| ▲ | bmalicoat a day ago |
| Hey! This is mine, thanks! I'm building Retro Song Bird, a speaker that plays the soundtracks from your classic Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. There were a ton of unique technical challenges to building the prototype in a way that could play instantly, have cool features, and not attract lawsuits from IP holders! I've discovered a ton about the artistry of these early game music composers and the technical limitations imposed on them. I've also discovered a ton of hidden bangers as I collected and tested 150+ carts. I'm most excited to see how people make music using the stems of classic tracks or perform DJ sets with two beat-synced carts. Happy to answer any questions, thanks! |
|
| ▲ | ceroxylon a day ago | parent | next [-] |
| Brilliant project, thank you for putting so much thought into it! The DAW / webcam features take this over the top for me, very well done. |
| |
|
| ▲ | Luc a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Interesting project! How did you automate finding the music player code (and initializing it for different tracks) for +1900 ROMs? |
| |
| ▲ | bmalicoat a day ago | parent | next [-] | | It's a combination of a few things: existing GBS files, mapping new obscure carts, re-mapping music from revision to revision (usually they fix bugs but don't change music so it's the same overall shape, and lastly I have a crowdsourcing tool that works in Chrome if you plug in your Retro Song Bird. It allows you to play the ROM in a monitored emulator looking for register writes that look like music. Basically it's a multi-pronged approach with tons of little tools and heuristics! I also go through and measure the music duration since some tracks are made to loop indefinitely and I measure the BPM of the tracks so you can sync two Retro Song Birds and change the tempo over MIDI and beat match them. Basically like a DJ set with carts instead of vinyl. | |
| ▲ | a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | [deleted] |
|
|
| ▲ | devindotcom a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| That's fun! I would love this for NES. I believe there are NSF rippers and players that are quite compact but that's the limit of my knowledge. |
| |
| ▲ | bmalicoat a day ago | parent [-] | | I'm going to NES next! The hardware and software architecture I have (including a split PCB design) allows me to move to NES pretty quick. I have a proof of concept working. Personally I have more nostalgia for NES music (Mega Man 2, Punch Out, Metroid!) than for GB. | | |
| ▲ | devindotcom 9 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | That's awesome. I'll keep an eye out. Great reason beyond simple nostalgia to pick up and keep regular cartridges. | |
| ▲ | bdickason a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | mega man 2 soundtrack is goated. Still listen to it regularly! | | |
| ▲ | bmalicoat a day ago | parent [-] | | A fellow man of taste I see :) Can't wait to listen to Punch-Out, Metroid, and Bionic Commando. | | |
|
|
|
|
| ▲ | 999900000999 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Is GBA possible ? I was playing Tiny Toons Wacky Stackers yesterday and the soundtrack has no right to be that good. |
| |
| ▲ | bmalicoat a day ago | parent [-] | | GBA is a lot harder! On GB/GBC the music is just code, so if you can find it, you can execute it. This also means you just need to store a map of where it is (e.g. pointers) and not any intellectual property. On GBA and SNES, devs had access to more modern codecs, so they might just store music as a wav or mp3-like file (or a proprietary one), which makes the job a lot tougher. The hardware and software I built is setup so that I can rapidly move on to NES next. For me, NES is the sweet spot of quality of music and ease of extraction. |
|
|
| ▲ | RALaBarge a day ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I would buy this immediately upon release. |
| |
| ▲ | bmalicoat a day ago | parent [-] | | Thanks! I'm launching a Kickstarter 11/15. I'm excited to turn it into a real product and not just a 3D-printed prototype. |
|
