Things getting dull at home? Wish you had a way, at the touch of a button, to liven things up and make it a party? Wish no more! You too can build the Emergency Party Button!

What you’re seeing is a programmed script that does the following:

1. Turn off hallway light
2. Close the blinds
3. Turn on the fog machine (Takes a while to warm up)
4. Turn off the kitchen light
5. Turn off the poker light
6. Turn off the living room lights
7. Start the mp3 (Haddaway - What is love)
8. Turn on the blacklights
9. Turn on the laser when the main beat of the song starts
10. Turn on the strobe light when the chorus starts

On a similar note, witness the enterprising MIT student who implemented the “Multi-function In Dorm Automation System” (MIDAS) — which features a convenient Instant Party Button.

At the touch of the Emergency Party Button, an ordinary pair of MIT students’ dorm room is transformed into a party, featuring blacklights, sound-activated strobe, fog machine, laser light shows, pumping dance music, trippy visualizations on an LCD display as well as an LCD projector, a spinning closet disco ball, glowing fluorescent lights, and more!

Of course, this stuff is all for fun, but you can get some ideas for simple sound-activated lighting effects that might liven up the stage at your next Rock Band party, too! I dipped my toes in the LED DJ lighting scene, and it totally took our fake plastic rocking to the next level.

Konami’s oddball guitar and drum title Rock Revolution was just released, with decidely.. mixed.. results.

Rock Revolution supports standard Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitar controllers. However, this is the game with its own weirdo seven input (six panels plus foot pedal) drum controller.

The game is compatible with existing Rock Band drums — you can switch into a five input drum mode in the options. Here’s an example using The Spirit of Radio by Rush. Note that it is a cover, as almost all the tracks in Rock Revolution are covers.

The representation of the kick pedal as the orange shield in the center is sure to throw a lot of fake plastic drummers for a loop. There’s a nearly complete youtube stream of all the Rock Revolution songs played on expert drums, if you’d like to see more.

As for guitar, here’s Magic Man by Heart.

The complete track list follows, with YouTube links for each song if you’re unfamiliar.

1. ‘All My Life’ Foo Fighters (GH3: DLC)
2. ‘All The Small Things’ Blink-182 (RB: DLC)
3. ‘Am I Evil?’ Metallica
4. ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ Jet (Rock Band)
5. ‘Bad Reputation’ Joan Jett (Rock Band 2)
6. ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ Ramones (Rock Band)
7. ‘Cum on Feel the Noize’ Quiet Riot
8. ‘Chop Suey!’ System Of A Down (Rock Band 2)
9. ‘Dance, Dance’ Fall Out Boy
10. ‘Detroit Rock City’ Kiss (Rock Band)
11. ‘The Diary of Jane’ Breaking Benjamin
12. ‘Dirty Little Secret’ All-American Rejects (RB: DLC)
13. ‘Dr. Feelgood’ Mötley Crüe (RB: DLC)
14. ‘The End of Heartache’ Killswitch Engage
15. ‘Falling Away from Me’ Korn
16. ‘Given Up’ Linkin Park * master track
17. ‘Heading Out to the Highway’ Judas Priest
18. ‘Highway Star’ Deep Purple (Rock Band)
19. ‘Holy Wars…The Punishment Due’ Megadeth
20. ‘Joker & the Thief’ Wolfmother (RB: DLC)
21. ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ Lita Ford
22. ‘Last Resort’ Papa Roach
23. ‘Magic Man’ Heart
24. ‘No One Like You’ Scorpions (GH: 80s)
25. ‘Our Truth’ Lacuna Coil (Rock Band 2)
26. ‘Pain’ Three Days Grace
27. ‘Paralyzer’ Finger Eleven * master track
28. ‘Pull Me Under’ Dream Theater (GH: World Tour)
29. ‘Round and Round’ Ratt (GH: 80s)
30. ‘Run to the Hills’ Iron Maiden (Rock Band)
31. ‘Sk8er Boi’ Avril Lavigne
32. ‘Somebody Told Me’ The Killers
33. ‘The Spirit of Radio’ Rush
34. ‘Spoonman’ Soundgarden (Rock Band 2)
35. ‘Still of the Night’ Whitesnake
36. ‘Stone Cold Crazy’ Queen
37. ‘Walk’ Pantera
38. ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ Twisted Sister (GH: On Tour)
39. ‘White Room’ Cream
40. ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ The Who (Rock Band)
41. ‘Youth Gone Wild’ Skid Row (GH: On Tour)

Many of these songs already appeared in previous fake plastic rock games, often as actual master tracks, too.

