4 ms·

Trombone Champ turns all songs into tooting works of genius

jquery 4y ago
You can tell the devs are trombone players because the trombonist gets to play the melody.
- krallja 4y ago
  The first tweeted video, by Jacob DeRose, "William Tell Overture", is the counter-melody at best.
ec109685 4y ago
Does Nasty actually mean you messed up or did something dope? From the article: mess up and game will proclaim it “nasty.” However, nasty can be good: “4. an expression of approval or impressment with regard to a person's actions or ability” https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nasty https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nasty
- wolfram74 4y ago
  Welcome to auto antonyms.
  - clucas 4y ago
    Cleave to the traditional uses of words! Don't cleave their meanings!
    - jfk13 4y ago
      Should we sanction such usages, or should they be sanctioned?
xnx 4y ago
The game is fun for sure. I fully expect someone to hack-up a hardware DIY trombone interface. You might be able to get pretty close doing something has improvised as taping a mouse to a cardboard tube with a small hole in the side that allows the mouse sensor to read movement from another cardboard tube inside the first.
- jffry 4y ago
  There is somebody who rigged up a mic, and some code to listen for loud sounds and use the pitch to set mouse position :) https://twitter.com/kupobucks/status/1573060085177262082 https://twitter.com/kupobucks/status/1573060085177262082 But a DIY controller with a mouse taped to a physical thing would also be fun and I eagerly await the video
Applejinx 4y ago
QWOP, but music :)
AlbertCory 4y ago
I can see a whole family of games built on difficult instruments. Just for yucks, I took a couple French Horn lessons, because I knew the teacher Scott. I bought a new one from Walmart for ~$200, which Scott bought back from me because he can always sell them. I told him I had no commitment to learning it, and he was fine with that. Man, that is one hard instrument. Compared to the 'bone? I couldn't say.
- a_cardboard_box 4y ago
  The French horn is a popular answer to "what's the hardest orchestral instrument?". It has longer tubing and therefore a lower fundamental frequency than a trombone, but typically plays in a higher range. The higher above the fundamental frequency of a brass instrument you play, the more notes can be played with a single fingering. So the French horn requires very precise lip control to get the right note.
  - libraryatnight 4y ago
    I was a trumpet player in band and had a "Lemme try..." moment after one of the French horn players told us this. It was indeed much harder. It was sort of fun to have her do the fingerings while I tried to make sensible sounds come out of the thing. French horn has a buttery warmth I love when played well. Sounds the first cry of some newborn hellspawn in the arms of an neophyte.
    - AlbertCory 4y ago
      My persistence level was very low, as I said. So bear with me if I tell you that the song "Beautiful Dreamer" was the killer. I just could NOT hit that C on "dream-ER." Scott's played with every big orchestra in the Bay Area, as a sub. When their regular horn player can't make it, he's the one they call.
      - jfk13 4y ago
        I hope all you horn players (or would-be players) are familiar with Flanders & Swann's take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjA6bA1qtfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjA6bA1qtfQ
beefman 4y ago
Does it use real slide positions? I'm guessing not. (The slide is only long enough to change pitch by a small amount. Lip tension is used to select a resonant mode at each slide position.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc1EPud2VAQ&t=8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc1EPud2VAQ&t=8s
- skywhopper 4y ago
  No, it’s just a single continuous “slide”.
  - beefman 4y ago
    Would be cool to have an expert mode where the keyboard is used to select lip tension and the slide works as on a real instrument. With a simple physical model, would make hitting the right notes easier since there's a natural 'pull' to the resonances.
fuball63 4y ago
My senior project in college was "Trombone Hero", which was a game based on guitar hero. I had an old trombone, and I took apart a cheap gamepad and put the sensors along a custom PVC pipe slide at positions 1 - 7. There was then a button attached to it that you would press for "blowing". I then made a little tool that would play music and record inputs to generate the "levels". I used some Beatles songs I had on a CD, and then recorded each note individually on a real trombone to superimpose on the song. I made the game engine with some Java graphics library that I don't remember. I was really proud of this when I made it, and is always a fun story to tell. I found an old video from ~2012 when I demoed it to the class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rawTtdv50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rawTtdv50s
krallja 4y ago
> Trombone Champ has been released for PC via Steam! … > > A Mac release is currently being researched. Further ports are possible but not currently planned. Uh, why not? This would be perfect for touch screens. And accelerometers. Just imagine the Joy-Con chaos.
- schmorptron 4y ago
  https://twitter.com/lawrenceyang/status/1572438040173490182 https://twitter.com/lawrenceyang/status/1572438040173490182 Seems like the accelerometer part can be done with the PC version already :D
  - Bytewave81 4y ago
    Probably just by mapping the accelerometer to a virtual joystick. Steam Input is a fairly powerful framework for mapping new controls onto existing control schemes.
- grimgrin 4y ago
  for starters, it's using an _inverted mouse_ by default, which has to be intentional to add to the ridiculousness of the entire experience playing with a touch screen would be ez mode
epaulson 4y ago
The Onion is ahead of the times - from 2007: https://www.theonion.com/activision-reports-sluggish-sales-for-sousaphone-hero-1819569239 https://www.theonion.com/activision-reports-sluggish-sales-f...
LegitShady 4y ago
seems like a missed opportunity for Tromboner
2-718-281-828 4y ago
Anybody remembering Microsoft's Songsmith? https://youtu.be/Ci1K9Zcwvy4?t=17 https://youtu.be/Ci1K9Zcwvy4?t=17 https://youtu.be/mg0l7f25bhU?t=27 https://youtu.be/mg0l7f25bhU?t=27 :D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Songsmith https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Songsmith
smrq 4y ago
I learned to type on my first non-traditional keyboard using a previous game from these devs, "Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing". Similar offbeat sense of humor (though, if playing Sousa marches taught me anything, shouldn't the horns be off-beat instead?) It was a Flash game but there surely must still be a way to play it.

