Thanks to Brandon for letting us know about this Atari Synthcart Player! From Lab away from Lab:
The Atari Synthcart Player is designed to offer flexible control over the Atari 2600 as a musical instrument. The Synthcart Player is a hardware controller tailored to work along side the phenomenal 2600 software Synthcart written by Paul Slocum. As such, this hardware is not a sound generator but rather expands the Synthcart user interface, provide note sequencing with various timing options, and connects directly to the left controller port of the Atari 2600.
The Synthcart software was written to accept inputs from the 2600 keypad controller, which offers twelve pushbuttons. A midi solution was designed and at one time manufactured by the folk(s) at Highly Liquid. I built and utilized these midi mods but wanted something simple and custom for use with the 2600 and Synthcart.
For this project, I had a few constraints:
Control the Atari 2600 through emulation of the 2600 keypad controller
Allow hardware-based user inputs and feedback akin to classic 16-step sequencers
Provide midi clock input to effectively control Synthcart timing from other midi-based musical instruments
Package the hardware within the miniaturized Atari 2600 Flashback case
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
