Guitar Freaks: Played it?

[digitalpress]

Just my "welcome to the forum" thread to represent my favorite of the rhythm games. More to follow!

[Kroogah]

I play it. A lot. With my Panther CRG. The long strings of hammer notes pound my lifebar into the ground, unless I have it set on easiest difficulty (which I do. I play to have fun ^_^) I think the hardest song I beat on normal difficulty was Happy Easter Expert....been awhile since I played on normal, though...

[davidbrit2]

Have I ever played Guitar Freaks??? That and Drummania are my favorite in the Bemani series. There's a definite possibility that I'm the best in Michigan, too.

Daydream Basic
The Least 100 Seconds Advanced
Classic Party Triathlon Advanced 2x Hidden Sudden (with an S)
Classic Party Triathlon Extreme 2x (also with an S)
Classic Party Extreme 2x Hidden Sudden Random (with an A)
Fireball Extreme 2x Hidden Sudden Random (right after Classic Party, also with an A)

I absolutely love playing with Hidden and Sudden simultaneously. It's called "Blink Mode" around here. I can also play quite a few songs with 2x Hidden Sudden SRandom on Extreme - Used Cars, for instance. I am very, very sick in the head.

[punkoffgirl]

I've played it, but only when I've been to New Jersey. Someday I hope to have one of my very own to love and to hold and to squeeze and call it Barney.
Until then, I'll keep checking on eBay to find a good deal on a guitar. *sigh*

[WiseSalesman]

I played it in the arcade when I made my pilgramage to Blaster's in Michigan. I guess that counts as "I play it with a Konami Guitar Controller". It was fun, but I was unable to pass even one song. Granter, though, I only played twice, and had no idea what I was doing. The rest of the time was devoted to my love affair with their drummania machine! Yeah baby!

[davidbrit2]

YES. Drummania. Oh, god, the happy memories. Too bad the 3rd Mix at Blaster's was a complete piece of shit last time I was there. The snare wasn't even attached, and the cymbal was very dodgy. The 5th Mix at AFC Westland is awesome, and it's linked to the GF 6th. It's absolutely orgasmic.

I wish Red Octane had same day Sunday shipping so I could have my Drummania controller NOW.

[kainemaxwell]

I've yet to play it but I definitly want to from what you guys have said about it!

[zmeston]

DDR rules, no doubt about it, but I'm firmly convinced that Guitar Freaks would be a more popular home-console game if Konami ever brought it over, which they won't. DDR is much more entertaining to watch (and play) at the arcade, with an adoring audience looking on, but Guitar Freaks is a more satisfying solo experience.

There's also, as we've discussed previously, the DDR "gayness" factor. There is a certain percentage of males who refuse to play DDR because, to be blunt, you look kinda fruity while doing so. Guitar Freaks' only moment of fruitiness is the "wailing bonus," and even that's more funny than fruity.

Finally, who doesn't wanna rock and roll, other than terrorists and Goth kids?

-- Z.

[davidbrit2]

Agreed. I think Konami would do well to at least give it a go in the US with perhaps an inexpensive guitar controller. The PS2 versions in Japan come with Drummania on the same disc for 3 player insanity, so maybe they would have the balls to do that do.

[scooterb23]

I play Guitar Freaks, not very well, but I play it. I have trouble with the really fast notes (COOL F^%$# ING JOE!!!! that song is the current bane of my existence)

I've never seen any of the home versions, or other mixes in the arcade.

[JWKobayashi]

The PS2 versions in Japan come with Drummania on the same disc for 3 player insanity, so maybe they would have the balls to do that do.

YES!! All we need is a multitap now... We've had two people playing guitar (one guitar, one bass mode), one guitar and one drum, but all three at once would be incrediable. We're gonna rock 80's style and do the two guitarists back to back thing, and then the KISS thing where we all sway from side to side. :-D

[davidbrit2]

Oh, I've got the multitap prepped and ready, and my drum controller should be here in a couple days. Bring the guitar controllers and meet me at my place. :-D

The really insane feature of the arcade versions is that you can hook up a Guitar Freaks, a Drummania, and a Keyboard Mania for a 5 player orgy of Bemani. That would almost be worth murder to see in person.

