Frets on Fire

About

Frets on Fire is a keyboard-based rhythm game where players "play guitar" using the keyboard instead of a physical controller, with a built-in song editor and an importer that can extract note charts from Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore, and Guitar Hero 80s PS2 discs. It runs on Windows, Linux and macOS.

How it differs from the original

Uses the keyboard rather than a guitar-shaped controller and its own native song format, though it includes a built-in importer that can rip playable songs directly from Guitar Hero PS2 discs — a process the readme notes can take around four hours per disc.

Getting started

Navigate menus with the arrow keys and Enter; in-game, hold F1-F5 for frets and tap Enter to pick notes. Songs from a Guitar Hero PS2 disc can be imported via the Song Editor's "Import Guitar Hero(tm) Songs" option, which requires the OGG Vorbis command-line encoder to be installed separately.

Known issues & limitations

• compatibility: Some keyboard combinations may be impossible to press on certain keyboards; key remapping is available in settings.
• audio: Sound may crackle on some systems; adjusting audio buffer size or sampling frequency in settings may help.

Media