DoubleTalk

Doubletalk is a game of audio manipulation which I wrote in Z80 assembler for the Gameboy. It synthesizes three loves of mine: audio, cheap hackable hardware, and Z80 assembler.

Doubletalk Screenshot: Nintendo Gameboy Color
Doubletalk Screenshot: Nintendo Gameboy Color

Cheap hackable hardware such as the Gameboy has enormous potential: it would cost considerably more to interface a microcontroller to buttons and a color screen than to buy any Gameboy selling on eBay.

Now more than 20 years old, the Z80 has long since been abandoned for use in microcomputers. However, it has found its way more recently in less expensive digital organizers and game machines.

Doubletalk, a two player audio-manipulation game was my first serious endeaver with the Gameboy. The game used the Pocketvoice, a Gameboy cartridge with a built-in amplified speaker and microphone. In Doubletalk, players record themselves, reverse their recordings, then try to guess what each other is saying.

My work on Doubletalk and my other hacking projects with the Gameboy such as Gameboy Hardware Interfacing eventually led me to use the Gameboy as the platform for an assembly language programming course I taught at Wichita State University in 2008.

Similar Posts

  • TechArtICT: Whispering Woodlands

    Whispering Woodlands was an outdoor installation created by TechArtICT. It was installed at Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas from November 2023 through January 2024. The work featured 24 independently controlled sets of speakers and LEDs, all synchronized to create an immersive sound and lightscape. Using eclectic audio ranging from thunder and rain to spaceships and…

  • Assembly Language Programming

    In the Spring of 2008 I taught Wichita State University’s Assembly Language Programming for Engineers course. As explained in the syllabus, the course used the Z80 microprocessor and the GameBoy platform to introduce general concepts of computer architecture, machine and assembly language programming. Students practiced the ideas and concepts introduced in the course with programming…

  • Ghost in the Machine

    Originally conceived in 2008, Ghost in the Machine (GITM) consists of a webcam and display which mixes and crossfades events in realtime with motion-activated video it has recorded previously. It continually shifts between 3 states: individual, community, and the world. GITM has been shown in many venues and contexts.

  • Still Life

    In 2011, as part of Hack.Art.Lab, I collaborated with composer Mary Ellen Childs and percussionist Michael Holland to create live animation triggered by live performance of Mary Ellen Childs’ composition “Still Life.” We analyzed the piece into 11 sections and created algorithmic video triggered by sound and motion to match each of the 11 sections. The video was projected…

  • The Incubator

    The Incubator is an art piece which was initially installed as part of TechArtICT’s Dreamgrass installation at Exploration Place Fall 2022. Within the installation it was the machine where faceless children were created and indoctrinated. A Center TV displayed a teleprompter which offered encouragement for viewers to become participants, reading into a microphone placed at…