HPizzle
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Neo Jersey

Yes, VIRTUAL BOY music. After playing a virtual boy for the first time since it came out i realized that the sound chip actually has a pretty cool unique sound. A friend of mine is particularly interested in getting started writing chip music, but only if its on a virtual boy lol. Does a tracker of any sort exist for VB? a quick google search yielded a post about a dos based tracker called MUSPCS and a converter for virtual boy. The only problem is the converter only converts one of the 4 channels, which kinda sucks. Are there any other known alternatives?

side note: wasn't sure whether to post this in consoles or handhelds...i guess its technically a handheld? but i dunno, lol

Lazerbeat
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Tokyo, Japan

Soundchip details

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/dokuwik … o_overview

kineticturtle
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Matthew Joseph Payne

That sounds fun. If people think we look silly working on a native Game Boy tracker though, they're in for a treat.

jefftheworld
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The problem is that the Virtual Boy dev scene isn't nearly as advanced as the Game Boy one.  Also, while there are a few options for easy-to-use flash cartridges, you'd need to write some software to get started.

The "easy" way would be to write a basic playback routine and a separate PC tracker program.

The harder way would be to write a program like LSDJ that utilizes the limited I/O of the Virtual Boy and allows you to write music directly on the device.  This would be a bit hard to work with since the Virtual Boy uses almost exclusively 6-bit x 32 sample PCM.

However, it would be an interesting project for someone insane enough to put in all the work.

Last edited by jefftheworld (Jan 27, 2013 5:26 am)

Fatal Labyrinth
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Austin, TX

Not to mention the apparent difficulty of staring at a Virtual Boy for the amount of time it'd take to do some good music production.

bryface
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vancouver, canada

all i can say is that i'd love to be there for the first live virtual boy live performance.


i imagine there'd be a lot of the artist falling off stage



the audio specs do look pretty interesting though, seem like you could achieve a nice blend between conventional chip sounds and grainy wave channel wizardry.

kitsch
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matt's mind

virtual boy musicians could be easily spotted by them all being severely cross-eyed

Lazerbeat
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Tokyo, Japan
jefftheworld wrote:

However, it would be an interesting project for someone insane enough to put in all the work.

Virtual boy in deflemask in under a week.

Fatal Labyrinth
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Austin, TX

The Turbografx-16/PC Engine has a kinda similar soundchip? It doesn't have a noise channel similar to the Virtual Boy's sixth channel, but the Virtual Boy soundtracks I can find sound similar to the PCE's wave-table channels. It's a bit more advanced, but if you used it the right way you might be able to get something close to what you're looking for. If you're looking to add conventional chip sounds, like bryface mentions, you could always pair it up with a GB/NES.

I'd link an Ys soundtrack for an example but all I can find on youtube are the sick-ass redbook soundtracks.

Anyway, DefleMask has mad solid support for the TG-16/PCE, and Krikzz makes a flashcart for it, though it's kinda hard to find since not many people care about that system.

Timbob
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Sounds cool indeed.

kitsch
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matt's mind
Fatal Labyrinth wrote:

the TG-16/PCE, and Krikzz makes a flashcart for it

i either still have one in stock, or just sold it recently.  but, i stock these.  and, everdrive restock isn't too long from happening again wink

Deflemask supporting this would be kind of nice.   

i don't have a VB around to check, but is there any sort of video out on that thing?  (or, maybe someone in the dev community for it has figured out a video out).  that might be a workaround for the eyestrain.

Theta_Frost
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Milwaukee, WI

There used to be a thread on here, where B00daw posted the official sound specs doc I think.  I could not find it though! sad  But it does sound nice, and there is a flashcart for it.  AFAIK, no video out mod has been developed yet.

Monotron
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Douglas, Wyoming
kineticturtle wrote:

That sounds fun. If people think we look silly working on a native Game Boy tracker though, they're in for a treat.

And hour to set up, and an hour trying to get in a comfortable position to use the dang thing.

HPizzle
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Neo Jersey

Wow, thanks everyone for chiming in. Didn't think there would be much interest in the virtual boy haha. To echo/ sum up everyone thoughts so far... I don't think anyone would actually want to compose on the virtual boy itself (although you never know), just would want to be able to play the song back on a virtual boy. A pc based tracker for composing would be best i think. Sounds like deflemask would be ideal. I'm familiar with it but never really messed around with it. Hopefully there will be virtual boy implementation eventually. There does exist a homebrew music player for the virtual boy already i believe according to a friend of mine, but I'll look more into that. So long as you have a flash cart, voila.

Just picturing someone on stage with a virtual boy strapped to their head is simultaneously awesome and hilarious. It needs to happen!

@Timbob Yes! jack bros is one of the games i was playing and it has a fantastic soundtrack. see if you can find some other tracks, you wont be disappointed.

Saskrotch
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Chicago IL
Fatal Labyrinth wrote:

The Turbografx-16/PC Engine has a kinda similar soundchip? It doesn't have a noise channel similar to the Virtual Boy's sixth channel

I'm not sure if I'm misreading this, but TG-16 has two noise channels

Delek
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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Yeah, the PC-Engine's channels 5 and 6 could be enabled to produce noise (btw, using effect 11xx in DefleMask).