Songs

This is a sub-page of Proto:Guitar Hero II (PlayStation 2)/Late 2006 Retail Demo.

The main draw of the retail demo is that it contains an additional 21 in-development charts in the files, one of which doesn't appear in the final game. Many have major differences from their counterparts in the final game, whether that be note charting for any of the four difficulties, stage and lighting events, practice mode sections, or outright differences in the game audio itself (such as the cover of "Killing in the Name" having an entirely different singer).

The charts here are featured in the order of the demo's setlist, which is generally very random. The first ten appear properly in the demo and are the most complete of the bunch. Three bonus tracks appear at the tail end of the list: Drist's "Arterial Black", Anarchy Club's "Collide", and "Trogdor", as featured in the Homestar Runner cartoon. The rest of the list (Guitar Hero II features 40 main songs in all) is padded out by numbered duplicates using other songs' charts and audio, though with the singer set not to appear on stage for some reason.

Who Was in My Room Last Night?#

Watch on YouTubeStar Power path is marginally different, as is the outro. The chart lasts one beat less than the final game. Handmapping is different for the singleplayer and lead guitar part's outro.

Song sections are different. Each chorus is one section, whereas in the final game, each chorus is two separate sections. The shorthand names for the sections are different in almost all of the songs on the demo. These shorthands are switched out with their full names at runtime (as seen in the locale.dtb file) so reconciling and simplifying shorthand section names cuts down on the amount of strings needed in that file.

Psychobilly Freakout#

Watch on YouTubeVery close to final, though exhibiting a strange authoring quirk also seen in the earlier OPM demo where some charts' sustains last a single MIDI tick (Guitar Hero II uses MIDI files for its note charts) longer, causing them to give more points than the same sustains in the final game.

Some differences in section names and some additional notes in the TRIGGERS track of the MIDI that presumably control lighting information.

War Pigs#

Watch on YouTubeVenue lighting events are different than in the final game. Most of the [lighting (blackout)] events seen in the verses are instead [lighting (color1)] events in the demo. Sections are switched around and named differently as well.

You Really Got Me#

Watch on YouTubeThe path is marginally different, and some sustains again exhibit the tick quirk. The Medium chart has been rebalanced in the final to require less strumming. Sections are different, such as the outro section instead being named end_wankery. The singleplayer guitar part is missing a few [play] events during the verses and especially the dubbed bridge which was absent in the earlier OPM version of the chart.

Strutter#

Watch on YouTubeIdentical to the earlier OPM version of the chart, down to the chords on Easy and the sustain tick quirk. Only the Expert chart is close to being final. Lighting is overall simplified in the final, with more [lighting (flare)] and [lighting (blackout)] events towards the end, but fewer of them in the choruses. Section names are different.

This is one of many charts to be marked as having a co-op bass part, despite actually having a co-op rhythm guitar part. As a result, the co-op guitarist plays the wrong instrument.

John the Fisherman#

Watch on YouTubeSections are slightly different, though everything else is final.

YYZ#

Watch on YouTubeMore elaborate lighting and more sections appear in the final chart, but notes are final. Like the earlier OPM demo, the BPM stays consistent throughout the outro in the demo and drops in the final chart, requiring the final descending notes to be strummed.

Shout at the Devil#

Watch on YouTubeThe final chart has the Medium difficulty for both the guitar and bass tracks rebalanced to be easier to play. Lighting cues are more elaborate in the final, such as the additional [lighting (color1)] events seen in the intro. Sections are also different.

Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart#

Watch on YouTubeThe guitar part on Medium difficulty features 16th notes in the verses, like on Hard and Expert. The final chart pulls everything back to strong 8th notes. Some minor differences in the Expert chart also exist. Each verse is one section in the demo, while two in the final.

Madhouse#

Watch on YouTubeThe intro riff begins on a green-red chord in the final, while it's green-yellow chords throughout in the demo. The prechorus riff, rather than alternating chords and single notes, is all chords in the demo. Section names are different, and lighting events are much simpler than in the final game. The maniacal laughter at the beginning of the song does not reappear at the end in the demo due to the song ending a measure sooner.

Last Child#

Watch on YouTubeNotes are final, but chart exhibits the sustain tick quirk. No handmapping data exists for either the singleplayer, lead, or rhythm charts, causing the guitarist's hand to remain stationary on the neck. No lighting cues at all in the demo chart, and the sections are named a bit differently.

