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Atari 2600 Hacks
olclops writes "Check out this guy's projects. He's an Atari 2600 programmer who's created, among other things, a cartridge that uses the 2600's sound generators to turn your atari into a full polyphonic synthesizer! The demos sound insane. Imagine being able to play console-perfect pitfall music from an atari hooked up to an amp. His other games look cool, too. Apparently, he'll be at the Classic Gaming Expo next weekend."
This is pretty geeky. What could be geekier? Well, for one, hooking it up to this
Buying a Dell computer is equivalent to dropping the soap in a prison shower.
...do I hear some reverb in there? Dont' expect your polyphonic synth to sound like anything but an original atari 2600.
Still, old sound chips do have many unique qualities. I'd love one of these. Now if only he'd sodder MIDI into one...
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
We've seen C64 SID chips make a comeback in the form of the SIDstation
But, the terible part about this is that to make one of these, 2 C= 64's have to "die". Last I checked, noone was making the chip and since noone is making the C=64 now, this is sadly causing the destruction of the last "good" C-64's.
I truly think the SIDstation is kewl, but I'ld actually like to see them start making new chips for this purpose. Or, better yet, break the C=64 down to a single chip (more than do-able) and turn it into a PDA...imagine all of the applications for a handheld C= 64...this way they would also have some processing power with that SID chip...
The SID chip from the Commodore 64 was recently put into a separate synth named the Sidstation. It's not a hack but it's a hack gone professional - aka. an innovative product. Elektron, the people who make it, are the most impressive audio hardware manufacturer's around right now, IMO. I can only wait to see what they do next.
I haven't seen mention of the relatively new song found on Andrew W.K.'s I Get Wet warning: the album has caused some controversy over the artist's bloodied face on the cover. The track is called "Ready To Die" and it features an intro done on what sounds like a PSX...it sounds similar to the chocobo music in the Final Fantasy series and the whole album is a very interesting mix of synth, guitar, and piano.
Well, I think the demos might sound insane because they've had a big amount of reverb put on them.
They don't sound much more impressive than C64 demos (and probably less so, in fact), they just have nice postproduction!
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
However i would have a few questions. First, what is the root device acting as the synthesizer. I believe that Atari was only capable of creating monophonic sounds from its own synthisizer. It is not possible to force and old synthesizer to create something it was not designed to do. Howver what i think that this guy did was create a synthesizer in a box, and used some good electronic engineering techniques to use the same electrical lines as the sound and control input/output, circumventing any microprocessing from the 2600 root board. Also i do question what type of sound quality the machine produces. If the lines inside the 2600 (soldered on a circuit board) are in good condition then he could transfer CD quality music through them. However impedance differences might create problems using noncommercial sound equipment. I applaud the man for creating a device that does indeed hack the Atari 2600, but maybe its not as cool as we thought
"If a man watches 3 football games in a row he should be declared leagaly dead" - A