Have there ever been any attempts to rev-engineer to the Miracle Piano?
Aside from NES/SNES versions it has been also sold for PC, Amiga, Macintosh, and Genesis - all versions using the same keyboard (and differing only by the included software and connection cable). In so far, the keyboard should be quite popular and not too rare.
Some things that are known are found here:
http://pianoeducation.org/pnompfaq.html#manuals - midi messages described in owner's manual
http://pianoeducation.org/pnompfaq.html#Repairing - complete/official schematics
looks perfect for rev-engineering and emulation. Only a few important details are missing: The BIOS-ROM dump and SOUND-ROM dump, and details about the sound generator.
A nice and simple thing to start with would be having a photo (or scan) of the piano's mainboard.
Would be interesting to know if the two ROMs are having sockets (would make it easier to dump them), and if they are stored on ROMs or EPROMs (or in worst case: if the BIOS is located on-chip in the CPU).
And, if there are different PCB version ore stickers on the ROMs (theoretically all pianos should be identical, no matter if it's a NES or PC keyboard, but considering the miracle's lifetime, there might be several revisions).
There seem to be two ASICs on the PCB that might be easy to guess how they work. And the sound generator, which may be harder. It is reportedly made by "Thomson SGS" (aka "SGS Thomson"), and the schematic is calling it "J004" (which looks more like an odd abbreviation than like a valid component name). Maybe the real chip has some more text on it, allowing to identify it, or even to find a datasheet for it.
Anybody having one of those piano keyboards & could take photos of it's mainboard & chipet?
Aside from NES/SNES versions it has been also sold for PC, Amiga, Macintosh, and Genesis - all versions using the same keyboard (and differing only by the included software and connection cable). In so far, the keyboard should be quite popular and not too rare.
Some things that are known are found here:
http://pianoeducation.org/pnompfaq.html#manuals - midi messages described in owner's manual
http://pianoeducation.org/pnompfaq.html#Repairing - complete/official schematics
looks perfect for rev-engineering and emulation. Only a few important details are missing: The BIOS-ROM dump and SOUND-ROM dump, and details about the sound generator.
A nice and simple thing to start with would be having a photo (or scan) of the piano's mainboard.
Would be interesting to know if the two ROMs are having sockets (would make it easier to dump them), and if they are stored on ROMs or EPROMs (or in worst case: if the BIOS is located on-chip in the CPU).
And, if there are different PCB version ore stickers on the ROMs (theoretically all pianos should be identical, no matter if it's a NES or PC keyboard, but considering the miracle's lifetime, there might be several revisions).
There seem to be two ASICs on the PCB that might be easy to guess how they work. And the sound generator, which may be harder. It is reportedly made by "Thomson SGS" (aka "SGS Thomson"), and the schematic is calling it "J004" (which looks more like an odd abbreviation than like a valid component name). Maybe the real chip has some more text on it, allowing to identify it, or even to find a datasheet for it.
Anybody having one of those piano keyboards & could take photos of it's mainboard & chipet?