Rock Band Turns 4 Years Old! Post Your RB Memories

[Boomsnake]

Tried out Rock Band during Christmas of 2007 at a buddy's house. No one wanted to drum, so I gave it a shot. Fell in love with the instrument and the game, regardless of how many times I had to play through Weezer, Radiohead and the initial setlists anytime a new band was formed.

Fast-forward to now. I've owned a setup myself for both Wii and PS3, and I still play regularly. Haven't become an expert on the drums, but I hope one day to be able to breeze through 'Panic Attack' and 'Beast and the Harlot'... eventually.

[nascarfan19]

The red forums, holy cow were they red. As for the game, I remember when 55 disc songs wasn't that big of a deal to consistently play.

Nostalgia, oh the days...

[mayhemsince1977]

My favorite memory so far was when The Beatles first came out. I had just bought a new console and the special edition Beatles..so, very excited.

But, the icing on the cake was when my 3 year old sang along with most of the songs. She actually did well enough to garner a score and we even achieved a double fab!

No fail rules.

Yea, I know it is not RB but close enough.

[DarkPenfold]

My favourite RB moment: getting eight friends playing The Beatles Rock Band at once (doubling up on harmonies in some cases).
Worst RB moment? Losing a drunken challenge with a housemate ("if you drop your drumsticks one more time, you have to drink a shot of straight Pimms"). Worst hangover EVER.

RB is also directly responsible for me picking up a real guitar in the first place. Cheers Harmonix - here's to another 4 great years!

[ManLovesRobot]

The Beatles are what brought me to Rock Band. All of the 09/09/09 hype about the remasters and TB:RB made try out the game, but before dropping $150.00 on the preorder I bought a RB2 set at Target on sale for $79.00. I got it home and set it up and was hooked in seconds. The first time the crowd did a sing-a-long I got goose bumps.

I have no musical ability or understanding but this made me feel like I was a rock star. From that first weekend I have hooked about 10 friends on the game as well. I buy pretty much every piece of DLC each week and sold my cd collection to buy more DLC . This has become one of the best ways to enjoy music.

I play every instrument on medium (I am over 30) and have a blast everytime I play. It's been 2 years and I have spent over $1,000 on instruments alone (Drum GAS mainly).

Every year we have a New Years Rock Band party and get new people to try it out.

Happy 4th RB and here is to many more!!!!!!!!

[karaokefreak]

The very first time I played Rock Band was at Games Convention 2007 in Leipzig. I remember that the game looked kinda different back then and it wasn't a complete version. There were only a hand full of songs available and I remember that I sang a Nirvana song . I guess it was "in bloom" ... wait, I should still have a video snippet of it somewhere...

[30 minutes later, after editing and uploading the old video]

I found it!! It's not much, barely 20 seconds with very bad sound. However, I even caught a few seconds of screen footage with the OLD design that never made it into the final game.

See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrHXFEhU5i8


Actually I didn't trust HMX too much back then, because on the same day I had played a preview version of Guitar Hero 3 and did not realize that the developer had changed. A music game by Electronic Arts (because that was where I was sent to) ? That can never work....

However, it was fun singing while my workmates played Guitar and drums, so I kept it in mind. And soon after I found out that this game came from the original makers of Guitar Hero. Early on in the next year I got a Beta disc of the final version (I review games , just fyi) although the game had already been released in the US. It took almost a year until RB1 came out in Germany and the rest of europe. But I had A LOT of Fun with that Beta Disc and had a hard time giving the whole instrument pack back when EA germany asked us to... Waiting for the retail version was haaaaard!!

[LiveHomeVideo]

I remember when I thought that Alive on Medium was insane. Those were the days...

I also remember playing the RB2 kiosk at Wal-Mart. That was a good kiosk. Why didn't they do that with RB3?

[waldo15]

I remember getting the first RB game along with all the instruments (guitar, Drums, mic) almost on release day. I remember stashing the huge box in my wife's trunk; you should have seen the faces of my in-laws when they say the box and found out it was a videogame.

I promptly came home from work, unpacked everything and went to work on what was familiar for we all at the time: guitar. I quickly finished the Single Player tour on Hard/Expert, but it left me yearning for more. So I did the Bass, and the results were the same.

I had the drums laying around there and I thought to give them a spin. I mean, how hard could it be to hit pads instead of fake-strumming? I tried one song (Say it Ain't so by Weezer) and of course I miserably failed. The sticks fell weird, pumping that foot pedal was a nightmare and I lost my balance more than once. But something struck a chord inside me after that try out.

I went online. Kotaku had interviewed one of the RB developers who happened to be a drummer and gave suggestions on how to handle the foot (heel down, heel up, etc). I watched a couple of Youtube videos to get familiar with the concept of drums and drumming. I then went back to the Tour mode, Easy mode. Every song took me a while but I was able to finish the tour. I then went to medium, which I struggled but not as bad. Time went by, and about 8 months after release I was ready to move to Hard. That took less effort, but my foot was definitely giving up on me (i was playing flat foot at the time) so I had to re-train myself to use heel-up instead. That took another good six months as everything in my body got re-wired.

