Guitar Hero II Deluxe

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Guitar Hero II Deluxe
Developer(s)	MiloHax (PS2 up to v2.0) MiloHax 2.0 (PS2 & Xbox 360 post-v2.0)
Targeted game(s)	Guitar Hero II (PlayStation 2, Xbox 360)
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2 Xbox 360
Release date	v1.0: PS2: May 17, 2021 v2.0: PS2: November 7, 2021 v3.0 alpha: X360: April 20, 2022
Genre(s)	Music Rhythm
Mode(s)	Single-player Local multiplayer
Media	Digital distribution
Input method(s)	Guitar controller Gamepad Drum controller (as of v2.0 but treated as "Gamepad")

Guitar Hero II Deluxe is a fan-made modification of Guitar Hero II. Created by a modding team known as Milohax, Guitar Hero II Deluxe builds upon the foundations laid by Guitar Hero II in order to create an all-around better experience.

Development

Guitar Hero II Deluxe began development as Super Guitar Hero II, another Milohax project made to add certain features, such as focus mode and song speed modifications, to Guitar Hero II. Super Guitar Hero II had a few demos made to showcase the looser engine and song speeds, but was ultimately never finished.

On March 20, 2021, a user in the Milohax Discord server by the name of GenericMadScientist announced that he had discovered a way to remove the infamous strumming limit in Guitar Hero II. This strum limit was one of the most notorious issues with Guitar Hero II, as it made the song "Trogdor" impossible in the NTSC region on PlayStation 2, and completely impossible without exploits on the Xbox 360 version.

With the combined efforts of several Milohax users, including LocalH, Mariteaux, JNack, and GenericMadScientist, as well as assistance with tools several programs from PikminGuts92, Onyxite, Dwitt, and Ryan Lesser, Guitar Hero II Deluxe was born. Besides just the strum limit patch, other bugs from Guitar Hero II were fixed, such as a bug with the hammer-on and pull-off notes that recognized them as strum notes instead, and all of the features from Super Guitar Hero II were brought over.

v1.0 and v2.0's default title screen that can be changed.

Updates of the game's progress were shown off quite often on LocalH's Twitter, and in the Milohax Discord server. The streamer Acai, who had been a playtester for the game, dedicated a stream to showing off the nearly completed game, including a custom Guitar in the shop made for him and designed after a skin he had on his Guitar Controller.

The release date for Guitar Hero II Deluxe was announced the day before it's release, and The Official Website was put up around the same time. On May 17th, 2021, Guitar Hero II Deluxe was released to the public. On the same day, LocalH stated " A PAL version is coming soon, 360 version coming less soon."

Following the game's release, Onyxite added an update to his popular Onyx program, usually used to put customs into the Rock Band games, that allowed users to insert custom songs into Guitar Hero II Deluxe's files far quicker than what was possible before. On May 26th, 2021, Acai posted a tutorial to his second YouTube channel demonstrating how to add custom songs, in which he also released Guitar Hero II Deluxe: Custom Edition, a version of Guitar Hero II Deluxe with only 1 song, "Speed Test" by Exilelord, in the game. This allowed for far more custom songs to be added to the game than usual.

"Speed Test" in Guitar Hero II Deluxe v2.0

On September 22, 2021, Mariteaux announced the upcoming Guitar Hero II Deluxe 2.0 and was released on November 7, 2021, which added all of the songs, cosmetics, and features from Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, as well as Drums support and a No Fail cheat. Mariteaux also stated that the previously announced Xbox 360 version of the game was "not very likely" but it was picked up by part of the development team.

How to install and play

NOTICE: With the wiki's NoPiracy policies in mind, links and in-depth tutorials on how to build the game will not be provided here. Ask the Discord server for assistances and check pinned messages in the #gh2-deluxe channel. Do not share links to game downloads nor write an in-depth tutorial on building the game on this wiki.

PlayStation 2 version

Guitar Hero II Deluxe v1.0 and v2.0 were released as disc image, or a .ISO file, meaning that it can be run directly in high definition through PlayStation 2 emulation (i.e. PCSX2 on computer or AetherSX2 on Android), or the contents can be burned to a disc and played through a real PlayStation 2 hardware.

Post-v2.0 updates on the PlayStation 2 Github page can be also be built and can be compiled on an .ISO file.

Tutorial videos by Acai for setting up the game in PCSX2:

• Setting up in PCSX2 (tutorial video terminated)
• Custom Edition tutorial and no audio lag in PCSX2

The Qt version of PCSX2 and AetherSX2 currently does not support guitar controller inputs so until either one does (AetherSX2's development is currently under indefinite suspension as of January 4, 2023^[1]), the original wxWidgets version of PCSX2 is recommended since it supports input plugins (such as LiliPad) that includes guitar controller support. The last version of the original wxWidgets version of PCSX2 to be released before development stopped for it was v1.7.3771 at the start of December 24, 2022.

