tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274Thu, 23 Apr 2026 19:36:29 +0000Ongoing Research and Development for Plogue's 'retro digital' products: chipsounds, chipspeech and chipcrusher .... and various retro computing stuff.http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)Blogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-4633126112821263682Mon, 29 Dec 2014 22:47:00 +00002015-01-01T13:33:08.543-08:00 Last summer I spent a good part of my late night research time on Texas Instrument Voice Synthesis Processor (VSP) LPC10 decoding chips. TI made LOTS of these from the late 70s to the late 80s, both for the OEM market and for its own use, under different names. They usually prefixed them TMC or CD for internal use, and TMS for OEM use, but their naming was not always consistent, which http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2014/12/chipspeech-diary-part-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-1684858697288659079Thu, 18 Sep 2014 17:14:00 +00002014-09-18T10:14:47.764-07:00In case you haven't noticed, we take hardware research and emulation very seriously here at Plogue. -We never take any information for granted, whether its from official datasheets, patents or third party research. -We always double check and investigate what we do on hardware: creating custom tests suites for each and every chip, sending values and capturing the results http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2014/09/chipspeech-diary-part-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-3755246843653387343Thu, 11 Sep 2014 14:49:00 +00002021-12-21T07:33:55.660-08:00Is a Nintendo Entertainment System "homebrew" application that I've developed in order to improve the emulation of the RP2A03 for chipsounds 2.0, which is currently in development. It allows you to change the values of the APU's memory mapped registers ($4000 to $4017) using nothing but the Nintendo d-pad. A side effect is that it can also be used to generate live minimalistic 'music' on ahttp://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2014/09/plogue-livenes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-7909789174589336953Thu, 10 Oct 2013 18:03:00 +00002013-10-10T11:03:29.104-07:00Quite a few users have complained about chipcrusher's peculiar 'dry' frequency response compared to what they get with other common decimator plugins. This post hopefully will explain a few things. Lets say we bypass the bit reduction, distortion and post filtering and only concentrate on the task of downsampling the plugin's input signal. which would be say at 96kHz. and that chipcrusher's http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2013/10/chipcrusher-re-sampling-vs-frequency.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-8580599571035718163Sat, 29 Jun 2013 14:02:00 +00002013-07-04T06:58:34.995-07:00Here are a few pictures we took while capturing impulse responses for chipcrusher in late 2011... Sorry for the mess, our office is a perpetual hardware dismantling lair. http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2013/06/making-arcade-cabinet-impulse-responses.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-575621160469756937Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:30:00 +00002013-06-06T08:35:15.340-07:00 Looks fun? This is what I did for each and every speaker impulse in chipcrusher's Post Processing section. The goal is to capture not only the frequency response of the speaker itself, but also the effect of its casing and internal components: resonance, cancellations etc. Its thus very important to make sure to properly close the unit (which can be complicated by http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2013/06/gba-sp-speaker-impulse.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-6360454060039925641Sun, 20 Jan 2013 02:10:00 +00002013-01-19T18:12:01.933-08:00 This is pure nerd porn, in so many ways. And there's a whole lot more here: https://www.youtube.com/user/paceworldwide?feature=watch http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2013/01/soldering-1980.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-8398854117113816869Sat, 08 Sep 2012 20:41:00 +00002012-09-08T13:46:46.304-07:00The Namco Galaxian arcade PCB generates a few different types of sounds: Analog Fire sound. Analog Explosion sound Three Analog 'Rack Noises' (alien drones) Monophonic Digital Oscillator, which does the quirky intro tune and the aliens being destroyed. The latter being digitally controlled and generated, it makes it a perfect candidate for the chipsounds bandlimited oscillator http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2012/09/galaxians-digital-oscillator-explained.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-2270641188876417362Mon, 06 Aug 2012 20:38:00 +00002012-08-06T13:38:58.850-07:00 http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2012/08/namcot163-dual-27c020-eprom-cart.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-8157357006510567329Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:43:00 +00002012-07-25T06:55:43.455-07:00 Clockwise from top: 1)Esper Dream 2 Aratanaru Tatakai, Famicom, VRC6, mapper 26, can use regular 27C020 EPROM 2)Lagrange Point, Famicom, VRC7, mapper 85, can use regular 27C040 EPROM 3)Castlevania, NES, UNROM, mapper 2, needs modification to use 27c010/27c020 eproms 4)Super Mario Bros, NES, NROM, mapper 0, no mods needed Currently using 1 and 3 to run tests for my next updates. I would http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2012/07/nes-eprom-carts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-284333551831146017Mon, 21 May 2012 19:44:00 +00002012-05-21T12:44:33.014-07:00 http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2012/05/address-sniffing-eprom.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-4918337390288329229Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:26:00 +00002012-02-08T07:27:35.146-08:00 Can't wait to put it to good use. Its a major step up from my crappy PC-based USB scope. Thanks to EEVBlog for the great review.http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-scope.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-9151350075191639420Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:54:00 +00002011-12-23T05:54:19.212-08:00 Over concerns received about the possibility that the chips were fakes I decided to test a few of them right away  (Paypal customer is always right no? I might just get my money back if they are fakes) So first thing I did was to place two of those chips on my Bagman arcade board, and the sound was just as one would expect a normal AY-3-8910 (the old version). So at least they are not http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/12/ay8930-initial-tests.