Ability to make a modern cartridge with audio line-in/headphones-in jack and/or microphone usable in a 2600 game?

[Fort Apocalypse]

Given that there was some interest in Laser Light Show, I was curious whether it would be possible for someone to make a cartridge that had an audio line-in/headphones-in jack and/or microphone, such that the "game" running from the cartridge could use that input?

[Fort Apocalypse]

Also how about the Harmony cart USB port? Could it be used somehow in a game, theoretically, without mods to the cart itself? (I know that sounds far-fetched, probably!)

[orange808]

Just for giggles and memories, here's a gimmicky voice thing. I wish I had bought one.

 

 

[ZackAttack]

On 8/12/2022 at 9:28 PM, Fort Apocalypse said:

I was curious whether it would be possible for someone to make a cartridge that had an audio line-in/headphones-in jack and/or microphone, such that the "game" running from the cartridge could use that input?

Shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish assuming you're talking about a cart with a microcontroller in it. You'd just need to add some sort of pre-amp and route it to an available Analog-Digital-Converter (ADC) pin. If you have an UnoCart, st-link, and some basic electronic skills, you could test this out fairly easily by repurposing the NTSC/PAL/PAL60 jumper. The schematic shows that PAL60 and PAL go to PC0 and PC1 respectively. The datasheet for the stm32F407 shows that there are ADC functions on both of those pins. I would think something similar could be accomplished with the PlusCart as well. Though you'd probably have to do some soldering for that one.

On 8/12/2022 at 10:23 PM, Fort Apocalypse said:

Also how about the Harmony cart USB port? Could it be used somehow in a game, theoretically, without mods to the cart itself? (I know that sounds far-fetched, probably!)

I don't think Harmony hardware supports USB-OTG. PlusCart should in theory, but I haven't had a chance to try that out yet. This would take a lot more effort than the ADC solution mentioned above.