric is integrated into the release

      Floppy disk manuals
    Tue 1st January 2002   

    • The french version of the sedoric and microdisc manual is available as a HTML file in the oric library.


    I wish you all a very nice year 2002.

    Too bad that '2001, a space odyssey' did not happen...
    pfuuuu :'(


    2001

      Oric manuals
    Wed 14th November 2001   

    • The french version of the oric atmos manual is available as a PDF file in the oric library

      Misc changes
    Tue 2nd October 2001   

    • Update of the Lankhor page. Their website is back online
    • The oric hardware section now present a oric to scart video converter.

      Oric programming books
    Sat 4th August 2001   

    • Large update of the 'Oric programming' section
    • All the site has been checked for typos

      OSDK 0.2
    Wed 1st August 2001   

    • Correction of a bug in the header creator

      More books
    Fri 22nd June 2001   

    • General update on the Oric library, with two downloadable books (the Oric 1 user manual, and Geoff Phillips book)
    • The Extense site search engine has been replaced by the Google one.

      OSDK 0.1
    Thu 1st March 2001   

    • First official version of the OSDK

      Oric manuals
    Wed 7th February 2001   

    • General update on the oric library !!!


    Check out the http://www.vachealait.com page to learn the latest news on big money consumer incursions.
    If you are tired of paying for everything and for nothing for all the bad reasons in the world, sign the petition.


    Ensuring that 'poor' artists continue to earn their money is not a bad thing in itself. But taxing everything and everything becomes downright disgusting ...


    For example, I have a CD burner, two PCs, an Atari Mega STE and a network oric, as well as a DreamCast console and a PlayStation (one).
    After a quick calculation, I came to about 120 original software, 16 DVD movies, a good fifty audio CDs, and 3 games in pirate version.
    Yes, 3 pirated games, but these are games that I own the original that do not run on my PC because of the protection.
    The music ? I buy CDs whenever I want. So why a burner?
    Well for backing up, archiving, exchanging data between home and work, and transferring oric software from their cassettes to audio CDs (more reliable!).


    My question: Why should I pay a tax on products that do not serve me to harm copyright?

    (Basically, this page explains why some French organisation wants to apply a taxation on any numeric product that can be used to store, stream, listen any numeric data that could be protected by copyrights...)


      Library update
    Mon 15th January 2001   

    • The magazine section of the oric library has been updated. The CEO mag part has been totally modified !

      More magazines
    Sat 2nd January 2010   

    • A 'Rhetoric' page in the oric library


    Happy new year everybody. I hope you got a nice year 2000, and that the year 2001 will be even better !


    2000

      STNICCC 2000
    Sun 31st December 2000   

    • This is the last update for that millennium...It should have been done before, but I was the victim of a hard drive failure !
    • Added screenshots of the Oric demo that won the first place at the STNICCC 2000.


    Today is Christmas !!!
    Merry Christmas everybody !


      Another award
    Wed 13th December 2000   

    • The International Association of Web Masters and Designers give that site the '2000-2001 Golden Web Award'



      Web ring
    Wed 13th December 2000   

    • Add a link to the 6502 web ring on the main oric page




    This is the 24 november: official release date of the PlayStation 2 in France.

    Today I decided to buy a DreamCast with lots of games, two pads and a VM.
    The total costs less than a PlayStation 2 without anything else...


      More books
    Sun 19th November 2000   

    • Large update of the 'Basic programming books' in the oric library

      More books
    Sun 29th October 2000   

    • The complete covers of Théoric, Micr'Oric, Oric Owner and Oric Computing in the oric library

      More books
    Sun 8th October 2000   

    • Two books and one magazine in the oric library
    • The design document part has been updated.

      Contact section
    Sun 4th June 2000   

    • Added a nice photo of Lyon, with a link on the web site
    • Added a link to the web site of Angers

      French companies
    Sat 27th May 2000   

    • A new company in the list: WideScreen Games
    • The pages about Arkane Studios and Eden Studios have been updated


    Was in holidays in USA from 6th to 21th of may 2000.


