By: RattleHunt

RattleHunt — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 17:19:28 +0000

That’s awesome, didn’t know that. That game looks fun, needs to be released on XLive with GHGitar support. This makes me look a bit more fondly on GHAerosmith.

By: Phil Nohl

Phil Nohl — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:53:15 +0000

Greetings from Wisconsin. The first game I purchased for my first computer back in 1994 was Virtual Guitar. “Quest for Fame” is actually the third game in the series. It’s a great one, interacting with the members of Aerosmith and all, but the first two games are a must for a number of reasons. But before I get into that, let me point out that the person demonstrating the Virtual Guitar in the above video is making it appear as though the left hand has control over making chords. It doesn’t. It’s a solid piece of plastic. Virtual Guitar is all about rhythm, and playing (mostly) chords in rhythm. You basically are strumming real guitar strings that only appear on the face of the guitar in a grouping the length of around four inches or so. It’s a lot more difficult than a non-guitarist might imagine, especially when you click off your cheat bar at the bottom of the screen and attempt to hit all of the chords for an entire song (the only way to advance with big points and reach the end level). And the rhythm has to be very precise. The guy seen in the above video constantly lags behind the actual rhythm of the song. If this were you in the very FIRST game titled “West Feedback” you would be sent back to your home base – your bedroom – where your virtual mother (GREAT EFFECTS in real-time video) would eventually come in to offer you cookies or tell you to look for a job. Once you break out of your bedroom with somewhat good chops, you advance to a garage, where you’ll be greeted by virtual band mates (again EXCELLENT). They talk to you a bit, then invite you to play. If you suck, they will tell stop the song and tell you berate you (no kidding) and kick you out. Then it’s back to your bedroom – and your mother once again nagging you. There are several more stages to West Feedback that are equally hilarious and FUN. Here is a list of the songs from West Feedback: Hey Jealousy, Kickstart My Heart, This is Cracker Soul, Growing Into You, Come and Go Blues, and 5 Minutes Alone. West Feedback The Second Set was game number two. Equally fantastic, those songs include: All in the Name of…, Hands Are Tied, Somebody to Shove, Fire Woman, Whipping Post, and Tales from the Hard Side (awesome). You really have to play this game to appreciate its greatness. I’ve never played Guitar Hero, but just by looking at it, I can tell it is a crappy rip-off of Virtual Guitar. Once you place a Virtual Guitar around your neck, feel the weight of it, and adjust your tones and volume, you won’t even have to play the game to see it is far superior. Now here’s the drawback. My original computer is long dead (I think it was a Windows 3.1) and the original Virtual Guitar won’t load into more modern set-ups. I am on the look-out for an older computer that will accept this game. I’m dying to play it again after all of these years. It absolutely ROCKS. By the way, when you fail on one of the advanced levels, you are shown a film (hosted by a Jerry Lewis-type geek/professor) that tells you what occupations you are better suited for (other than musician). All are hilarious. So there you have it: West Feedback, West Feedback The Second Set, and Quest For Fame. Finding a computer that will play it is the real challenge. Phil

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 03:58:12 +0000

Let’s also not forget Guitar Rising, a game which boasted you could plug in any real guitar to play it and essentially learn songs through scrolling tabs, not unlike in Rock Band pro. That game dissipated without a fight apparently.

By: John

John — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:23:19 +0000

Almost forgot about Bad Influence and Andy Crane. He was a good children’s TV presenter, especially with Edd The Duck, but Violet Berlin was also proper games journalist and wrote a column for the UK’s most popular games magazine, Digitiser (yes, the one on ITV Teletext). Craig McClachlan’s career was jump-started by Australia’s greatest TV show (after Flying Doctors): Neighbours. Yes the same show that gave us Hugh Jackman and Kylie Minogue :)

Bad Influence was all right. It was kind of starting when print video games magazines had been going for ages, plus you can tell the suits wanted TV presenters first, games journalists second.

It also goes to show how valuable good games journalism is. Those vox-pop-style reviews of Panzer Dragoon were painful.

By: Nilloc

Nilloc — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:55:40 +0000

Didn’t think it would be worth waiting till the end, but the rest of that video is soooo good!

By: Michael Prachar

Michael Prachar — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:52:08 +0000