Hi we have come across this letter from Charlie Daniels who wrote the track….

Guitar Hero

I had a rude awakening recently when I looked at a video game.

It was called Guitar Hero and is wildly popular with the younger set. I heard they had used one of my songs but I hadn’t seen it until recently and when I did I was in for some unpleasant surprises.

The game features a rock band playing heavy metal covers of different songs and enables the player to become part of the band, pushing colored buttons on a faux guitar neck which correspond with
colors going by on the screen as the song plays.

Actually the game really has a dark side complete with grotesque monsters on stage with the band, strange, eerie lighting effects and all manner of weird things popping up on the stage.

To tell you the truth the whole thing bothered me and struck me as something that is not the healthiest thing in the world for young, impressionable minds to be exposed to, but the thing that really got me was what they had done with my song.

The song, “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” which I wrote, is supposed to be a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses.

That is not the case with the Guitar Hero version which comes complete with a horned, guitar-playing devil who battles the player and very often wins.

I want any of you parents out there whose children have this game to know that I did not grant these people my permission to pervert my song and am disgusted with the result.

Unfortunately I lost the publishing rights on the song many years ago in a settlement with a former partner and the license to Guitar Hero was granted by the company who now owns the publishing.

I would never grant permission for some company to create a video game version of a song I wrote in which the devil wins a contest and I’m sorely disappointed with the company who owns the copyright for not policing the situation. As it is they have allowed these people to violate the very essence of the song.

At this time I don’t know if I have any legal recourse, probably not, but I wanted you folks to know that I vehemently disagree with what has been done to a piece of my work. And would like to pass along a little advice to parents of young children.

This game looks innocent enough but if you have a child who is playing it, take the time to sit with him or her while they’re playing along and take a serious look at the images on the screen.

You may be surprised at the world they’re being exposed to.

Pray for our troops

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

April 4, 2008

Sheffield, England – April 7th, 2008 – Video games publisher Lexicon Entertainment are pleased to announce the development of ‘Dubbers Adventure’ on Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii for a Q4 2008 release.

Developed by Newrosoft, ‘Dubbers Adventure’ takes you to the magical world of Dubberia. Explore the deeps of the forest, the trunk of a secular tree and the palace of a spider king. Fight creepy crawlers and evil minions. Find true friends and maybe some romance. Will they live to tell the tale?

Christopher Allcroft, President of Publishing for Lexicon Entertainment UK Ltd quoted “This deal with Newrosoft represents our intention of generating new original IP on all platforms. Newrosoft have shown a terrific willingness to develop the type of products that Lexicon Entertainment wants to be associated with and we are excited about this partnership”

‘DUBBERS ADVENTURE’ DS & Wii
The main character of the game is a Rubber-Dubber. The Dubbers are a peaceful tribe of small furry beings, descendents of the forest fairies that have grown without wings and so they live on the ground. They feed on tree bark and hunt the parasites that infest trees from their forest, so, in their society, along the way; some families of expert tree climbers have risen.

They are at the top of the society, the ruling class as they are the ones that bring food to their people. Our character is called “Rubb`e`Rang” of the Rang family, the one closest to the King of all Dubbers, Ruler of Dubberia.

Rubb has been trained all his life to become the best climber is the tribe, by both his father and, secretly by the forest fairies, as his best friend is a forest fairy he met one day as a young child training by himself. She is called “Petal”. She is beautiful as most of the fairies are and she wears soft pale pink and yellow petals. She has multicoloured wings like a butterfly. Petal is also a high born child in the fairy society.

In his training Rubb has come to attain great climbing skills, and, as of game start, he can climb almost anything, reaching as high as a fairy can fly given something to support himself. He was given one day as a gift from the Queen of the Fairies, The Sorceress of the Leaf, a magical hand that can extend, so he can reach higher than any Dubber.

Features:

1. Help Dubber find his way through 90 levels of pure fun and adventure.
2. Highly stylized graphics with slick animations
3. More than 15 enemies and complex bosses to defeat
4. Win Prizes by collecting the bonus’ on offer
5. Stunningly realistic physics and animations

www.lexiconentertainment.com

Eidos Interactive Ltd., creators of some of the world’s leading videogame properties, has today confirmed that Gauntlet™, a modern reworking of the classic fantasy hack and slash arcade game from Midway, will be released on Nintendo DS later this year.

Gauntlet is set in a fantasy-themed universe where evil cloaks the world from the high clouds of Ascendia to the depths of the lava-ridden Abyss. Players can choose from the four classic heroes, Elf, Warrior, Wizard, and Valkyrie, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and special abilities. Throughout the journey, the heroes will slash their way through demonic foes and gain up to four power move abilities to aid them in their battle with evil.

“With Gauntlet we’ve revitalised all of the action and fun of the original 1980s arcade classic, whilst updating the visuals and gameplay for today’s DS gamer,” said Ray Livingston, Brand Manager at Eidos. “With four-player Wi-Fi cooperative mode, one of the most memorable multiplayer gaming experiences of all time is back with a bang.”

