Kate wrote:

Hey Dave,
Just curious...
What is the object of that game?
I'm not a gamer unless it's something like the Myst series. When I
first saw the ads for Guitar Hero I kept wondering what it was
supposed to be all about.


I don't own the game, but I think I can give a reasonable explanation
of it. You get a guitar prop, which has a strike plate where you would
normally strum the strings, and four or five colored buttons high on
the fretboard. You hold it like a normal guitar.

On the TV monitor, a sort of music video plays, and superimposed on
the video is a graphic of colored dots moving towards you. Each dot is
a note and corresponds to one of the colored buttons on the guitar
fretboard you are holding. As the dot passes, the object is to press
the appropriate colored button and bang the strike plate.

Guitar hero is to guitar playing what an easy bake oven is to
baking... extremely simplified.

That said, it certainly looks as though it would take a good deal of
hand-eye coordination. The object of the "game" is to accurately
"play" the guitar as the notes come at you on the screen. If you do
well and don't miss too many notes, you get cheered. If you miss too
many notes, you get booed off stage.

Here's a kid that kicks ass...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua3hZXfNZOE

Joe Barta