This is the first song on the disc to not have separate practice mode audio (which are encoded at a lower sample rate and have less high-end). While the song still works in practice mode, the slowed-down guitar audio is noticeably harsher as a result. All songs described from here on out are missing separate practice mode audio files.

Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight#

Watch on YouTubeExpert has a few extra notes in places and is missing them in others. Hard, Medium, and Easy are charted differently in the demo and would be rebalanced for the final game. The demo chart has virtually no lighting cues aside from a few [lighting (strobe)] events. The song lasts a beat longer in the demo.

Message in a Bottle#

Watch on YouTubeSome of the sustains are shifted around slightly, and some notes that would be made sustains in the final (like the siren-like guitar wails in the outro) are instead single notes. No lighting cues and section names are different.

Woman#

Watch on YouTubeA few extra green notes were added in the solo simulating guitar noise, and some of the chord sustains are mildly different. Medium would also get tweaked for final. No lighting cues and section names are different.

Crazy on You#

Watch on YouTubeVerses are charted differently on Expert. The acoustic strumming passages are charted only as chords, while in the final, they alternate between chords and single notes. The demo is also missing the chord sustains in the verses, simply featuring 16th note chords throughout.

The intro is a single section, compared to the five in the final game, and the demo's naming scheme for the other sections is much more haphazard (verse_1a through verse_1c appear as verse_1, postverse_1, and prechorus_1, respectively). Lighting is less elaborate in the demo chart as well.

Them Bones#

Watch on YouTubeChorus charting is much, much simpler, missing the single notes at the end of each string of chords and being simple quarter note sustains rather than following the rhythm of the song more closely. Star Power path is different. The lower difficulties are more difficult and would be rebalanced for the final game.

Face-Off sections (specific MIDI notes that denote the sections players in the competitive Face-Off mode will play) are different on Expert and nonexistent for the other difficulties. Sections are named differently (solo_1 through solo_3 in the demo versus gtr_solo_a through gtr_solo_c in the final), and lighting is simplified in the final.

Mother#

Watch on YouTubeThe biggest differences for this chart appear in the solos; the final game undercharts (intentionally uses fewer notes than audible) them in the singleplayer chart to make them easier to play, while the demo solos are much tougher, but more accurate to the audio. (Curiously, the lead chart for co-op in final still uses the harder demo solos, indicating Harmonix forgot to simplify them there.)

Face-Off sections only exist for Expert. No lighting cues and fewer sections than the final chart as well. Marked as a bass chart, despite the co-op chart being for rhythm guitar.

(Bang Your Head) Metal Health#

Watch on YouTubeAppears as "Bang Your Head". This song doesn't appear at all in Guitar Hero II. It would later appear in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's, though with the solo cut (the player plays the rhythm guitar part instead through the solo). There is also another audio difference with the lead guitar going into the third chorus. The cut solo is nonetheless rather undercharted, with the strumming much slower than is audible. The demo chart's outro exhibits the same problem. The lower difficulties would also be rebalanced for their appearance in 80's. The demo chart has working fretmapping for the bass player, something strangely absent from the later 80's chart.

While lighting cues do exist in the chart, they're malformed (missing the space in, say, [lighting (blackout)]) and therefore don't occur in-game. No lip-sync data exists for the singer in the demo.

(Bang Your Head) Metal Health - With cut solo

Killing in the Name#

Watch on YouTubeAppears under the name "Killing in the Name Of", which is a common mislabel and the song's shortname in the files. The major difference here is that the cover featured in the demo has an entirely different singer.

The final chart has also had its tempomap adjusted, deviating as much as 5BPM faster in the solo and then coming in a BPM or two slower than the demo in the outro. Thus, they end in a similar spot. Path is marginally different. No lighting cues exist in the demo chart, aside from a few [lighting (blackout] events and a [lighting (strobe)].

Killing in the Name - Alternate singer

Jessica#

Watch on YouTubeOne of the most drastically different charts from demo to final, with the biggest differences coming in the intro and solos. Two of the section events, [secton solo_b] and [secton solo_e], are malformed ("secton" instead of "section") and don't appear in-game. In singleplayer, the guitarist has no [play] event until later in the song, causing them to go in and out of playing along. No Face-Off sections or lighting cues either, which all suggest this was a very early pass at charting it.

Still marked as a bass chart, despite having a rhythm guitar part.

