Guitar Hero 2600?

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Who owns Sync? From the reviews and screenshots it looks like a rythm game and apparently it's pretty good. Is it along the same lines as Guitar Hero or more like Rythm Tengoku? Both of those games rock and to try a 2600 equivalent would be neat to try out. I'm just curious if any owners can describe what the game play is like.

[Crazy Climber]

I was thinking about it one day and a Guitar Hero 2600 using a keyboard pad (taken a part and rewired in a generic guitar or keyboard casing) would be pretty sweet. I have no programming knowledge though so I kept my mouth shut, making a 2600 game takes way too much time/knowledge for me to tackle. I will just stick to buying them in the store

[StanJr]

You know, along these same lines, I was pondering a DDR for the VCS...

 

Is Paul Slocum still out there???

[Emehr]

To me, Guitar Hero is a spiritual successor to Kaboom. Same basic gameplay only the control is digital and the "bucket" can be in more than one place at a time. I think it'd totally be possible to implement a Guitar Hero clone on the VCS.

 

To address the original question, I have Sync and I have yet to try out all of the variations. One of them is basically the commands appearing onscreen and you move the the joystick (or press the fire button) in sync with the sounds.

[+Nathan Strum]

Who owns Sync? From the reviews and screenshots it looks like a rythm game and apparently it's pretty good. Is it along the same lines as Guitar Hero or more like Rythm Tengoku? Both of those games rock and to try a 2600 equivalent would be neat to try out. I'm just curious if any owners can describe what the game play is like.

Never played either Rhythm Tengoku or Guitar Hero, but I play-tested the daylights out of Sync while Seemo was developing it. All games (and the menus) have excellent, original music. Very catchy stuff.

 

In Mantra, Jitter and Jitter 1K, you simply move the joystick (or press fire) in rhythm with the symbols shown on screen. As you do, the symbols disappear. If you don't match them, they stay on screen and more are added. The idea is to keep the screen clear. When the screen is full, the game ends. The main difference between Mantra and Jitter (besides graphics) is that in Mantra, the game controls the pace, and in Jitter, you can respond as fast as you want to. There are other differences as well, and a number of two player variations. Both have AtariVox support, which will "sing" along during the games as you play.

 

Flow is harder to describe. You stack bars on cells to match the number of computer-placed bars on adjacent cells. When a counter gets to zero, cells that have been matched disappear - the goal being to keep all cells clear. The counter follows a rhythm which changes speed during the game, and adds to the intensity of it. However, you aren't actually matching the rhythm in order to play the game. The game ends when all cells on the screen have been filled by the computer. Flow is my favorite game in the collection, and has the coolest "voice" on the AtariVox. It's hard to describe, but once you've played it, you get the hang of it really fast. Also, there are options to change the music for the game, too.

 

The four mini-games are two scaled-down versions of Jitter and Flow, and Gate and Here.

Flow 1K actually plays very differently from it's bigger brother. In the 4K version, the cells are cleared either when the counter displays zero, or you correctly match the bars for all cells on screen. However, in the 1K version, cells are cleared immediately as soon as any adjacent cell is correct. It has a much faster pace to it, since the game ends not when the screen is full, but when any one cell reaches four bars and the counter reaches the end.

 

Gate is a shape-matching game. You match the shapes in one rotating column, by selecting the correct shapes in the other and pressing fire, and must do so before the computer's column is filled. Here is a reflex game, where you have to hit the fire button as a series of arrows are crossing over different cells on the playfield. But the cells are always narrowing, so again, it's a race against time.

 

All games have some sort of rhythm to them, and really amazing music. Very unlike anything else on the 2600. There are a ton of variations in the three 4K games, too.

 

You can download and play earlier versions of the games here:

Mantra

Jitter

Flow

Four (the four mini-games, formerly called Sync)

 

Note that the games have been improved upon and refined since these were posted. Plus the first three now all have AtariVox support. (Incidentally, I co-wrote the manual, and I still have trouble describing these games very well.)

[supercat]

You know, along these same lines, I was pondering a DDR for the VCS...

 

Is Paul Slocum still out there???

 

I've been giving some considerable thought to a DDR-style game using an enhanced version of the BTP2 music driver (used in Stella's Stocking). The biggest issue would be control--I just don't know how much fun the game would be with joystick.

[Devin]

You know, along these same lines, I was pondering a DDR for the VCS...

