Guitar Freaks (1999)

Nowadays when people see a plastic guitar controller, they instantly associate it with Guitar Hero, but Konami would like you to think otherwise. Years before Guitar Hero hit the shelves, Konami had its own virtual guitar arcade game called Guitar Freaks, and it had similar gameplay elements.

It, too, featured a controller with colored buttons that users would have to hold while flicking across the strum bar. However, it could only be found in arcades leading up to a 1999 home console release in Japan for the PlayStation. This kept it from the U.S. audience, something Harmonix and Activision would capitalize on with the first Guitar Hero game in 2005.