Published on Feb 8, 2016 Jordan Bartee
Some details via https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...:
"Ming Micro is a USB-equipped portable video synthesizer that generates retro computer graphics in realtime. Drawing inspiration from the 8-bit era of personal computers and videogame consoles, it puts a fully featured chip-graphics engine at your fingertips. Every engine parameter is controllable via standard MIDI CC and Pitch Bend messages, from large-scale object properties all they way down to individual pixel placements.
Four main elements make up Ming Micro's graphics engine:
Sprites — small moveable objects that can be freely positioned anywhere on the display
Tiles — graphical blocks that are positioned on a 10 x 12 grid to compose scenes
Tile Maps — diagrams that specify which Tiles get drawn in which grid locations
Palettes — color definitions used to render the Tiles and Sprites
Each element contains parameters for shaping its presentation in the final scene. For instance, each Sprite contains an X and Y location, as well as a bitmap index to control its graphical content and animation. All four systems and their corresponding parameters combine to create the final video stream.
For maximum authenticity, Ming Micro outputs NTSC composite video at 240p / 60 fps, the same format and resolution used by classic videogame consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Sega Master System (SMS). Compared to computer-emulated pixel art, Ming Micro's output has a natural softness and a variety of subtle analog artifacts native to the format.
In addition to its primary video capabilities, Ming Micro also contains a simple digital audio synthesizer, providing two square wave generators and a dual-mode noise generator. The audio synthesizer can be used in conjunction with the graphics engine to create audio-visual patches, or in isolation as a standalone sound generator."
You'll find additional details including how to fund this project on their Kickstarter page here.