[JasonMewes2001]

I've never played it, but I do plan on it.

[NE146]

I give it a play whenever I'm at the local arcades here. But due to the cost, after one round I stop and go to the 25 cent classics :D

[JasonMewes2001]

I give it a play whenever I'm at the local arcades here. But due to the cost, after one round I stop and go to the 25 cent classics :D

Hooray for Ms.Pac Man/Galaga!

[JWKobayashi]

The really insane feature of the arcade versions is that you can hook up a Guitar Freaks, a Drummania, and a Keyboard Mania for a 5 player orgy of Bemani. That would almost be worth murder to see in person.

Ah yes I know... supposedly there is supposed to be a huge bemani megacenter opening in Wisconsin. HOPEFULLY this will be a reality there...

[kainemaxwell]

I'd love to play Guitar Freaks after hearing so much about it from you guys.

[davidbrit2]

Are you familiar with efnet? :-D

[NE146]

Are you familiar with efnet? :-D

uhoh.. what are you one of those #bemani folks? :P

[davidbrit2]

Certified #bemaniso leech. He he.

[davidbrit2]

http://www2.gvsu.edu/~brittedg/ClassicPartyTriathlon.mov

Okay, I told you I was good. ;-)

That's an MPEG 4 video, so you'll need the latest Quicktime to watch it.

[scooterb23]

David, I have one thing to say...holy shit dude.

Now I know what happened to the guys that did the animations on Monty Python...

Just to see the other end of the spectrum of Guitar Freakdom...I was playing Cutie Pie in the arcade...and I failed it today...I was using it to warm up a bit before trying to pass Cool Joe. :embarrassed:

I just wasn't quite in the mood I guess...and the DDR Extreme right next to me was throwing me off a bit...

[zmeston]

http://www2.gvsu.edu/~brittedg/ClassicPartyTriathlon.mov

Okay, I told you I was good. ;-)

Good? More like God. I bow humbly, my friend. If you're attending CGE, you must allow me to drag you to SegaWorks and pay for you to play their GF machine, so I can watch and learn. (I always try to steal techniques from the best.)

-- Z.

[davidbrit2]

Man, that's the trouble with being in Michigan. There's about a 0% chance I'll be going to CGE, with about a 5% margin of error. But anytime you want to meet me at Putter's in the Kalamazoo area, just say the word. Heh. I'll be making more videos, though, since I just got this shiny new camera. :-)

I've got a Pop'n Music video on our Yahoo group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swmibemani/
It's in the files section, which is public, so you shouldn't have any trouble. I kind of fudged up near the end a little, but it's still neat. That's on my homemade controller, by the way.

I'll probably make a Drummania video or two, but I'm hesitant, since some of the folks near Detroit are absolutely insane with that game.

[autobotracing]

I have 2 versions for psx But its kinda hard to play the good songs without the real controller

[davidbrit2]

My hands are crazy small, so I can use the Dual Shock without much hindrance. Use control setting C and hold the controller backwards, if you aren't already.

[zmeston]

For anyone who's playing this with a GF controller (dammit, David, this question would be right up your tech-knowledge alley!), have you noticed lessened response from the controller after a while? My scores have decreased over time, and while it's certainly possible that senility is setting in, I blame it on the controller. (Yeah, don't we all.) The fret buttons don't seem to spring back as quickly as when the guitar was shiny and new, nor does the pick seem to register all of my strums. Do I need to tear the thing apart and perform an intricate cleaning process, or just suck it up and purchase another GF controller?

-- Z.

[davidbrit2]

Well, I'll just wing it. First, open that sucker up. If the keys are just carbon dot contacts like I suspect, first give the PCB a light buffing with a clean pencil eraser. After that, use alcohol on a cotton swab to clean the PCB contact points, as well as the dots on the buttons. Once you've done that, use some alcohol on a napkin to clean the edges of the buttons themselves, and the inner rim of the button wells. I have no idea how the pick is constructed, though. Is it leaf switches? How about microswitches? I suspect a little graphite lube shot into the pivot point would help the motion, but I have no idea what sort of switch system it uses. Grab some pictures of it if you open the thing up.

