Cooper FX has just announced Arcades, a guitar pedal that changes its tune with SD card-sized swapable cartridges. Inspired by vintage video game consoles (hence the name) Arcades aims to negate some of the cost involved in traditional pedals — the bulk of which comes from hardware such as knobs and switches — by giving musicians a brand new effect for a lower price. Just pay for the cartridge, which will cost from $30 (around £24), depending on which one you go for. The pedal itself costs $330 (about £265).

In a blog post, Cooper FX explains that getting Arcades to fruition has “been a real uphill battle,” not least because manufacturing is situated in Wuhan — the center of the coronavirus outbreak. Now, however, there are four cartridges ready to go with 32 different effects, and four more underway “including the ever so trendy” granular stuff, reverse delays, generation loss, and synth cards.