In 2005, the first Guitar Hero rocked the masses with its innovative guitar controller and gameplay style. Critics gave it overwhelmingly positive scores, and for a point in time (eventually taken by Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) it was the best selling PS2 game. However, the original beta build of Guitar Hero was completely different from the final build. In a bonus video included in Guitar Hero, it shows the beta build as well as features in it that were canned. In 2007, a Gamespot video was posted on YouTube of an early venue (possibly the Basement venue) and an early version of the song Spanish Castle Magic with vocals, before they were cut out in the final game.
Interesting differences in the two videos include:
- The colors of the frets are the colors of the rainbow, with the exception of the colors indigo and violet.
- The song Spanish Castle Magic was going to have vocals, as seen in the Gamespot video.
- There are no hammer ons or pull offs (This may also be due to the chart not being finished.)
- The graphics and animations are different.
- The score gets built up in sections and then added to the current score, like the game Karaoke Revolution.
- There is no star power anywhere.
- The star power bar was a bar that showed how well you were doing during a scoring section.
- Pandora is wearing a slightly different outfit and looks closer to her Guitar Hero 2 model and is holding the guitar away from her less
- Pandora is using Axel Steel's highway graphic.
- Using a whammy distorts the guitar less.
- Trippolette has completely different audio and chart
On March 20th 2021, The Sep 3rd, 2005 prototype was released by prototype preservation group Hidden Palace.
Sources[]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=citJ1x1C-_c
https://youtu.be/msgscRn1Omw?t=9m49s
https://hiddenpalace.org/Guitar_Hero_(Sep_3,_2005_prototype)