Sal “Sluggo” Accardo posted these thoughts after playing 10 songs of the expert guitar campaign in Rock Revolution:

• I’ve played 10 songs so far, and every cover is as bad as or worse than what we got on GH: Rocks the ’80s. Awful, awful covers.
• The 2D vertical note layout is hard to get used to. The 3D version in GH and RB is much easier to follow.
• I have no idea how their version of Star Power works. There’s something about a power meter, and crowd ambiance, and every time I think I’m activating, it lasts like 2 seconds and then it’s gone.
• The most interesting thing I’ve seen so far, in terms of something I’d like to see Rock Band and Guitar Hero add to their games, is the note grading system. It’s not a binary hit-the-notes-or-not system — like many older rhythm games, there are “Perfect” vs “Good” ratings for each note you hit (although they’re not shown live, only at the end of the song in a stats screen). If GH and / or RB were ever to add an uber-expert mode, this is how I’d like them to do it — grade for accuracy, rather than add a bunch of extra phantom notes.
• The other reason I’d love to see RB and GH adopt that feature (which, in fact, I’ve personally pleaded with both developers to add for years now) is that it provides a nice way to confirm proper calibration. When I finished my first song, it said I had a 50-50 split between “Perfect”s and “Good”s. Now that I’ve calibrated, I’m getting almost all Perfects and just a handful of “Good”s per song.
• the Career mode tries to do some interesting things with song “events.” You need to pass a few songs to advance to the next tier, but it’s not just completing songs. There was one event where they throw fake notes you in the song, and if you hit too many, you fail. Another event slowly ramps up difficulty from Medium to Expert. A third accelerates the fretboard as you build up a multiplier. I give them a thumbs up for these ideas, which at the least play out more interestingly than GH3’s boss battles.
• Each six-song set in career mode has four songs, and then 2 special events where you replay two of those four songs with one of the twists. But for some reason, you can pick the twists right off the bat without realizing it. I would have made those events unlockable, or at the least put up a big flashing “THIS IS NOT A STANDARD EVENT” sign.

I have to admit, despite all the warning signs, I’m actually intrigued. There are about 10 tracks in the game that have never appeared in any fake plastic rock game to date, and are worth playing (at least in my opinion) even in cover form. For one thing, Queen! The last Queen song we got was Guitar Hero 1’s Killer Queen, and that was over three years ago.

As for multiplayer, despite the impression you might get from all the single-player videos above, Rock Revolution does support 3 person bands of guitarists, bassist, and drummer. No vocals, however. Looks like Konami’s Rock Revolution might be decent rental if you’re a genre addict like me.

For the average gamer, don’t bother; stick with Rock Band or Guitar Hero: World Tour.

I just got an email from our local record chain, Amoeba Records, letting me know that they’re not only selling Guitar Hero World Tour, but in fact they’re also a venue in the game!

How cool is that?

These fake plastic rock games, at their heart, are all about new ways to enjoy music. With that in mind, it’s encouraging to see Amoeba Music — the “world’s largest independent music store”, getting their props in the game itself.

I think I’ll cancel my online pre-order and buy from my local store instead. They even throw in a free Amoeba t-shirt. If you live near Berkeley, Hollywood, or San Francisco, you can too!

Here’s a video of the real-world Amoeba stage in action to compare with the one in the game:

Now that the guitar and drums are fully wireless in the Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour band kits, there’s only one band member left who hasn’t achieved glorious wireless freedom yet:

The vocalist.

That’s about to change, however, with the introduction of the Logitech Cordless Vantage Microphone.

It’s a bit pricey at $80, but it means vocalists can now perform those spinning kicks in between verses they’ve always dreamt of.

• USB connector
• 2.4 Ghz frequency
• 30 foot range
• Compatible with all games featuring vocals for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360
• USB base doubles as mic holder when not in use

Logitech’s wireless USB mic should be available sometime in December.

Another wireless microphone option, at least on the Xbox 360 platform, is the upcoming game Lips. It ships with a set of wireless mics. Not only are they wireless, they’re also backlit in sync with the vocals too!

Check out Lips’ wireless mics in action in this gameplay trailer:

If you’re on the Xbox 360 platform, Lips might be a better deal, as the game plus two wireless mics will be $70. The game will be released on November 18th.

As for me, my heart belongs to the Mad Catz M.I.C. — although it’s not wireless, it melds the controller with the microphone, which I think is the far more important feature; our Mic is always on a mic stand anyway.

