Turtle413
Offline
MA

Hey y'all. I just received a keyboard in the mail, from a eBay purchase. It's this sweet Famicom keyboard that came with Basic v. 1 cartridge.

Well it looks pretty cool! That's about all I can say about it, so far! Anybody own one of these, or can tell me something about these babies? I got it for $50 w/ shipping, which seemed like a reasonable price... Hopefully this isn't a heap of junk from someone's basement! lol

I don't own a Famicom 60 pin system or anything, so obviously I won't be able to use it. But I'm a die-hard Nintendo Fan, so I had to get this, and I'd like to write some stuff in Basic (like dem old school days as kid we used to use Basic on the Apple II e's) I want to either find a way to convert a regular NES to a 60 pin, and find some famicom controller ports that will fit in a nes. Would buying a used Famicom system be a better choice, than hacking up an old NES to get this keyboard to work? I though it would be fun if I could run it from a normal Nes somehow? Are there any expansion type ports for the NES, where you can make the nes play Famicom??? I'm real curious on what this keyboard is capable of doing, other than looking nice next to my other Nintendo Paraphernalia...

akira^8GB
Offline
New York City

Get a Famicom clone, it might work. They cost next to nothing.

Turtle413
Offline
MA

Cool... so where does the Keyboard hook up to then? I'm looking at some now, but I don't see where it would plug in??? I notice that the controllers are connected right into the console (not detachable). I'll have to bid on one this week and check it out!

akira^8GB
Offline
New York City

Hmm not all of them will work. My clone has detachable controllers. Some clones even come with keyboards.
Try to find out more before you buy. Where exactly does it plug into, the EXT port?

Turtle413
Offline
MA

yeah...looks almost like a nes 7 pin-out  but it has 15 pins. I think it would plug into the EXT port?

Crackbits
Offline

Nice this topic on the Famicom Basic keyboard. I just started another topic on this at: 8BC

http://8bc.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=24088

So any progress with this? What can it do?

I'm particularly intersted in the music making option. I hope there is a way you can play notes while pressing buttons on the keyboard in one way or another. That would be so cool for live sets.

So le us know when there's any progress with this.

arfink
Offline
Minneapolis

Well, the KB is just another controller. It's fairly well documented, but not too many games use it.

It's possible, if you were to bribe a developer or two and/or provide them with hardware, that support might get written in to future software releases. Don't hold your breath though.

Crackbits
Offline

well I guess you could programm those things. But I'm interested in the musicboard that are already in the device.

I am hoping you can put in notes through the keyboard and hear them while you play. that would mean you could play melodies live. It would perfectly suit my dezaemon famicom tracks. wink

So any info on this?

Alley Beach
Offline
clovis CA

would this help?   http://famicomworld.com/workshop/articl … onverters/

arfink
Offline
Minneapolis

OK, I did a quick search on that Music Board thing and it doesn't look like it plays back live. You have to write all the notes in and then play them back. Kinda limiting. Still, a live playback would likely be possible with a little assembly.

pr0n- that converter will not be helpful in this situation.