Part Arcade, Part Guitar

Finally a guitar that all of the arcade gaming geeks can jam with. [Mike Davenport] sent us his 8bit arcade based guitar for his senior project. Details are a little sparse if you intend to build you own at the moment, but he does mention the basics: such as it uses an FPGA for logic and function, the strings and joystick modify pitch, it has selectable waves and other parameters, and even includes save banks! Check out a video of him playing street fighter rocking out after the break.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMh4YndbzHU&feature=player_embedded%5D

11 thoughts on “Part Arcade, Part Guitar

  1. This is cool…but very strange. I imagine it’s pretty hard to accurately play a tune, as it was for the guy in that demo vid.

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    Thanks for putting THAT in my head for the rest of the day! :D

  3. Neat instrument, major creativity points for using membrane potentiometers in the neck. Or, how do you people say, plus one internets.

  4. @Skitchin- I read that last sentence in my Sensei’s voice.

    All in all, I find this a very intriguing build, and love the acrylic case he used.However, I feel that he overcomplicated the method of playing too much, to the degree that it really doesn’t make much sense. However, he is the only man who will ever be likely to play this particular instrument, so how he wishes to provide input is his choice.

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