Freetar Editor

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Freetar Editor
Developer(s)	Anton Struyk
Targeted game(s)	Outputs in .sng, compatible with: Freetar Gunnar Hero (can no longer be converted for other games)
Platform(s)	Java SE Microsoft Windows
Release date	v0.1b: May 19, 2006 v0.2b: July 12, 2006
Media	Digital distribution
Input method(s)	Keyboard & mouse PS2 guitar controller via USB adapter

Freetar Editor is a note chart editing tool developed by Anton Struyk in Java, released for Microsoft Windows on May 19, 2006 alongside the rhythm video game Freetar (also known as Freetar Game and formerly known as Freetar Hero), one of the earliest Guitar Hero-inspired PC games. It was one of the earlier known chart editors in 2006 other than Frets on Fire's built-in Song Editor.

Besides Freetar, there is a Guitar Hero-inspired PlayStation Portable homebrew title called Gunnar Hero that supported note charts created in Freetar Editor.

Development and features

Freetar video game

The first beta of Freetar ("Freetar Hero" at the time) and its editor were released on May 19, 2006. They were developed in Java in the JNLP format. The editor can use audio in .mid, .midi, .mp3, .ogg, and .flac formats and song charts were saved in the .sng file format.

Freetar video game

Two months later, v0.2b of Freetar and Freetar Editor were released on July 12, 2006 with the following changes:

• Ability to change the order of the fret buttons (green on top, or green on bottom)
• Hammer-ons and Pull-offs
• Support for .wma playback
• Support for gamepads' Analog Axis
• New playback modes including "Practice Strum Timing" and "Press To Record"
• Press-indicators during practice mode flash to display button timing
• Specify the difficulty of your song
• Windows .exe launcher
• Many bug fixes and other improvements

Compared to Frets on Fire's built-in Song Editor

Like with Frets on Fire's built-in Song Editor, Freetar Editor can edit charts of the Guitar track for Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert difficulties ("Supaeasy," "Easy," "Medium," and "Amazing" difficulties respectively in Frets on Fire) and charts are saved in the .sng file format that can be played only in Freetar or Gunnar Hero on PSP, or be converted to .mid format to be played in Frets on Fire or newer inspired games that is compatible with Frets on Fire's song format (such as FoFiX, Performous, Phase Shift, Live Sessions Music, Clone Hero, Frets Smasher, and YARG).

One major improvement Freetar Editor and Freetar had over Frets on Fire's basic Song Editor and the game itself since the v0.2 beta release of Freetar and its editor was the ability to set hammer-ons and pull-offs on notes or force them off when notes were close together, a gameplay element that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock introduced.

The one drawback that Freetar Editor had, that can also be an improvement over Frets on Fire's Song Editor was charting songs by beats per second instead of beats per minute. In both chart editors, only the initial tempo can be mapped and cannot be changed during song, but the Freetar Editor's tempo in beats per second could take the advantage of charting songs that would change tempo and attempt to accurately chart notes by beat or nearly by beat. This is also the disadvantage since it's not easy or possible to accurately chart many songs 1:1 when tempo changes occur and some notes may need to be slightly distanced to match a song's tempo as much as possible.

However, in 2006 and 2007, these chart editors were commonly used when making custom songs for Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, and the inspired games Guitar Zero, Frets on Fire, and Freetar that this editor was specifically made for. The .sng chart files would needed to be converted into .mid format to play them on other Guitar Hero-inspired PC games first, but the website for Frets on Fire tools is currently offline and inoperational.

But these earlier chart editors became obsolete when FeedBack Chart Editor was in development with more editing features including the ability to set and change tempo at any point during songs and chart multiple instruments.

Discontinuation

On January 28, 2007, the Freetar and Freetar Editor developer Anton Struyk made a blog that he acquired a job at Vicarious Visions when Vicarious Visions was being bought by Activision, the new IP owners of the Guitar Hero franchise at that point. Working at a new job meant that Anton would struggle making further updates on Freetar and the Freetar Editor so he announced the discontinuation of these projects.

At the very least, the CEO of EaglEye computer services at the time, Micheal Christopher, offered to host the Freetar website, wiki, and forums so that the Freetar community could engage in social activities until the website was eventually shut down.

The Freetar game and its editor were then archived on Google Code Archives on June 26, 2008.

Working under Vicarious Visions

After joining Vicarious Visions and discontinuing Freetar and Freetar Editor, Anton Struyk became involved in the development of these following video games developed by Vicarious Visions:

• Transformers: Autobots & Transformers: Decepticons for Nintendo DS in 2007.
• Bee Movie Game for Nintendo DS in 2007.
• Kung-Fu Panda for Nintendo DS in 2008.
• Guitar Hero: On Tour for Nintendo DS in 2008.
  • Struyk primarily worked on plugins for the data-editing tool used for all projects, and assisted in the design of a tool used to streamline the generate of note-tracking data for the songs in the game.
• Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen for Nintendo DS in 2009.
• A planned Nintendo DS port of DJ Hero that was cancelled in 2009.
  • Struyk was a UI editor and designer for it.
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2009.
• Guitar Hero 7 planned since 2010 that was cancelled in 2011.
  • Struyk was a UI editor and designer for it.
• Skylanders: Cloud Patrol for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire in 2012.
• Skylanders: Lost Islands iOS and Android in 2012.
• Skylanders: Superchargers for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and iOS in 2015
• Crash N' Sane Trilogy on PlayStation 4 in 2017.

See also

• Editing tools
  • FeedBack Chart Editor
  • Editor on Fire
  • Moonscraper Chart Editor
• Game mods

External links

Freetar and Freetar Editor

• Official website (web archived)
• Google Code archive page
• Freetar Hero on Frets on Fire Wiki
• Unofficial Weebly clone of the main website

Developer Anton Struyk

• LinkedIn profile
• Anton Struyk's House Of Blog
  • Professional work blog