Retro Song Bird: Plug in any Game Boy cartridge to hear the soundtrack

Retro Song Bird is a device for playing music directly from Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. Insert a cartridge and it reads the game’s ROM, identifies the relevant sound data, and uses register-accurate emulation of the Game Boy audio hardware to reproduce its music and sound effects. It supports more than 1,900 games, with controls for track selection and volume, plus stereo output for connecting to a hi-fi system. It also works with homebrew soundtracks made using GB Studio.

The device extends beyond listening: it can back up and restore save files, back up ROMs, flash writable cartridges, and export soundtracks as WAV files. For music-making, it streams each of the Game Boy’s four sound channels separately over USB, supports saved songs on LSDj cartridges, and can synchronize two units over MIDI for DJ sets. A Game Boy Camera cartridge turns it into a low-resolution USB webcam. Other features include an alarm, browser-based play with cheat codes, custom mixtapes that can be flashed to writable cartridges, cartridge-use history, and an open API for developers. The small-team project receives over-the-air updates, and its makers emphasize that it ships without game ROMs: playback uses cartridges owners supply.