Guitar controller
A game controller that mimics playing a guitar.
A guitar controller is a video game controller designed to simulate playing a guitar, a string musical instrument. It is used with music games such as Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Um Jammer Lammy: NOW!, and GuitarFreaks. The player holds down colored fret buttons matching on-screen notes while pressing a strum bar, and may use a whammy bar to bend notes or collect bonus energy.
Quick Facts
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Facts from the source article.
Implementation as game controllers
A guitar controller adapts standard controller technologies for a home video game console, with all guitar features implemented using standard controller components. Fret buttons map to the action buttons on a standard controller; for example, on an Xbox 360 guitar controller, they correspond to the face buttons and left shoulder buttons. The whammy bar functions as an axis, adding pitch variation to long notes. Meta buttons such as start, select, and back map directly to their standard counterparts.
On a Wii music game, the Wii Remote itself supplies these meta buttons, fitting into a cavity in the guitar controller. Vendor-specific features use standard controls or combinations: the solo bar on a Rock Band guitar controller uses the same fret buttons plus a modifier key, while the slide bar on recent Guitar Hero versions is another axis. A gesture feature, activated by tilting or shaking the guitar neck, triggers power-up modes like Star Power or Overdrive, and is mapped to an axis or the Wii Remote's motion sensors.
Variations
The Harmonix Guitar Hero Guitar Controller was a 3/4 scale replica of a Gibson SG, with five fret buttons (green, red, yellow, blue, orange) on the neck and a Start button, Select button, whammy bar, and strum bar at the bottom. The Guitar Hero II controller had two variations: one for PlayStation 2 with the same layout but a red Gibson SG design, and another for Xbox 360 resembling a Gibson X-Plorer, adding an Xbox 360 Guide button with four lights, a D-Pad, a Back button, and a Start button.
Guitar Hero III offered three guitar types, one with three color designs. The PlayStation 2 version resembled Gibson's Kramer model with the same layout as its predecessor. The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii shared a Gibson Les Paul design, differing in color: the Wii had a white body and black head, with a cutout for the Wii Remote that served as its D-Pad, Start, Back, and Guide button (though it still had built-in start and back buttons); the Xbox 360 version was a black Gibson Les Paul with the same layout as its predecessor; the PlayStation 3 version had the same layout but a slightly lighter black.
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