NESynth — NES on FM-1 / SMK37
Install the core once, then add games over Bluetooth or USB.
- Custom firmware
- Beta
- Medium brick risk
Source codeWebsite: chancethemaker.github.io
This project hasn't been claimed by its maintainer yet, so its details come from the community. Is it yours? Claim it
NESynth SMK 971 stabilizes drum-pad colors when pressing pads and moving Fader 2. The LED packet now includes reset/latch zeros before and after the color data in one DMA transfer, following the tested Doom implementation. Existing controls, palette, press-dark behavior and brightness range are retained.
The owner tested this exact application on SMK-37 Pro and accepted the pad/fader behavior. USB game-upload CRC verification passed; subsequent telemetry reported zero LED transfer errors. The public native install image and packet match the physically tested package byte for byte.
Both Pro and Elite package validation passes. Installer, checksum, corruption, upload and original-firmware restore checks pass. Isolated headless Chrome tests verify the Windows SMK helper path and unchanged FM-1 browser path. Elite physical testing and a new stock round trip/power cycle were not repeated for this release.
The site and Windows USB helper now select the same revision. Original-firmware restore remains available. FM-1 binaries are unchanged. No Bluetooth stack or licensing changes are included. Detailed evidence: docs/SMK_PAD_LIGHTS.md.
The .bin asset is application-only: install through the website and matching helper. Corresponding source and SHA256SUMS are attached.
Before you start
- How hard is it?
- EasyCopy a file or use a web page. No extra software.
- What you need
- A USB or MIDI cable
- Comfort with the command line
- A computer
- Can it break my device?
- Small chance of trouble, with a way to recover.
- Can I undo it?
- The project doesn't say. Assume you can't.
Did it work for you?
Did NESynth — NES on FM-1 / SMK37 smk-pad-lights-971 work on your M-VAVE FM-1?
No reports yet for smk-pad-lights-971.
One-tap reports from owners. Bricked reports are checked before they count.
Compatibility
Devices: M-VAVE FM-1.
No compatibility information yet.
Getting started
From the project's README ("USB and Bluetooth game library (SMK-37 Pro, branch build 969)"):
The shared renderer now uses the game's backdrop palette entry for hidden background pixels, fixing a gray left-edge strip when games disable the first eight background pixels. Sprite clipping independently suppresses sprite composition instead of erasing the background. Regression coverage exercises all background/sprite enable, left-edge mask and sprite-priority combinations with multiple backdrop colors. Sanitizer and WASM checks pass. The SMK update is installed with both existing games preserved; Tecmo Baseball runs at approximately 60 emulated frames/sec with CPU1 active and no display errors. The owner confirmed the SMK gray bar is gone. The FM-1 update is also installed, preserving Tennis and Three Stooges. Bluetooth discovery/connection and exact library readback pass; Three Stooges launches with its stored checksum intact at approximately 60 emulated frames/sec with CPU1 active. Physical FM-1 screen confirmation is pending.
SMK969 includes an original NESynth pixel-art loading screen and an on-device game library. The library has 392 KiB of shared game storage and up to 32 entries, reclaimed from unused application flash. Each cartridge is still limited to 262,672 bytes (256 KiB plus header/trainer); the limit comes from the shared RAM staging buffer. Space is based on extracted NES data, rounded up to 4 KiB flash sectors, not ZIP size. A new upload adds a game; an identical length/CRC reuses the existing entry. …
Risk and recovery
- Brick risk
- Medium
- Requires opening the device
- No
Releases
| Version | Name | Released |
|---|---|---|
| smk-pad-lights-971 | NESynth SMK 971 - stable pad colors and brightnessPre-release | 22 October 2026 |
| smk-flash-compat-970 | —Pre-release | 18 October 2026 |
Credits, license and support
- License
- GPL-3.0