Author: LouD - generated on 2026-09-08
Yes you read that right, USBSID-Player is embedded on USBSID-Pico and allows you to play PSID, RSID, PRG or P00 chiptunes without the need of an emulator on your computer!
Starting with firmware version v0.6.0-BETA firmwares ending with sp have an embedded emulator that can play PSID and RSID tunes and PSID64 PRG/P00 files.
For example usbsidpico2-v1.0_sp.uf2, usbsidpico2-v1.3-rgb_sp.uf2 or usbsidpico2-v1.5_sp.uf2
This USBSID-Player is still in active development and some tunes might not work or play at all.
The embedded USBSID-Player requires more then 256KB RAM, which is why it is primarily built and tested for rp2350 Pico2 boards, but _sp firmwares are also built for rp2040 Pico1 boards.
NOTE! Due to the hardware limitations of the RP2040, highly demanding, cycle-exact SID tunes (dense per-cycle register writes, e.g. some digi/sample tunes) may not play at full speed on Pico1 or Pico1_w boards. Use a Pico2 or Pico2_w (rp2350) board for these tunes.
WARNING! Whenever the USBSID-Player is used the Pico MCU is overclocked to 250MHz, regardless of Pico type. Passive cooling _might/could be needed.
Cynthcart runs through the embedded USBSID-Player - see the USBSID-Pico-Cynthcart-manual file for more information.
To play SID tunes and run PRG/P00 PSID64 files on USBSID-Pico you will need the send_sid tool that is available in the tools.zip starting with firmware release v0.6.0-BETA and up.
The help menu is self explanatory.
Multi-subtune PSID/RSID files are supported - you can switch to the next or previous subtune while a tune is playing.
When all bugs are squashed and more tunes are supported a website will be made available where you can 'send' files from to the onboard SID player
More information about USBSID-Player is available on the github repo