Proto:Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's

This page details one or more prototype versions of Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's.

  This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

Preview builds of Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's containing unique content and differences from the final game were known to exist since before the game came out, but none had surfaced until the first part of the Project Deluge lot had been made available through the Internet Archive and Hidden Palace on March 20, 2021.

Most notably, this version of the game features an exclusive song, Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy", which was widely known about in press previews from the time but cut before final for unknown reasons. Beyond that, assets from Guitar Hero II are retained (more so than the final game), "Because, It's Midnite" features as an unlockable bonus track with a placeholder chart, and debug functionality exists in both the demo and in an undocumented, unused Guitar Hero II executable in the game files.

Sub-Pages

Songs HI BRAKELS HI BRAKELS

Debug Executables Harmonix must've gotten lazy, which is lucky for us.

General Differences

• Some of the window dressing throughout the demo, namely the save screen and menu music, are left over from II.
• While the intro animation (which, even in the final, is just a recolored version of the II intro) is finished, the audio is the same as II.
• Both executables have full debugging symbols leftover internally.

Setlist

Much like Guitar Hero II's retail demo, the order of the songs is nowhere close to final. Aforementioned early press coverage bears out the order of songs seen on this disc.

Demo	Final
Opening Licks
I Want Candy	(Bang Your Head) Metal Health
Holy Diver	We Got the Beat
We Got the Beat	I Ran (So Far Away)
No One Like You	Balls to the Wall
(Bang Your Head) Metal Health	18 and Life
Amp-Warmers
Nothin' But a Good Time	No One Like You
I Wanna Rock	Shakin'
Turning Japanese	Heat of the Moment
Los Angeles	Radar Love
Hold On Loosely	Because, It's Midnite
String Snappers
Lonely is the Night	Holy Diver
Synchronicity II	Turning Japanese
Heat of the Moment	Hold on Loosely
Shakin'	The Warrior
Bathroom Wall	I Wanna Rock
Thrash and Burn
Round and Round	What I Like About You
Electric Eye	Synchronicity II
Wrathchild	Ballroom Blitz
I Ran (So Far Away)	Only a Lad
What I Like About You	Round and Round
Return of the Shred
Radar Love	Nothin' But a Good Time
Play With Me	Lonely is the Night
The Warrior	Bathroom Wall
Balls to the Wall	Los Angeles
Caught in a Mosh	Wrathchild
Relentless Riffs
Seventeen	Electric Eye
Police Truck	Police Truck
18 and Life	Seventeen
Only a Lad	Caught in a Mosh
Ballroom Blitz	Play With Me

The song missing from the demo side of the above list, "Because, It's Midnite", is listed in campaign.dta under unlock_song, meaning when Career mode has been beaten, it appears in the setlist as a bonus track at the very end. When "I Want Candy" was cut and the setlist reshuffled, "Midnite" had to be reintroduced as a tier track to fill the gap.

Text Differences

The demo's locale text is nearly finalized; only a few spelling errors and formatting bugs were ironed out for the final release. The most notable change is the names of the strings that apply to the final song of the game. Guitar Hero II's final song was "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, while the final song in 80's is "Play With Me" by Extreme. Internally, despite the strings themselves being final, the string names still refer to "Free Bird".

Prototype

Final

(endgame_encore_freebird1 "The crowd is goin' insane. You know what they wanna hear: the MOST EXCELLENT super-shredder track, Play With Me. You ready?") (freebird_confirm1 "This ain't for the faint of heart, buddy. \nYou really want to try Play With Me?") (freebird_confirm2 "Seriously, it's, like, TOTALLY hard. \nYou still game?") (freebird_confirm3 "Okay, last chance... \nYou really want to rock Play With Me?")

(endgame_encore_finalsong1 "The crowd is goin' insane. You know what they wanna hear: the MOST EXCELLENT super-shredder track, Play With Me. You ready?") (finalsong_confirm1 "This ain't for the faint of heart, buddy. \nYou really want to try Play With Me?") (finalsong_confirm2 "Seriously, it's, like, TOTALLY hard. \nYou still game?") (finalsong_confirm3 "Okay, last chance... \nYou really want to rock Play With Me?")

Prototype

Final

(freebird_tip1 "Yeah it's hard. In fact, it's EXTREME! Ha ha ha.") (freebird_tip2 "Save yourself a whole world of pain. Master Play With Me in Practice Mode before trying your hand at the full version on stage.") (freebird_tip3 "Look, it's easier than washing all that gel out of your hair.") (freebird_tip4 "Nobody ever said shredding was easy.") (freebird_tip5 "That intro part? Yeah. That's Mozart. Dude was pretty righteous.") (freebird_tip6 "You've gotten this far. Party on.")

(playwithme_tip1 "Yeah it's hard. In fact, it's EXTREME! Ha ha ha.") (playwithme_tip2 "Save yourself a whole world of pain. Master Play With Me in Practice Mode before trying your hand at the full version on stage.") (playwithme_tip3 "Look, it's easier than washing all that gel out of your hair.") (playwithme_tip4 "Nobody ever said shredding was easy.") (playwithme_tip5 "That intro part? Yeah. That's Mozart. Dude was pretty righteous.") (playwithme_tip6 "You've gotten this far. Party on.")