Through the fire and flames
If five-year-old music hit Guitar Hero is getting a bit stale, here's a great way to heat it up.
Add propane.
Fire Hero is the work of hobbyist Chris Marion, who was inspired to connect
his Guitar Hero controller to an array of propane-powered jets during a
boring day in class. The five jets correspond to the guitar's five fret
buttons, so playing along with one of the game's music tracks rewards
observers with a pyrotechnic display that'd impress even Hank Hill.
It took a week for Marion to assemble the system, which uses three
standard 20-pound propane tanks together with an unfeasible number of
fitments, valves, shut-offs, and assorted other propane accessories. The
guitar interfaces with the jets via a custom-made electronic
controller.
Right now, the jets just puff flame every time Marion hits a note, but he's
already thinking up ideas to make the display even cooler -- including
using the guitar's whammy bar to control the height of the flames, or
making the flames change color.
(And at the risk of stating the blatantly obvious, we should point out that
fire is, in fact, quite dangerous, and you should probably not try this
at home, even if you're as crazy as Marion appears to be. Some things
are best left to professional lunatics.)