One of the few titles taking full advantage of the hardware capabilities of the Nintendo DS™, Gauntlet offers Voiceover IP (VoIP) which allows voice communication through the Nintendo DS microphone, giving players more options to interact with their friends online.

Featuring 40 maps across three realms, Gauntlet offers fast-paced, retro RPG crusade-style gameplay in addition to new and in-depth multiplayer features including cooperative play and competitive multiplayer. The arcade style competitive multiplayer feature strengthens the addictive Gauntlet experience by introducing ranked multiplayer games like - Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Treasure Hoard game modes, hosted with local Nintendo Wireless play or via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Developed by Backbone Entertainment, a division of Foundation 9 Entertainment, Gauntlet is set for release on Nintendo DS later this year.

Launched two years ago, TrackMania Nations became a true video game phenomenon. The free downloadable racing game attracted an unbelievable number of players around the world who were obsessed with the game’s fast cars, spectacular tracks single- and multiplayer play and simple yet powerful tools for creating tracks and race videos. For the past two years, it has been installed more than 30 million times and nearly four million players have created an account to play the game online on the game’s servers.

Its highly anticipated sequel, TrackMania Nations Forever, will be available as a free download starting on April 16th. TrackMania Nations Forever will offer a new “Forever” version of the Stadium environment, a solid solo mode and 65 brand new, progressively difficult tracks. TrackMania Nations Forever will unite an even larger number of players thanks to its engaging multiplayer modes, innovative online functions and revolutionary interactivity between players.

- Download the TrackMania Nations Forever Trailer (90 MB)
http://www.focus-files.com/videos/tmnf/trailer_tmn_forever_en.rar
- Watch the trailer (streaming)
http://www.tm-united.com/trailers/tmnf/
- TrackMania Web site
http://www.trackmania.com
Additional trailer download mirrors -
- Worthplaying
http://www.worthdownloading.com/game.php?gid=3261
- GamersHell
http://www.gamershell.com/download_24488.shtml

For TrackMania Nations Forever, Nadeo studio chose to take advantage of the PC’s capacities as a gaming, creative and communications platform in order to allow a greater number of players to share a unique gaming experience:

Florent Castelnerac, Director of Nadeo studio, explains:
“The PC is the premier gaming platform when it comes to the number of casual and expert players. To satisfy this wide range of players, we designed the game for everyone instead of trying to focus on the average gamer. We have put a lot of effort in developing the competitive spirit and challenge between players in order to present a game adapted to big e-sports competitions while remaining captivating and accessible to players who have less gaming experience. Even if you play Nations Forever quietly alone, you can still be ranked in the world, your country, your city or even in your list of friends that you can create by inviting friends to join like in Facebook or MySpace.

It is up to each player to set his/her goals - become one of the best players in the world or just impress friends. These ladders are adapted to everyone and they add ten times more interest to solo or multiplayer modes. Always searching for new ways to add interest and unite an even larger number of players, we explored the possibilities the PC offers as a universal communication platform: for example, a system that allows you to challenge your friends by mail or Messenger. Since the game is free, fun and works on most computers, there is a big chance that many people that you know will play it. Finally, as for creativity, the PC is the only game platform that allows players to easily create additional game content, and the game comes with powerful creative tools like the track editor. We increased creative possibilities even more with richer, more complete editors while making creation more accessible to a larger number of players with a simplified track editor. Tomorrow, we will see exceptional creations from the four corners of the world that players will be able to exchange for free and easily. It’s a tremendous motivation for the entire development team.”

The coming of TrackMania Nations Forever will also allow the convergence of the large TrackMania community. For the first time, players of the free versions will be able to play online with players from the retail version of TrackMania United on servers dedicated to the Stadium environment that is common to both games. Players of the TrackMania United retail version will also gain a brilliant free extension named “United Forever”. In addition to being compatible with Nations Forever, this extension will offer many bonuses - including tracks that have never been seen before, new design blocks for the seven game environments and a spectacular graphics update for the three historic environments (Desert, Snow and Rally).

TrackMania Nations Forever will be available for download starting on April 16th, for free and for all

Rising Star Games is pleased to announce Harvest Fishing for Nintendo DS and available from Friday, June 27th 2008.

About Harvest Fishing:
With your sister having fallen into an endless sleep, it’s up to you to journey through rivers, swamps, ponds and hidden fishing spots in search of the River King. Being the biggest fish in the river, it is he who holds the secret to her mysterious slumber. But don’t worry because you’re not alone in this adventure. Make friends with the magical creatures of the valley and a host of colourful characters to unlock their abilities to help you along the way.

Key Features:
· Innovative fishing engine using the Touch Screen
· Amass a collection of baits, lures, rods and more!
· Participate in a variety of fishing games
· Have a fishing tournament with your friends via the Nintendo Wi-Fi