They’ve gone about as fer as they can go …
Yes, just when you thought you’d seen every conceivable take on mods, customizations, clones, homages, robots, artistic reinterpretations, and other cultural artifacts inspired by Guitar Hero, there’s this — a Guitar Hero clone on Commodore 64.
There’s a lot of chatting at the beginning, but jump about five minutes in for the payoff: the Legend of Zelda Overworld theme with deliciously low-fi graphics. (All due respects to Harmonix and new Guitar Hero developers Activision, but I might point out the interface actually doesn’t need an Xbox 360.)
We’re mixing 8-bit systems here (Nintendo and Commodore), but clearly a full 8-bit collection is due. And there’s still further evidence that the Commodore 64 is the digital music platform that will outlive all the rest. Have to boot up my machine and do a C64 feature month or something one of these days.
Details, downloads at creator Toni Westbrook‘s site. Toni’s no one-hit wonder, either — dig philosophical musings on adventure gaming and programming, SQL tricks (seriously), and a do-everything interface for PlayStation controllers that allows them to be used with a variety of classic hardware.
Thanks to Josh Randall (who works for some company called Harmonix — hey, when are you guys finally going to release a C64 version?) and Yarnivore for the tip.