Guitar Hero: World Tour will be released in a week or two. It’s still unknown how well the Guitar Hero franchise, newly expanded from a guitar game into a full band game, will do compared to the firmly established, original full band game, Rock Band. Rock Band is on its second version and has literally hundreds of playable songs, not to mention almost a dozen complete albums.

In fact, it’s tempting to write off GH:WT as a Johnny come lately, a second fiddle trying to copy Rock Band’s mojo. That’s what I thought initially, too, but I’m not sure that’s entirely fair. I had the chance to play GH:WT at the Penny Arcade Expo this year and I came away impressed. I agree with Tom Chick’s take on this — if you thought you could get away with just one band game, think again.

You already have Rock Band 2, so you might think that you’re all set when it comes to music games with fake plastic instruments crowding your living room. You’d be wrong. Guitar Hero: World Tour comes out on October 26, but I’ve already had a couple of occasions to play it. I don’t intend any sort of advocacy one way or the other, but based on my hands-on time with World Tour, here are 10 reasons you’re going to have to make room next to your copy of Rock Band 2.

The ten reasons follow:

1. Nice list of exclusive songs, including some major tracks like “Beat It”, “Sweet Home Alabama”, and “Purple Haze”.
2. YouTube style service called “GH Tunes” where the top-rated user created tracks from the Music studio can be downloaded.
3. Music studio for creating your own tracks. Remarkably full-featured (sans vocals, however).
4. Vocal pitch is shown as a dynamic “burning” tube that’s always rolling, so you know where your voice is at even before the vocal phrase begins.
5. Addition of sixth “open” bass note for bass players. This is a strum with no buttons pressed. Adds a much needed layer of complexity to bass, which is frankly downright boring in a lot of songs.
6. Guitar innovations, including touchpad that allows you to tap out notes, purple line connecting rapid notes to show you where to slide your finger on the touchpad. Activate star power using the large button directly under your palm.
7. More realistic drum layout — three dimensional, with cymbals above drum pads.
8. Incredibly simple beginner difficulty level for new players, and the ability to complete the song (in most cases) even if a band member fails.
9. An actual storyline for the single player campaign.
10. Deep and detailed character builder, beyond what Rock Band offers.

I agree with Tom on much of this. After the disappointment that was Guitar Hero III, I was expecting more of the same with IV, but I have to honestly say that they seem to be innovating in World Tour!

(Oh, and they de-emphasized those soul-crushing, totally unfair, completely un-fun “guitar battles” from GH3. There are still two guitar battles in the game (Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent) but from what I read, they’ve been toned way way down. Thank God.)

The “purple lines” that Tom is referring to can be seen quite well in a series of high definition Guitar Hero World Tour gameplay videos from GameSpy. Here’s a closeup of one frame:

When you use your finger to trace those purple lines on the guitar touchpad, the channel color lights up as seen at around the 2 minute mark of the Satch Boogie guitar battle with Sal “sluggo” Accardo.

It’s a great addition; it makes it much easier to see the way you’re supposed to move your fingers during those ridiculously fast note patterns. And don’t forget, the touchpad isn’t just for sliding — you can “tap” the touchpad to strum as well.

Beyond that, the addition of the open bass note adds a surprising amount of depth to playing the bass. I got to play bass on Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker”, a pretty decent Bass guitar song to begin with. At first I was wondering why the bass track had the purple kick pedal drum line — was I looking in the wrong place? I then realized that purple line was the indicator for the open bass note! It’s harder than you might think to wrap your head around the idea of playing a note with no buttons held down. And funner!

If you had written off Guitar Hero: World Tour in favor of the Rock Band juggernaut, you might want to reconsider. Do check out Tom’s top 10 article, and the high definition gameplay videos. And remember, GH:WT is compatible with Rock Band drums and guitars, so you can pick up the game alone and play as a full band with all your existing Rock Band equipment.

Details are still sketchy at this point, but GH:WT may also get more serious about downloadable content. They’ve already pre-announced some DLC to start with:

• 3 tracks from REM’s new album Accelerate
• “Rock and Roll Band” - Boston
• “Hot Blooded” - Foreigner
• “Jessie’s Girl” - Rick Springfield
• “No Rain” - Blind Melon

It remains to be seen if they can keep up with the blistering pace that Harmonix has set for DLC with Rock Band, but it’s a promising start.

My heart may belong to Rock Band and its massive catalog of DLC tracks, but I’m definitely liking the competition GH:WT is bringing to the table. I for one am glad I pre-ordered the full band kit!