Xbox 360 version

The Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II Deluxe requires a completely different method to build and play the game. See the Github page's README.md for details on how to build the game, install the setlist, and play.

Several dependencies such as Git for Window (to auto-update the GH2DX repo files) and Dot Net 6.0 Runtime (required to run ArkHelper) are required to be installed in order to build the game, along with other software to make the game playable.

This can be played in the Xbox 360 emulator Xenia, which is the primary method of playing Guitar Hero II Deluxe, or be compiled on disc to be played on a modified Xbox 360 console.

Tutorial video by Acai.

Notable Features

Initial features since v1.0

Guitar Hero II Deluxe adds many features to the base of Guitar Hero II. Among the notable features are:

• Removed strum limit: Makes the song "Trogdor" possible, along with many other songs and sections that would not be possible on the original game. "Trogdor" was not possible to be Full Comboed in the 60 Hz (NTSC) version of Guitar Hero II as the strum bar would force to not register when strumming too fast while the 50 Hz (PAL) version at its reduced frame rate of 50 fps may ignore this strum limit check. Guitar Hero II Deluxe removes this strum limit check.
• Focus Mode: Focus Mode, which was present in some of the later Guitar Hero games, removes all of the background videos from the game, allowing the player to focus solely on the Note Highway, Rock Meter, and Score Meter. This is also useful for players on PCSX2 and AetherSX2 who have lower-end computers and Android devices, as the removal of the background reduces frame-dropping and makes the game overall more stable. This can be enabled by double-pressing Select/Star Power button on the song selection screen.
• Song speedups: The ability to speed up any song in the game to up to 250% Speed, creating some interesting challenges with many songs.
• Easter Eggs: v1.0 and v2.0 included several Easter Eggs that the player could hunt. The rewards are different in each version. This Easter Egg Hunt was removed in v3.0.

New features in v2.0

v2.0 of Guitar Hero II Deluxe was released on November 7, 2021. It is also the last major update that has Career. Notable features added in v2.0 of the PlayStation 2 version.

Drums in Guitar Hero II Deluxe v2.0. The new note streak counter also displayed above the score.

• Drums support: The 2.0 release added Drums support and some in-game songs included Drums charts for them. Drums did not work in the Xbox 360 release until an update on November 9, 2022 by enabling it but it would crash the game.
• Note streak counter: Note streak is now displayed above the score.
• Free Play to Practice: The player can switch the songs they are playing in Free Play mode to Practice mode on the pause screen. Additionally in Practice Mode, the Select/Back button can be used to immediately restart the song to the selected Section A.
• Toggleable cheats and modifiers: Most cheat codes are now disabled as the cheats are now part of a Modifier menu (double-pressing Select in the song selection screen) and Extras menu (before starting a song).
• Multiple games on one disc: With the 2.0 release bundling Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s graphics and songs, a new screen was added before the splash screens that bundles these additions into new games.
  • Guitar Hero II Deluxe (GH2 Deluxe): Play an enhanced version of Guitar Hero II featuring all songs from the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 versions of Guitar Hero II.
  • Guitar Hero Encore Deluxe (GH:80s Deluxe): Play an enhanced version of Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s featuring all songs from it.
  • Guitar Hero Mega Deluxe (Mega Deluxe): Play both Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s songs on one big setlist for the biggest experience.
  • Deluxe: Expansion (Expansion): A custom selection of songs from various Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. Some of these songs were added to take advantage of the removed strum limit and drums support. Some recognizable classic Guitar Hero songs in Deluxe: Expansion use their Rock Band or later Guitar Hero audio and charts such as "War Pigs" from Rock Band's DLCs and "I Wanna Rock" from Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, minus extended sustains, forced HOPOs, tap notes, etc.
  • Guitar Hero Redux (GH1 Redux): A demo version of Guitar Hero (in Guitar Hero II's engine) that includes 6 playable songs: "All of This", "Behind The Mask", "Thunder Kiss '65", "Graveyard Shift", "Spanish Castle Magic", and "Trippolette" (bonus track).
  • GH2 Deluxe (Debug) (GH2DX Debug) & GH Encore Deluxe (Debug) (80sDX Debug): Guitar Hero II Deluxe and Guitar Hero Encore Deluxe respectively with extra debug and cheat-like features. For button combinations and keyboard buttons to enable extra features, see the Github page's README.md. Some of these features are experimental and may cause issues like game crashes.
• Custom Edition: In an addition to the Career version of Guitar Hero II Deluxe with the subgames listed above, there exists a song-less version without Career Mode called Guitar Hero II Deluxe: Custom Edition that includes no in-game songs except ExileLord's "Speed Test". This Custom Edition is specifically used for applying custom songs.

