Frets on Fire

From Encoresoup - The Ultimate Guide to Free/Open Source Software

<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Developer(s)</th><td>Unreal Voodoo</td></tr><tr class="description"><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Designer(s)</th><td>Sami Kyöstilä</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">License</th><td>GNU GPL (source code, tutorial files, graphics)
Proprietary media (included fonts and songs)^[1]</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Engine</th><td>Pygame</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Version</th><td>1.2.512 Windows and Linux, 1.2.451 Mac OS X</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Released</th><td>3 August 2006 (debut release), 20 October 2007 (latest version)</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Genre</th><td>Music video game</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Mode(s)</th><td>Single player</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Platform(s)</th><td>Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media</th><td>Download</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">System requirements</th><td>128 or 256 MB RAM, OpenGL graphics card</td></tr>

Frets on Fire

Frets on Fire (abbreviated 'FoF') is a free, open source music video game, created by Finnish developer Unreal Voodoo. Players use a computer keyboard or guitar controller to play along with on-screen musical notes in a similar manner to the Guitar Hero franchise.^[2] Frets on Fire was the winner of the Assembly 2006 game development competition.^[3]

FoF is written in the Python programming language and is licensed under the GNU General Public License; the game also incorporates other free and open-source code under other licenses.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Features 3 Modding 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Gameplay

The gameplay of Frets on Fire is similar to the popular Guitar Hero franchise - the player emulates playing a guitar. Frets on Fire is meant to be played by picking up the keyboard like a guitar, with one hand pressing the fret buttons and another pressing the pick button. There is also supports guitar joysticks from other games, provided the appropriate adapters and software are available. ^[5]

Colored markers appear on the screen, synchronized with the song, and are played by holding the fret buttons of the correct color and pressing one of the pick buttons at the correct moment. Every ten correct hits increase the score multiplier, which multiplies the points for every hit by up to four times. The multiplier is reset in case of a miss.

Since version 1.2.438, the game features hammer-on and pull-off notes (commonly abbreviated to HOPO; the game refers to them as "tappable notes"). A HOPO note allows the player to press only its fret button to play it so long as the previous note was played correctly.

Several features from mainstream titles such as Guitar Hero are not present in FoF. Namely, whammy, failing, and star power are not supported in the base release of the game.

[edit] Features

• A tutorial
• A built-in song editor that allows editing and creating songs
• Three songs by Tommi Inkilä.
• The ability to use custom songs as well as the ones included in Guitar Hero, and Guitar Hero II.
• "World Charts", an official online high score list; the ability for players to host their 5own^[6]
• Compatibility with joysticks and guitar controllers^[5]

[edit] Modding

There are several Mods to up for use in Frets On Fire, but the most popular at this point of time is the "MFH Mod", which was previously known as both the MFH-Alarian Mod and the Alarian mod, after the main developers. Many themes are available for MFH Mod to download, such as Guitar Hero 1, 2, and 3, Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and many others.

• Song creation - Frets on Fire allows support for user-made custom songs. The game itself comes with a custom song creator, and there are several third-party programs used to create songs as well.
• Modding - The Game is programmed in Python programming language, and the game source files are accessible from the base release of the gam.

e. +** Many graphical and game play mods have been created for Frets on Fire, the most popular currently being the MFH mod.

[edit] See also

• StepMania
• Guitar Zero 2
• Open source video games

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• SourceForge project page
• Official Wiki of Frets on Fire
• [1] Frets on Fire Fan Forum
• [2] Keyboards on Fire Community
• [3] Fans On Fire Universal Community