You can tell the devs are trombone players because the trombonist gets to play the melody.

krallja 4y ago
The first tweeted video, by Jacob DeRose, "William Tell Overture", is the counter-melody at best.

Does Nasty actually mean you messed up or did something dope? From the article: mess up and game will proclaim it “nasty.” However, nasty can be good: “4. an expression of approval or impressment with regard to a person's actions or ability” https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nasty https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nasty

wolfram74 4y ago
Welcome to auto antonyms.
- clucas 4y ago
  Cleave to the traditional uses of words! Don't cleave their meanings!
  - jfk13 4y ago
    Should we sanction such usages, or should they be sanctioned?

xnx 4y ago

The game is fun for sure. I fully expect someone to hack-up a hardware DIY trombone interface. You might be able to get pretty close doing something has improvised as taping a mouse to a cardboard tube with a small hole in the side that allows the mouse sensor to read movement from another cardboard tube inside the first.

jffry 4y ago
There is somebody who rigged up a mic, and some code to listen for loud sounds and use the pitch to set mouse position :) https://twitter.com/kupobucks/status/1573060085177262082 https://twitter.com/kupobucks/status/1573060085177262082 But a DIY controller with a mouse taped to a physical thing would also be fun and I eagerly await the video

Applejinx 4y ago

QWOP, but music :)

AlbertCory 4y ago

I can see a whole family of games built on difficult instruments. Just for yucks, I took a couple French Horn lessons, because I knew the teacher Scott. I bought a new one from Walmart for ~$200, which Scott bought back from me because he can always sell them. I told him I had no commitment to learning it, and he was fine with that. Man, that is one hard instrument. Compared to the 'bone? I couldn't say.

