Guitar Hero hack takes cheating to ridiculous new levels

We've already seen one hack to automate Guitar Hero, but it had the slight disadvantage of having to be pre-programmed for each song, and even then it was slightly hit-and-miss. Now, a father looking for a way to finally beat his son at the game has taken things considerably further, with his hack actually using the composite video input to determine which notes need to be hit in real time. That, as you might have guessed, is way beyond any notion of practicality, and far outside the realm of the average DIYer's skill level, but it seems like it does indeed work, although there are apparently a few minor kinks left to be worked out. If you're still not undaunted, you can find the schematics and other information you'll need at the link below, and check out a video of the setup in action after the break.

[Via Hacked Gadgets]

[michas_pi @ Apr 21st 2008 3:05PM]

Awesome.

And there's no Xbox Live to get banned/marked for cheating from.

[Indie @ Apr 21st 2008 3:27PM]

Oh no he d'dn't!

[Das @ Apr 21st 2008 3:15PM]

meaningless trolling, xbox live doesn't ban you for this sort of thing, how would they determine you modded your controller anyway?

describing this as cheating is ridiculous anyway, as if it were easier than just playing the song.

[Derk Kooi @ Apr 22nd 2008 4:58AM]

I don't think cheating is described as easier than playing the song, eh?

[o29 @ Apr 21st 2008 5:10PM]

@Das:

Since when does the level of difficulty involved in cheating make it not cheating anymore? Your logic doesn't make sense. It's not like he's maliciously cheating, but he's still achieving a false score through exploiting the hardware, and last I checked that counted as "cheating."

[ekk2117 @ Apr 21st 2008 5:28PM]

@NHAnimator
Best comment I've ever seen

[gpdrummr @ Apr 21st 2008 5:58PM]

uhh. cant you see?
its a wii version of the game. not 360.

[Lars @ Apr 21st 2008 7:57PM]

Lighten up. It's all in the name of fun. He's invented a new game: Hacker Hero.

I'd love to have a dad like that. My dad is an electronics engineer. He's invented lots of devices and has many patents under his name, so totally has skills to do something like this... but he won't touch video games. I'd love to bond with my dad over stuff like this... I commend this father.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Apr 22nd 2008 1:23AM]

Here's a video of him using his controller to break high scores.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8vjjp6hXQ8

[Allan @ Apr 21st 2008 3:12PM]

Just to beat his son at the game?

Wow.

[Blaine Oliver @ Apr 21st 2008 5:17PM]

In all the effort to make this hack, he couldve become an awesome guitar hero player to be honest...

[Harkonian @ Apr 21st 2008 5:55PM]

...or spent more quality time with his son.

[OnlyShawn @ Apr 21st 2008 6:18PM]

"son, sometimes you can beat people. unless they're smarter than you, or have access to the electronics that control shit. Then, you're screwed."

zatboutsumitup?

[jman315 @ Apr 22nd 2008 5:23AM]

Or learned how to play a real guitar.

[3v1lkr0w @ Apr 22nd 2008 6:15AM]

There is always one person is every story about Rock Band and Guitar Hero that mentions, "or learned to play a real guitar". Maybe he does know how to play a real guitar...maybe instead of playing Gran Turismo you should learn how to race.

[|Geektorious Maximus| @ Apr 21st 2008 3:13PM]

"Now, a father looking for a way to finally beat his son at the game has taken things considerably further."

I'm Speechless.

It's relative for the son to beat the father. I use to do it my father with Madden 95 constantly. I guess my father didn't put his electronic engineering skills to good use, then again. Don't need that when you are delivering mail.

[NHAnimator @ Apr 21st 2008 3:47PM]

"It's relative for the son to beat the father."

I see what you did there.

[foofy @ Apr 21st 2008 4:10PM]

I see what YOU did there.

[Tom @ Apr 21st 2008 5:15PM]

Thanks for ruining it, foofy. Thanks a lot.

[Lowest Ranked @ Apr 21st 2008 3:14PM]

Michas, you're last name is Pi, you drive a Honda, and you're bashing Xbox Live in favor of the Wii.

I hate to be stereotypical, but damn!

[LaughingMan @ Apr 21st 2008 3:14PM]

Well... it doesn't seem too accurate at this point. It would have been far more impressive to see it 5 star a song, but it was definitely gonna fail that one.

[Dan Bugglin @ Apr 21st 2008 3:15PM]

You technically can't prove this is cheating over the internet anyways, since his hack does not touch the actual system. Just the controller and video input feed. Obviously someone performing perfectly is improbable, but still possible, so unless you go into his home and find the actual cheating hardware, you can not say with 100% certainty that someone is cheating like this.

Also this is quite an ingenious way of doing this, looks like it was done specifically to avoid modding the console.

