Midiboy Plays Games, Acts as MIDI Device

For an intro into the world of electronics and electronic music, look no further than the Midiboy from Blokas, available now for €44 ($50). The device packs an ATmega328P microcontroller that you may be familiar with from the Arduino Uno and Nano, along with two MIDI DIN-5 ports into a handheld powered by a 9V battery. It also features six buttons for user input, and a piezo speaker and 1.3” OLED display in a 128x64 pixel resolution for output.

Midiboy is programmed just like an Arduino board — one simply has to connect to it with a USB-B cable, then turn the power on while holding down the B button. From there, you can send it sketches via the Arduino IDE that act as either MIDI controllers or games. You can, of course, program the gadget to do whatever you want, opening up the possibilities even further. It’ll be interesting to see what people come up with — perhaps a routine that combines both MIDI and gaming?

Instructions for building this kit-based device are available here, and programming instructions are laid out in another set of pages as well, allowing both beginners and experienced programmers alike to get started easily. For those that wish to take things even further, schematics for the design can be found on GitHub.