I was researching "Guitar Hero Hacks", and came across several interesting things.

One of those things was a program called "Frets on fire". The game runs horrible on my laptop, but I am sure that is due to my limited integrated video card. However, the issues were enough to make the game unplayable. The game only came with three songs, and they were hardly quality songs. The guitar strums were even worse. (Timing was off, and many strums were unnaturally difficult.)

Another one of the things I stumbled across, was a MIDI program which used mapped joystick buttons to trigger MIDI events. Things like keys, effects, volume, etc...

This led me to download the Microsoft drivers, which makes a USB x-box "Guitar hero" guitar and drums, function on a PC. (I have not tried the wireless controllers yet. The wireless drums have a direct MIDI input, separate of the joystick drivers.)

Any-who, playing around with the JOYSTICK DEMO, some other interesting things were discovered. Apparently, there is a second axis inside the X-PLORER guitar. This gives the ability for full 3D rotation detection, in addition to the buttons and whammy-bar.

I have collected this information, so far... (Don't use the dead-zone in the demo. I change it from 50 to 0)

Whammy-bar is (JoyRX) -1024 to +1024 (-1024 at rest)
Horizontal-roll is (JoyZ) +512 to -512 (+320 at vertical, -512 is upside-down.)
Horizontal-tilt {Star power} is (JoyRY) -1024 to +1024 (0 at horizontal, -1024 up, +1024 down.)
Strum-Neutral is (JoyPOV(1)) -1
Strum-Up is (JoyPOV(1)) 0
Strum-Down is (JoyPOV(1)) 18000
Directional is (JoyPOV(1)) 0 to ??? {I forgot} N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW
Button order is ODD... (1,2,4,3,5)
1 = Green
2 = Red
4 = Yellow
3 = Blue
5 = Orange
7 = Back button
8 = Start button

Power button has no input value. There is no button 6, 9 or 10 on the X-PLORER GUITAR.

I will post a sample modified code, for those interested in attempting to play with this control. I was thinking that the TBASS module might be used, since my demo program only uses horrible beeps to indicate buttons. I had no intentions of using this program as it is, for anything other than seeing values. The sound was added for fun.

Perhaps a simple 3D representation of the guitar, and simulated motion, would be of use, but numbers work fine for me.

If not another knock-off of guitar hero, than some other form of game, using the guitar as input. Dodge-ball, Arknoid, Tank, Worms, Frogger, Bomber-man, Jet-ski, etc... Using the guitar like a Wii control, with the added whammy-bar, and five buttons for targeting or positioning, and the strum for actions?