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Guitar Hero
At Brainstorm I attended a breakfast panel on the future of entertainment and Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, handed out this really cool Guitar Hero playstation2 game. I finally got around to hooking it up this weekend and the Gotham Gal and I spent time playing around with the game. You basically play a "toy" guitar along with songs like Smoke On The Water, I Wanna Be Sedated, I Love Rock and Roll, and many others. We have a way to go before we get to be rock stars (in the game or real life), but we had fun. If you are interested, you can get the game at Amazon.
Comments (9) | Posted July 9, 2006 in My Music , Photo of the Day , Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
I'll have to check it out this weekend.
Posted by: jackson | Jul 9, 2006 8:33:32 PM
Rockin dude. The company that created it - Harmonix (www.harmonixmusic.com) - happens to be run by two MIT guys (Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy), one of which (Eran) is a frat brother. And yes - I'm a small investor dating back to the seed round in 1996. I had one in my conference room for a while, until Ross (my IT guy) stole it and took it to his house because I kept kicking him out of the conference room during the day.
Posted by: Brad Feld | Jul 9, 2006 9:13:47 PM
Great pic, Fred! I think this is one of the coolest products I've seen in a while. I know I've always wanted to learn to play the guitar and be a rock god, and this lets anyone bring out the inner Hendrix in them....even if it is in a conference room (man I envy you VC guys!)
Posted by: Travis A. Sinquefield | Jul 9, 2006 10:28:22 PM
Hilarious photo.
That game is insanely popular with the 14 year olds on my hockey team (I coach). And my 22 year old cousin said everyone played it at his college.
He said that there's no reason to get Xbox because Guitar Hero is for PS2 only.
Posted by: Rick | Jul 9, 2006 11:50:10 PM
I came across a similar game, Konami's GuitarFreaks, in Japan back in 2003. However, it seems they delayed the move from arcade to console till earlier this year.
Interesting to see how this plays out. Harmonix did really well with Karaoke Rev, but that was with Konami. Also, unlike the first GH, GH2 will be competing with GFV.
Nice picture. Let us know which song you were rocking to...
Posted by: Saber | Jul 10, 2006 12:38:01 AM
Great picture. The panel sounded cool
Posted by: jr | Jul 10, 2006 2:30:49 AM
When did Ace Frehley become a venture capitalist?
Posted by: Tony Alva | Jul 10, 2006 9:25:41 AM
Let me warn you about getting into the "play by color" mindset before it's too late. I myself found that using star power and simultaneously not being colorblind kind of backfired on me:
http://www.flickergaming.net/index.php/2006/06/13/guitar-hero-favors-the-colorblind/
Posted by: Jason Preston | Jul 10, 2006 4:30:36 PM
Guitar Hero is my game of the decade. I love videogames -- co-founded IGN and then went on to make them for five years -- but I've never really considered games to be role playing. Can't say I've ever fantasized about being an elf or a fugitive from justice. But damn if I haven't dreamt of being a rock star most of my life. Harmonix just NAILED it with Guitar Hero -- even at the basic levels you feel like you're playing the music. The visceral connection between holding the guitar and making something happen onscreen made me feel like a guitar god. I have high hopes for Nintendo's Wii for this reason -- tangible is good.
All praise aside, the final group of six in Expert mode kicked my butt. And I'm simply not able (or interested enough at this point) to devote the time to become a true Guitar Hero. Like this guy:
Cowboys from Hell (Check out the finger tapping[!] in the solo starting at 2:36)
Bark at the Moon (Take your pick -- over the fret board action at 1:30 or fingers so fast the camera can't catch them at 2:50)
Posted by: Eric Marcoullier | Jul 10, 2006 9:33:54 PM
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