Hero Band Revolution! 4k

Back to The Front

A 4k rhythm music game

To start the game, press the space bar. Hold down the corresponding key while the colored block's white boundary is within the white rectangle. Don't let the audience meter reach empty (the bottom of the screen), or your time in the spot light is over!

• Red - Hold "A" or "Z"
• Green - Hold "S" or "X"
• Blue - Hold "D" or "C"

If this is your first time playing, please read the complete instructions below.

Display

• Music Scroll (gray-scale horizontal stripes) The area where the song scrolls by, allowing you to view the notes that will be played.
• Note Hit Area (gray rectangle) You must press the "hit" key corresponding to the note's color and position while the note is in this area.
• Note Play Mark (yellow horizontal line) The note will play while on this line. See the note about audio latency.
• Song Position (vertical white bar) Indicates how much more of the current song / level is left.
• Audience Approval Rating (horizontal blue-orange bar) Indicates how well you've played the notes. This stretches to the right as you play the notes correctly.
• Minimum Approval Rating for the Level (cyan arrow on the audience approval rating) Indicates the minimum level of approval you'll need at the end of the level. If your approval rating drops below this mark, then your approval rating meter will flash red for the difference you need to make up.
• End-Of-Song Mark (purple line in the music scroll) This line comes down the music scroll to let you know when the song actually ends.
• Bonus Star Burst (white rays in the music scroll) If you hit enough notes in a row, this burst will appear to indicate that your bonus mulitplier has increased.
• Score (number in the upper left) Your current score.
• Bonus (number in the upper right) The multiplier to your score. This resets at the beginning of each level.
• Level (number in the lower right) The current level / song for the game.
• Audio Latency (number in the lower left) The current audio latency amount that you have set. See the note on audio latency below for more details.

Controls

• space press to start the new game
• A, Z press for the left column / red notes.
• S, X press for the middle column / green notes.
• D, C press for the right column / blue notes.
• 1 Increase audio latency. See this note.
• 2 Decrease audio latency. See this note.

Audio Latency Notes

Due to limitations in the Java Sampled Sound API, I wasn't able to automatically adjust the latency between pushing samples to the API to when the sound is actually heard. Because of this, you'll need to manually adjust the sound yourself.

Ideally, the played note should be first heard when the leading white edge of the note block is covered by the Note Play Mark.

If you see a note pass the Note Play Mark, but don't hear its sound until a bit longer, then your computer has a longer audio latency than the current setting. Press "1" to increase the game's computation of your audio latency. Likewise, if the note is played before the note passes the Note Play Mark, press "2" to decrease the audio latency.

The current latency value is displayed in the lower left-hand corner. Since each operating system, and even different drivers for the same operating system, can have vastly different latency values, you will need to discover your own setting. The following table contains the latency values I've discovered on different computers:

An alternate version of this game has an experimental control to eliminate the need of the manual latency controls: latency-test.html

Rules

• Press the appropriate red/green/blue button to "hit" all the notes as they come down the music scroll. "Hit" notes improve your score and audience approval rating, and "missed" notes drop your approval. You can tell if a note is "hit" or "missed" by the column lighting up - a green flash means you hit the note, and a red flash means that the note was missed.
• The meter on the bottom indicates your audience approval rating. If this ever becomes empty, then the audience boos you off the stage, and the game is over.
• Likewise, the arrow marker on the meter indicates the minimum approval rating to move onto the next level. If you complete the level with your approval rating below this mark, your game is over (the approval rating bar will flash red for the amount you need to make up). You can tell how much time is left in the level by the white bar on the left - when it reaches the bottom, the level is over. The level separator is indicated by a purple horizontal line in the music scroll.
• A note is only recognized as "hit" when you press the correct key when the note is within the white rectangle at the bottom. The yellow horizontal line indicates when the note is (should be) played.
• To get a full score on a note, you must hold the correct key down for the note, starting with when the leading edge is within the white rectangle, and released when the trailing edge is within the white rectangle. If you do this enough times in a row, you are rewarded with a bonus score multiplier, and an extra boost to your approval rating.

Tips:

• To raise your score, you must hold down and release the key while the block is inside the white rectangle.
• You can increase your score by holding the key down for the entire length of the note.
• Score is judged by whether you press and release on time. If you let go of a square too early, you can always press the key again and release at the right time in order to keep from having your score go down even more (your score will not go down if you press again in the middle of the note).
• Mistakes at early levels don't count against you much. However, the penalties go up as you progress through the levels.
• At the higher levels, you can get a bonus by not making a mistake over a certain number of notes (for that level). If you can do this, then you can recover faster from those minor mistakes!

The source is located at my Source Forge project, GroboUtils.