[Blackpool] Going way way back in time - Atari spares

[Arthur Garlick]

 Hi,
I had the burning desire to hack together an Arduino based synthesizer(s), long story, I can't imagine anyone is interested... :o)   (I've been doing a lot of reading and can bore for England about old sound chips like the POKEY, SID, TIA and SN76489)
 
I am doing a Linux/Arduino/synth making 4 day course at MADLAB in March (£150 which is spendy and the content is a little basic in parts, but I need to reset my making registers - I've learnt a lot thanks to you guys in the last few months and sitting through this course will help me assimilate it all and tie it together.)
 
 
I don't know what synth I will make in the course but I hope to have already built these:
 
I am going to make the dual POKEY synth:  http://www.instructables.com/id/Dual-POKEY-Synth/
 
and
 
the Quad SN76489 synth:   http://www.worldwidewebside.com/brianpeters/?page_id=192
 
 
(both by the same guy and I've done one link from his instructables and the second is his home page - please take a moment to listen to the videos for a trip down memory lane)
 
Other than the soldering these projects are pretty much done deals, the guy has heroically nailed these projects.
 
 
SN76489 was used in the BBC micro.  These chips are easy to find, I have 10 coming from... France, ha you thought I was going to say China!  So if anyone else wants to do a QUAD SN76489 I'll happily donate 4 chips to their cause.  Most expensive part is the Arduino Teensy (£20) the rest of the parts are cheap odds and sods you find on eBay and CPC.
 
 
POKEY was, mainly associated with Atari and was designed to interface with the controller pots and keys as well as make noises. Mike will probably know lots about them as they were on many arcade motherboards.  Been trying to get hold of two for a while.  It looked like they were hens teeth and I was learning what boards they were on so I could buy old boards and liberate the chips. 
 
Then I found this place: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/  .  Get your old copy of Netscape Navigator out and click on that link and give love to the old skool 90s website.  It took me a good half hour to work out where anything was.  I dropped the guys an email and got some great old fashioned service too.  Very awesome, if you want Atari stuff these guys are the best.
 
Regards
 
Arthur
 
PS  I lied, the SN76489s are coming from China.