How to Play Frets on Fire with the Guitar Hero Controller

Playing Frets on Fire with the official Red Octane SG or Gibson Guitar Controller shouldn’t be difficult to setup, but it’s a little more complicated than Plug-N-Play. Frets on Fire doesn’t seem to retain joystick settings when mapping the buttons from a Guitar Controller into the game. It may work for a little while, but I’m sure many have noticed that the controller setup is bound to fail. Mainly the Strum Bar fails to function during the game (which really sucks when you’re in the middle of a song, hell, or just trying to navigate the menus). This guide will show you how to properly setup your Guitar Hero controller to work flawlessly with Frets on Fire everytime!

This article assumes you already have Frets on Fire and you have a good understanding of how to change the Key Settings in the game.

1) Get the Official Red Octane Universal PS/PS2 Controller Adapter

Red Octane Controller AdapterIf you haven’t already bought the Red Octane Universal PS/PS2 Controller Adapter, you better go buy it now! If you are using another PS2 to PC adapter, this tutorial may not work for you, but give it a shot anyway and post your results in the comments of this article.

2) Download Joy2Key

Joy2Key is a utility used to map the buttons on a joystick to actual keyboard keys. This will ensure that the Guitar Hero controller will not fail during gameplay of Frets on Fire.
- Once you download Joy2Key, extract it to a folder on your hard drive.

Joy2Key Screenshot

Don’t worry about mapping the keys. I’ve done all the hard work for you.

  1. Just Download this Configuration File into the same directory of Joy2Key.
  2. Start up Joy2Key.
  3. Click where it reads FretsonFire-Althack.com and leave Joy2Key open.

There’s no more buttons or settings to mess with, just leave Joy2Key OPEN!

3) Configure the Key Settings in Frets on Fire

  1. Start up Frets on Fire
  2. Go to Settings
  3. Go to Key Settings

Use the following key settings:

  • Pick: Up
  • Secondary Pick: Down
  • Fret #1: Return
  • Fret #2: 2
  • Fret #3: 3
  • Fret #4: 4
  • Fret #5: 5
  • Move Left: Left
  • Move Right: Right
  • Move Up: Up
  • Move Down: Down
  • Cancel: Escape

Using the Key Mapping method outlined above will save you many hours of struggling with a sluggish strum-bar, and hopefully the developer of Frets on Fire will take some time on perfecting joystick integration…