GuitarFreaks и DrumMania: История музыкальных ритм-игр Konami

Gitadora is a music video game series produced by Konami. The series consists of two games, GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, where players use game controllers modeled after musical instruments to perform the lead guitar, bass guitar and drums of numerous songs across a wide range of genres by matching scrolling musical notes patterns shown on screen. Players are scored for successfully hit notes, but may fail a song if they miss too many notes. The series has featured numerous game modes, and supports both single player and multiplayer modes where up to three players can perform together. Some earlier versions of the game could also be linked with Keyboardmania. GuitarFreaks (ギターフリークス) is a music video game series produced by Konami. It is a rhythm game where the player uses a controller to simulate the playing of an electric guitar. The game consists of music predominantly from the rock music, rock and roll and J pop genres. It is considered one of the most influential video games of all time, for having laid the foundations for popular guitar based rhythm games, such as the Guitar Hero series. DrumMania (ドラムマニア) is a drumming music video game series produced by Bemani, the musical division of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. It first released in 1999 as an arcade game, then subsequently ported to the Sony PlayStation 2 in Japan in 2000 as a launch title. Subsequent mixes have been released approximately once a year. In 2010, a series XG was introduced, adding a floor tom, left cymbal and a left pedal to the cabinet setup.

GuitarFreaks was released on February 16, 1999. It included a dozen of songs and uses the Bemani System 573 analog hardware, so called because it uses the analog audio output from a CD drive. DrumMania was released on July 10, 1999, along with GuitarFreaks 2ndMix. These versions included 26 and 33 songs, respectively, and could be linked together to play 14 common songs. Subsequent versions used digital hardware and featured larger song lists, eventually surpassing 120 songs. The GuitarFreaks version number continued having an increment of one compared to the equivalent DrumMania version until GuitarFreaks 11thMix and DrumMania 10thMix on April 22, 2004. GuitarFreaks 2ndMix was the last System 573 analog game,

Although the series saw 11 main arcade releases for the System 573, only the first four received home ports. Two of these are GuitarFreaks games for the original PlayStation console:
GuitarFreaks was released on July 29, 1999. It features a total of 18 songs: 12 from its arcade counterpart, 3 previews from 2ndMix and 3 unique songs. It features Key Disc technology to allow play of GuitarFreaks Append 2ndMix. GuitarFreaks Append 2ndMix was released on February 24, 2000. It features a total of 45 songs: 17 from its predecessor (J STAFF is omitted), 17 from its arcade counterpart and 11 original songs. As an Append Disc, 2ndMix functions like an expansion pack, requiring the first GuitarFreaks to be loaded as a Key Disc before play. This instalment is the first in the series to forego PlayStation based hardware, replacing it with a Bemani PC running Windows XP Embedded. This is in contrast to Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2, which was released on August 22, 2007, in Japan and continued to use the PlayStation 2 based Python 2. V4 is also the first international release in the series, the second location test of GuitarFreaks in the US, and the first location test of DrumMania in the US. The test was short lived in the United States, concluding in just over a month. GITADORA GALAXY WAVE is the latest arcade release.

GuitarFreaks is played using a controller designed to imitate the shape of an electric guitar, most like the Fender Jazzmaster or Fender Mustang. The neck houses three buttons, colored red, green, and blue. During XG series up to recent GITADORA, two buttons were added such as yellow and pink. On the main face of the guitar, a pick lever is used to simulate the picking and strumming of an actual guitar. A small metal knob near the pick is used to alter the sound produced by the game, such as adding Chorus/Delay effects.