      A lot of changes
    Sun 23rd January 2000   

    • The charts and the Phaleon now have dedicated pages
    • The .ST files of the Phaleon demo and charts can now be downloaded
    • A lot of texts and screen shots of the Phaleon dome...
    • Some dead links removed
    • A new page about my recent demo making participations
    • Some links on demomaking web sites

      First Y2K update
    Wed 12th January 2000   

    • A new company in the list: QuanticDream
    • Two new links on the video game links: Hugo Elias page and FlipCode.com

    1999


    Add a link on the ARTICLE 11 page.

    Basically, this page explains why some French 'censoring' organisation wants to control (they say 'regulate') the internet.
    Doing that, they deny to the citizens the right to control their life themselves.



    I wish you all a very nice year 2000. The famous bug does not cause the annouced apocalypse... :)


      Misc stuff
    Wed 29th December 1999   

    • I forgot a French videogame company: Kalisto.
    • Arkane Studios is born

      I'm late!
    Sat 2nd October 1999   

    • Look at the date just above: The last update was in march !
    • Video games: I've modified the Adeline Software page, and added a page about Lankhor following a mail informing me of the opening of their website.
    • Oric: A new page in the 'hardware' section. Plenty of scans of oric motherboards, and a complete description of main components. It's a preparation job that will lead to the 21th century Oric design :)

      Here we go again
    Tue 23rd March 1999   

    • Ok, time to get back to job. Defence-Force.org running again.


    On strike until the 23th of march 1999.

    Why on strike ?

    Because French law are totaly outdated when it concerns Internet. But they still are used.

    So, numerous French web-masters were on-strike to request a clear, efficient reglementation...


      Misc stuff
    Tue 19th January 1999   

    • I received the 1999 Web Academy certification. Thanks.
    • Just hope the will like my logo :)
    • Links for downloading .MOD files should now works fine.



    1998

      Misc stuff
    Fri 27th November 1998   

    • I received the 'Ravi's Elite Award'. Cool, and thanks again :)
    • The oric library has been redesigned and extended.



      New logo!
    Sun 1st November 1998   

    • New Defence Force logo
    • Added a few external links.

      About...
    Sun 18th October 1998   

    • The 'Mike' (it's me) homepage is online. With pictures, curiculum vitae, and so on...

      Redesign
    Sun 11th October 1998   

    • It seems that the new site style was not cool enough... I took notes so here is now the new version, more colourful. I'm waiting for next critics...

      Opinion
    Sat 26th September 1998   

    • I finally made a decision about my 'editorial line' ... So far, I have always spoken on my page that things 'politically correct', no risk of annoying anyone, if not not the subject itself (obsolete stuff and cie ...).My decision is that eventually I'll talk about things that really hold my heart, to know why the universe turns square, why it's not always the guys who win, why programs crash, etc ...But hey, I must already redo all the architecture of the site, index the pages, delete the frames, etc ...No animated gif, no web counter, removal of banners, removal of the external links page (which will be placed in each thematic section ...). In short, it's a job!

      Misc
    Wed 23rd September 1998   

    • Registered Defence-Force in search engines and directories
    • Start contacting webmasters that have links on my old page
    • Change HOL pages with 'this page move here' message

      Defence-Force.org
    Tue 22nd September 1998   

    • Errors 401 and 404 now are correctly displayed


    Was in holidays in USA from 8th to 20th of september 1998.


      Misc
    Wed 26th August 1998   

    • Added this new page called "what's new ?"
    • Modified all the bad adresses in the pages

      Bi-lingual?
    Sun 16th August 1998   

    • I decided that this new site will be English AND French. Boring to do, but worth while !

      New ISP
    Sat 15th August 1998   

    • InterNIC registered my domain name. Cool !
    • Transfer of the site to SimpleNet who is my new provider

    1997

      ISP change
    Fri 1st August 1997   

    • HOL (my first ISP) sends a mail saying that it will stops all web activities. And ask us to continue with AOL. Thanks you, bye.

      Here we go!
    Sat 1st March 1997   

    • My personal homepage is now online! Welcome to http://wwwperso.hol.fr/~mpointie


    Made with the OSDK

    Cyclotron
    by Mickaël Pointier

    “A 4k game based on the Tron movie”


    Released in 2004

    “I found the game fun and well presented..”
    Exocet

    “Sparse on sound effects but high on gameplay - a superb piece of programming within the limits of only 4KB of RAM.”
    RetroBrothers

    “Very colourful - I didn't know that the Oric was capable of the graphical effects that are used in this game. It's fun to play as well.”
    nich