Legacy updates (new updates to older releases)

• New build variations: As of December 8, 2022, new variations of v2.0 became available for download.
  • Guitar Hero II Deluxe (GH2 setlist), Guitar Hero Encore Deluxe, and Guitar Hero Redux subgames of Guitar Hero II Deluxe now has their own standalone releases.
  • Additionally, each one (including the full title) has an optional Force All to Guitar build, which forces gamepads into "guitar mode" using guitar input controls. Force All to Guitar build exists due to lack of guitar support in the Qt version of PCSX2 emulator (and AetherSX2). This feature was also included in the Xbox 360 version to allow guitar controllers to be used when emulating the Xbox 360 version on an Xbox Series X/S.

New features in v3.0

W.I.P. v3.0 on the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II Deluxe.

v3.0 was first experimented with the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II and it focuses more on custom songs casual gameplay, removing Career Mode and it setlists from the base game but are available separately. Notable features in v3.x includes:

• User installed content and customization: Players can customize the game's songs and graphics including highways, HUD, backgrounds, and more through the game files. By default, the only song included when building the game for the first time is ExileLord's "Speed Test" (GH2DX's setlists and more can be added separately). However, there is no Career Mode in the Xbox 360 version at the moment.
• Deluxe Settings: Double-pressing the Back/Star Power button on song selection screen opens up a Deluxe Settings menu to customize song difficulty, speed settings, game and graphic modifiers (focus mode, no fail, highway theme, game theming, character model, guitar model, etc.), audio, and more. Many more quality-of-life features were added since the PlayStation 2's v2.0 release.
• Random song selection: As of November 3, 2022, a Random Song button is now included on the Song Select screen, allowing the player to play a random song from their setlist.
• Auto-Updater: With Git to Windows installed, the user can auto-update the game by running _gh2.bat or _gh2_justbuild.bat. The PlayStation 2 version from its Github page can also be auto-updated from its _gh2.bat as well.
• PoorSpy: As of January 3, 2023, fret presses and strums are now tracked in the HUD above the highway for anti-botting purposes.
• Overlapping Star Power: As of January 9, 2023, Star Power can now be acquired while in Star Power when using a xex patch.
• FastGH2 (alpha): As of January 13, 2023, songs can be directly launched and played in Xenia, skipping splash screens and menu screens. For now, it is done in init.dta (located in the _init folder) by changing none in {set $fastsong none} to a song's shortsong name.

Soundtrack

Main article: Setlists in Guitar Hero II Deluxe

See also: Setlist in Guitar Hero II and Setlist in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s

While adding custom songs to Guitar Hero II Deluxe is possible, the base setlist of the game remains the exact same as the setlist in Guitar Hero II, with the added songs from Guitar Hero II on Xbox 360. The only song added by the Milohax team is "Speed Test" by ExileLord, which was added to demonstrate the removed strum limit.

Version 2.0 of Guitar Hero II Deluxe also included every song from Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and a selected number of songs from Guitar Hero. These songs can be played in certain games chosen on the game selection screen. Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s songs can be played together in a single setlist in the Guitar Hero Mega Deluxe subgame. Furthermore, the Guitar Hero Redux demo subgame includes 6 songs from first Guitar Hero game with Bass tracks included.

Trivia

• In order to differentiate screenshots and gameplay videos of Guitar Hero II Deluxe from Guitar Hero II before additional in-game interfaces were included (such as note streak box), the default highway frets' color scheme in Guitar Hero II Deluxe became the rainbow order Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green. This was the first Guitar Hero game's fret color scheme during its development before the fret color ordering became Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange before the official release of Guitar Hero.
  • This game's default ROYGB colors can be toggled back to GRYBO in the Extra menu in the PlayStation 2 version and in the Deluxe menu in the Xbox 360 version.

External links

• Guitar Hero II Deluxe official website - https://gh2dx.milohax.org/
  • New features in v2.0 - https://gh2dx.milohax.org/features
• Guitar Hero II Deluxe PlayStation 2 Github page - https://github.com/hmxmilohax/Guitar-Hero-II-Deluxe
• Guitar Hero II Deluxe Xbox 360 Github page - https://github.com/hmxmilohax/Guitar-Hero-II-Deluxe-360
• Milohax Discord Server - https://discord.gg/GMWngSVcWT (shutdown)
• MiloHax 3.0 Discord Server (formerly Milo Refugees and MiloHax 2.0 until February 4, 2023) - https://discord.gg/WWmsQvHSC6
• LocalH's Twitter - https://twitter.com/LocalAitch

Useful tips

• Acai's tutorial for PCSX2 setup - https://youtu.be/J9uv3C-SSYM
• Acai's tutorial for custom songs + Guitar Hero II Deluxe: Custom Edition Download - https://youtu.be/LJ8JIMBVBmE
• Acai's tutorial for Xenia setup - https://youtu.be/HYZXjFNtBYU