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-1908776507227895646Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:34:00 +00002011-12-20T08:41:45.967-08:00 The AY8930 Enhanced Programmable Sound Generator is a very rare Microchip (who bought GI) version of the AY-3-8910. It includes better frequency range, noise, PWM and independent control of the envelope for each channel. I was lucky to find a stash of those chips and will soon try them on my AY-3-8910/YM2149F protoboard to see if they work and experiment with them, then for a http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/12/ay8930-sourced.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-3780063695308438337Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:58:00 +00002013-08-07T12:43:19.971-07:00 33 years ago a game caught the eyes (and ears) of many people in Japan, and later everywhere else. You can read the whole story here of course, but this is not the subject of this post. This post is about a little experiment I made in fixing and converting an original Midway Space Invaders motherboard to run in with JAMMA harness or standalone machine. A Few notes: -The coin input, and http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/11/jamma-space-invaders-experiment.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-5232339633360828035Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:38:00 +00002011-10-14T02:50:42.472-07:00 Wednesday Max and I went on an econoline field trip to bring back two classic cabinets in fair condition.   I will show our restoration progress in here as time permits. Work will progress slowly since this is really a pet/coding break/lunch break project for us.http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/10/arcade-restoration-week1-acquisition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-4778418297415165152Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:37:00 +00002011-09-01T06:44:05.436-07:00Its Analog TV Death Day in Canada and to celebrate here are a few personal observations. While I sadly don't have access to any sort of statistics, just going to work each day using my bicycle I got to see lots and LOTS of Analog TVs on the curb. NO thanks to the imps at BestShop for turning customers away from the standalone ATSC->composite converters and towards new LCDs instead. "You know http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/09/analog-tv-death-toll.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-6486856073900130267Sat, 25 Jun 2011 19:20:00 +00002012-12-10T20:00:04.780-08:00Original Link being gone, it makes me fear the worse. I REALLY hope the reason isn't because of damn lawyers! Here are two other sources for the Teasers on the most thrilling documentary series since The machine that Changed the World: There's never been a computer documentary this well shot EVER, and nearly everyone I respect and admire in the industry took time to get interviewed. I http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/06/playing-revolutionhome-computer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-5231958671460127623Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:40:00 +00002011-06-24T10:45:36.922-07:00 Charles MacDonald provided a circuit for me to try HERE Good news is that it now works after a few treaks. Just have to to a proper protoboard version now. I'll be receiving two different FM Units soon, the original and the "Australian Reproduction"http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/06/safe-us-sms-japanese-mod-in-action.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-3735459785895560910Tue, 07 Jun 2011 01:46:00 +00002011-06-08T07:00:47.750-07:00EDIT2: A new solution (much more invovled ) was suggested by Charles MacDonald this will be interresting to try. EDIT: Nice, I got my answers in that thread. I'll have to backtrack on when did this become a dangerous thing to try, FYIW I used 10k res to short pin 34. This MOD does not work on my SMS: I tried everything, including burning a Japanese BIOS which works great here: http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/06/reluctant-us-sms-that-didnt-want-to-be.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-345131927939653431Tue, 10 May 2011 14:04:00 +00002011-05-13T10:00:06.509-07:00 Added Internal Picture: Theres a piezo in there... now if I could make it beep..... Horrible damage due to the leaking internal soldered 2x1.5v AA batteries (removed)http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/05/does-not-compute.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-6203434813832858930Wed, 04 May 2011 00:58:00 +00002011-05-03T18:24:20.421-07:00 (see third capacitor from bottom) ...  I hate that smell. From wikipedia: "Self-destruction and thermal runawayTantalum capacitors are under some conditions prone to self-destruction by thermal runaway. The capacitor typically consists of a sintered tantalum sponge acting as the anode, a manganese dioxide cathode, and a dielectric layer of tantalum pentoxide created on the tantalum sponge http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-adlib-fire.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-3813800597769990014Sat, 19 Feb 2011 20:03:00 +00002011-02-19T18:29:44.185-08:00As usual I need to step back for my obligatory back story. -VIC-20 from 1981 to 1985 -C64 from 1986 to 1994 (even logged onto my University account with it!) -Various PCs and Mac's from then on. Didn't see the word Amiga there? Normal, only very rich kids had them where I came from. Only relatively recently did I start to indulge in that world, and what a 'fun' ride this still is. Amigahttp://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/02/lamer-exterminator-orow-22-years-old.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-9203332287371766831Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:17:00 +00002011-02-04T13:17:19.677-08:00http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2011/02/patience.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6668226949459652274.post-8991978402421016315Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:48:00 +00002010-12-23T11:48:52.327-08:00No updates for a while, its because I can't disclose my new stuff yet. Sad because theres LOTS of research in there. I'm hoping to post a glimpse at NAMM 2011.http://ploguechipsounds.blogspot.com/2010/12/oh-yes-im-working-on-new-stuff.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (plgDavid)4