FMDj

Game Boy music programs inside the M-VAVE FM-1: LSDj, the tracker, and DMGo!, the drum machine. They run on the FM-1's own firmware in a Game Boy emulator, on its screen, keys, knobs and sound. You bring your own ROM; the install page puts it into the firmware in your browser and installs it over USB.

• Site: deadactive.github.io/FMDj: what it is, screenshots, how to use it
• Install: install page (Chrome or Edge, USB, your own LSDj or DMGo ROM)
• Try first: simulator: the FM-1 and this firmware in the browser, with your ROM
• Songs and saves: song page (Chrome, USB)

Your own ROM

Nothing of LSDj or DMGo is in this repository, the firmware or the site's packages.

• LSDj is by Johan Kotlinski: littlesounddj.com.
• DMGo! (Drum Machina Go!) is by Audiowanderer, free from audiowanderer.com.

One of them is on the FM-1 at a time; to change, install the other one.

Getting started

1. Get your ROM (.gb).
2. If you like, try it in the simulator first.
3. Open the install page in Chrome or Edge and choose your ROM: the page runs it in the emulator to check it. Connect the FM-1 by USB, directly to the computer, and press Install. Do not unplug it while writing.
4. On the FM-1, PLAY starts the program. In LSDj, PLAY again plays the demo song.

Controls

GLO opens a menu over the lower half of the screen while the music plays on: the screen's colours (DMG green, Pocket, Light, Super Game Boy, Dark), the status bar (FPS, CPU, gaps; off at first), and the emulator's options. It is kept in flash. All of it: docs/lsdj/CONTROLS.md.

The emulator

Peanut-GB (the processor, memory and screen) and minigb_apu (the four sound channels) run inside the firmware. The screen is drawn at 1.5x, the sound is made as the program writes it within the frame (notes land on their beat), and when the sound runs low a second Game Boy frame runs at once, so it does not stutter.

Roadmap

Next: the Game Boy's link port in the emulator, then sync by the FM-1's MIDI clock (LSDj's sync, DMGo's LINK / PULSE), then mGB as a third program. The whole list, with what is done and the known gaps: docs/ROADMAP.md.

Building

FELUCCA_LSDJ=1 ./build.sh                       # build/lsdj-base.fwsc: the firmware without a ROM
FELUCCA_LSDJ=1 LSDJ_ROM=your.gb ./build.sh      # also build/lsdj-private.fwsc, your ROM in it: never publish it
sh tests/run_tests.sh                           # the tests (LSDJ_ROM=, DMGO_ROM= for those that need a ROM)
tools/fmdj_publish.sh VERSION                   # the site onto GitHub Pages (the ROM-less firmware only)

The toolchain and the rest: BUILDING.md (written for Felucca, the firmware this is built on).

Risk

Installing custom firmware is at your own risk. If an install fails and the FM-1 no longer starts, recovering it needs a Transporter. The author accepts no responsibility if your FM-1 is damaged or misbehaves because of this firmware.

Credits and licence

FMDj, the LSDj fork of Felucca: DEADACTIVE. Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (@kurogedelic), Hügelton Instruments. Game Boy emulation: Peanut-GB (Mahyar Koshkouei, MIT) and minigb_apu (Alex Baines, Mahyar Koshkouei, MIT). The firmware package also holds three JieLi AC79 SDK files (JieLi Technology, Apache-2.0): LICENSING.md.

GPL-3.0-only, no warranty: LICENSE.

M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their respective owners; Game Boy is a trademark of Nintendo. This project is not affiliated with any of them.