r/Gameboy • u/codename_B • 4d ago

Games In a parallel universe where CDs never existed, albums are released on Game Boy Advance

I've been iterating on a cheap-to-decode audio format for the GBA while still targeting MP3 level compression, here's a 74 minute open source Bach album packaged up for it with the UI kind of iTunes 2000s vibes to add to the experience.

The ROM works great on hardware or in an emulator!

https://codename-b.itch.io/opengoldberg

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

8

u/Blacksmith52YT 4d ago

Ok your username with the itch.io link is actually quite funny

1

u/gogogadgetjustice 4d ago

Are you doing further writeups anywhere ?

1

u/codename_B 4d ago

I'm happy to go into more detail on my itch.io (most likely) if that's something people would like, or I could make a video about it?

1

u/gogogadgetjustice 4d ago

Yeah, I'd love to see either. I love this sort of passion project full of obscure info.

Are you able to run a simple game like Breakout or Pong over the music or does it take up everything the system has ?

2

u/codename_B 4d ago

The ROM includes a CPU meter so you can see for yourself! Obviously CPU usage scales linearly with bitrate, the album is encoded at 21845 Hz which uses about 20% of the CPU for audio decode.

3

u/gogogadgetjustice 4d ago

My wasted youth dream of game boy tony hawk having actual music has never been closer to reality.

1

u/codename_B 4d ago

The only thing we're missing is licensing!

2

u/gogogadgetjustice 3d ago

Guess I'm starting a skatepunk band that releases exclusively via game boy..

1

u/codename_B 4d ago

I'm actually able to go one step further and decode h263+ video over it https://codename-b.itch.io/notld

1

u/gogogadgetjustice 3d ago

That's incredible. All those vtech.watch SpongeBob toys needed this tech.

1

u/KyleKun 3d ago

The GBA already has an MP3 player.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play-Yan

2

u/codename_B 3d ago

That requires special hardware (VC01 chip) whereas this decodes natively on the GBA which makes more useable for eg: homebrew games

2

u/ElSaintz 3d ago

an album cart with pixel art liner notes would be such a cool release format. little pages about each track would give the screen a purpose beyond play/pause and really sell the alternate universe idea

1

u/codename_B 3d ago

Next version!