https://orangegb.com/orangefm/

Orange

What is Orange FM?

Orange FM is a modern cartridge for the Game Boy family of handhelds.
It is currently under development, and it not yet released to the
public. In the future, I hope to have it available for purchase as an
assembled unit, or as a DIY project for advanced hobbyists.

Features

  * World Band 64-108Mhz FM Radio
  * Uses the Game Boy's Speaker (See compatibility chart)
  * On-Cart Headphone Amp (Optional)
  * Store and Recall 12 Presets
  * RDS Radio Text Support
  * Internal and External Antenna Support
  * Digital Volume Adjustment

Compatibility

                  Mono Audio Output     Stereo Audio Through Optional
               Through Console Speaker      On-Cart Headphone Amp
Original Game  Yes*                     Yes
Boy (DMG)
Game Boy       Yes**                    Yes
Pocket (MGB)
Game Boy Light Yes**                    Yes
(MGL)
Game Boy Color Yes***                   Yes
(CGB)
Game Boy       No                       Yes
Advance (AGB)
Game Boy
Advance SP     No                       Yes
(AGS)
Game Boy Micro No                       No
(OXY)
Super Game Boy Yes (Through TV)         Yes
Game Boy       No                       Yes
Player
Analogue       No****                   Yes
Pocket
FunnyPlaying   No                       Yes
GBC



* Low volume, but great sound
** Medium volume, decent sound
*** Highest volume, decent sound
**** A future firmware update from Analogue could add speaker output

FAQ

How much would an assembled Orange FM cartridge cost?

I'm not able to answer exactly at this time - a lot will come down to
cost of production. These are dense, complicated circuit boards
compared to your average Game Boy flash cartridge.

How hard would assembling my own cart be?

Building your own Orange FM cart from scratch will require experience
with fine-pitch SMD soldering. Additionally, there is one QFN package
chip you'll need to solder with hot air, hot plate, etc. So this is
not a soldering project for beginners!

It is possible I will be able to make a partially-assembled version
available that has the more difficult soldering already complete.

What is the situation with the antenna / reception?

Orange FM supports both a built-in antenna (which requires nothing to
be attached to the cart), as well as an external antenna connected to
the cart's 3.5mm antenna/headphone jack.

The built-in antenna offers fairly weak, but often usable reception.
The station strength may be a bit positional, and you're likely to
only receive the strongest local stations. This is great if you just
want to casually blast some tunes from the Game Boy speaker, as you
don't need to attach anything extra to the cart.

To improve the reception, you can attach an external antenna to the
cart through the 3.5mm antenna/headphone jack. This can be a pair of
headphones, a telescopic antenna, a 3.5mm aux cord, or a purpose-made
antenna cord. It's easy to make your own antennas, so you can
experiment if you like! The external antenna interface will offer
stronger, more reliable reception, depending on the length of your
antenna. The best performing antenna is typically a 1 meter long
cable, about the same length as the average headphone cord.

Will Orange FM work in my country?

Probably. Orange FM supports 87.5 - 108 MHz for most of the world,
and 76 - 95 MHz for Japan. There is also a full range mode that will
give you 64 - 108 Mhz. You can choose between 200 kHz (e.g. 88.5,
88.7, 88.9, etc) and 100 kHz (e.g. 88.5, 88.6, 88.7, etc) spacing
options.

Italy may use 50 kHz spacing (e.g. 88.75) for some stations -
unfortunately Orange FM can't tune to these stations at present.

Can you support AM / DAB / HD Radio / Weather?

Not happening for Orange FM, as I've already committed to the current
radio chip I'm using.

Could you make a GBA-sized version?

In a standard GBA-cart shell - no. Similar to Boktai or other
"larger" GBA games - maybe. But don't expect one!

Manuals

ROM Manual (Version 0.4)
ROM Manual (Version 0.3)