Democratizing the demo scene: PicoGUS brings 90s tracker sound to the masses

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Sometimes A casual comment can to start You down THE path of manufacturing something You did not have thought possible. For Me, he was A lamentation by THE DJ And coder Hoffmann on Tic about THE Gravis Ultrasound, A old PC her map with A worship following It is NOW breathtaking Dear. In that moment, A half remembered old social media job by material pirate Foone Turing between My spirit: that it would be be cool has interface A retro PC bus with A Raspberry Pi GPIO pins. Eh, I thought: What if You could to use A Raspberry Pi has imitate THE Gravis Ultrasound In A PC? There is a lot of Open source coded For that map out there In PC emulators as DOSBox Already, SO he could In fact be possible! I believe that THE retrocomputing hobby needs has be more accessible has people And high prices on interesting cards keep them out, SO I felt as something necessary has be do about he. I did not have do Nothing almost as complex Before, but THE seeds were plant long Before that moment.

Original Gravis Ultrasound map (high) And first generation PiGUS emulator (down). Photo by Ian Scott.

History

A computers ability has TO DO music And her has always has been THE most interesting thing has Me. When I was A child In THE early 90s, I accomplished THE abilities that A her map could bring has OUR family computer, And knew We had has get A. Once I Finally convinced My parents has get A Her Blaster, I learned he was not just about It is ability has add her effects And music has Games. On THE discs that came with THE map was A demo of A program called Tetra Composer. He plays music that was far more with advanced sound that Nothing other I heard Since THE Her Blaster: A complete length song with "real" sounds, And THE deposit was only 40 kilobytes. I knew I had has find more of these files, SO I compound In each BBS In THE area on A hunting For them And Ultimately I landed on What they were: MODEL files, Also known as tracker music. I had just find My new favorite thing. I downloaded as a lot Songs as I could find, as GOOD as A more general purpose player: MODPlay by Brand J. Coxswain. For A child as Me with A insatiable appetite For music but Also young has to have A job, these MODEL files were gold. In THE days Before MP3, having A source of practically unlimited new music completely For free was incredible.

Included with MODPlay were instructions For how has build your own her map that connects has THE computers parallel printer port. THE diagrams were pretty simple: just A little resistors And A capacitor. I had plays A little little with wiring up lights, switches, And buzzers with rooms Since Radio Hut, SO he seemed as A feasible project. Even However THE family PC had A Her Blaster Already, THE idea of manufacturing My own device that could TO DO "real" music sounded as A tonne of amusing. After to visit several electronic stores In My city, I Finally find THE 1% tolerance resistors that THE instructions said work best, And I wired he up In A Radio Hut project box. Incredibly, he work, And he In fact sounded GOOD! While I Never do Nothing other as complicated on My own, that experience taught Me that he was possible has TO DO something myself with basic electronic Components that could TO DO more that just beeps And boo...