Swedish Engineer Creates Playable Accordion Using 2 Commodore 64 Computers

The Commodordion was made possible by a fair amount of custom software engineering as well as hardware hackery, according to Akesson. It is a continuation of previous projects, which he claims were deliberately leading up to it.

How does the Commodordion function? Akesson created a custom power supply and the Commodore 64 computers boot automatically when he turns it on. Next, he loads the custom music software he created from a Commodore Datasette emulator into each machine.

The custom mixer circuit board connects the audio signals of both units.

It measures the input from bellows and controls the volume of sound output. When squeezed, the bellows are made of several 5.25-inch floppy discs that have been cut into shapes and taped to make air. The microphone is mounted outside the hole and converts the noise it hears to an audio envelope, which alters the sound output accordingly. The Commodordion does not use speakers, but rather outputs electronic audio via a jack.

One major flaw in the Commodordion is, writes Akesson. ergonomics. The unit’s position on the left-hand side means that the unit can put a strain on his wrist, arm and shoulder. This is due to the fact that the unit also weighs heavily on his left arm. He writes that this “really undermines the potential of the Commodordion to be a viable musical instrument.”

The music is still a unique hack that Akesson can play, and it sounds like the perfect soundtrack for an 80s computer game. It’s an 8-bit love letter to an era past.