Guitar Hero wasn't original in the slightest!

A friend of mine worked on Gutar Hero, for a company called Harmonix which makes music themed games.

Due to it being so popular, and my never haivng heard of a similar game I'd thought all this time that it was a somewhat original game. Of course rhythm games had existed before, and I've seen versions where you had to press different colored buttons on the arcade cabinet in time with classical music, but I thought the guitar controller was at least innovative.

Then I found this!

http://kotaku.com/368269/did-konami-inspire-gibsons-patent-suit

Made in 1999, released in Japan, and using the exact same type of controller! The only thing that seems to be missing is the whammy bar.

in bill murrays film lost in translation when he is wondering around tokyo he walks in an arcade and their are people playing arcade versions of guitar hero type games, i dont recall if id seen guitar hero at this point or not but the film was 1 or 2ish years old by the time i watched it
i didnt see the controller up close so didnt see how it layed the buttons out but the guy in the background looked like he was just posing (he was just an extra in the film after all)

but having seen the play mechanics up close i now know that cos its not a real guitar he can pose and play at the same time

Japanese arcade games have a long tradition of using all manner of whacky controllers.

from what you can find on the internet the japanese are just whacky in general

That's why I love 'em. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z14MTDTWkfk

Good link, 10p.I just love the light-hearted stupidity of the whole thing. Anyone seen Takeshi's Castle? It's genious.

Finger slip off the pulse of arcade gaming there a bit, sswifty? :o)


Next you'll be posting "OMGZ0rs!!! F1GP 20008? Man, Pole Position came out in 1982!!!1"

im hard pushed to find arcade games round here
the ones we do have seem to be the odd old one (m1/m2 sega boards not 8bit) in the odd pub here and there or the cinema lobby
although the bowling ally downstairs (from the cinema) has alot of arcade cabs but ive never gone in to investigate ... although i know from passing they have a dance revolution of sorts

Bah! Guitar controllers are just a gimmick. They'll never catch on.

I always thought Guitar Hero was just that Japanese game brought to America until I realized it wasn't Konami but rather Activision that published the game. After that I read about Harmonix and the influence of Guitar Freaks. I remember reading about Guitar Freaks forever ago.