a_cardboard_box 4y ago
The French horn is a popular answer to "what's the hardest orchestral instrument?". It has longer tubing and therefore a lower fundamental frequency than a trombone, but typically plays in a higher range. The higher above the fundamental frequency of a brass instrument you play, the more notes can be played with a single fingering. So the French horn requires very precise lip control to get the right note.
- libraryatnight 4y ago
  I was a trumpet player in band and had a "Lemme try..." moment after one of the French horn players told us this. It was indeed much harder. It was sort of fun to have her do the fingerings while I tried to make sensible sounds come out of the thing. French horn has a buttery warmth I love when played well. Sounds the first cry of some newborn hellspawn in the arms of an neophyte.
  - AlbertCory 4y ago
    My persistence level was very low, as I said. So bear with me if I tell you that the song "Beautiful Dreamer" was the killer. I just could NOT hit that C on "dream-ER." Scott's played with every big orchestra in the Bay Area, as a sub. When their regular horn player can't make it, he's the one they call.
    - jfk13 4y ago
      I hope all you horn players (or would-be players) are familiar with Flanders & Swann's take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjA6bA1qtfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjA6bA1qtfQ

beefman 4y ago

Does it use real slide positions? I'm guessing not. (The slide is only long enough to change pitch by a small amount. Lip tension is used to select a resonant mode at each slide position.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc1EPud2VAQ&t=8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc1EPud2VAQ&t=8s

skywhopper 4y ago
No, it’s just a single continuous “slide”.
- beefman 4y ago
  Would be cool to have an expert mode where the keyboard is used to select lip tension and the slide works as on a real instrument. With a simple physical model, would make hitting the right notes easier since there's a natural 'pull' to the resonances.

fuball63 4y ago

My senior project in college was "Trombone Hero", which was a game based on guitar hero. I had an old trombone, and I took apart a cheap gamepad and put the sensors along a custom PVC pipe slide at positions 1 - 7. There was then a button attached to it that you would press for "blowing". I then made a little tool that would play music and record inputs to generate the "levels". I used some Beatles songs I had on a CD, and then recorded each note individually on a real trombone to superimpose on the song. I made the game engine with some Java graphics library that I don't remember. I was really proud of this when I made it, and is always a fun story to tell. I found an old video from ~2012 when I demoed it to the class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rawTtdv50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rawTtdv50s

krallja 4y ago

> Trombone Champ has been released for PC via Steam! … > > A Mac release is currently being researched. Further ports are possible but not currently planned. Uh, why not? This would be perfect for touch screens. And accelerometers. Just imagine the Joy-Con chaos.

schmorptron 4y ago
https://twitter.com/lawrenceyang/status/1572438040173490182 https://twitter.com/lawrenceyang/status/1572438040173490182 Seems like the accelerometer part can be done with the PC version already :D
- Bytewave81 4y ago
  Probably just by mapping the accelerometer to a virtual joystick. Steam Input is a fairly powerful framework for mapping new controls onto existing control schemes.
grimgrin 4y ago
for starters, it's using an _inverted mouse_ by default, which has to be intentional to add to the ridiculousness of the entire experience playing with a touch screen would be ez mode

epaulson 4y ago

The Onion is ahead of the times - from 2007: https://www.theonion.com/activision-reports-sluggish-sales-for-sousaphone-hero-1819569239 https://www.theonion.com/activision-reports-sluggish-sales-f...

LegitShady 4y ago

seems like a missed opportunity for Tromboner

2-718-281-828 4y ago

Anybody remembering Microsoft's Songsmith? https://youtu.be/Ci1K9Zcwvy4?t=17 https://youtu.be/Ci1K9Zcwvy4?t=17 https://youtu.be/mg0l7f25bhU?t=27 https://youtu.be/mg0l7f25bhU?t=27 :D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Songsmith https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Songsmith

smrq 4y ago

I learned to type on my first non-traditional keyboard using a previous game from these devs, "Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing". Similar offbeat sense of humor (though, if playing Sousa marches taught me anything, shouldn't the horns be off-beat instead?) It was a Flash game but there surely must still be a way to play it.