The interface is similar to other games in the Bemani series. Two note scrolls—one for each player—are displayed at the left and right sides of the screen. Colorful animations for each song are displayed in the center of the screen. Each note scroll consists of four columns: one each for the red, green, and blue buttons, and a fourth column, known as the Wailing Bonus column. Individual notes and chords are represented by small colored bars that scroll upward in the columns. To play the correct note, the player must hold down the buttons corresponding to the colored bars, and move the fret lever when the bars reach the yellow fretting line. When a guitar icon is displayed in the Wailing Bonus column along with an associated note, the player can tilt the guitar upright while playing the note to receive bonus points. The player's accuracy is judged for each note played. The current system uses the names Perfect, Great, Good, OK, and Miss to indicate a player's accuracy. Ratings of Miss will deplete the player's Groove Gauge, while Perfect, Great and Good ratings will replenish it. If the Groove Gauge is emptied completely, the player fails, and the game ends. Players are allowed to play anywhere from one to five songs depending on the game cabinet's configuration, with the ability to earn additional songs in certain versions of the game. Furthermore, if "fast/slow" (advanced judge) is enabled, then there will be additional indicator of judge (Just/Fast/Slow/Miss). Just Perfects are called "X Perfect"s (rainbow color) while Fast/Slow Perfects are regular Perfects (yellow color). Upon successful completion of a song, players are graded on their performance. When the game ends, the player's total score across all songs played is tabulated. DrumMania simulates real life drumming. It is played using a controller designed to imitate a drum set. Five pads are arrayed from left to right for the hi hat, snare drum, high tom, low tom, cymbal and bass drum. On XG series, a left cymbal, left pedal and a floor tom are added. During play, the player presses the pads and steps on the pedal in sync with the notes falling vertically from the top of the screen in time with the music. DrumMania uses a modified Yamaha DTXPRESS electronic drumkit. This drumkit is used for players for gameplay and navigating through select screens. Navigating can also be done by pressing Select and Start button on the right side of the machine. On home releases, a drum controller made by KONAMI can be used, although rather than separating each buttons on their own pads, home controllers place the pads on a single place, more resembling a palette. PlayStation 2 DUALSHOCK Controllers may also be used.

One of the major selling points of GuitarFreaks is its ability to be linked to another of Konami's Bemani games, DrumMania. This allows up to three players to join together to play simultaneously in Session Mode. During a session, the music will play simultaneously from both games, and the players' guitar and drum sounds are relayed between the two games. Because the second version of GuitarFreaks was released prior to the first version of DrumMania, GuitarFreaks is one "mix" number higher than the DrumMania version it links up to. For example, GUITARFREAKS 6thMIX is designed to be linked with DrumMania 5thMIX. The mix versions were synchronized with the release of GuitarFreaks V & DrumMania V eschewing the long standing number system, and replacing what would have been the 12th and 11th mix, respectively.

Seen only in two releases each of GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, Super Session allowed the games to be linked up with Keyboardmania 3rd Mix as well. In addition to having three players control the guitars and drums, two more could be added playing along on keyboards. However, when linked with Keyboardmania, only about a dozen songs are available to play. Keyboardmania 3rd Mix can be linked with GuitarFreaks 5th Mix and DrumMania 4th Mix, or GuitarFreaks 6th Mix and DrumMania 5th Mix.

The series' songlist has steadily grown with each release. As of Gitadora FUZZ UP, the latest version of Gitadora features over 1,200 songs in total. Most songs are either crossovers from other Bemani games, and Japanese pop and rock. Some mixes also contain covers of popular North American songs. Songs are primarily in house original compositions, covers of popular Japanese or English songs or edited master tracks licensed from the artists. Most songs are pop and rock in style, although there are often a wide variety of musical genres available.

The arcade game was popular and played in arcades throughout Asia. The PlayStation port of DrumMania received a positive review from Dave Zdyrko of IGN in 2000. He said that, while the game lacks realism and that it was "nothing at all like playing real drums," it "provides for one of the most addictive and enjoyable videogame experiences since Tetris was first unearthed."

It is considered one of the most influential video games of all time, for having laid the foundations for popular guitar based rhythm games, such as the Guitar Hero series. GuitarFreaks is believed to have inspired Namco's similar rhythm game Guitar Jam, released later in April 1999. GuitarFreaks and DrumMania inspired the development of popular North American console game franchises Guitar Hero and Rock Band. In 2008, Konami sued Rock Band developer Harmonix for allegedly violating three patents for its drum and guitar based music games. The lawsuit was eventually settled in 2010 and its claims dismissed. Konami also partnered up with Activision for post 2007 Guitar Hero games to comply with Konami's drum and guitar games patents, and eventually in 2009, the two, along with Raw Thrills, released Guitar Hero Arcade in North America.