Then I started looking into drumming outside of the game. I even ventured into a music store for the first time to get a new pair of sticks. That made a difference in my play style. Then you guys had the gull to release the advanced Ion Drums, which I of course promptly pre-ordered. Good thing given that my first RB set was showing its age, and the yellow pad got cracked internally so it was hard to play. Not to mention how I had to replace the foot board already since the plastic pedal had cracked.

It was around that time that I found out the RB modding community and how to make your own RB compliant pedal out of a real drum pedal. I gotta say that I had as much fun making my own pedal as I had playing the game.

Finally the last challenge was ahead of me: Expert. I played it for the longest time but it was the last tier that was out of reach to me. Always the Who, always with Won't Get Fooled Again. I could not complete it no matter what I tried. At the time RB2 came out and decided to get the game and continue playing drums in it.

But 2 years after RB1 was released and 6 months into RB2, I decided it was the right time to try again the last tier, and complete drums on Expert. I had modded my Ion set to the point the only "stock" pieces were the supporting bars and the three "tom" pads: yellow, blue, green. I had replaced the red with a real e-drum snare, added my own Pintech cymbals and mounting everything in the most exotic ways.

So, one Saturday evening, I gathered all my inner strength, hooked up my 360 to my drums and put RB1 back in. Went to the last tier, selected "Won't Get Fooled Again" this time meaning it, and went to work. Things started easy as the song is pretty tame at the beginning, but as things progressed that dreaded drum solo was approaching. I had been practicing this fake-drumming for 2.5 years already and this song was not going to kick my ass again. I focused. And something inside of me clicked in such a way that I felt... good. As the notes came in my limbs would move almost on their own, knowing where to strike next. My foot was keeping up with the bass notes. I made it through the solo, and through the rest of the song! I completed the Tour finally! I had done it!

And that is when I realized that RB had let me experience something I had always wanted to do since I was a kid. I became an RB Drummer and even though I am by no means the best of the best, I feel that I can hold my own.

New challenges came, RB3 got announced and I got my next goal in sight: play RB2/RB1 songs the way they were meant to be played, hitting cymbals and toms when it was appropriate. This of course prepped me for RB3.

I don't play as much as before, after all I became a father in the interim and is not my son who takes interest in banging the drums at his 2 years of age. But nothing, nothing in my long videogaming experience will replace this great feeling I had that day, when I completed RB1 Expert Tour.

[WillDrum4Food]

Wow, four years...

Don't necessarily have any "crazy" stories. More like "stories that show how that game has made me crazy".

Been following the HMX crew since the release of Guitar Hero and never looked back.
How loyal have I been? Well, didn't even blink at paying full price for "Rocks The 80s" when it came out. See?! Crazy!

So, then 'Rock Band' comes out. Was excited about the 'whole band' idea and was completely hyped to pick it up.... and then had to wait 'aboot' an extra month to get it here in Canada.

Once I got it in my mitts, though...

Wow. No other game has made me its beeyotch like this one.

How crazy has it made me in four years?

Well...

- Got it for both the 360 and PS3. I'm talking '1', '2' and '3', Lego, AC/DC and Green Day (all exported plus a buttload of DLC amongst the two systems).

- The Beatles: RB package (not the downgraded 'SE' version) went on clearance and I burned a lot of gas scouring town to try and find one for the PS3. (Almost got a Rickenbacker, too, but it was gone the following week when I got paid.)

- The day '3' came out, I didn't trust that I'd be able to get a keyboard here in Canada so I crossed the border to ensure I wouldn't be left out. (More gas. TOTALLY worth it.)

- Got the Squier and 2 Midi adapters. (Already had a Roland e-kit and a Yamaha digtal piano so I'm set for 'PRO' mode).

- And it wasn't 'til about 2 weeks before '3' came out that I decided to take a serious stab at gettnig out of my 'comfortable rut' of being a solid Medium player. Wow, did the game ever open up once I finally got the hang of that fifth fret.

-Oh, yeah.... and it's worth mentioning that when people were going ballistic about being 'forced' to buy the Ozzy pack to get the most popular songs, I said I was so happy about its very existence that I was going to make sure I bought it for both systems. And hmxhenry PM'd me a 360 code. Thanks, dude. Really appreciated it.

I should also say that I'm grateful to the HMX crew for really coming up with some diverse setlists for their on-disc offerings and exposing me to bands I'd never heard before and connecting with through RB. The Mother Hips' 'Time We Had' is probably the best example of this. Loooooove that song.

Been a musician for most of my life and I'd like to thank the HMX crew for releasing and continuing to define a gaming genre that continues to keep me hooked (and inspired) each passing week.

Good job, guys.

[TehBanStick]

Obligatory Bladder of Steel post:

I actually took the day off of school and decided then would be the best time for BoS.
I grabbed a couple water bottles and a pack of saltines then went at it on Expert Guitar. The rest is history.