OK, I never thought it would happen, but over Thanksgiving, I had my first experience with Guitar Hero (Playstation video game for the un-initiated). I confess: I love it! Now, I’m already a guitar player, though not of the Rock variety (I’m really just a folkie), so the coordination was already there, but this game is extremely fun, and addictive! Now, I haven’t gotten into a video game since about 1982 (I was a “Donkey Kong Jr.” junkie back in the day), so for me to get that pumped about a video game is pretty spectacular.
But while I was playing, I started to think about what other kind of applications this interface might have – like, with the right I/O device, you could have “Whistle Hero” or “Fife Hero”, and in addition to the “stream” of colored dots (that represent left hand buttons on the guitar controller), you could have normal music notation somewhere on the screen; this “game” could be an extremely powerful teaching tool. Not that there would be any kind of mass-market for “Fife Hero” – at least not a market which would be offset by the cost of development. I’d be willing to bet that at some point in the not-too-distant future, games like this will be so configurable, that guys like me could make “Fife Hero”.
Anyone else out there? Thoughts?
Disclaimer: I am definitely not about to go out and buy this game box, the game, the controller, but I’m certainly a little warmer to it than I used to be. My kids have been begging for a VG for years, and I think they’re psyched that I liked it too. Jury’s out, I guess …
I love Guitar Hero although I have been known to be over-confident on it (due to being a rock/metal guitarist myself) which leads to embarrassment as I am in fact rubbish at it. The fact that I can play Cowboys From Hell by Pantera on a real guitar does not mean I can automatically play the expert version on Guitar Hero.
Guitar Hero 3 is out soon, will need to pick it up for my 360.
Any game programmers out there? I’m thinkin’ “Whistle Hero” with a special whistle shaped game controller… anyone up for the expert level of Sean Sa Ceo?
You know as a learning aid this could actually be useful. It’s not feasible to have a realistic guitar game due to the number of available notes and octaves on the instrument. However the whistle only uses 6 holes and 2 or 3 octaves. This is well within the realms of feasibility for a game controller that novices can pick up and play. Colour coded sight reading like in the guitar hero games can be used to learn the fingerings of various songs without having to slog through sheet music or spending ages trying to figure it out by ear.
I’ve seen people make their own guitar hero controllers and import other songs into the game, so it could be possible to do this is a home DIY project. I’m not going to figure it out though, I’ll leave that to someone else.
Have not played it, but my 17 year old daughter has been dropping broad hints.
I’ve enjoyed DDR and especially Karaoke Revolution, (can beat the kids on the latter, not the former.)
My wife’s daughter invited us to their apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. When we arrived the son-in-law and the grandson were sitting on the sofa playing Guitar Hero. There were some creepy looking characters holding solid-body guitars on the TV screen, and there were a series of dots that were moving toward the viewer. I reckoned that the players were trying to obilterate each of those moving dots. I would have liked to talk for awhile before the meal, but it was impossible because all of the noise coming from the TV. I guess this was supposed to be the pre-meal entertainment, but I, for one, was not impressed or entertained. After the meal my wife and I made a quick exit fearing the worse, that the post-meal episode of Guitar Hero would begin again. As we were walking to the car, I said to my wife, “Dear, I sure am glad that we can enjoy the peace and quiet of our own home”. She replied, “Honey, I think that we are just getting set in our ways”.
Yamaha used to make various MIDI controllers that emulated wind instruments. Possible one of these could be used as a controller for WhistleHero or FluteHero.
I’m not sure what sort of fingering you would need on a whistle-controller to get that Steve Vai feedback sound, but I’m sure it can be built into the software somewhere. Obviously, body contortions will have to be included to give max points for rock concert realism. Jumping up and down on the spot like a punk moron will cost you points.
Yeah, that was a really good episode. It didn’t make fun of Guitar Hero as much as it made fun of how people get really fanatic about games like this, at the expense of their friendships etc.
At one point Stan’s Dad showed the kids how he used to play some heavy metal song when he was in a band. He actually played it great, but the kids thought that playing a real instrument was lame: they liked the game version better.
I hate to poop on your party, but why would I pay close to $100 for an imitation whistle that requires electricity (which therefore burns fossil fuels and destroys the environment) when I could simply play the real thing for less than $10 and no negative affect on the environment save for noise pollution?
I personally never really got into it, but I know several that have.
All I ever hear about is Guitar Hero and Halo 3 (it’s died down in past weeks, when it first came out the buzz was nuts). I’m not a big video game player so can someone please explain why everyone gets so into these video games? I think it’s just a fad, but it’s all I hear about.
The only video game system in my house is an Nintendo 64.
Yeah it’s just a fad that’s been on the go for around 30 years…
I’ve been a gamer since I was 5 (and I got a Spectrum +2 with 128k of RAM!) and it’s not a fad. The main difference now is that it’s grown so much and the budgets are so big that when a game like Halo 3 is released it’s now mainstream news.
I finally upgraded to a 360 from my old xbox last month and it’s awesome. Halo 3 is superb (the online multiplayer is a great laugh, the little American kids that call everyone bitches or faggots aren’t) but I think the hype has died down a bit now that Call Of Duty 4 is out and stealing it’s thunder and the release schedules are filling up for christmas. Mass effect, assassins creed (which is taking up all my time just now), guitar hero 3, call of duty 4, ace combat 6 have all been released in the last couple of weeks and it’s impossible to keep up with them all.
Someone is finally putting out a guitar hero game that processes audio samples
of the guitar so you can use the game to learn songs on your real guitar.
