lda #$01

waitforidle bit $4017 bne waitforidle

bit $4017 bne waitforidle

bit $4017 bne waitforidle

bit $4017 bne waitforidle

bit $4017 bne waitforidle

bit $4017 bne waitforidle

bit $4017 bne waitforidle

waitforstart bit $4017 beq waitforstart

nop ; wait 2 cycles bit 0 ; wait 3 cycles

lda $4017 nop sta temp1 lda $4017 nop sta temp2 lda $4017 sta temp3 lda #$01 and $4017

lsr temp3 rol lsr temp2 rol lsr temp1 rol

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The Family Bass

I connected a Family BASIC keyboard to an NES via a bespoke adapter in order to play its unique triangle waveform live.

Here's a short technical presentation:

And here's a performance of my NES-style tune Platform Hopping, originally composed for the music compo at X 2023:

Download

• Linus Akesson - Platform Hopping (Family Bass).mp3 (MP3, 5.7 MB)

How the adapter works

As outlined in the presentation video above, the Family BASIC keyboard is designed to plug into the expansion port of the Famicom, but I wanted to hook it up to one of the controller ports on my NES. This called for a custom adapter.

The keyboard

The 72 keys of the Family BASIC keyboard are wired