Show HN: Wario Synth – Turn any song into Game Boy version
33 points
12 hours ago
| 5 comments
| wario.style
| HN
Search any song, get a Gameboy version.

Emulates Nintendo's Sharp LR35902 sound hardware: 2 pulse waves for melody/harmony, 1 wave channel for bass, 1 noise for percussion.

Finds MIDI sources, parses tracks, maps to GB roles, resynthesizes with Web Audio. Everything runs client-side.

Site: https://www.wario.style

Open source: https://github.com/b1rdmania/motif

Hobby project, non commercial, so please don't sue me.

CatMustard
14 minutes ago
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After 5 or 6 misses I found gimme gimme gimme by ABBA worked pretty well:

https://www.wario.style/s/owplrJi2

(first 20 seconds are junk but then it sounds a bit like a castlevania song)

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ekipan
5 minutes ago
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Wanted features: (1) a way to preview the original MIDI again from a share link like this so I could still compare. Searching "ABBA Gimme Gimme Gimme" found one with the title "ABBA Gimme Gimme Gimme L" so I can't be 100% sure it's the same. And (2) a seekbar for the preview as well.

Kinda weird that search results seem hard-capped at 5. I guess it keeps things simple.

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oersted
2 hours ago
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ekipan
2 hours ago
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Cool enough I suppose, but the framing had me expecting the more farty twisted squarenoise instruments like in Wario Lands 1-3, and less smooth sines and squares. I tried out Kimi No Shiranai Monogatari and Daft Punk's Aerodynamic.

https://www.wario.style/s/yWHphmhO

https://www.wario.style/s/BSN15NEs

Maybe you could list examples for midis you thought sounded cool next time you share this, or in a comment.

Edit: though I guess a huge part of Wario flavor is the dissonant intervals in the music, as much as the farty instrumentation.

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calmworm
2 hours ago
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It’s basically a midi search engine?

“No MIDI files found. Try a different search” …

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memalign
2 hours ago
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It looks like it requires a MIDI which it then converts to sound like it’s coming out of a Gameboy.

Here’s what the FAQ says:

> How it works

>

> Search a song, pick a MIDI source, hit Generate. The Wario Synthesis Engine analyses the MIDI and resynthesises it using Web Audio oscillators tuned to mimic the Game Boy's 4-channel sound chip. All processing runs in your browser.

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turnsout
1 hour ago
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Now just get Claude Code to build a hUGETracker exporter, and you could actually bring one of these songs into GB Studio!
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nunobrito
31 minutes ago
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Add a download button, this was fun.
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