Guitar Hero coming to the arcade

[Popcorrin]

I just found out from a friend of mine who goes to industry trade shows.
 Should be interesting.

[Ummon]

Didn't it start in the arcade?  Or do you mean GH3?

[DaveMMR]

Didn't it start in the arcade?  Or do you mean GH3?

That was GuitarFreaks, wasn't it?   Konami is apparently releasing a home version, now that they totally missed that boat.

[Ginsu Victim]

Guitar Freaks games have been on home consoles for a LONG time.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/search/index.html?game=guitar+freaks&platform=0

[MonMotha]

Guitar Freaks is IIRC the 2nd or 3rd game in the "Bemani" series of music games from Konami (beatmania was first, then I think DDR, then GF).  It saw its first arcade release all the way back in 1998 or perhaps early 1999 in Japan and certainly predates Guitar Hero.  Guitar Freaks is a similar arrangement to Guitar Hero, but it only uses 3 buttons and does not support some of the more complex gameplay mechanics such as hammer-ons or pull-offs.  The charts do tend to make up for the lack of buttons in terms of sheer difficulty by being jaw-droppingly dense.  It is not uncommon to see charts that look like a wall of notes without a "high speed" mod to spread things out.  Guitar Freaks also has no whammy bar, but it does support switchable "effectors" and lets you "wail" (to quote the "how to play" announcer: "play while aiming the guitar upwards") for bonus points, which I personally think is kinda silly.

1999 also saw the release of DrumMania (known as Percussion Freaks outside Japan).  DrumMania is notable for being set up almost exactly like a real drum set, though it only has two toms, a snare, a single cymbal (used as crash/ride), a bass drum on a pedal, and a hi-hat with no pedal.  DrumMania and Guitar Freaks could link in the arcade in "Session" mode.  This is the earliest instance I'm aware of that "realistic" rhythm music games could be linked for multi-player on dissimilar controls.

There was a USA test release of Guitar Freaks, and at least a couple machines are known to exist (one was at the Gameworks in Chicago, last I checked), but there was no widespread release.  I am not aware of DrumMania/Percussion Freaks ever being released in the USA even as a market test.  This is likely due to MTV's patent on "Drumscape" (a friend often refers to it as "Drumscrape") in the USA, which was basically a coin operated electronic drum set and didn't really have a "game" component.  The patent may still be in effect.

There was also a keyboard (i.e. piano) based game released known as KeyboardMania (Keyboard Heaven outside Japan).  It also saw no USA release, but it could be linked to Guitar Freaks AND DrumMania simultaneously in what is often known as "Super Session".  I've never seen such a setup, but boy would I love to play one.  Up to 5 simultaneous players would be possible: 2 on keyboards, 2 on guitars, and 1 on drum set.  One player could also play both sides of KBM simultaneously ("double play") if they preferred.

Guitar Freaks was released for the PS2 way back in the day, for Japan/Asia only, appearing alongside DrumMania.  Up through GF 4th/DM 3rd was released (as "Guitadora"), then there was a huge gap.  It was possible to have up to three simultaneous players in Guitadora: one on a MIDI drum set (such as a Yamaha DTXPress, upon which the arcade setup is based) and two on guitars: two leads, two bass, or one lead and one bass.

After a huge gap in the release, Konami suddenly decided to start releasing GF/DM for the PS2 again with the arcade "rebirth" (on new system hardware) of GF/DM V again in Japan/Asia only.  They then published a back catalog collection of "Greatest Hits" using that engine.  This was around the same time Guitar Hero was just showing up on the radar in the USA.

Keyboard Mania saw two home releases (KBM 1st and KBM 2nd/3rd combined) on the PS2, but it was not linkable to GF/DM.

Konami has recently released or will very soon release "Rock Revolution" (named no doubt after their so-far only successful Bemani franchise in the USA: Dance Dance Revolution) in the USA.  I haven't looked into it much, but I presume it is basically GF/DM possibly with Karaoke Revolution mixed in (Karaoke Revolution has seen numerous USA and Japan releases, but no arcade releases).  I'm sure the controllers will not be compatible with Guitar Hero
[For the record, the Guitar Hero controllers are not compatible with the old-school Guitar Freaks controllers, despite several 3rd party GF controllers featuring 5 buttons - I have no idea why they chose not to make things compatible]

What I'm getting at is that I wouldn't say that Konami necessarily missed the boat.  If anything, they got to the docks too early and gave up on waiting.  Guitar Freaks does play quite differently from Guitar Hero (though I do not know if Rock Revolution adopts GF or GH style play mechanics), so there is room for both.

[Visitor Q]

Didn't it start in the arcade?  Or do you mean GH3?

