Step 1: Materials

I'm not going to state all the tools I'm using... It's common electronics stuff. However, the core electronic components thus far are:

Arduino Diecimila, upgraded to an ATMega328. I bought both (from Adafruit industries) almost a year ago and have played around with it a little bit. I've been eager for a full, self initiated, project for a while. However, I hadn't really been inspired. I love electronic music and none of the sounds that I've heard come out of the Arduino on it's own have been something I've wanted. Which brings me to my next core component...

Ricoh A203, the "Mother Brain" of the original, classic, Nintendo Entertainment System (or in it's birthplace, Japan, Nintendo Famicom [Family Computer]). It's a modified MOS 6502, which was built by a bunch of former Motorola engineers that crafted the 68K processor line. The 2A03's brothers and cousins have been in many things, from the Atari 2600 to nearly Apple's entire line until the PowerPC processors. However, one thing that this special made chip has, that quite a few others don't, is a built in synthesizer. 5 channels total: 2 square waves, 1 triangle, 1 noise, and one PCM. I'm ignoring the PCM, at least for now, as I am building a synth and not a bit smashing sampler.

I may be using the crystal that is built into the Nintendo mainboard... But I don't know whether I'll need to or want to.

Which brings me to my warning: I'm going into this kind of half-assed. This is more a learning experience for me more than anything. I've already been learning a few things just from the preparations. I'm pretty sure I can pull this off one way or another. I've seen some possible challenges ahead, but then this wouldn't be interesting if there wasn't.