From Colossus to Chiptunes

Yesterday on my way home I was listening to a podcast from BBC World Service called Digital Planet. The episode from May 26 is about the history of home computing, and if you listen to the TechStuff podcast regularly, you know I dig such things.

Anyway, I had listened to the first part, an interesting recap by show hosts Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson on Colossus at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom. Colossus played an instrumental role in cracking German codes during World War II. The work of the Bletchley Park hackers and their custom-built computers led to the machines that we have on our desktops today.

And today, Colossus is instrumental in other ways. Matthew C. Applegate, a.k.a. Pixelh8, is a composer who worked with the National Museum of Computing to create his album “Obsolete?” Digital Planet introduced Pixelh8′s segment with a piece of his song “Math,” which used modern technology to sample and re-record the sounds that Colossus typewriter makes as it works.

Being a percussionist, “Math” appealed to me instantly because it’s so rhythmic. But Pixelh8‘s music isn’t all about beats. He’s written software that lets you turn your Nintendo Game Boy or Game Boy Advance into a musical instrument. And he’s working on a Nintendo DS version.

During the interview, Pixelh8 said he got his start by mucking around his Nintendo Entertainment System — his younger sister had spilled milk in it and he ripped it open to see if he could save it. That started a love of messing with electronic game machines to make music, and hacking. “The real fun was in creating something,” he told Digital Planet.

So what does it sound like? It sounds like this. Take a look at this video of him micro busking at a subway stop — you can actually watch what he does:

Pixelh8 is well-known in the chiptune community, but there are many more out there. Give some of them a listen and let me know what you think.

For more on some of Pixelh8′s favorite consoles to work with, take a look at these links:
How Game Boy Advance Works
How Nintendo DS Works

And here’s what you might see if you opened up a Game Boy Advance yourself (please don’t shock yourself trying this at home):

Game Boy Autopsy