That was GuitarFreaks, wasn't it?   Konami is apparently releasing a home version, now that they totally missed that boat.

Yeah that got pretty poor reviews as well.

[Mauzy]

*huge history of Bemani*

You forgot BeatMania, though I'm not sure if it was linkable with the others. IIRC, that didn't do well with a US release either. I bought that instead of the first GH. That was a mistake...

I used to frequent a Namco arcade here in Illinois that had KeyboardMania, GuitarFreaks, and one legit and one bootleg DDR machine. This was the early 2000's. They were all incredibly popular. This was a strange arcade as they would actually repair their games. The walls were covered in broken guitars and broken DDR panels. Of course, this place closed about 3 years ago...

[lanman31337]

Guitar Freaks is IIRC the 2nd or 3rd game in the "Bemani" series of music games from Konami (beatmania was first, then I think DDR, then GF).  It saw its first arcade release all the way back in 1998 or perhaps early 1999 in Japan and certainly predates Guitar Hero.  Guitar Freaks is a similar arrangement to Guitar Hero, but it only uses 3 buttons and does not support some of the more complex gameplay mechanics such as hammer-ons or pull-offs.  The charts do tend to make up for the lack of buttons in terms of sheer difficulty by being jaw-droppingly dense.  It is not uncommon to see charts that look like a wall of notes without a "high speed" mod to spread things out.  Guitar Freaks also has no whammy bar, but it does support switchable "effectors" and lets you "wail" (to quote the "how to play" announcer: "play while aiming the guitar upwards") for bonus points, which I personally think is kinda silly.

1999 also saw the release of DrumMania (known as Percussion Freaks outside Japan).  DrumMania is notable for being set up almost exactly like a real drum set, though it only has two toms, a snare, a single cymbal (used as crash/ride), a bass drum on a pedal, and a hi-hat with no pedal.  DrumMania and Guitar Freaks could link in the arcade in "Session" mode.  This is the earliest instance I'm aware of that "realistic" rhythm music games could be linked for multi-player on dissimilar controls.

There was a USA test release of Guitar Freaks, and at least a couple machines are known to exist (one was at the Gameworks in Chicago, last I checked), but there was no widespread release.  I am not aware of DrumMania/Percussion Freaks ever being released in the USA even as a market test.  This is likely due to MTV's patent on "Drumscape" (a friend often refers to it as "Drumscrape") in the USA, which was basically a coin operated electronic drum set and didn't really have a "game" component.  The patent may still be in effect.

There was also a keyboard (i.e. piano) based game released known as KeyboardMania (Keyboard Heaven outside Japan).  It also saw no USA release, but it could be linked to Guitar Freaks AND DrumMania simultaneously in what is often known as "Super Session".  I've never seen such a setup, but boy would I love to play one.  Up to 5 simultaneous players would be possible: 2 on keyboards, 2 on guitars, and 1 on drum set.  One player could also play both sides of KBM simultaneously ("double play") if they preferred.

Guitar Freaks was released for the PS2 way back in the day, for Japan/Asia only, appearing alongside DrumMania.  Up through GF 4th/DM 3rd was released (as "Guitadora"), then there was a huge gap.  It was possible to have up to three simultaneous players in Guitadora: one on a MIDI drum set (such as a Yamaha DTXPress, upon which the arcade setup is based) and two on guitars: two leads, two bass, or one lead and one bass.

After a huge gap in the release, Konami suddenly decided to start releasing GF/DM for the PS2 again with the arcade "rebirth" (on new system hardware) of GF/DM V again in Japan/Asia only.  They then published a back catalog collection of "Greatest Hits" using that engine.  This was around the same time Guitar Hero was just showing up on the radar in the USA.

Keyboard Mania saw two home releases (KBM 1st and KBM 2nd/3rd combined) on the PS2, but it was not linkable to GF/DM.

Konami has recently released or will very soon release "Rock Revolution" (named no doubt after their so-far only successful Bemani franchise in the USA: Dance Dance Revolution) in the USA.  I haven't looked into it much, but I presume it is basically GF/DM possibly with Karaoke Revolution mixed in (Karaoke Revolution has seen numerous USA and Japan releases, but no arcade releases).  I'm sure the controllers will not be compatible with Guitar Hero
[For the record, the Guitar Hero controllers are not compatible with the old-school Guitar Freaks controllers, despite several 3rd party GF controllers featuring 5 buttons - I have no idea why they chose not to make things compatible]

What I'm getting at is that I wouldn't say that Konami necessarily missed the boat.  If anything, they got to the docks too early and gave up on waiting.  Guitar Freaks does play quite differently from Guitar Hero (though I do not know if Rock Revolution adopts GF or GH style play mechanics), so there is room for both.

