This music player turns Game Boy cartridges into music albums
The retro Song Bird is designed to play soundtracks from old Game Boy games and export them as WAV files. The player also offers interesting possibilities for music producers.
The music from «Pokémon», «Tetris», or «Super Mario Land» is likely still ringing in many people's ears. To listen to such melodies, you simply insert the original cartridge into the Retro Song Bird and select the desired track. The old Game Boy console can stay in the cupboard.
The project is backed by developer Bird Cartel. According to their own statements, the music player supports over 1,900 games for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. In addition to the soundtracks, you can also play individual sound effects from the games. The music plays through a built-in speaker or a stereo output.
Four sound channels for your own music projects
Via USB, the Retro Song Bird outputs the four sound channels of the Game Boy individually. This allows you to record and edit the audio tracks independently on your computer.
The player is also said to be able to play music from Little Sound DJ (LSDj). With this music tracker, you can compose your own electronic pieces on the Game Boy and save them to a cartridge. Furthermore, you can compile music from various games into mixtapes and transfer them to rewritable cartridges.
The Retro Song Bird can also read game cartridges and back up their contents as ROM files. Save states can also be saved and restored.
The Game Boy Camera becomes a webcam
Even Nintendo's Game Boy Camera from 1998 can reportedly be used as a USB webcam with the Retro Song Bird. The camera module delivers grainy black-and-white images with a resolution of just 128 × 112 pixels.
You are also expected to be able to play games from the inserted cartridges via your browser. An open application programming interface (API) allows developers to write their own programs that access the functions of the Retro Song Bird. New features and supported games are to be added via Wi-Fi updates.
Release planned for 2026
So far, only a few prototypes of the Retro Song Bird exist. Bird Cartel plans to ship the device by the end of 2026. There is no concrete date or retail price yet.
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