VGX Live

After the initial development of VGX player software to run on the Mega Drive with the custom button grid, a hardware interface was devised which consisted of an Arduino Uno, a USB Host Shield based on a MAX3421E and a Sega joyport cable. The idea was to be able to replace the custom button grid with a commercially available MIDI controller and the Novation Launchpad seemed like a good option as it includes 64 light up buttons, a USB interface with bus power and is inexpensive and readily available to buy second hand.

Showcase Video of the Arduino Version of VGX Live

The alpha version used a custom built button grid that was equivalent to all the buttons from two regular joypads.

The original Mega Drive visuals matched the 5 x 4 button layout of that grid as shown below.

Though still in development, I risked playing live with the alpha version using the dual joypad button grid - it was a lot of fun, though the software was still a little buggy and unstable. Here's a video clip courtesy of xspheric from the first ever live performance using the software. Everything except the main melody being played on the keyboard is from VGX Live. You might not notice that VGX Live actually crashes at the end!