[zmeston]

Well, I'll just wing it. First, open that sucker up. If the keys are just carbon dot contacts like I suspect, first give the PCB a light buffing with a clean pencil eraser. After that, use alcohol on a cotton swab to clean the PCB contact points, as well as the dots on the buttons. Once you've done that, use some alcohol on a napkin to clean the edges of the buttons themselves, and the inner rim of the button wells. I have no idea how the pick is constructed, though. Is it leaf switches? How about microswitches? I suspect a little graphite lube shot into the pivot point would help the motion, but I have no idea what sort of switch system it uses. Grab some pictures of it if you open the thing up.

Thanks for the awesome advice, my friend. I won't have my digital camera 'til tomorrow or Saturday, but once it's back in my grubby mitts, I'll take some snaps of the bare-nekkid GF controller and post them for your perusal before I do anything drastic.

-- Z.

[devilman]

Nice to see a dedicated Bemani section on a Message Board (first post - can you tell?)

I picked up Guitar Freaks (Plain ol' PS1 version) last week with a couple of Panther CRGs too - I've been after them for a while and now they're MINE. :)

I do like Bemani games but I'm no good at them. I can scrape though Normal level on Guitar Freaks (though Cool Joe often catches me out) but I'm not good enough for Expert level yet. More practise needed...

Incidentally, do the Panther CRGs work just as well on the PS2 version(s) of Guitar Freaks?

And a final question.. how many home versions of Guitar Freaks are there?

[davidbrit2]

The Panthers should work fine on PS2 versions. Dual Shock performance in Gitadora (GF4+DM3) was severely worse than GF 1st and 2nd Mix for PSX, since the analog picking would respond independently to Y axis picking and X axis picking. It blew my mind when I tried it and started racking up Bads like they were going out of style. Also, the interface doesn't work as well when using a Dual Shock in "guitar" mode (control setting C.) The Panthers shouldn't have that problem, since it's all just digital switches anyway. I've ordered a Topway guitar controller, so I'll be sure to test it on all the different versions. After installing some really high performance switches, that is. ;-)

As for home versions, here they are:
Guitar Freaks - PSX
Guitar Freaks 2nd Mix Append - PSX - Get this. Now. It's got about 45 songs, and most of them are excellent classics that are still played quite often, as well as some songs that were sadly dropped early in the series, such as Aficion and Dry Martini.
Drummania 1st Mix - PS2 - This is mostly identical to the arcade version, with the addition of a few home exclusive songs. Session mode is included, along with a few GF 2nd Mix songs, but GF cannot be played by itself. There seems to be a timing issue (with my Topway controller, at least,) that requires you to hit a tiny bit early. This release was packaged with the Konami drum controller, but the Topways are usually just as good.
Guitar Freaks 3rd Mix + Drummania 2nd Mix - PS2 - Both games are available on the same disc. As a result, you can do 3 player Session mode with one person on drums, and 2 on guitars. Stick a drum controller in port 1, plug a multitap in port 2, and put guitars in ports A and B.
Guitar Freaks 4th Mix + Drummania 3rd Mix - PS2 - Ditto. Also, this seems to be the most common of the PS2 releases, and it's excellent as well. I have this version, and it doesn't have the drum timing problem from 1st Mix.

[devilman]

Thanks for the info o GF God. ;)

Any idea where I can get hold of the Guitar Freaks 2nd Mix Append disc? Is it expensive/rare? I'm going to have to get me a Jap PS1 or PS2 to save me the disc swapping and action replay codes! :)

[davidbrit2]

Hmm, I guess you can keep your eyes open for one on ebay. I see them show up every now and then. You can also check some of the known mail order import game sellers. But if you do get it, you should be able to easily rip the ISO, patch it, then rewrite it to CDR and play it. I have a patched version myself that doesn't require appending, and doesn't need unprotect codes. Places like http://www.megagames.com usually have just about every PSX patch under the sun, so check there first. And for the record, I'm not condoning pirating. Not yet, anyway. ;-D

[devilman]

Well it's not piracy if you own the original... right? ;)

Thanks for the info... I shall keep my eyes peeled. Ebay is my friend anyway. :D

[devilman]

How long have you been playing GF for by the way? A while, right??