[morcheeba @ Apr 21st 2008 4:42PM]

You could do this statistically pretty easily. Someone who goes from 20% on medium songs to 100% overnight is probably one you might want to consider looking at. You could also look at their song-to-song variation - if the timing of every button press (vs. the previous time they played the song) differs by only 1msec, then that's a level of consistency that's basically humanly impossible.

Of course, people could put randomness in to their cheats & the resulting escalation will become harder to detect... but considering there's no money involved yet, and fame won't be achievable unless people see you play live, I'm not worried yet.

[Raptor007 @ Apr 21st 2008 5:35PM]

@morcheeba
The statistical analysis wouldn't work at all. What if a friend comes over to help you get past a difficult song? Or you practice at a friend's place and come back to it with a better knowledge of the song? I'd hate to get banned for any of those "cheats".

[Ayle @ Apr 21st 2008 5:39PM]

Cheating is winning or try the win something through the use of an external device or by taking advantage of a loophole... Now it will still depends on the players to decde if they consider it cheating or not.

[kal326 @ Apr 21st 2008 6:02PM]

Maybe its like the MLB version of cheating, "Performance Enhancing Guitars". Give it a few years, all the Guitar Heros will be outed, somebody will write a book or two, and we will all feel betrayed.

[|Geektorious Maximus| @ Apr 21st 2008 3:18PM]

Quick thought, so when he's going head 2 head with his son in front of the screen and his son sees extra wires and shit coming out the controller and his pops flinging around not pushing buttons. What is he gonna say?

"Dad, you're sooooooo lame. Case closed."

[Backwards People @ Apr 21st 2008 3:21PM]

Now the shoe's on the other foot!

[crho85 @ Apr 21st 2008 3:40PM]

that has got to be uncomfortable

[chrisaroz @ Apr 21st 2008 3:21PM]

And you wonder why your kids hate you.

I kid , I kid.

Seriously though, they hate you.

[Wes @ Apr 21st 2008 3:24PM]

screw all that, I just need an extra pinky for the D@mn orange button!

[Lowest Ranked @ Apr 21st 2008 3:27PM]

Your hands will grow in due time, my son.

[Stiv @ Apr 21st 2008 3:28PM]

It’s kind of cool that he used “Cliffs of Dover” to demo this. One of the few god things that GH did was expose people to this great song.

It’s kind of funny to search for this on YouTube. You’ll get a mix of some people playing it in GH, and some people who actually went out and learned the song on a real guitar. Based on these videos, you can infer something very interesting and personal: You can make a very educated guess as to who will be experiencing meaningful contact with the opposite sex in the near future and who won’t.

[Lowest Ranked @ Apr 21st 2008 3:32PM]

I'm quite positive, with a high percentage of certainty that you either A)Had your first sexual encounter to this song or B) had your first sexual encounter with this band.

Either way; TMI !

[fashionista @ Apr 21st 2008 6:31PM]

"great song"? How long is your mullet?

[LarryLarryLarry @ Apr 21st 2008 7:12PM]

I've seen Eric Johnson in concert. He's never had "meaningful contact with the opposite sex".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55nAwmVLQSk

[Andy @ Apr 22nd 2008 3:13PM]

Nice one whilst I understand he is a bit sad someone was going to do it - I really like the old-school method of getting the controller to 'listen' to the notes and then automatically play them

btw thats one hell of a competitive dad - saying that I'm sure his kid would figure it out in no time and realise his dad had admitted defeat by resorting to this - so no harm done and proving that old-school DIY beats technical cheaters any day

[SugarDaddy @ Apr 21st 2008 3:54PM]

Pretty impressive, but ultimately lame.

[fgpx78 @ Apr 21st 2008 3:55PM]

Does it play...Guitar Hero?

[OSnix*-geek @ Apr 21st 2008 4:32PM]

I see what you did there.... mentioning C****S without saying it... FTW!

[wil @ Apr 21st 2008 9:19PM]

I think it would just be easier to get good at the game!

However... Cool mod!

[Kurian @ Apr 21st 2008 4:17PM]

Ah...the days of the "Color Aimbot".

[Steve @ Apr 21st 2008 4:22PM]

DAD FTW!!

[mxlplx @ Apr 21st 2008 4:23PM]

Age and treachery will always defeat youth and skill

[grant @ Apr 21st 2008 4:33PM]

He could have just spent his time learning to play a real guitar.
I'm all for worthless projects though.

[Mike Voth @ Apr 21st 2008 5:13PM]

This robot actually "plays" the game:
http://slashbot.wordpress.com/

[RussellBishop @ Apr 21st 2008 5:17PM]

Shouldn't such a massive techno geek...

...have a nicer tv to play it on?

[JACOB @ Apr 21st 2008 5:41PM]

all I can say is, get a real guitar

[Reader @ Apr 21st 2008 5:52PM]

Good one.

[Bildo @ Apr 21st 2008 6:30PM]

http://paulridgway.co.uk/Projects/GH3Bot/part5.aspx

Clearly much better..