POKEY sound chip experiments
3,335 views · Published 21 March 2010 · 4:50 · Indexed 3 October 2026
Channel: Jason Hotchkiss · 2010 · Science & Technology
http://hotchk155.blogspot.com/2010/03/pokey-sound-chip-experiments.html for more info. The Atari POKEY was the classic soundchip in the Atari 8-bit home computers and many 1980's arcade games. This clip shows some of my experiments in driving a POKEY from MIDI. A PIC receives MIDI data and two 74HC595 shift registers are used to assemble the 12 lines of bus data for the POKEY so it can be driven from a humble 14 pin PIC16F688. A 6N139 isolator is placed between MIDI in from PC and the PIC's serial input. The POKEY is clocked at 2MHz from the PIC's internal clock output. I am using REAPER to sequence some MIDI files I found on the internet. Credit goes out to the authors of these MIDI files.. also to YouTube member little-scale, whose clips inspired me to poke about with the POKEY in the first place, and Bryan Edewaard, whose crib sheet I could not have done this without.
