#mt32pi — Public Fediverse posts

I'm late for the #retrogaming party. Again.

First was when I discovered the #MT32pi - an emulator of the legendary Roland MT-32 MIDI device, that nobody could afford, but was supported by a number of awesome games back in the late #80s / early #90s. @d0pefish, the developer behind it, threw in the towel, saying he'd had enough abuse from people. If I ever meet that guy, beers are on me.

Next, I'm looking into different options for revamping an old #Nintendo64, and I stumbled upon the #BlueRetro project by @darthcloud. It's based on the #ESP32 and is basically a bluetooth-enabled controller emulator, allowing you to use your fancy new wireless controller with old consoles. The developer also threw in the towel in December 2025, citing other priorities. Again, beers are on me.

Common for these two, is that they're open source and sold by a lot of Chinese vendors, who're often not supporting or even crediting the developers, making it a somewhat thankless job. We should do better.

I'm in a most excellent mood! A long long time ago, I got a fancy #MiSTer #FPGA. For those unaware, this device emulates everything from old #Zilog #Z80 systems to low end PCs and arcade machine - or rather, it doesn't exactly emulate them - it sort of becomes the old legacy hardware itself, meaning you'll have nearly clock cycle perfect emulation.

Anyhoo, I also got a #MT32pi for it, which is a thing that emulates old #Roland #MIDI hardware that nobody back in the day could afford. Many of the early DOS titles support this, and it's an absolute joy to listen to. There's a whole sad story to the MT32-Pi project, but that's for another day.

Sadly, it never worked in my setup - until today! I had it for years and years but finally I put in the effort - a lot of measuring and some soldering and now it actually works! Delicious music in old #DOS games! I thought the thing was for sure fried, so I couldn't be happier!

Have an excellent weekend everyone! 🙂

#retrogaming #pcgaming

Finished my #ITXLlama builds today. Built around the #Chieftec BT-02 case, it features the ITX Llama motherboard, a #Radeon 9250 and a #3dprinted front control panel I designed with #OLED display, rotary encoder and buttons for the #MT32Pi. Also a much needed reset button, a switch to select either the MT32-pi or GS WaveTable audio and an SD slot. The software needs a bit of tweaking, but this could be an awesome and brand new box for playing #90s era #MSDOS and #Windows98 games. So far it plays #DukeNukem3D flawlessly with #GeneralMIDI sound.

#retrocomputing #pc

@rpimag And whilst on the topic of EuroRack and RPi I've also had a contribution from a reader of my blog showing how to use my Zero-based MiniDexed PCB to run MT32-Pi which I've just written up today.

https://makertube.net/w/2xzd8b4RPDPX1YJL3CpA57

#MakerMonday #EuroRack #MT32Pi

Massive thanks to Michel who not only posed the question "can my MiniDexed EuroRack PCB also run MT32-Pi" but then proceeded to figure out how and to send me the instructions :)

Now all written up here: https://diyelectromusic.com/2025/04/07/mt32-pi-on-my-eurorack-minidexed-pcb/

#MT32PI #EuroRack #MIDI

Boy, that #escalated quickly. I'm sure I'm everything wrong, but I've had a fun day messing around with my 3D-model for the #MT32pi controller.

#3DModelling #openscad

Taking my first helpless steps in #3DModelling with #OpenSCAD. This is the simplified and reduced size prototype, but it will end up being a 5.25" bay controlpanel for the #MT32pi with an 128x32 OLED display, two buttons and a rotary encoder on a PCB. Doing #3D as #code is pretty cool.

Why OpenSCAD? I'm a programmer and automation freak by trade, so this approach seemed saner than clicking away in a GUI.

Another two-part piece for today's Lo-Fi Orchestra #MusicAdventCalendar

This is the first half of part 1 of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

Featuring MT32-Pi once again on Tubular Bells.

https://makertube.net/w/1FqWLroqwaT4sTpf8LWcHz

#LoFiOrchestra #LoFiTubularBells #MIDI #Arduino #RaspberryPi #MT32Pi

#mister #mt32pi , abilitando le varie rom o i vari #soundfont , le colonne sonore #midi , hanno tutt’altra sonorità. Molti titoli #lucas e non solo quelli acquistano una qualità audio incredibili . Molto bello sperimentare con diversi tipi di soundfont . Provato su core #486

#vintagecomputing #MSDOS build progressing. #Pentium 200 with #TsengLabs #ET6000 graphics, CF for storage, #Gotek for floppies and a #PicoGUS with the #McCake #WP32 #MT32Pi wave table add on. Output looped into a #SoundBlaster Vibra 16C for full Gravis Ultrasound, Sound Blaster, Roland and General Midi support. Excellent for all things DOS. Aiming for early to mid 90s games and demos, including point and click adventures from #Sierra and Lucas as well as some of the excellent demos from that time. I'm talking #MonkeyIsland, #LeisureSuitLarry and #FutureCrew and their #SecondReality demo. Tested the latter and got something in my eye. Oh the feels.

New synthpop track for the #MT32 on #battleofthebits

https://battleofthebits.com/arena/Entry/Roads_+wet+roads/67541/

Recorded on a fresh new #mt32pi I've assembled.

#RolandMT32

So, we've been having the plumbing installed at @leigh_hackspace and that's given me a bit of spare time to work on a small side project. This is a Pentium III laptop running Windows 98SE. It's a rather nice machine with one foot in all worlds. CD-ROM, Floppy, USB 1, Serial, 98SE and a good (late) DOS mode.

I've done some work on it's DOS side and it's now a nice little playing machine for later games that aren't too CPU picky.

I've also added my MT32-Pi using a RS232-USB cable and a nice pair of Altec Lansing speakers. SoftMPU over serial works great where it's supported. Monkey Island and Frontier work, First Encounters does not, but First Encounters works fine on plain Sound Blaster.

This is now a nice little toy for downtime. 🙂

https://youtu.be/p4ZIq3Quhnk

https://youtu.be/ZPz5Ur7JtmQ

#hackspace #makerspace #midi #mt32 #mt32pi #dos #dosgaming

Another sound card—or rather sound module—is the WP32 McCake. It is a variant of the #mt32pi based on the Raspberry Pi CM4 and the MUNT emulator. It emulates the iconic Roland MT-32 sound module, which was supported by many games. The McCake is actually a Waveblaster compatible module, so you plug it onto a sound card such as the SoundBlaster 16. It can also be used as a General MIDI synth, supporting soundfonts.
#retrogaming #retrocomputing #RolandMt32

✨#mt32pi v0.13.1 has been released!

This is a small patch release with a superior rotary encoder reading routine, and a couple of bug fixes.

🚨🚨 NOTICE 🚨🚨
If you are using the updater script, you must manually re-download it. The self-update URL was broken - sorry!

✨ 🆕 #mt32pi v0.13.0 has been released!

A long-overdue maintenance release with a few fixes and improvements.

Highlights: improved compatibility with some USB MIDI controllers (keyboards), press-and-hold volume adjustment (for 4-button hardware) and the usual synth version bumps.

Changelog and download: 👇👇👇
https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi/releases/tag/v0.13.0

Had some #retrocomputing fun with the #BBCMicro, #MIDI and the #mt32pi - thanks to @d0pefish. https://diode.zone/w/ntoxnSQWyBbt5RcP1VTbVK