8-bit Guitar: Taking Chiptunes Where None Have Gone Before

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Here at Bitmob, we cover stories about chiptunes all the time, but this is the first time we've seen an 8-bit recording artist create his own instrument. A University of Florida senior named Mike Davenport created a guitar, complete with a joystick and arcade buttons, that plays 8-bit-sounding songs — and he even got school credit for it [via Technabob]:

Sporting ultra-cool shades, he shows in this video that the joystick controls the pitch of the music, and the buttons create the sound of the "strings."

He says on his site that his goal was to "combine aspects of an arcade machine and a guitar." Mission accomplished sir. Next up, Mike will head out into the world and solve the current health-care crisis by making a hybrid calculator/drum set/money-printing machine. Good luck Mike! Check out a video of the man at his site.