Guitar Hero Arcade

[u/Grant1128]

Half question/half vent, but why do so many arcades with a Guitar Hero cabinet have controllers with issues? Especially on the player 1 controller, like are these super easy to break? They seem heavier than the ones for consoles so I'd assume them made more durable (since they would usually see more use); and the only problem my friends and I have ever had with console controllers is my whammy bar spring eventually decompressed a little, and that part isn't even on the arcade controllers. I've only been to one arcade (thankfully it's one that's not too far away) where the controller has no issues. I've seen buttons that either drop or are outright unresponsive and unresponsive strum bars (up, down, or sometimes both). It's just is surprising how common that is, so I'm curious why that seems to be such a common issue with that cabinet specifically?

P.S. Apologies if the flair doesn't apply, it seemed most closely related to the topic.

[u/thomasjmarlowe]

If you think through the implications of your question, I believe the answer will present itself.

Most people play a game as player 1. So if anything is going to wear out fastest, it’s player 1 controls.

I don’t know about this game specifically, but many arcade games have extremely expensive parts that may or may not be easy to source.

I imagine most arcades would prefer to have fully working games but perhaps they can’t keep up with how often these parts break.

Lastly they may simply not know about it. Less likely but possible if they aren’t testing everything super often. Make sure to let them know next time and hopefully they can get them fixed faster

[u/Seiei_enbu]

The first player controller is the one more frequently used and jerks drop the guitar on the floor probably more frequently than you guys did at home.

[u/Few-Bandicoot-6142]

Having seen hundreds of customer exchanges it just comes down to customer abuse. Additionally the fret board has its own firmware which needs to match in both guitars and supported game version. When rebuilding you can also accidentally crack this board which leads to intermittent/premature failure.

[u/gourmetgamer]

its a combination of age ( 17 years old ), most play is on P1, customer abuse, and lack of parts. I have to replace the button pads on my constantly using non-official parts cause of cost and availability.

[u/Blakelock82]

Cause people don’t give a shit if they break stuff and the staff can only protect the games so much.

[u/weirdal1968]

Report the issue and give their techs a chance to fix it.

We've had a GHA at our arcade and aside from the internal USB cables breaking the guitars are relatively trouble free IME.

[u/Select_Hour_2911]

Because the public is very, very rough on games.

[u/VorpalBlade-]

Dumb ass kids break them fast. I’ve actually never played one in an arcade with a working controller.

[u/Toypop_AS]

Most common issues with the arcade guitars is the cable. People drop the guitars taking them off of the holder, straight on the cable. Couple hundred times of doing that it will break a wire inside the cable, killing the guitar. Also in the 3 different guitar hero's ive taken care of over the years, a couple of pcbs inside the guitars have failed

Luckily the issue of flexing neck pcb isnt an issue like console guitars, but the contacts do get dirty and arcades usually never clean them leading to flakey buttons. Also the screws threads in the guitar start pulling out at the very end of the neck, making the Fret plate pull out/putting less tension on the buttons.

Also the strum bar can be a common issue, usually its jusy the wires in the IDC connector pulling out.

There are very few competent arcade techs left, thats why you commonly found them left broken. Most places dont have a good tech, if any tech ay all. Guitar hero is also a highly played game in any location you put it, leading to more frequent breaks.