Here are a couple of shots from a presentation made by Harmonix founder and CEO Alex Rigopoulos in which he talks about the pros and cons they considered when trying to decide whether or not to make a guitar game:
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
The “pro” argument is all you’d need to convince me!
Update: It looks as though Jeff “Coding Horror” Atwood beat me to the punch and has even more details. Damn you, Atwoooooood!
Although it’s relatively old news, it’s all the buzz on the tech blogs today: Accordion Hero, the accordion version of the Guitar Hero videogame:
Alas, Accordion Hero is just a parody — it’s just a clever idea that’s been given it’s own website.
However, that doesn’t mean that someone hasn’t built an accordion-style for Guitar Hero-type games. Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet Oded “SoundGuy” Sharon and the game controller that he created by hacking a toy accordion. Here’s a photo of Oded playing Frets on Fire (a Free Software version of Guitar Hero) with his “Accordion Hero” controller:
You can find out more about the controller in this entry on his blog.
Oded, you’re a true Accordion Hero — I salute you with a filet mignon on a flaming sword!
Hey, it’s Friday, so it’s “funny pictures day” as far as I’m concerned. Here’s an animation featuring the graphics from Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, with a Vietnam setting…
Animation courtesy of Miss Christie St. Martin.
The latest videogame to get featured on South Park — and lampooned a little to boot — is Guitar Hero, in an episode (in)appropriately titled Guitar Queer-o. The episode guide has this brief summary:
Stan and Kyle are hooked on Guitar Hero. But Stan’s superior skills on the video game damage his friendship with Kyle.
Here’s a quick snippet from the opening act, in which Stan and Kyle play Kansas’ Carry On Wayward Son, one of the songs featured on Guitar Hero II:
Can’t see the video? Click here.
When Randy saw the kids playing Guitar Hero and tried to impress them by actually playing Carry On Wayward Son on a real guitar and singing as well, only to be told “that’s gay, Mr. Marsh”. Not only does the real guitar fail to win the kids over, but later that night, Randy finds out that real guitar-playing skill does not translate into Guitar Hero skill. The bit where Thad, the professional backup player, played Guitar Hero without a console — “acoustically” — was a laugh-out-loud moment. I don’t want to spoil the story, so I’ll just simply say that the “real vs. virtual” and “rock star” themes get pushed farther, to hilarious results.
The episode aired last night and won’t air here in Canada for a few more weeks, but it doesn’t matter — the entire episode is online at South Park Zone.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the updated protective grip sleeve that Nintendo is offering to all Wii owners:
Here’s the webcomic God Mode’s take on it:
Click the comic to see it on its original page at full size.
(In case you missed it, I covered “Ms. Master Chief in this posting.)
The auction ended last Thursday at 9:47 Eastern, and the winning bid was US$2,222, placed by “vetusnox”.
My heartiest congratulations to vetusnox on both winning the bid and having the disposable income to blow a couple of grand on videogame-based collectibles. I salute you with my Star Wars “Cantina Band” figurines!
Cheer up, emo geek!
Looking for a present for a geek who like (or needs) to dress up? How about ThinkGeek’s 8-bit tie? It’s a clip-on, so it’s easy to wear, and polyester microfiber, so it’s easy to clean. Yours for US$19.95 at ThinkGeek.
Remember the