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

  • 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…

  • Avian Migration

    In 2018 I collaborated with Artist Lisa Rundstrom and artist/engineer Tom McGuire to create the public art sculpture, Avian Migration at Wichita’s new Advanced Learning Library. Avian Migration consists of more than 1,300 LEDs controlled by 8 motion-activated sensors spread throughout the library. I was primarily responsible for the development and implementation of the software…

  • 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…

  • TV Mountain

    TV Mountain is an art piece which was initially installed as part of TechArtICT’s Dreamgrass installation at Exploration Place Fall 2022. It consisted of 12 TVs at various angles and orientations, together forming a jumbotron. As part of Dreamgrass, it subjected faceless child-like objects to a litany of 80s commercials. The working remote enjoyed a…