YM2017 is a distinctive musical release created specifically for the Sega Mega Drive, serving as a tribute to the console’s Yamaha YM2612 FM sound chip. The album features original chiptune compositions that deliberately explore the hardware’s sonic character, combining expressive FM synthesis with the unmistakable texture of classic 16-bit sound.
YM2017 was conceived as a physical cartridge release rather than a simple ROM. The first edition, released in 2017, came in a translucent cartridge equipped with an embedded 8×8 LED dot-matrix display that functioned as a live music visualizer synchronized to playback. A later reissue in a standard Mega Drive cartridge form removed the custom LED hardware while preserving the musical content, making YM2017 both a collectible hardware experiment and a focused celebration of Mega Drive sound design.
Physical release
