You won’t really notice all that much new stuff in the gameplay; unfortunately, much of the work I’ve been doing has been related to the back-end stuff, and most of that work has been put into the database backend of the stand-alone game.  However, obviously I’m starting to get new assets in, and starting to work on level design.  Hopefully, this weekend will bring about a new test, one that plays much more like a first-person shooter (one that’s also much more fun…).

That said, the most easy thing to notice is the addition of new study options.  If you have any lists of things you want to study, please e-mail them to alan@openchord.org!

www.OpenChord.org/Zombies

That’s just kinda a basic example of fundamental gameplay.  It doesn’t include what I’ve been working on this last week, which is all back-end stuff to increase the functionality of the project.  Namely:

• Transitioning cards to an SQLite database, compatible with flashcards created in the popular Anki program
• Implementing a spaced repetition algorithm, so items you learn get reviewed at longer and longer intervals, and the items you failed at show up more frequently.

On the good news side of things, after some re-jiggering and testing, we’ve merged the Wii and PS3 firmware!  This means that you don’t have to do a firmware update to switch between the systems anymore, and it’s going to be easier to figure out which firmware  you need.  Instead of V1_Wii.hex and V1_USB.hex series’ of binaries, they’re being replaced by the OpenChordV1.hex series.  Most people should need the 12MHz hex file, but there are still some 16 Mhz boards out there – Anyone who bought kits at PAX or since then has the 12 MHz board, but to check, if you see 16.000 on the little silver oval on the PCB, then you’ve got a 16 MHz crystal, so you’ll need the 16 MHz code.  Or send us an e-mail if you’d like a 12 MHz crystal; we’re more than happy to drop one in the mail for you, free of charge.

That said, we’re also looking at getting an oscilloscope to check out and see if we can maybe send the proper signals to the Xbox – we’ll let you know how that one goes, but judging from the seeming lack of 3rd party Chinese controllers, it doesn’t look particularly promising, unfortunately.
As a side note, if anyone is interested in having a PlayStation2 compatible guitar, let us know. It’s something that we were working on, but couldn’t figure out; however, I’m starting up a project with Kellbot, working to integrate our boards with her awesome Katamari Ball, so since I’ll be dusting off that PS2 code, I’m wondering how much effort we should be putting into getting it to work for the guitar as well?

A little bit of background, basically anything that has a chip inside it that runs faster than 1.705 megahertz needs to be tested to make sure that it complies with Chapter 15 of FCC regulations, ensuring that it doesn’t accidentally create electromagnetic interference (i.e., it doesn’t mess up your radio, TV, cell phone, etc. signals). This is because chips really draw their power every time the clock swings, instead of a constant drain, so the electricity going into the chip is rapidly going on and off. That on-and-off current is basically a tiny radio transmitter, hence the FCC wants to make sure that that little radio signal isn’t strong enough to jam your roommate’s radio. So you have to get it tested, and it’s why you see a little FCC logo on anything you plug into your computer.

What’s hard about the guitar is that I’m not sure how valid our testing becomes if, say, we use a different model of guitar, which we do a lot, or if we revised our circuit board at all. However, we are looking into the possibility of breaking up our design into a fast-clocked USB/Wii communication circuit, that would get approved once, and a slow-clocked guitar-reading circuit, which doesn’t need approval at all, since things going slower than 1.705 MHz are exempt. Or maybe we only have to get FCC verification instead of a declaration of conformity, which means that we can possibly self-test our equipment.

I’ll keep you posted,
Alan Chatham
Lead Developer

However, kits don’t have that restriction, and so while we’re still working on some play testing, we should have kits ready to go once some new parts show up!  With the kits, we’re also looking at increasing the device’s flexibility and making it programmable via USB.  Things to look forward to in the New Year!

Also in the last couple of weeks, we finally got a PlayStation 3 to do some testing on, and it doesn’t work.  That is to say, it didn’t work.  We’ve figured out what was going wrong, and now I’m happy to report that the OpenChord.org codebase is now compatible with the PlayStation 3!  I’ve only tested it out so far on Guitar Hero 5, but it should work with any Guitar Hero or Rock Band games.

Also, we’re still working on the clip-on version – that’s what we’re doing our usage testing on right now.  (I’ll let you know when I’m getting 5 stars on Expert mode…) We’re trying to get things figured out playability and electromechanically still, so it doesn’t break midway through your songs, and we still need to find a good case.  But we’re also looking for a name!  Check out the poll on the left, and if you have some better ideas, let us know in the comments!