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Modal Kombat: Using real guitars to play videogames
Hamza CTZ Aziz12.03.08 - 1:38 AM 16 comments


David Hindman has created a new way to play videogames. They use their (real) guitars to control the fighters from Mortal Kombat and Mario Kart as if the guitars were actual buttoned controllers. Modal Kombat (the mod of Mortal Kombat), is controlled by different pitches, volumes and their sequences that tell the fighter what to do:

The result, Modal Kombat, is a modern-day "dueling banjos". It has raised the bar for performers, composers, interface designers, and competitive gamers. Modal Kombat delivers an engaging combination of music, choreography and good old-fashioned fantasy street fighting.

I'm not too keen on how a guitar actually works, but David had very informative interview with UrbanGuitar a couple years back giving a detailed explanation on how the guitar controls the fighters. David talks about some of his other experiments such as playing Rampage using a keyboard and trumpet (among other instruments). The interview also goes into what could happen in the future such as a band playing together to play a game of GoldenEye or Doom.

If this has perked your interest, David and his partner, Evan Drummond, play lives shows in the New York area. The next show is February third. Until then, check out ModalKombat's Web site for more details and hit the jump for another video called Guitarkart.


Now if they only would play the actual songs from the games to control the characters ...



MORE IN OUR Simply Amazing SECTION

Latest comment by Asiprens |view all 16 comments
Thanks so much for this! This is exactly what I was looking for ...



A Ton of Berries's Avatar
A Ton of Berries at 12/03/2007 01:39

Nifty, now to play ninja gaiden w/ a real drum kit. Yeah baby!

also, 0th!
Spykron's Avatar
Spykron at 12/03/2007 01:44

well that was cool but why no fatality? that would have obviously made the ending better.
coonskin05's Avatar
coonskin05 at 12/03/2007 01:54

"I'm not too keen on how a guitar actually works,"

Well CTZ, you see, you put your left hand on the top part of the strings in different places, then you strum the bottom part of one or multiple strings with your right hand near the bottom of your guitar. :)
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 12/03/2007 02:07

That is one of the coolest music-related things I've ever seen. I can't wait until stuff like this is further developed.
s0lesurviv0r's Avatar
s0lesurviv0r at 12/03/2007 02:09

I'd love to see them do a deadly rave-type super with that setup, such as Geese Howard or Order-Sol.
Boolean's Avatar
Boolean at 12/03/2007 02:22

The mario kart one was shit
Dexter345's Avatar
Dexter345 at 12/03/2007 03:20

Academically, this is actually really cool. I could imagine somebody getting a Master's degree in music theory and/or game theory with this as his thesis.
chronicus_prime's Avatar
chronicus_prime at 12/03/2007 04:35

I play guitar and honestly----if i didnt play video games i would be worth a damn on guitar. How the hell you transform pitch into a coomand? I would've done mass effect with muse. Try it.
Barcode's Avatar
Barcode at 12/03/2007 08:59

It looks pretty cool, but certainly needs more work to be done it. It looked like they had a hard time trying to do some smooth moves on the game through their guitars.
Variable Gear's Avatar
Variable Gear at 12/03/2007 09:36

Don't forget Fret Nice either...

Variable Gear's Avatar
Variable Gear at 12/03/2007 09:39

Also, Ragnarawk!

king3vbo's Avatar
king3vbo at 12/03/2007 10:35

That was epic win
Fading_Star's Avatar
Fading_Star at 12/03/2007 12:33

Hell yeah.
grrza's Avatar
grrza at 12/03/2007 18:31

sw33t!

Man, I bet it's hard thinking of the notes as commands. So much is automatic when playing guitar, depending on what i'm playing, my fingers will automatically move into the next position. Breaking out of that must be hard.

Unless, I bet you could come up with different combos that would essentially be different melodies when playing with a guitar... Dex is right. There could be alot to explore with an idea like this.

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