YM2017 - 9 Track Music Album on cartridge

[CrossBow]

With permission from Catskull Electronics, I present to you the YM2017 Music Album on a Genesis/MD cartridge. These went on pre-order/pre-sale a few months back and sold out pretty quickly I believe. This is a very cool cart because it not only contains 9 very high quality tracks from various talented chiptune artists, but also had a built in 8x8 LED matrix display programmed to go in time with the music. 

 

I received my cart in the mail yesterday and was blown away by this! I contacted Catskull Electonics who gave his permission to video and record the entire cart album for all to see it in action. No more of these are planned to be made again, so this is the only way to see and hear this excellent composition of work!

 

Enjoy!

 

[GRay Defender]

That's a pretty sweet cartridge.  Thanks for sharing!

[CrossBow]

A second run release for this amazing chiptune on a cart was announced last night! Pre-orders are already up and can be made directly at Catskull Electronics here:

 

https://catskullelectronics.com/YM2017

 

And look to my video above if you want to see/hear what this amazing project was all about!

[RickR]

Wow.  I'm very curious about this.  Didn't the Genesis go through cost cutting that used different sound chips in later motherboards (and the Genesis 2)?  Does the cart work on all Genesis', but maybe sounds a little different on some?

 

Really cool.  Especially the LED lights on the cart. 

[CrossBow]

Yes but this cart should sound basically the same on all models. Mine is obviously modded quite a bit and will be modded further in the weeks to come on the audio. But basically it will sound just like this and as far as has been tested, it seems to work on all Genesis models just fine. I was secretly hoping when they teased a pic earlier this week of the 8x8 matrix LED panel that they were making a volume 2 (As there were quite a few more songs than what could be fit onto the cart), or perhaps it was hinting to a YM2018. But no... 

 

Still a second release of the YM2017 is excellent as there were only 85 in the original run of carts and I'm not sure how many there will be this time.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Genny had an awesome and flexible sound processor. I often wonder if that chip could be used in other consoles. Namely the 7800 since it has cart-addressed audio ins. That chip, and my experience with early Yamaha keyboards, are the reasons why I remain loyal to Yamaha. It didn't take me long to understand why Yamaha named their PSS-480 keyboard line "MusicStation"... It was more than a run of the mill keyboard.

[CrossBow]

I love the FM synthesis of the Genesis and it is quite amazing the tricks you can do with FM over wavetable PCM. But when it does come to midi modules, I'm a Roland guy all the way. BTW the still as yet to be released 7800 XM add-on device will contain an on board pokey in addition to a yamaha FM synth to add such capability to future 7800 home brew releases.