GrooveThang is a quick and easy launcher for both Ultrastar (the PC clone of SingStar, a karaoke game that scores you based on how well you are singing) and Stepmania, a game like Dance Dance Revolution that challenges you to dance -or strike your keyboard/remote - in time with the music.

   Later editions may end up scanning your Media Center for music to use, but at the moment you will have to get your OWN content. http://www.ddruk.com is great for Stepmania files, while a limited collection of Ultrastar files can be found from http://www.ultrastarstuff.com

   If you could help me test it (there may be some volume issues, since I have to enable your microphone when you start Ultrastar), that would be great.

   http://www.push-a-button.com.au/products/mce/GrooveThang.php

   This installation includes Ultrastar, but you will need to download and install Stepmania yourself.

Great idea!  Keep it coming. 

So, has anyone actually tried this yet? I know of at least one fairly major bug, but either nobody needs the feature, or nobody has actually USED this plugin.

Hi IgnoranceBliss, I'd love to try this out for an upcoming party, but unfortunately the download link on your website (for Ultrastar) seems to be broken. I love all your apps by the way, thanks!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ultrastar/

You can find MOST open source programs hiding on SourceForge.

Ultrastar actually comes with GrooveThang, so you don't really need to worry so much.

I've started compiling a list of Ultrastar tracks. If you own the original music, you can get them from http://www.push-a-button.com.au/groovethang - and the upcoming GrooveThang version will automatically scan your music list and download the appropriate files.

I guess I wasn't clear on my reply :) I meant the download file for GrooveThang is broken (http://www.push-a-button.com.au/downloads/showdownload.php?ID=8). It shows up as 0Kb and throws an error 404 for the file (http://www.push-a-button.com.au/products/mce/GrooveThang_0.2.0.msi).

Oh BUGGER! Sorry about that - I just took a look, and you are dead right. All fixed now - download, and have a good sing to take your broken-link blues away :)

Just wanted to pass on a quick thanks from my 4 year old daughter...

She loves this program!!!!  Picked up a cheap Dance Mat and have now lost the TV for a few days!!!

 

Fantastic fun!

Hehe - girls of ALL ages seem to really love it. My MOTHER is now playing this with a dance mat and her laptop!

The odd thing is that this plugin, and My Games, is getting such a slow response! Not all that many people are downloading!

 

I have to be honest, My Games I didnt even look at simply because I use GameEX.

 

I may take a look later. 

I am suprised it's not had many downloads, is very nicely put together and a lot of fun!!!!  People with kids struggling with getting them moving could really use this!!  Am picking up another mat next week... and hoping to destroy the children with my dance sylies!

I'm a big fan of the remixed classicals from DDR 8th Mix. I love 'V for Victory' and 'Speed Over Beethoven' - but be prepared for a fairly serious workout on that last one!

Yeah, GameX was interesting, but I just wanted something more media-centery. If you are happy with GameX, don't bother changing! It's got more features. My Games is very simple - it just does the job it's intended for. The only real difference is that it doesn't completely re-start Media Center when you come back in - it returns to where you were.

And I wanted to be able to launch You Don't Know Jack and some other PC-based games as well as my MAME stuff.

Well, I shall take a look.  You gone to all the effort it is the least I can do!!!!  I run a small library of Emu's etc and GAMEEX does make that simple!

I havent dug around to far yet for new dances....  I get a feeling that is going to be my mission for the weekend!

Out of curiousty, I know you mention your looking for a way to scan for existing music files.  Would it be possible to use an existing lyrics plugin to generate the lyrics file???  Or is that just too damn complex!

Hehe, the LYRICS are easy, it's the TIMING that is hard to generate. You'd have to develop a program that can isolate the voice, figure out the pitches, then figure out WHAT they were saying so it could match it to the lyrics....it's hellishly complicated and you'd need not only a large team of programmers but a good amount of time to inspect the file.

Still, users are starting to contribute songs to the list that GrooveThang is going to use - http://www.push-a-button.com.au/groovethang/ has some of them.

The idea is to hammer through the My Music collection, inspect the tracks, and download matching entries from the Push-A-Button database.

IgnoranceIsBliss:

Hehe, the LYRICS are easy, it's the TIMING that is hard to generate. You'd have to develop a program that can isolate the voice, figure out the pitches, then figure out WHAT they were saying so it could match it to the lyrics....it's hellishly complicated and you'd need not only a large team of programmers but a good amount of time to inspect the file.

Yet you still take time to post on here??!?!?   AM KIDDING OF COURSE!!

I really like what you have done with this, I got MCE purely for video use and never really gave much thought to anything else.  Would love to hear about any projects your working on, I seem to have caught the bug with looking for new things to play with on MCE!!!

I'm playing mostly with the 'Fun' side of Media Center. There are too many people taking the thing way to seriously.

So as well as a major upgrade of GrooveThang coming in the not-to-distant future, I'm also working on a set of Web-Powered Games, such as a trivia game, a port of 20Q (the 20 questions game) and other internet-based fun activities.