insert-buckazoid

Node script for writing text to the Roland MT-32's screen.

Ever played Space Quest 3? Insert a buckazoid your own way!

Usage

To use insert-buckazoid, install it (npm i -g insert-buckazoid), and launch it (insert-buckazoid).

What text do you want to show? 

Type the text that should appear on the screen. (up to 20 characters, automatically sliced)

What text do you want to show? test
F0 41 10 16 12 20 00 00 74 65 73 74 20 F7

Use as a module

insert-buckazoid can be used as a module:

var insertBuckazoid = require('insert-buckazoid');

console.log(insertBuckazoid('test')); // [0xF0, 0x41, 0x10, 0x16, 0x12, 0x20, 0x00, 0x00, 0x74, 0x65, 0x73, 0x74, 0x20, 0xF7]

Behind the scenes

Showing text on the Roland MT-32's screen can be achieved with a sysex message.

The example below contains this data:

• F0 - Start of sysex message
• 41 - Roland's manufacturer ID
• 10 - device ID
• 16 - model ID
• 12 - command ID

Next, we have these three bytes to indicate that we want to display something on the screen:

20 00 00

• 74 65 73 74 - HEX Code of "test" (ASCII)
• 20 - Checksum
• F7 - End of sysex message

Checksum calculation

Documentation for this has been moved here.

Emulators

If you don't have a Roland MT-32, you can use Munt, a Roland MT-32 Emulator.

You can send .syx signals to the emulator, or to the MT-32 with the Bome SendSX. Just copy the hex that this spits out, select your MT-32 in the Midi Out dropdown menu, and press the send button.