Playdate support? #1613
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I've seen an XM to Pulp converter: Never tried it, though. |
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The developers don't allow direct STM32 MCU hardware access. I wanted to write a tracker which relies on timer interrupts for maximum accuracy and performance. They said no. Their Pulp data format is primitive, and they don't even try to utilize their second MCU (ESP32 iirc) for sound synth or other calculations. Do not advise to do anything for this device, it is intentionally handicaped. |
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I don't know if it would be added. |
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Playdate is a unique "neo-retro" handheld, with black and white screen and a crank that can be used as an input method. It supports digital audio playback (ADPCM recommended, PCM WAV, MP3), but it also has its own synth engine with wavetable support. https://play.date
Developing games can be done in Lua or C using their official SDK, and they also have a web editor for tile-based games akin to the original NES Zelda. This web editor is called Playdate Pulp. https://play.date/pulp/
Playdate Pulp has a built-in music composition tool, a piano roll with 4 channels plus noise, but no wavetable, and some other limitations, so it's more similar to NES in terms of capabilities.
This music plays in Playdate Pulp games but can also be downloaded with some playback code for use in Playdate SDK Lua games (Game tab > Audio runtime > Download bundle). I did this with my most recent game, you can hear two examples of such music in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IHiucLVPQ0
So, my suggestion is for an exporter that produces Playdate Pulp format data.
Alternatively, if Playdate Pulp format music is too limiting, then it's quite possible to write a new music format and playback engine/driver for the Playdate to play back a more advanced synth/midi/tracker style that could even include playback of samples rather than just wavetable. The Playdate device is limited in terms of performance, but has lots of RAM and storage, and is definitely no worse than the old systems that are already supported. Hardware would be needed to test, and of course I'll offer my help.
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