Gameboy Hardware Interfacing

Gameboy Hardware Interfacing

After writing Doubletalk, I knew the Gameboy had great potential for musicians. Specifically, if a hardware interface could further extend the Gameboy’s audio input/output capabilities, the platform offered possibilities as a programmable metronome or alternative instrument.

Hardware interface to Nintendo Gameboy
Hardware interface to Nintendo Gameboy
Hardware interface to Nintendo Gameboy
Hardware interface to Nintendo Gameboy

To further explore this idea, I built a connector to access the Gameboy circuitry using a solderless breadboard. With this connector and breadboard, I successfully interfaced flash memory and an 8-bit Digital to Analog Convertor (DAC) to the Gameboy.

This experience inspired me to use the Gameboy as the platform for an assembly language programming course I taught at Wichita State University in 2008.

Similar Posts

  • SoundBlocks

    SoundBlocks is a tangible environment where youth connect blocks to describe network dataflow. The environment explores digital sound manipulation as a personal, meaningful and fun artistic endeavor, rather than as a venture into mathematical, electronic or networking relationships.

  • Touch #1

    In 2012 I created my first interactive touch wall: Touch #1. The work built on my experience creating the visuals for Still Life and was largely inspired by seeing autistic children experiencing pure joy while interacting in an immersive environment. Touch #1 received a great response and was later installed at Exploration Place and at…

  • 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…

  • DoubleTalk

    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.