Slashdot Mirror
Frets on Fire - Guitar Hero for Linux/Windows
abyssi writes "Frets on Fire, for Linux and Windows, play with your keyboard-alternative to the ever-so-popular Guitar Hero, has been released at ASSEMBLY '06 demo party's Game Development competition together with 13 other experimental, indie games including a new game from the creators of the popular Dismount series. ASSEMBLY '06 runs from 3rd to 6th of August in Helsinki, Finland and enjoys over 5000 persons in attendance. A 24h/day webcast is available at AssemblyTV.net starting Thursday 3.8.2006 at 14:00."
There are MIDI pickups available for regular guitars which will transform what you play into MIDI input for a computer. Maybe someone should make a game like this which can be fun like Guitar Hero, but actually use a real guitar!
Usually for games like this (stepmania comes to mind), they have a joystick option. If this program doesn't currently support this feature, it's probably not too far off. If you have a PSX - USB converter, you can use your guitar hero controller on your PC and make your own tracks, etc. I guess you could also hold your keyboard sideways too...
Just grap a USB adapter from a vendor like Lik Sang and you can use your Guitar Hero Guitar or DDR dancepad on the PC, making it more like the original that they're cloned from.
(From the Laws of Japanese Animation) Law of Inherent Combustibility -- Everything explodes. Everything.
People use Stepmania with pads all the time. Usually, they use a Playstation->PC adapter. I've even done it myself, using an X-Box pad modded to use a standard USB end. For a couple months, my exercise regimine was playing Stepmania on a similar system.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see the Guitar Hero controllers working with those same Playstation->PC adapters.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
If you are an indie, make something new and interesting...don't rehash what already is out there and done better. Most of fun of Guitar Hero comes from using the controller. For awhile, my guitar wasn't working...after messing around a bit I found that I could play the game with a regular controller. It was interesting to figure out the controls...but it would make a horrible game. Taking this and putting it on the keyboard is pointless. It would be like taking a game that is designed for the Wii and its controller and putting it on the PC with a keyboard. Sure, it can be done. Should it...I don't think so.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
The real question is, "How do I do windmills with my keyboard?"
Perhaps it wold work if you picked your keyboard up and held it like a guitar. (Warning: This may get you strange looks.)
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
I'll stand here and admit that I think Guitar Hero is tons of fun (yes, I'm an adult and I play with a toy plastic guitar! And I get into it!).
Before that, I actually also got hooked on "frequency" and "amplitude", the precursors that were played with the regular ps2 controller. These were also tons of fun, also very addictive, and also gave you the sensation of "playing" the song. Admittedly, I haven't played either of the earlier versions since the guitar does add a lot to the experience, but I imagine even with just the keyboard the concept (if done well) can still make for a great game.
I hear there is this small shop nobody has ever heard of that makes some kind of chat client with dragons in it. But what would I know, I'm a Windows guy.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
I actually downloaded this and played it, and I have this to offer:
1) They came up with a novel control scheme that's not too far off from being as good as the guitar hero controller:
Pick up your keyboard. Place your left hand under the F1 - F4 keys. Your right index finger should fall on F1 -- this is the "First Fret", F2 is the second, etc. Hold the keyboard like you would the neck of a guitar.
The default "Pick" key is enter, but I think I'd suggest space.
However, I was unable to actually play this game correctly, as I'm on a laptop, and as such, cannot "pick up" my keyboard as described. I've got keyboards around, but none of those damn PS/2 to USB adaptors.
It's really pretty decent -- it seems to respond to input almost identically to guitar hero, and it has a song editor built in, so it could potentially take off like Step Mania did. However, it only ships with 3 songs, and I couldn't find any user contributed songs via google.
Anyway, the aforementioned control scheme makes this a lot closer to playing guitar hero than playing step mania on the keyboard is to playing DDR.
well with usb keyboards going dirt cheap these days, it shouldn't be too hard to hack up a halfway decent controller based on a guitar shaped hunk of wood and some keys hacked in and the keyboard circuit board hidden inside the body...
I'm off to find some wood and a cheap USB keyboard for hacking this up with... I'm just off to the shops... I may be some time... :)
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
AFAIK, this isn't the first guitar hero PC clone, though it does look nicer than the one i've been playing:
http://www.hardkore.org/~ohsnap/
That one actually uses the GH miniSG controller via ps2->usb adapter. Its pretty sweet, and theres tons of songs available already. Too bad most of them are wicked hard and I'm average at best.
"Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys