A Swedish man has used his technical know-how to create a unique instrument to express his love for retro games.
Software engineer Linus Åkesson has taken an old electric organ and modified it into what he calls a “Chipophone,” a custom built 8-bit synthesizer, built specifically with live performances of chiptunes in mind. He was given the organ by a friend who had it gathering dust in his cellar and Åkesson agreed to take it on the proviso that he could do whatever he wanted with it.
Åkesson said that he was often surprised by the way the organ was designed, but was able to rebuild it into the Chipophone, the results of which you can see above. If you want to read more about how the Chipophne was built, you can visit Åkesson’s homepage – although be warned, it’s rather technical.
There’s something very comforting about the sounds the Chipophone makes, the beeps and tweets conjuring up memories of afternoons spent stomping goombas or loading games from cassette tapes. Åkesson says that he has more work he wants to do on it, so hopefully we’ll see the Chipophone again soon.
Source: Kotaku
