Atari 2600

[MrNovember]

So I just had a buddy call me because a friend of his is giving away an Atari. He looked it up, saw that it gets used for synth-y music purposes, and immediately thought of me. Personally, I'm flattered

Anyways, I have no idea where to even begin with using the Atari 2600 for music purposes. Anyone have experience?

This sounds rad, so I'm excited:

[actual]

I guess you could either find a tracker or buy/make a midi interface.

EDIT: Actually the video you linked to, is using the Synthcart cartridge

[lordgalvar]

Yea, was going to say synthcart. It has a visualizer built in too.

There is also a teensy project for the chip too...But then no games. (I actually have a build of it and it is controlled midi-over-usb style).

[Chankgeez]

Awesome!

Don't have any experience w/ music on an Atari 2600, but the Commodore 64 is good too. That's what I had.

[MrNovember]

Synthcart definitely looks like the best option and a visualiser is a huge bonus considering I've got a Premium Cable in my setup. I'll look into buying one once I actually get the Atari

[lordgalvar]

Awesome!

Don't have any experience w/ music on an Atari 2600, but the Commodore 64 is good too. That's what I had.

Speaking of which...I had midibox Sid boards show up 6 or 7 months ago (or longer...Don't remember, but that should be fun in 2018).

[Chankgeez]

[kaeth]

I had one a couple years back. If you don't already have a proper synthesizer, it's a fun little piece of kit. It does have a bit of a unique charm, but most subtractive synthesizers can make those sounds ~90% accurately with less hassle. You might want to have it modded, mostly because it uses shitty obsolete connectors. I had mine fitted with an 1/8" stereo jack (R=synth, L=drums I think), S-Video output, a pause button (for games), and a MIDI-in socket (highlyliquid used to make a kit, but it's no longer on their site).

Synthcart is the way to go. It's fairly simple, and with a bit of memorization, you can play it without the need to plug it into a TV. It's a blast to jam out with a friend, but it's simplicity gets old kinda fast. Paul Slocum also made a looper and programmable sequencer, but they were never released as cartridges. The ROMs are available on his site though.
http://www.qotile.net/

If you're also going to use it for games, I'd skip buying the physical Synthcart cartridge, and go straight for the Harmony Cartridge instead. Then you can just throw the ROM on there, along with every other game.
http://harmony.atariage.com/Site/Harmony.html

If you wanna check out another artists' work, Burnkit2600 released a single in cartridge format, which is pretty rad.
http://sounds.burnkit2600.com/album/wea ... stractions

There's still an active online community, and a fair number of new indie games are still being made. If you end up doing the same think Burnkit did, this site will also make carts for you to release.
https://atariage.com/index.php

[MrNovember]

Oh man, that is some awesome advice kaeth, thank you!

I'm not sure if I'll ever use it for games. Maybe I'll base that on what ends up coming with it.

Where did you get yours modded? I was thinking of just trying to do the mods myself, but I'm not 100% sure how possible that will be yet.

[kaeth]

Where did you get yours modded? I was thinking of just trying to do the mods myself, but I'm not 100% sure how possible that will be yet.

I did it myself actually, but I had a helper because this was a few years back and I was just learning to solder. They were all small kits that I found online. Ebay even has a few. As long as you have instructions, they're fairly simple for a beginner. The people on the Atariage forum are also very helpful with that stuff.

[MrNovember]

So, I didn't actually ask my buddy what Atari it was they had, just kind of assumed it was the 2600. Turns out I shouldn't have assumed because he showed up with this:

It's actually in great condition. The mouse even has a dust cover and all the manuals still. Only problem is it's missing a few power cords.

[fldrvr]

I have no experience with this but i came across:
http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/6823/ ... nthesizer/

[lordgalvar]

So, I didn't actually ask my buddy what Atari it was they had, just kind of assumed it was the 2600. Turns out I shouldn't have assumed because he showed up with this:

It's actually in great condition. The mouse even has a dust cover and all the manuals still. Only problem is it's missing a few power cords.

Even better. Lots of people still use those for sequencing.

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010 ... i-ste/amp/

2600s are more common and can be picked up easier down the road.

[Aquietcabin1978]

Yeah buddy. I had a 1040ST and an Akai s900 stolen in college. Pretty dope combo.

[spacelordmother]

I've been trying off and on to get Steem engine (Atari STE emu) running on my laptop. There's a bunch a generative sequencer/composer programs that look so awesome. I'd say you scored way bigger than a 2600!