ArduinoBoy build

Preamble

Following on from Making your own ArduinoBoy, here is a photographic guide…

Making your own GameBoy Flash cartridges

Preamble

I have already touched upon this in GameBoy Flashers, however I want to make cheap GameBoy flash cartridges using commercially available items…

Making your own ArduinoBoy

Preamble

Following on from ArduinoBoys and others and Scaling PDF for PCB, here’s a step by step guide to making Trash80’s ArduinoBoy, on a PCB. For a photographic guide, see ArduinoBoy build.

Obviously, you don’t have to use a PCB and you could make the ArduinoBoy using stripboard/veroboard, ProtoShield, or even on a breadboard… see at the bottom for a suggested layouts.

BTW, I assume Trash80’s moniker is a nod to the Radio Shack TRS-80?

Battered GameGear

Preamble

Following on from , is the Sega GameGear any good for Chiptunes and MIDI?

Battered Nintendo DS Lite

Preamble

Ninetendo DS Lite, 180 baht in the Din Daeng market. No battery, battery cover, or stylus. How useful is it for MIDI, Chiptunes, etc.?

ArduinoBoys and others

Preamble

Following on from Chiptunes, this is an ArduinoBoy specific article. ArduinoBoy was developed by Trash80. It also covers ArduinoBoy derivatives, such as TeensyBoy, and others… This blog is continued in Making your own ArduinoBoy.

GameBoy Flashers

Preamble

Following on from Chiptunes and Battered GameBoy, I thought I’d investigate trying to get a LSDJ on the cheap, see DMG music cartridge… and ended up also investigating flashers, as it is probably cheaper to buy a flashable card than trying to source an original LSDj cartridge.

Battered GameBoy

Preamble

Following on from Chiptunes, I purchased a beautiful red GameBoy original from the market for 30 baht. Obviously, at that price, it is in a right bad state.

Chiptunes

Preamble

Everyone is talking about Chiptunes these days, the retro sound obtained from the games devices, and home computers of the 80s:

• Music from Game Boys –
  • For the original Game Boys are best, see Game Boy Sound System, and for more details Gameboy sound hardware.
  • Instructables – The ultimate guide to creating chiptunes on the game boy, an excellent guide, which also features a DIY repair guide for GameBoys.
  • Note that GameBoy Advance, or Nintendo DS are not so useful when trying to make music
  • Magical Game Boys: Demystifying The Live Chiptune Performance
• Commodore 64 SID chip, MOS Technology 6581 and 6582/8580R5, see SID and MOS Technology SID. See also, Video chip 6567 (VIC20) – Datasheets are here.
• The 8580 runs at a different voltage and sounds different to the 6581. The 8580 is compatible with the 6581, but requires some minor circuit changes, including a 78L09 transistor. Used in the Innovation SSI-2001, see Replica Sound Cards – AdLib, Innovation SSI-2001, and SwinSID Ultimate. See also Innovation SSI-2001: the story of one of the rarest sound cards for the IBM PC (and its replica)
• SwinSID – A replica of the SID. The Ultimate can emulate the old 6581 or newer 8580 SID.
  • Video
    • Replica Sound Cards – AdLib, Innovation SSI-2001, and SwinSID Ultimate at 10:34.
  • Otherlinks
    • Downloads,
    • PCB from PCBWay,
    • Nightfall
• General Instruments AY-3-8910
• Yamaha YM2149F, a derivative of the AY-3-8910
• Yamaha YM3812 (aka OPL2), used in the AdLib PC sound card, early 1991 SoundBlaster v2.0 CT1350B and the Pro Audio Spectrum, see How Oldschool Sound/Music worked at 4:32. Also used in PSS-470 Yamaha keyboard.
  • Video
    • Ad-Lib Sound Card for the Parallel Port and
    • Replica Sound Cards – AdLib, Innovation SSI-2001, and SwinSID Ultimate.
• Yamaha YMF262 (aka OPL3) – Backwards compatible with YM3812, and used in SoundBlaster 16, Pro Audio Spectrum 16 and ESS/Crystal Audio.
  • Video
    • Ad-Lib Sound Card for the Parallel Port
• Texas Instruments SN76489
  • See The Tandy 1000 – The best MS-DOS computer in 1984. @ 2:51
• Texas Instruments SN76496 – competitor of the AY-3-8910, identical to the SN76489 but with sound in.
• From Why did the IBM PC need a sound card?, both the SoundBlaster and ZXSpectrum128k used a AY-8912, see AY-3-8910 Variants
• Intel 8253 and 8254 is a basic timer chip used by the PC internal speaker (not soundcard)
• From Building my Dream Computer – Part 2 @ 40:02 (see also @18:59):
  • AY-3-8910
  • YM-2151 (as found in the Yamaha DX27/100 keyboard)
  • SAA-1099 (Creative Labs Game blaster and sound blaster)
• PC DAC, see How the Covox and Disney Sound Source Worked.
  • Covox ST (Speech Thing) –
  • Disnet SS (Sound Source) –

Featured image courtesy of Button Masher T.O.