Guitar Hero and its ilk have transformed our nation’s garage band-playing youth into PS2-playing zombies. In researching this phenomenon I came across a freeware, open source game for PC, Mac OS X and Linux called Frets on Fire. It’s a complete, 100 percent rip-off of Guitar Hero only you can import your own songs into the game. (A good tutorial for that is here.) You control the action with either a keyboard, USB gamepad, or GH guitars. (The Xbox 360 guitar merely needs drivers to work, while the PS2 controller needs a PS2-USB adapter.) I started working on “Nothin’s Gonna Stand in Our Way” by Spectre General AKA Kick Axe last night and it’s coming along well. Up there is a clip of some dude playing a song I’m sure you’re all familiar with, if not sick of.
Hey, if nothing else, it’s way to kill a half hour here and there. It’s a hell of a lot easier to make custom songs than modding your PS2 like the Kick Axe video shows.
What!? No adoring fans screaming like crazy as you shred their faces off? No star power?! :)
. . . I appreciate Guitar Hero so much that I feel compelled to pay for the game in all its brilliance – not forgo it in favor of free alternatives. Great for people who don’t have the consoles, though! . . . And definitely cool that you can use any song.
Heck. I love it. The mac version was a little squirrelly, but after messing around in console I figured out what was wrong.
Frets on Fire is totally customizable as well.
It’s even better that it’s totally free, now I don’t have to go spend $80 just to play guitar hero stuff.
Some graphics are turned, like the cassette covers and the hit notes while playing, but I will soon figure it out.
I give it a four out of five for Frets on Fire.
Yeah, its a great clone for GH.Better checkout Alarian mod for FoF. Go this site for more informations,songs & mods.Cheers >>> http://fretsonfire.wikidot.com
I love open source!!! frets is and always has been better than GH. Its alot more responsive and the team that got it to where it is now have dedicated a crazy amount of time to the developement and have asked nothing in return for hours of entertainment.