An ISA sound card and CD-ROM emulator, powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico
PicoGUS can emulate Gravis UltraSound, Sound Blaster 16 (OPL3) / Sound Blaster Pro 2 (OPL3) / AdLib (OPL2), CMS/Game Blaster and Tandy 3-Voice, and supports MIDI output with MPU-401 intelligent mode emulation. PicoGUS is also an ODE (optical drive emulator) for DOS and Windows 95/98 PCs with its Panasonic/MKE CD-ROM emulation.
👁 The PicoGUS 2.0 board in a deep red color. There is no Pico board on this version - everything is directly on the board.
👁 A "Femto" PicoGUS board attached to a Hand386, playing the demo Unreal by Future Crew
PicoGUS 2.0 is available at:
- Joe's Computer Museum - 🇺🇸 USA based, ships worldwide. In stock
- Serdashop - 🇪🇺 EU based, ships worldwide. Bundles with DreamBlaster MIDI wavetable cards available. In stock
- Flamelily IT - 🇬🇧 UK based, ships worldwide. In stock
PicoGUS 2.0 is certified Open Source Hardware! 👁 Image
👁 PicoGUS 2.0 boards stacked in rows.
Got a PicoGUS 2.0? Read the the Getting Started with PicoGUS 2.0 wiki page!
Got a PicoGUS Femto Edition? Read the the Getting Started with the PicoGUS Femto Edition wiki page!
Videos
- Adrian's Digital Basement: The PicoGUS: An ingenious multifunction ISA sound card and SMMC 0083: PicoGUS emulating a Sound Blaster
- PhilsComputerLab: PicoGUS is more than "just" Gravis Ultrasound
- DOS Storm: The PicoGUS 2.0 is the Only DOS Sound Card You Need!
- root42: The PicoGUS 2.0
- Joel Explores Tech: PicoGUS - A Modern Gravis Ultrasound
- Ctrl-alt-rees: PicoGUS - The $50 / €65 / £58 Sound Card That Only Does Everything
Media coverage
- Make magazine: Democratizing the Demoscene (and in print in issue 89: "Retro Tech")
- Hackaday: PicoGUS: For All Your ISA Sound Card Needs
- Hackster: Ian Scott's PicoGUS 2.0 Turns a Raspberry Pi RP2040 Into a Range of Classic ISA Soundcards
- Adafruit blog: Making retro PC add-in cards with Raspberry Pi Pico
Links:
- GitHub project: Firmware source, hardware design, build/configuration Wiki. Of particular interest is the Compatibility list to know what systems and programs it works well with.
- Interactive BOM – this is nice if you're building your own PicoGUS.
- YouTube Channel with project updates, demos, etc. If you're interested in what the PicoGUS can do and how to use one, this is a good place to go!
- Follow me on Mastodon for updates!
👁 A PicoGUS board in front of a Gravis Ultrasound
Want to support the project (i.e. let me buy more motherboards with chipsets to test PicoGUS on)? You can donate via PayPal or Ko-Fi!