Surrender#

Watch on YouTubeThe verse in the Expert guitar part is all chords, while the final chart mixes chords and single notes. The other difficulties are mostly the same. No lighting cues and different section names than the final (preverse_1 instead of main_riff_1, as an example).

Tattooed Love Boys#

Watch on YouTubeThe expert chorus and bridge riffs are very different and much harder to play. While the lower notes that give the riff its propulsive nature are represented, at that speed, Harmonix must've thought it too much to be much fun. The final game uses the demo's Hard chart of the chorus riffs for Expert. Lighting and sections are different.

Laid to Rest#

Watch on YouTubeAnother chart that falls prey to the sustain tick anomaly. No Face-Off sections in the demo chart. Final has more elaborate lighting than the demo, section names are different, and it's marked as a bass chart rather than a rhythm chart.

The biggest change occurs in the audio. The demo's audio is uncensored; the line "see who gives a fuck" appears multiple times in the song, though the cover vocalist mumbles the swearing most of the time. In the final game, these were nevertheless blanked out.

Laid to Rest - Uncensored

Sweet Child O' Mine#

Watch on YouTubePath is marginally different, and parts of the solo (especially the staccato strumming before the descending lines at the end) are charted much differently to final. Face-Off sections only exist for Expert. Lighting and sections are different. The chart ends a beat earlier than final.

Heart-Shaped Box#

Watch on YouTubeSo close to final, it would almost not be worth mentioning if not for a VGS file named heartshapedbox4ch.vgs, which is referenced as "Heart Shaped Box - 4 ch test" in songs.dtb. No chart exists for it, but it contains seven tracks, two of which are the guitar part to "YYZ" simply grafted onto the Nirvana tracks. This file sits unused alongside the normal VGS file and doesn't exist in the final game.

Heart Shaped Box - 4 ch test

Monkey Wrench#

Watch on YouTubeThe most notable difference about this chart is that the song definition in songs.dtb is missing the higher HO/PO threshold set for the final. The game has a per-song adjustable MIDI tick threshold where it'll consider two notes to be HO/POs. This is normally set to 170 in config/beatmatcher.dtb, though for faster songs like "Monkey Wrench", Harmonix sets it to 250 in the song definition itself. As a result of the lower threshold, all HO/POs have to be strummed in the demo.

For charting differences, the guitar hook is slightly different, featuring a few green notes where chords exist in the final, Star Power path is different, and Face-Off sections are different and only exist for Expert. Section names are different between the demo and final charts, and lighting is more elaborate in the final.

Beast and the Harlot#

Watch on YouTubeThe verse guitar part is charted differently on the lower difficulties. The Expert chart mixes chords and single notes, and the lower difficulties, even Easy where Harmonix in their Rock Band authoring documentation forbids them from appearing, follow suit. Some of the guitar bends at the end of the first solo and in the outro, rather than being charted as two sustains in the final, are a single sustain in the demo.

Lighting, sections, and the Star Power path are all different in the demo.

Free Bird#

Watch on YouTubeIntro is slightly different; while the notes are the same, the pitches have been shifted around to be more consistent to the audio. The rhythm part (though still marked as a bass part) has similar tweaks. Sections are majorly different between the demo and final; the solos go up to S in the final game, but only up to M in the demo. The outro is also split into two sections in the final, versus only one in the demo. Only Expert has Face-Off sections.

Arterial Black#

Watch on YouTubeAnother chart with the sustain tick quirk, as well as some major differences in note spacing in the solo. Still designated as having a bass part, despite having a rhythm guitar part.

The loading screen uses the text for "Decontrol", the Drist song that appeared in the first Guitar Hero.

Collide#

Watch on YouTubeStar Power path is different. One sustain exhibits the tick quirk, and a few others are shifted around later in the song. The bridge is one whole section in the demo, while it's two in the final, and the intro and first verse are combined as well (literally called intro_and_verse1).

The loading screen uses the text for "Behind the Mask", the Anarchy Club song that appeared in the first Guitar Hero.

Trogdor#

Watch on YouTubeNo Face-Off sections outside of Expert. Sections are named more closely after the song's lyrics: verse_1 is called trogdor_was_a_man, verse_2 is called burninating, gtr_solo is called squeedley_vs_meedley, and trc has the much longer Thatched_roof_cottages!. Marked as having a bass part, despite having a rhythm part.

The loading screen has the text "Temp" instead of the Strong Bad quote featured in the final.