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Harmonix
Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as being the developer of music video games series ''Dance Central'' and ''Rock Band'', as well as being the original developer and creator of the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series before development moved to Neversoft and Vicarious Visions. History Formation Harmonix was founded on May 10, 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, who met while attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.Interview with Alex Rigopulos at GameCritics.com Egozy was an electrical/computer engineer with an interest in music, while Rigopulos was a music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rock Band
''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers modeled after musical instruments and microphones to perform the lead guitar, bass guitar, Musical keyboard, keyboard, drum kit, drums and vocal parts of numerous licensed songs across a wide range of genres though mostly focusing on rock music by matching scrolling musical notes patterns shown on screen. Certain games support the use of "Pro" instruments that require special controllers that more closely mimic the playing of real instruments, providing a higher challenge to players. Players score points for hitting notes successfully, but may fail a song if they miss too many notes. The series has featured numerous game modes, and supports both local and online multiplayer modes where up to four players in most modes can perform together. Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guitar Hero
''Guitar Hero'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead guitar, lead, bass guitar, bass, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Players match notes that scroll on-screen to colored fret buttons on the controller, strumming the controller in time to the music in order to score points, and keep the virtual audience excited. The games attempt to mimic many features of playing a real guitar, including the use of fast-fingering hammer-ons and pull-offs and the use of the whammy bar to alter the pitch of notes. Most games support single player modes, typically a Career mode to play through all the songs in the game, as well as competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. With the introduction of ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' in 2008, the game includes support for a four-player band including vocals and drums. The series initially used mostly cover versions of songs created by WaveGroup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fuser (video Game)
''Fuser'' is a rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by NCSoft. It was released on November 10, 2020 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. ''Fuser'' allows players to create DJ mixes from a number of licensed musical tracks, awarding the player for synchronized changes of tracks. The game features both single-player and multiplayer modes as well as the means to share remixes with other users. Following the acquisition of Harmonix by Epic Games in 2021, Harmonix shuttered the multiplayer servers in December 2022 and removed the game and additional content from sale, while leaving the single player components playable. Gameplay In ''Fuser'', the player takes the role of a DJ at a large concert and make a mashup of different songs. They have a virtual DJ table with four record players, custom instruments, sound filters, and up to 24 records (their crate) along the top of the screen. Each record has four tracks keyed by color and related to a t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortnite Festival
''Fortnite Festival'' is a 2023 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by Epic Games. In the game, players perform songs while attempting to achieve the highest score possible based on their performance. Each song features four different instruments, and players choose which instrument they want to play, as well as the song's difficulty; higher difficulties change the layouts of the songs. A variety of songs can be chosen from, with a free selection that changes daily, as well as the opportunity to purchase songs outright from the ''Fortnite'' item shop. Available songs range from those composed by Epic Games Sound Team to tracks from popular artists. The game was released in December 2023 as part of the ''Fortnite'' launcher. It released to mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the gameplay for being similar to other rhythm games, as well as the price of songs. Since release, numerous in-game "seasons" have been introduced, each themed around a specific featured ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eran Egozy
Eran Egozy is an Israeli chief technical officer and VP of engineering of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Alex Rigopulos in 1995. He also works as professor of the practice at MIT. Biography Egozy is a native of Israel. He moved to Lexington, Massachusetts, at the age of 12. When he was 15, his parents bought him an Apple II computer, which he programmed to play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. He earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 1995, where he worked with renowned electronic music composer Tod Machover at the MIT Media Laboratory. During his stay at MIT, he met then future co-founder of Harmonix, Alex Rigopulos, at the MIT Media Lab. Career Harmonix Immediately after graduating, he co-founded Cambridge, Massachusetts, based Harmonix Music Systems with fellow MIT alumnus Alex Rigopulos. Harmonix is an interactive computer music company specializing in the development of real-t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Rigopulos
