Click here to see the 240x200 Oric Hires Graphics Template. (Opens in new window)
Here is an example of an Oric Hires Graphic: (with a text line - from the SPAINT program)
On the Oric HIRES screen, each of the 8,000 bytes (40 across by 200 down) may contain the value of 0 through 255. Of these codes, 64 are named as 'attributes'. These codes are representative of instructions to the screen on how to represent the rest of the horizontal line. In the Oric memory map, the HIRES screen resides in locations #A000 (40960) to #BF3F (48959). To save the HIRES screen to tape, you would use the BASIC command: CSAVE "FILENAME.EXT",A#A000,E#BF3F Chart 11 at the end of this instructional page gives us a listing of every value and how it is represented on screen.
Charts 1 & 2 demonstrate to us the PAPER and INK values 16-23 & 0-7. (PAPER is usually listed first, but this does not need to be the case as we soon shall see). We can also see demonstrated PAPER values 144-151 and INK values 128-135. These have the same effect on the rest of the horizontal line as do the lower codes (128 lower), but do have an inverse effect on the viewed byte where this value is stored. In the case of PAPER, the byte is shown in the inverse colour, whereas with INK the byte is shown as an inverse of the PAPER colour set. A guide to how the colours "pair up" for inversing, may be seen at the bottom of Chart 2.
Chart 1	Chart 2
Chart 3 shows us every combination of all PAPER values 16-23 followed by the INK values 0-7 & 128-135. In cases where the PAPER and INK would be the same colour (say RED PAPER 17 and RED INK 1), it was not demonstrated on the chart, since the visable value would not be able to be read. We can see that INK values 128-135 did in fact leave an inverse PAPER visable byte	Now here is things start to get interesting, and just a little technical. Chart 2 below shows us the same range of colour attribute PAPER and INK codes that Guide 1 does, but we can see that the shown information is inversly coloured. This is because all the data byte codes in Chart 1 were of the range 64-127, but here in Chart 2 the same codes are in the range 192-255. [Please note that in Oric BASIC, the graphic control commands (CURSET, DRAW, CIRCLE etc) will only have the HIRES display show the data byte codes 64-127. To use codes 192-255, they have to be FILL'd or POKE'd into place.]
Chart 3	Chart 4
Chart 5 is much like Chart 3 but instead of using PAPER values 16-23, the values 144-151 are used instead. The effect on the visable codes is the same, but the PAPER attribute byte is shown in inverse colour.	Chart 6 uses the same PAPER and INK values that Chart 5 does, but like Chart 4 above the data codes are in the range 192-255 which inverses the PAPER and INK colours.
Chart 5	Chart 6
The thought behind Chart 7 was to visualise how INK values are serially shown after a single PAPER value.	Chart 8 is the same as Chart 7 but using the data codes 192-255.
Chart 7	Chart 8
For the last visual demonstration in Chart 9 I wanted to see the INK values placed first before the PAPER values in a horizontal line. [Note: For the INK values 0 & 128 [BLACK] a PAPER value of 23 [WHITE] was used beforehand, for the simple reason that PAPER is automatically BLACK unless otherwise set, and logically you cannot see BLACK on BLACK.]	Chart 10 is the same as Chart 9 but using the data codes 192-255.
Chart 9	Chart 10
These charts and this webpage was created to satisfy my own personal curiosity regarding how the Oric HIRES screen works with it's various attribute values and inverse coding options. It is not designed to be a fully informational tutorial, but if it helps someone else to understand the HIRES screen better then I will be happy. If you wish to discuss any of this, please email me:     thespider AT oric DOT com    [Not a link] Of course, discussions regarding all things Oric are constantly held at the Usenet Newsgroup:    comp.sys.oric [Email me if you need server details] All Oric graphics were created using SPaint, which is a paint type program of my own BASIC coding. It is slow, constantly being worked upon, but for the most part it works. Here are the links to download the program and documentation... SPaint - Oric Paint Program (zipped disk & tape files) SPaint Documentation (zipped HTML folder]
All the above Charts 1-10 may be downloaded in a single zip file, which contains the following 10 files:   Chart 1 - PAPER.HRS   Chart 2 - INK.HRS   Chart 3 - CLRBAR1.HRS   Chart 4 - CLRBAR1I.HRS   Chart 5 - CLRBAR2.HRS   Chart 6 - CLRBAR2I.HRS   Chart 7 - CLRBAR3.HRS   Chart 8 - CLRBAR3I.HRS   Chart 9 - CLRBAR4.HRS   Chart 10 - CLRBAR4I.HRS Click here to download the file : Oric Colour Code Charts Unzip the files into your TAPE directory, and in your ORIC emulator enter into HIRES mode. To view each file, type: CLOAD "FILENAME.EXT" , example: CLOAD "CLRBAR1.HRS"
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Chart 11