Quick Note On Parappa

Parappa is only superficially a Simon Says game - the real way to beat Parappa is to improvise your raps.  I was never actually that good at hitting the right timings, but if I just beat out a rhythm I thought was cool, I'd get amazing scores.  It really is a situation where the player controls the game.  I was actually a little disappointed, because I wanted to learn better rhythm, and invented my own meta-game where I didn't allow myself to improvise.

Comments

[Marc Majcher]

I've always been curious about the algorithm used in Parappa to determine whether the off-rhythm beats are "cool", or just screwups. Any ideas?

[Raph]

You got me curious enough to throw together a quickie prototype. By setting up a beat loop run by the computer, and having all inputs by the player quantized, I was able to quickly get something that sounded "good" no matter what goofy keys I hit. I'd guess that the game simply measures how far off the input is from key moments in a measure--probably to the resolution of 8th notes.