Dear MSX-users, This post informs you about all the things we did since our first announcement and also some interesting facts and news about our product line-up.
Thanks to many of you who took a giant leap of fate and pre-ordered our products since we started this shop, we could actually finish our designs and automate the production of earlier designs for faster manufacturing. Starting January of this year we were able to finally bring Darky, our stereo ePSG sound card for MSX with effect processor, to our users. We’re sorry it took so long to finish and we thank all of you for your patience! Currently, we are now busy finalising the second batch of the Darky sound card and those are now ready to order!

Youtuber ToughkidCST has made some nice videos that showcase some of the awesome things you can do with Darky. Ever wondered how Konami SCC games would sound on PSG? Or with an effect processor? Please take a look at his Youtube channel to find out. (https://www.youtube.com/user/toughkidcst) We are working with developers to get support in new and existing MSX games for all the features Darky has to offer. Whether you like stereo (e)PSG music and effects in all your existing MSX games, enhanced games, creating (https://github.com/hires/ElmGen) , compiling (https://github.com/ndf-zz/asfv1) and uploading your own DSP effects, 6 channel PSG tracking (https://www.julien-nevo.com/arkostracker/) , routing your own audio input through the effect processor (and many things more), we are sure there’s something to your liking too. More information about Darky can be found in the Darky Manual on the Darky product page on our website.

Our most complex design with more than 250 parts on the PCB comes with a nice box, laser-cut inlay, and manual. With some components currently hard to get we advise you to get Darky while stock lasts.

Go to Shop (http://shop.supersoniqs.com)

Modulon

Currently, we are busy finalisxing a new batch of our Modulon slotexpander. For this new batch we asked Alexey Podrezov from the RBSC to design a new, more sturdy casing which will be included. For our existing Modulon users we published both the 3D Print files of the current design, as well as the new design.

So if you have access to a 3d printer and need a part reprinted or you want to try the new design please visit the Modulon product page in our webshop to download the .STL files. Thanks Alexey! Modulon comes with a 3D printed casing.

PlaySoniq

The new batch of our Multi-expander “PlaySoniq” is almost sold out. We did however automate the production process and we have all the parts ready for a new batch.

We just need your order to start production 😉 If you like playing Sega Master System software on your MSX, or 16MB of Ram, support for SCC/SCC-I, DAC and a real Commodore SID sound chip in one cartridge, then the PlaySoniq might be for you. Sofarun (https://www.louthrax.net/mgr/) , the easy program runner made by Loutrax for MSX has now built-in support for our Franky and Playsoniq expanders to make gaming a breeze. Please allow 8-12 weeks before we can starting shipping out the new batch. We are working on a box with a printed manual for the PlaySoniq: this will also be made available for existing PlaySoniq users.

Neotron

Our side project with one of Korea’s best MSX engineers, Jun Sung Kim, gains momentum. With Neotron you get access to the amazing sound chip of the NeoGeo game system. The last version of the powerful Deflemask tracker (https://www.deflemask.com/) (available for many OS platforms) has support for Neogeo and can export to VGM. With Laurens Holst’s VGMplay for MSX (https://www.msx.org/news/en/vgmplay-msx-13-released) and his code to include VGM music data in your own programs, there’s no excuse left not to obtain a Neotron. Good examples are the arcade port of Ghost and Goblins for MSX (http://asm-msx.blogspot.com/) with native support for the Neotron and Kim’s videos showing playing Deflemask songs on MSX with Neotron.

We will soon start the production of the third batch. We already obtained the most important parts. Since we could obtain some parts cheaper we lowered the price of this new batch until pre-order closes.

Pre-order Neotron from our Neotron product page

MIDI-PACv2

We have obtained all the parts for a new big batch of MIDI-PACv2 cartridges. If you’re not familiar with MIDI-PACv2 yet: it converts all your PSG and FM-PAC/ MSX MUSIC data to MIDI data on the fly. This means that your games will sound perfect, with modern instruments in stereo while playing. Hearing is believing! With our older article (https://supersoniqs.com/2017/12/11/midi-pac2-without-midi-synth-hardware/) published on our website, it is possible to configure Windows to act as a MIDI instrument, so there is no need to invest in an external MIDI device to try the MIDI-PAC out. Although a (pre-owned) Roland or Yamaha MU MIDI Module will sound great of course!

Last but not least

Last but not least: We are working with Jun Soft on a Speech Interface for MSX. Hopefully, we can showcase it and make it available later this year.

Also, we restocked the Franky PCBs if you want to build your own Sega Master System Cartridge.

Thank you for reading and until next time!