Could have played Rock Band and Guitar Hero in the arcades in 1998

What game(s) do you think the Killer List of Video Games is talking about (without cheating ahead and looking):

A music simulation game where you play a large plastic guitar. Select a song, and try to play along as best as possible. Score well enough and you may select another song to play.

If you answered Guitar Hero and/or Rock Band you’d be wrong. It’s actually the 1998 arcade game by Konami called GuitarFreaks. They also made DrumFreaks and KeyboardFreaks.

 
Photo credit: Wikimedia

Konami is no longer sitting idly by while makers of Rock Band, Harmonix, allegedly leech off their patents and has filed a lawsuit, says Techdirt:

Once again, this looks like a “losers litigate” strategy. Harmonix has created a hugely successful product in the space — Konami has not. Yet, Konami wants a cut of Harmonix’s profits. That’s not the sort of incentives that should be encouraged.

The Techdirt piece points to the source Wired story which shares the patent PDF links as well as a picture of how to activate bonus point mode (by tilting the guitar upward).

I’m a huge fans of these type games and confused why Konami never ported their __Freaks games from the arcade to any of the systems? There is some speculation that Konami didn’t want to take a chance on charging people $150+ for a home game. With Harmonix competitor Activision about to release Guitar Hero IV with drums, they have already paid licensing to Konami according to Gamasutra. In an official response, Harmonix claims this is “baseless litigation.”

Cue the cowbell for Nazareth’s Hair of the Dog.