Portable Guitar Hero

conorkirk · Post by **conorkirk** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:43 pm

Just had an idea, but I also suffer from lack of skills

What about taking a PS2 guitar hero 1 controller and putting a hacked together PS2 together in it, so you could just pull video cables out and maybe power cables. It could be a battery too.

Just a suggestion.

~Conor

WhatULive4 · Post by **WhatULive4** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:52 pm

First of all.... Welcome!!

This should probably be in the PS2 section, but regardless I think this would be pretty interesting.

If I were to do this mod, I would look into making it completely wireless. I'm sure that there are some kind of wireless a/v transmitter on the market you could build into your project. One focus on making portables is to eliminate as many wires as possible (on the outside

).

My only concern would be with disk skipage. If you play guitar hero half as crazy as me I'm pretty sure the thing would be messed pretty quick. If anyone has a solution I'd love to hear it....

Just thinking quickly... can't you replace the dvd drive with a HDD? Make it an SSD and problems solved...

GH ftw!!!

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:50 pm

might be cool if you put the PS2 in an amp like case. Since it may be difficult to fit it in the controller. then you could also throw batteries in there.

you may even to be able to make it so you don't really need to mod the PS2 so much, and just the controller

WhatULive4 · Post by **WhatULive4** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:19 pm

Turbo Tax 1.0 wrote:might be cool if you put the PS2 in an amp like case. Since it may be difficult to fit it in the controller. then you could also throw batteries in there.

you may even to be able to make it so you don't really need to mod the PS2 so much, and just the controller

You know what, I'm going to have to disagree. The slim ps2's are very very small. If you've ever opened up a guitar hero guitar you'll know there is a fair amount of space. You could probably even frankencase it and make controller ports so you can play other games too.

Sure it would be cool to have a mini mock amp, but again, you are losing the point of making something portable. If he wanted it separate, he wouldn't be on these forums right?

Rock on brotha!

Negative_Creep · Post by **Negative_Creep** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:18 pm

This is a great idea. Go for it.

WhatULive4 · Post by **WhatULive4** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:05 pm

Honestly, I would love to see it happen. There is such a wide fan base for guitar hero, it would bring so many more people here!

dragonball345 · Post by **dragonball345** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:44 am

I thought of doing this a long time ago but it would be very hard to see the screen if you want to put it in the guitar. Plus you spend 100 for ps2 plus more for the game for one game. Then you would also most likely need a guitar the size of an average one not a guitar hero one. It's cool and all but I decided not to after weighing the options and my money.

demonofaj · Post by **demonofaj** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:38 am

I really like the idea of this, but I can't find this really feasible. You have to find enough space where the disc can freely spin and the motherboard can be stable-y be set. Nevertheless you have to take into account actually playing guitar hero and activating star power and etc. Maybe you can compromise by having the actual PS2 in a cheat box that extends out from the GH controller, and then from that controller have the video cables pop out

. Just like TurboTax said, make that cheat box look like an amp or something and maybe hide a battery in there, and you're good. I might actually be interested in doing something like this if I can find a cheap enough PS2 and a copy of GH and a GH controller.

Bigmac · Post by **Bigmac** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:11 pm

What if you used a computer instead of a ps2? You could probably cram a Mini-Itx board in a guitar hero controller. You would have to use the X-Plorer controller, as that has a usb plug. You could even use a Compact Flash card instead of a hard drive to minimize moving parts. As for guitar hero, you might have to substitute it with a free clone version of the game, such as Frets On Fire. The great thing about Frets On Fire is it runs on Linux, so you wouldn't have to pay for Windows. It also has low system requirements, so you wouldn't have to add a graphics card or anything. Some of the Mini-Itx boards have TV-Out built right into them.

Of course, this would cost more, probably $150+ without monitor or battery. Anyway, it was just an idea.

GoldenfrankO · Post by **GoldenfrankO** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:47 pm

That is a kinda cool Idea. Getting a big guitar hero controller and getting a screen to put on it. It could be a simple plugN play without the TV.

Selic · Post by **Selic** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 8:29 pm

I'm new to the boards(well, account creation-wise, i've been lurking for awhile.) when i ran across this old topic, and i figured i just had to revive it to put my idea out there.

what if you eliminate the TV in general, and use a monitor? then, you could, find an old broken amp, prefferably a bigger one, and put the screen in there where the speakers should be. you could have the ps2 back there behind the monitor and the guitar hero controller can either be a wireless one, or prefferably one that plugs in where the "INPUT" label is on the amp.

This eliminates the portability to a degree, but on the plus side it's a pretty sweet mod i think(i might actually try this out).

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:54 pm

I'll just throw this idea out there, but you don't necessarily need a game console for guitar hero. there's a free version for computers called Frets on Fire which can use the guitar hero controller and even can use the songs from the guitar hero disks. You could theoretically build a computer inside the controller and install linux on it. from there, you could probably write a start-up script that automatically starts Frets on Fire on boot-up.

edit: looks like someone beat me to it.

grossaffe · Post by **grossaffe** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:58 pm

dragonball345 wrote:I thought of doing this a long time ago but it would be very hard to see the screen if you want to put it in the guitar. Plus you spend 100 for ps2 plus more for the game for one game. Then you would also most likely need a guitar the size of an average one not a guitar hero one. It's cool and all but I decided not to after weighing the options and my money.

put the screen on hinges and have it lift up to your face while you're playing. when you're done, it nestles back down to the guitar for protection.

Bigmac · Post by **Bigmac** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 1:01 pm

grossaffe wrote:I'll just throw this idea out there, but you don't necessarily need a game console for guitar hero. there's a free version for computers called Frets on Fire which can use the guitar hero controller and even can use the songs from the guitar hero disks. You could theoretically build a computer inside the controller and install linux on it. from there, you could probably write a start-up script that automatically starts Frets on Fire on boot-up.

edit: looks like someone beat me to it.

Yup, Frets on Fire is a great program. I use it for GH2 songs and I bought GH3 for pc.

conorregan81 · Post by **conorregan81** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:37 am

or you could put the controller and the ps2 inside and acoustic guitar and then have the screen pop out of the inside of the guitar??