The Mega Blaster 2 by Aidan Lawrence is a hardware Sega Genesis/Mega Drive video game music (VGM) player that utilizes the real sound chips.

Play any Genesis track on-demand with brilliant sound quality on the actual YM2612/YM3438 and SN76489 PSG synthesizer chips that were found in the real Genesis consoles.

The Mega Blaster 2 is compatible with both .vgm and .vgz files and can support both the YM2612 and YM3438 simply by changing the DIP switch values.

This unit does not use any emulated sound – these are the real chips playing back logged data from the vgm files.

Features:

• Your choice of the original YM2612 (OPN2) or YM3438 (OPN2c) sound chip with the ability to swap on-the-fly using the DIP switches on the side of the board. Or, if you already have the sound chips, you can just order the board without any chips for a discount.
• A custom analog stage based on the Kunoichi Labs design on a four-layer PCB for flawless sound quality and stellar amplification.
• No additional power supply required, only a single USB connection.
• Support for file folders to organize your sound tracks.
• On-device file browser.
• Native VGM and VGZ support on-device, no decompression required.
• Brand-new VGM engine written from the ground up allows for accurate playback speeds for even the most computationally intensive sound tracks.
• Huge 64Mbit SPI RAM IC allows for giant PCM samples, allowing sample-heavy homebrew soundtracks to play with ease.
• Automatic YM chip authenticator. If your YM2612/YM3438 is damaged or not authentic, the Mega Blaster 2 will detect this at startup and alert you to it.
• All sound chips included with the Mega Blaster 2 bought from this site are verified to work correctly.
• DAC Stream support for homebrew soundtracks.
• 4 play modes: Loop, In-order, Shuffle ALL tracks, and Shuffle just a single directory.
• Custom looping options.
• An OLED display that’s grounded directly to the power input for zero analog interference.
• An adjustment potentiometer for the SN76489’s volume.
• A custom boost->linear power supply design for optimal audio performance.
• On-board class-AB headphone amplifier IC (TPA6111A2)
• Extremely easy firmware updates that require no external tools other than a computer. Just drag-and-drop an update file to the device as if it were a flash drive. That’s it.

Gallery:

Video:

source: aidanlawrence.com github.com