They did have a DrumMania at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh PA at one time.

[Popcorrin]

I think the main reason Guitar Freaks didn't catch on is because it didn't have any main stream songs like Guitar Hero does.

[ChadTower]

There used to be a high end Bemani arcade in a hole in the wall half-private arcade a few minutes from my workplace.  They had probably $100,000 in Bemani games in there all on freeplay for a $20 flat entrance fee.  Then they added a second room full of Candy Cabs.  It's gone now, having moved to someplace 50 or so miles away, but while it was here I got to play a lot of the Bemani games up to about 2007.  It was pretty cool.  Guitar Freaks is definitely a decent game but I have to say Drummania is a whole lot more fun.  I never did become very good at Beatmania. 


EDIT:  Found it, it moved to Winchendon, MA.  Looks like the flat fee is $26 now.  A total bargain if you can get near the machines you want to play.

[Ginsu Victim]

MonMotha:
Guitar Freaks also came out on PSX in 1999.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/image/197505.html?box=15188

[MonMotha]

*huge history of Bemani*

You forgot BeatMania, though I'm not sure if it was linkable with the others. IIRC, that didn't do well with a US release either. I bought that instead of the first GH. That was a mistake...

Guitar Freaks is IIRC the 2nd or 3rd game in the "Bemani" series of music games from Konami (beatmania was first, then I think DDR, then GF). 

beatmania is older than most USA players realize.  The 5 key version was quite possibly the first "rhythm" music game made and dates back to at least 1997 in Japan.  It was released in the rest of Asia as "Beat Stage" and saw a couple US arcade releases as "Hip Hop Mania".  The US arcade version flopped.  There was a US console release a couple years back that also pretty much flopped.  I think most of the sales were to long time IIDX players (those importing the Japanese versions) just because it was a cheap source of a decent controller.

The Japanese releases are still tracking the Japanese/Asian arcade series (which just recently saw the release of beatmaniaIIDX 16 "Empress", and the CS release of 15 "DJ Troopers" is due any time).  There is also beatmaniaIII which was terminated at the same time as original beatmania with "The Final".  There were no console releases of beatmaniaIII, but most of the original beatmania is available for the Playstation in Japan region (it's all out of print now, though).

They did have a DrumMania at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh PA at one time.

There are several drummania machines in the USA, but they are all Japan or other Asia imports and many are running bootleg software.  The vast majority of DDR machines (pre-supernova) are also Japanese or Korean imports (and the vast majority of these are also running bootleg versions of the game software).

And yes, I did notice after I wrote the post that Guitar Freaks also saw a PSX release.  The PS2 releases were the combined GF/DM versions.  I can't say I've ever played the original PSX version, though I have played a Guitar Freaks US arcade machine which would be the same engine (on basically the same hardware).

As for song selection, some of the songs on the Bemani games, while unheard of here, are popular in Japan where the games originate.  Many of the songs are done in-house, though.  I'm guessing this is simply for cost reasons.  Licensing lots of music for public performance (i.e. an arcade game, as opposed to private viewing only) is expensive, especially in the USA.  I'll be interested to see what they manage to put on Guitar Hero arcade.  This is one thing Konami is frequently faulted for: not including more local music.  The Korean and European versions of DDR featured some local music, so I'm not sure why it's such a big deal to put some on the USA versions.  These games are actually made by Konami of Japan (KCET does most of the work), so perhaps it's just a lack of communication.

The in-house music ranges from rather good to downright awful (I'd take the opportunity to slam Slake here, but he gets no respect anyway).  It's not usually "American Friendly", though.  The Japanese don't listen to the same kind of music mainstream America does.  While Americans tend to prefer prefer rock, hip hop, rap, and country, and our own flavor of pop, the Japanese tend to go for electronic techno, happy hardcore, game music remixes, eurobeat, and their own unique flavor of pop that most Americans don't like (it's far too "cutesy" for our tastes).  It seems to be that either you like the music or you don't on the Bemani series.  The Bemani games also tend to cut their music to 1:30 - 2:00, rather than using the full song.  I tend to prefer this for music gaming as most songs get kinda boring to play in their entirety when you have a "game" focus, but some prefer to play the whole thing.

Interestingly, Andamiro manages to get tons of licenses on their dance game "Pump It Up", but again you've probably never heard of most of it as it's K-Pop.

ChadTower is talking about Tokyo Game Action (TGA).  Their collection is certainly impressive, though I think $100,000 might be a bit high unless you're trying to acquire all that stuff new or have a restrictive timetable.