Don’t get me wrong, modern games are great. For the most part. But if there’s one thing that really bugs me about them, it’s that when you cut through the graphics and sound, in many cases what’s at their cores isn’t really all that different from the games we had 20-25 years ago, being played on now-ancient 8-bit computers and consoles. Dressed up with photorealistic visuals and orchestral soundtracks to be sure, but when you get right down to it… the “skeleton” of many of today’s games hasn’t changed all that much from the halcyon days of the Commodore 64, Atari 2600, or any of a variety of the early gaming platforms that created the industry as we know it today.

I don’t know if modern C64 programmer and fan Toni Westbrook had this in mind when he decided to port one of today’s most ridiculously popular games, Guitar Hero, to the ancient breadbox. Yet this very action demonstrates to me exactly how far video games haven’t come in two decades, when a circa-1982 home computer is capable of playing a version of a modern title – and quite well to boot.

Dubbed Shredz64, the game is quite simply Guitar Hero squeezed into 64K of RAM. It’s very basic and bare-bones - at least visually - but the premise is the same; hit the fret buttons and strum the guitar as soon as the colored onscreen buttons light up. Westbrook has managed, somewhat surprisingly, to fit in many of Guitar Hero’s featues, including the “vanishing point” fretboard on the main screen and a “Shredocity” meter that works just like the “Hero” gauge of the better-known title.

And the music? Well, of course the humble C64 isn’t going to be able to recreate the CD-quality audio of Guitar Hero proper. Instead, you can use SID chip-recreations of popular tunes, original compositions, anything you like. With literally tens of thousands of SID files available in the wild, with new ones still being created to this day by diehard C64 musicians, you’ll never run out of material – and for those who scoff at the notion of music on an old computer, rest assured that the SID chip is capable of full three-voice polyphonic audio, in four voices and with a full tonal range. If you’ve never heard what the C64 is capable of musically, you will be amazed. Trust me on this.

Naturally, you can’t just go and hook up a Guitar Hero axe to your aging 64, so Westbrook has also created a PSX64 interface that lets you do precisely that. This device not only allows you to hook up the guitar, but it also recognizes when it’s in “shredding” position, upward or downward strums, and the whammy bar, meaning the full range of Guitar Hero player actions is possible in Shredz64. It also works with all PSX/PS2 controllers, from Dual Shocks to light guns to Dance Dance Revolution mats. The PSX64 interface is still in the final stages of development, but it will be shipping soon and Westbrook is taking pre-orders.

Curious? Watch a YouTube video showing this rig in action, and marvel at just how much of Guitar Hero’s gameplay has made it into this supposedly “cut down” port… and discover how good SID music can sound at the same time.

Yet another triumph for the Home Computer That Could Not Die!

If you liked that, try...

1. The Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Review
2. Dave Navarro Promotes Guitar Hero
3. The Guitar Hero III Review
4. C64@25
5. Hero by Night

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