''Frets on Fire'' (''FoF'') is a free, open-source

music video game A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a ...

created by

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

independent video game developer Unreal Voodoo. Players use the keyboard to play along with markers which appear on screen, with the aim to score points, achieve a high point multiplier, and complete a song. ''Frets on Fire'' was the winner of the Assembly 2006 game development competition.

Development

The game is written in the

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

programming language, and is licensed under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...

, although the game incorporates other free and open-source code under other

licenses A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

. The game's included song files and some internal fonts are proprietary, and their redistribution is not permitted outside of the ''Frets on Fire'' executable.

Gameplay

''Frets on Fire'' is a music playing video game. It is playable on Microsoft Windows,

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

, and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

. The player presses buttons in time to coloured markers, which appear on-screen, the markers are matched with the rhythm of the music. ''Frets on Fire'' can be played by using a keyboard by pressing the fret buttons and pick buttons, although there is support for joysticks, meaning that with the appropriate adapter and/or software, various guitar-type controllers can be used as well.

Features

''Frets on Fire'' includes a built-in song editor (or "fretting" tool) that allows editing and creation of songs. This allows users to customise their own tracks. Other programs include ''EOF'' (EditorOnFire), ''dB'' (Feedback), and ''Freetar'' editors. MIDI sequences created in programs such as '' FL Studio'' and ''

REAPER A reaper is a farm implement or person that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used in Roma ...

'' can also be used. The ''Frets on Fire'' Wiki has an extensive resource of custom song frets. There are also many other sites that have been created to provide songs and other resources for the game. Frets on Fire also allows users to import songs from other guitar games. These include ''

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs ...

'', ''

Guitar Hero II ''Guitar Hero II'' is a music rhythm video game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 and Activision for the Xbox 360. It is the second main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series and is the sequel to 2005 ...

'' and '' Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s''. The game also features a tutorial, which lets users unfamiliar with the gameplay get accustomed to the game. While the game contains a keyboard play mode, USB Joysticks can also be used. This allows use of regular joysticks and guitar controllers. Since version 1.2.438, the game features ''

hammer-on A hammer-on is a playing technique performed on a stringed instrument (especially on a fretted string instrument, such as a guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on to the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This ...

and

pull-off A pull-off is a stringed instrument playing and articulation technique performed by plucking or "pulling" the finger that is grasping the sounding part of a string off the fingerboard of either a fretted or unfretted instrument. This intermediate- ...

'' notes, commonly abbreviated to ''HOPO'', although the game refers to them as "tappable notes". These notes allows the player to press only its fret button to play if the previous note was played correctly, emulating the feature of the ''Guitar Hero'' series. ''Frets on Fire'' lacks the ability to allow players to use the

whammy bar A vibrato system on a guitar is a mechanical device used to temporarily change the pitch of the strings. Instruments without a vibrato have other bridge and tailpiece systems. They add vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the stri ...

, while ''FoFiX'' has basic support for modulating the pitch of a track. This is referred to as either "Killswitch" or "Pitchbend." This was added in the 3.100 update for FoFiX. Much like console guitar-style games, ''Frets on Fire'' comes with ''World Charts'', an official online high score list. However, since the entire system is open source, players have the ability to host their own server as well.

Alternate versions

One popular version of the game is ''Frets on Fire X'' (commonly abbreviated ''FoFiX''), a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tine (structural), tines with which one ...

developed from a series of mods of version 1.2.451 of ''Frets on Fire''. As well as having support for four players, this fork supports custom graphical themes (which enables users to create a ''Guitar Hero'' or '' Rock Band'' look-alike), bass and drum tracks and preliminary support for lyrics. The latest stable version of ''FoFiX'' is 3.123 released on December 16, 2021. Currently in development for version 4.000 is the inclusion of Online-Multiplayer, Video Background Support, and support for both ''Guitar Hero'' and ''Rock Band'' styles of play.

Reception and impact

''Frets on Fire'' has received generally positive reviews in a variety of publications. Released for competition at Assembly, it won first place among its competition. Because of the

cross-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software ...

nature of the game, it has garnered fans from both

and Mac. The

University of Nevada The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...

developed a modified version of ''Frets on Fire'' called Blind Hero which uses a haptic glove to make this game accessible to players who are visually impaired. ''Frets on Fire'' became a very popular open-source game; the game was downloaded between 2007 and May 2017 alone over SourceForge.net over 14 million times.stats 2000-05-12+to+2017-05-18
on sourceforge.net (May 2017)

References

External links

*
Community Forums

Fork of Frets on Fire: fofix
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