I've been playing a week now and I'm getting better very slowly - I've finally got my first couple of A's and unlocked Evil Eye but I can't do any of the expert songs at all! :(

[davidbrit2]

I've been playing GF since around the summer of 2002. And I've been playing it a lot. It's been hypothesized that I may very well be the best in Michigan, and possibly even the Midwest, though that would be super hard to put to the test. :-)

And yes, just like everybody else that plays GF for the first time, I too thought you just had to tap the neck buttons like Beatmania, and use the "effector bar" for the wailing bonus column. Heh. I figured it out about 10 or 15 seconds into the first song.

Oh, and High Speed Edition for GF 1st Mix: At the mode select screen, P P R B R B G G, then select Expert. Mwa ha ha ha!

[devilman]

Do any games make use of the yellow button on the Panther CRG? Playing with three buttons is tricky enough but I couldn't imagine four!

[davidbrit2]

All signs point to no on that one. I can't help but wonder if they were just being cautious and anticipating Guitar Freaks IIDX, as with Beatmania IIDX and its 2 extra buttons. My Topway should be here in a few hours, so I'll fiddle with the 2 extra buttons and see if they do anything.

[devilman]

I'm still practising and still getting nowhere. Got my first S though which is nice. :)

I've got a Playstation to PC joypad adaptor and I thought I'd try hooking it up to the PC to see if the PC would recognise the guitar buttons and it does. :)

So, I'm toying with the idea of knocking up a little game in Dark Basic using the guitar as the main controller. At the moment, I can get it to play different samples depending on which button combination is pressed but nothing more as yet. It'd be nice if I can create a GF clone but I think that might be beyond me!

[zmeston]

Well, I'll just wing it. First, open that sucker up. If the keys are just carbon dot contacts like I suspect, first give the PCB a light buffing with a clean pencil eraser. After that, use alcohol on a cotton swab to clean the PCB contact points, as well as the dots on the buttons. Once you've done that, use some alcohol on a napkin to clean the edges of the buttons themselves, and the inner rim of the button wells. I have no idea how the pick is constructed, though. Is it leaf switches? How about microswitches? I suspect a little graphite lube shot into the pivot point would help the motion, but I have no idea what sort of switch system it uses. Grab some pictures of it if you open the thing up.

I just wanted to give you a very belated update and another thank-ya-verra-much, David. I finally got around to cracking open and cleaning my gee-tar tonight, and it's MUCH more responsive after receiving the patented DB Treatment.

-- Z.

[davidbrit2]

Well, it's good to know that all worked. If the arcade controllers aren't fixed when I go there Friday, maybe I'll just pull out an allen wrench and some alcohol and do it myself. Heh. Hell, I fixed their Drummania bass pedal, so they shouldn't mind. ;-)

But my super cool highly modified Topway guitar just died on me. I might try dicking with the wiring a little bit more, but I think it's a lost cause. I need to find a place that sells the actual arcade controllers.

[zmeston]

Well, it's good to know that all worked. If the arcade controllers aren't fixed when I go there Friday, maybe I'll just pull out an allen wrench and some alcohol and do it myself. Heh. Hell, I fixed their Drummania bass pedal, so they shouldn't mind. ;-)

But my super cool highly modified Topway guitar just died on me. I might try dicking with the wiring a little bit more, but I think it's a lost cause. I need to find a place that sells the actual arcade controllers.

Highly modified? How so?

-- Z.

[davidbrit2]

I put in a completely new button panel on the neck, installed microswitches for the pick, and increased the pick travel range so that pick rocking would be more reliable.

[zmeston]

I put in a completely new button panel on the neck, installed microswitches for the pick, and increased the pick travel range so that pick rocking would be more reliable.

Sounds awesome. About the only mod I could pull off is carving a hole into my controller so I could light a smoke bomb inside it, like KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley.

-- Z.

[devilman]

Looks like I've got to take one of my Panther CRGs apart. :( Seems to be a loose connection somewhere that just stops the guitar working at all. Is this common?