Apparently, somewhere in Germany (of course) there is a company called Nanoloop that specialises in repurposing old Game Boys into musical instruments.
The full details of his latest project, Nanoloop Mono, have just been revealed – it’s a cartridge that turns your classic time-waster into a mono synth. Time to dust off old faithful.
Who needs a $1000 vintage synth? With nothing but your old Game Boy and a custom cartridge, you can have the 8-bit sound you’ve been chasing.
Using a hybrid sound chip composed of three analogue filters and a random noise generator piggybacks the analogue components of the original monochrome Game Boy to create sound. The software is visualised on the LCD screen, and includes a step sequencer and a hard drive capable of holding 15 patterns on each of it’s channels.
You can use it in your Game Boy colour too if you like, but the sound quality will suffer a little because of the different sound components. You can shove the cartridge into your Game Boy Advance, but it won’t work.
Watch a demo of the Nanoloop Mono below. Unsurprisingly, it’ll take you back to the bangin’ soundtracks of your favourite Game Boy classics.
Nanoloop Mono is currently available for pre-order.
Via FactMag.
Check out our feature on the origins of the Mario theme song too!