Alexander Peter Rigopulos (born 1970s in Boxford, Massachusetts) is an American video game designer and musician, best known as the former CEO and current creative director of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Eran Egozy in 1995. He is also a member of the band Newfane with his brother Chris Rigopulos, who is the current COO at Harmonix. Career Rigopulos, born in Boxford, Massachusetts, is a graduate of Deerfield Academy along with two other brothers. He graduated with a B.S. in music and theater arts in 1990 and an M.S. in media arts and sciences in 1994 from the Media Lab at MIT.Interview with Alex Rigopulos at GameCritics.com While there, he met Egozy, an electrical engineer, and they discovered ways to create interactive music devices. After they received thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dance Central
''Dance Central'' is a series of rhythm games developed by Harmonix, creators of the ''Guitar Hero'' and ''Rock Band'' video game series. Series ''Dance Central'' (2010) ''Dance Central'' was released exclusively for the Xbox 360 and was a launch title for its Kinect peripheral. The game was officially announced at E3 2010 and later released in October of that year. ''Dance Central 2'' A direct sequel to the previous game, ''Dance Central 2'' was officially announced at E3 2011 during Microsoft's press conference and was released in October of that year. ''Dance Central 3'' ''Dance Central 3'' was co-developed by Harmonix and Backbone Entertainment. It was announced at E3 2012 during Microsoft's press conference. The game was released on October 16, 2012 in the Americas, and on October 19, 2012 in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Japan. ''Dance Central Spotlight'' ''Dance Central Spotlight'' was announced at E3 2014 for Xbox One, and was released on September 2, 2014. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland. Following its first commercial video game release, ''ZZT'' (1991), the company became Epic MegaGames, Inc. in early 1992 and brought on Mark Rein (software executive), Mark Rein, who has been its vice president since. After moving the headquarters to Cary in 1999, the studio changed its name to Epic Games. Epic Games developed Unreal Engine, a commercially available game engine which also powers its internally developed video games like ''Fortnite'' and the ''Unreal (video game series), Unreal'', ''Gears of War'', and ''Infinity Blade'' series. In 2014, Unreal Engine was named the "most successful videogame engine" by ''Guinness World Rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karaoke Revolution
''Karaoke Revolution'' and its sequels are music video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, GameCube, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360, developed by Harmonix and Blitz Games and published by Konami in its Bemani line of music games. The original concept for the game was created by Scott Hawkins and Sneaky Rabbit Studios. Technology and concepts from the game were subsequently incorporated into Harmonix's game ''Rock Band''. The Japanese versions of the game are developed by Konami themselves. The gameplay also differs significantly. Rather than a game per se, it is merely a karaoke system for the PlayStation 2, with no judgments. The game does not attempt to understand the singer's words, but instead detects their pitch. As such, singers can hum to a song or sing different lyrics without penalty. The game adapts to the player singing in a different octave than the song, to accommodate players whose vocal ranges do not fit the song. The songs in the game are covers of pop hits fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neversoft
Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Woodland Hills, California. The studio was founded by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward in July 1994 and was acquired by Activision in October 1999. Initially, the studio worked with Playmates Toys, where they worked on the game ''Skeleton Warriors (video game), Skeleton Warriors'', which was based on an Skeleton Warriors, animated television series of the same name. Throughout 1996, the studio grew, and worked on projects with Crystal Dynamics and Sony Computer Entertainment, but due to internal conflicts, they were cancelled. After a meeting with Activision in 1998, the publisher agreed to enter into a deal with the studio to create ''Apocalypse (video game), Apocalypse'', which used the game engine created by Neversoft for one of the cancelled Sony projects. During the game's development, Activision asked the studio to work on a prototype for a skateboarding game, and after an impressed reaction fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from technology, multimedia, media, sciences, science, art, and design. , Media lab's research groups include Neuroscience, neurobiology, Biomimetics, biologically inspired fabrication, Social robot, socially engaging robots, Affective computing, emotive computing, bionics, and Tod Machover#Hyperinstruments, hyperinstruments. The media lab was founded in 1985 by Nicholas Negroponte and former MIT President Jerome Wiesner, and is housed in the Wiesner building, Wiesner Building (designed by I. M. Pei), also known as Building E15. The lab has been written about in the popular press since 1988, when Stewart Brand published ''The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M.I.T.'', and its work was a regular featur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science. In response to the increasing Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialization of the United States, William Barton Rogers organized a school in Boston to create "useful knowledge." Initially funded by a land-grant universities, federal land grant, the institute adopted a Polytechnic, polytechnic model that stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge in 1916 and grew rapidly through collaboration with private industry, military branches, and new federal basic research agencies, the formation of which was influenced by MIT faculty like Vannevar Bush. In the late twentieth century, MIT became a leading center for research in compu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
