Category: Platforms

  • Midi synth Control of the atari 2600

    [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/E_6CYywmKzs" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

    ThemindOfPat writes:

    Sort of like synthcart, only with more synth and less cart! Less hacking/drilling a vintage VCS, too.

    After months of distraction I finally got around to implementing: 1) my own clock so I don’t need an Atari MB, and 2) MIDI control. Laughably enough, it took me like 2 hours, so it was a welcome break from banging my head against other projects for days straight. I’m quite pleased with the results! Still would like to add a couple features but this is enough to run genuine “Atari sounds” off my sequencer… good enough for government work, as they say!

    Ignore the JX-3P and PG-200 in the background, those are for another project that I’ll stick up in a couple weeks. :)

    Also please ignore the distortion and amount of times I say “um.” I’m still getting used to recording myself.

    Questions welcome! Enjoy!

    PS: It pains me to use the tags “circuit” and “bending” just because I hate that cliche so much. Plus that crowd seems to more enjoy glitching known hardware rather than building predicable stuff from scratch. Still, hopefully it will be, as the internet says, relevant to their interests.

  • Tom Woxom’s first album Kickstart on DHR

    dhr-09_thumb-newAnother great release from Da! Heard It, some details:

    Da ! Heard It Records is going back to the classics with its ninth production: “Kickstart”, the first album by Tom Woxom, a German composer fascinated by the Amiga 500.
    With help from his treasured computer, a couple of keyboards and software, Tom Woxom built himself a puzzling musical universe.
    Through ornate beats and powerful heady basses, this album lures the listener into multiple atmospheres.  Tom Woxom dares unusual pairings, as in Sofachips, where he combines a soul voice with an electro melody on the verge of dance music.

    Discover this innovative artist by downloading his album for free here: http://www.daheardit-records.net/en/discography/dhr09/

  • Stu “Elements” out on Ubiktune

    ubi005Interesting new work from Stu. Details:

    Stu’s “Elements” is an unpredictable concept piece, the journey is turned into music with the help of the Atari’s YM soundchip and just the right touch of post-production. The album has a vast, original sound… staying mysterious and atmospheric throughout the entire experience. As the final chord, Extraboy combines all the elements together in an aural feast that will leave you completely satiated. Be careful, this combination might be more powerful than you can handle!

    Grab it!

  • xum1541 – Fast USB C64 floppy adapter!

    Nate's xum1541 prototype
    Nate's xum1541 prototype

    Tired of having to use an archaic Parallel port to connect your PC to your C64 drive?
    Don’t want to buy expensive hardware like the u1541, or other memory card solutions?
    Want to backup your diskettes with your modern day computer without the hassles involved with stuff like TPC64?

    Fear ye not, my friend, a solution is in the works! Actually, currently in alpha stage.

    Not long ago I was alerted about xu1541 by Mr. Animal Style, and I was wondering, “why is it that nobody took over this idea and continued it?”. Obviously, someone was on the subject.

    Nate Lawson of the Root Labs has taken the xu1541 and improved upon it, creating the xum1541 (pronounced zoom 1541), a USB interface to connect your IEC bus disk device to your modern day computer.

    High speed, and supporting parallel cables too, this device will be running easily with the OpenCBM software, and also will support Nibtools (for copying copy protected software)

    Best part of this whole deal? The schematics will be free, of course, and it seems this will possibly cost under 40 dollars to build (not bad considering you need a hardware USB controller, based on an Atmel chip… This is not just a cable).

    Watch it in action!: (more…)

  • DigiBooster Professional 3 (Amiga) in the works

    FT2 look-a-like for the Amiga
    FT2 look-a-like for the Amiga

    DigiBooster Pro was a quite popular tracker for the Amiga in the 90s. Stuck at version 2 something, APC & TCP, a german publisher of Amiga software, is working to deliver an update to this powerful tracker. Currently on internal Alpha #17th, and with a planned demo release in 3-4 months, we had a sneak-peak at this interesting new software.

    Looking like a FastTracker 2 sort-of-thing, the features list seems promising, juicy and, judging from the minimum requirementes, this will run in a stock A1200, which is cool. Want to try how the old version felt like? You can download the full version 1.7 and demo versions of the latest and previous releases at the Digibooster webpage.

    This is the complete list of features planned so far: (more…)