The Real Guitar Hero

Recently there has been increased interest in new and novel controllers for computer games. The Guitar Hero computer game became popular by using a unique controller that resembles a guitar however guitarists desire a computer game that uses the output from a real electric guitar to interact with a computer game. Such a game would appeal to guitarists who wish to use their skills in a new way and also to guitar tutors as a means of motivating beginner students. The complexity lies in using the signal from the guitar in a way that; i) works robustly in real-time, ii) is intuitive to the player, and iii) requires skill on the players part, thereby playing the game will challenge and improve the player. Two games have been created that use the guitar's pitch value to determine what happens in the computer game. The first game listens for notes from a chosen scale to control a paddle's movement in a tennis game (Pong style). The second game listens for specific sequences of notes (licks) to be played in order to control the movements of a marble on an obstacle course. The paper will present the development of this technology and also discuss the implications for new game concepts.