 

Is Paul Slocum still out there???

 

I've been giving some considerable thought to a DDR-style game using an enhanced version of the BTP2 music driver (used in Stella's Stocking). The biggest issue would be control--I just don't know how much fun the game would be with joystick.

 

Cosmic Ark uses a very similar interface to what could be use for DDR.

 

Perhaps you can draw a cartoon character using Player 0 and Player 1 and use the ball to draw left, right arrows - depending on the next move (player 0 and 1 could be up and down).

Edited March 7, 2008 by Devin

[supercat]

Perhaps you can draw a cartoon character using Player 0 and Player 1 and use the ball to draw left, right arrows - depending on the next move (player 0 and 1 could be up and down).

 

The essential feature of Guitar Hero is that the moves make sense in the context of the rhythm and melody that's being played; it "feels" like you're actually playing the tune. I don't know how well that would work with a joystick.

 

Further, you should note that graphics could take no more than 30 cycles/scan line if I use the BTP2 or EBTBTP2 driver. That's not a lot, but as Stella's Stocking demonstrates, it's still enough to do some cool things.

Edited March 7, 2008 by supercat

[Devin]

The essential feature of Guitar Hero is that the moves make sense in the context of the rhythm and melody that's being played; it "feels" like you're actually playing the tune. I don't know how well that would work with a joystick.

 

Further, you should note that graphics could take no more than 30 cycles/scan line if I use the BTP2 or EBTBTP2 driver. That's not a lot, but as Stella's Stocking demonstrates, it's still enough to do some cool things.

 

Perhaps the arrows could be integrated directly with the music buffer.

 

When an arrow is reached, the system will no longer advance the to the next note until the correct joystick direction is pressed. This way, the song will rhythmically line up with the joystick input. If the user is slow with an input, the time between notes will be longer.

 

Just a thought.

Edited March 7, 2008 by Devin

[supercat]

When an arrow is reached, the system will no longer advance the to the next note until the correct joystick direction is pressed. This way, the song will rhythmically line up with the joystick input. If the user is slow with an input, the time between notes will be longer.

 

That part's a given. Play a note early or late, and it plays early or late on the audio track (the other voices would all play in correct time regardless). Miss a note and it doesn't play. Move the joystick the wrong way, or when there's no note even close, and a wrong note will play.

 

But how to come up with joystick movement patterns that make musical sense?

[kroogur]

I think Crazy Climber had the right idea use the keypad controller and rewire it into a generic guitar housing perhaps something the size of an Ukulele or use those cheap "Keytars" they sell for kids.

 

Not a cheap Keytar but you get the idea:

 

The four string Ukulele:

[Devin]

That part's a given. Play a note early or late, and it plays early or late on the audio track (the other voices would all play in correct time regardless). Miss a note and it doesn't play. Move the joystick the wrong way, or when there's no note even close, and a wrong note will play.

 

But how to come up with joystick movement patterns that make musical sense?

 

Okay. I understand now.

 

IMHO, it probably would be easier to create a version of Dance-Dance Revolution rather than Guitar Hero. At least in the case of DDR, the directions on the joystick can be whatever values you want - or even randomly generated.

 

In the case of DDR, the joystick directions can be linked to animations for some sort of cute cartoon character.

[Bruce Tomlin]

I don't see any particular reason why the keypad controller can't be used. Certainly you could have a button under each of four fingers. Imagine the Basic Programming controller duct-taped to a guitar body. That way could even be better than a mere 5-button GH controller.

 

[djmips]

I don't see any particular reason why the keypad controller can't be used. Certainly you could have a button under each of four fingers. Imagine the Basic Programming controller duct-taped to a guitar body. That way could even be better than a mere 5-button GH controller.

 

Definately an nice idea. Reading the controller does eat into your cycle time though... On the Guitar hero clone game for the PC, they make you pick up your keyboard and hold it like a guitar. It's actually not that bad shredding with your keyboard. I broke mine and then lit it on fire.

 

There is a C64 Guitar hero type program that I saw just today. It uses an interface to hook up and actual GH PS2 controller. The strum is mapped to one of the paddle inputs I think. The other paddle input is mapped to something else. Well you can find out the correct details at http://www.toniwestbrook.com/shredz64

 

- David

[+Nathan Strum]

The strum is mapped to one of the paddle inputs I think.

Excuse me?