Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
1 recomp and 1 port
Guitar Hero (Guitar Dream)
mbracali/prj-gd-engine
Guitar Dream Engine is a reimplementation of the engines of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band era of guitar games, with one folder and engine per game and a universal launcher. The README states it contains no original code or assets and distributes none: you are expected to buy the discs and extract their content yourself. According to its table, Guitar Hero (the PlayStation 2 version) is 99% playable, Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360) 88%, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (PlayStation 2) 80%, and Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360) 47%; the other titles, through Rock Band 3, show no progress yet. There are launcher builds for Windows, Linux, Steam Deck, macOS, and Android; 0.1.8 is from October 30. It is published under the PolyForm Noncommercial license plus additional attribution terms, so it is not for commercial use. Each game’s folder includes notes for AI coding agents.
You needYour own copy of each game, from which you extract the assets yourself (discs or ROMs in the original_isos folder): Guitar Hero and Encore in their PlayStation 2 version, Guitar Hero II and III in the Xbox 360 one. Windows, Linux (including Steam Deck), Apple Silicon macOS, or Android.
Guitar Hero II (PS2)
noahbaxter/GHClassic
Guitar Hero Classic is a modded recompilation of the PS2 version of Guitar Hero II that runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It recompiles the game with the author’s own fork of PS2Recomp and runs the original code mostly unchanged; the renderer, audio, controls, and saves were written separately. It brings together in one package the campaigns of Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II (PS2 and Xbox 360), and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, lets you pick the GH2 or GH1 note engine, mix every song from every game in quickplay, and play local multiplayer. A custom Vulkan rendering engine offers the original PS2 look, the Xbox 360’s, or anything in between, with any resolution, uncapped frame rate, MSAA, TAA, and mipmaps. Its author states generative AI was used only to write code and that no game asset was generated or upscaled. It is in active development; version 0.8.6 is from October 29.
You needDisc images of your own copies as .chd, .iso, or .bin: required, Guitar Hero II for PS2 (USA only, SLUS-21447); optional, any region, Guitar Hero (PS2), Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360), and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (PS2). A Vulkan-capable GPU; Windows, Apple Silicon macOS, or Linux.
Installs with
Quiver Launcher · RecompLauncher
Questions
Can you play Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s natively on PC?
Yes, though unfinished. The catalog has 1 recomp and 1 port, and one of them is already playable.
What do I need to play it?
Your own copy of Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (PS2). Recompendium only links projects that don’t distribute the game, and each entry says which version or region you need.