Beatmania

Beatmania (arcade)  1997

First musical instrument simulation

Arcade system: Konami Bemani DJ-Main

Gameplay video

Magazine review (1999)
"The company that took the lead in developing these machines is Konami Co. In December 1997 it released an arcade game called Beatmania (known as Hiphopmania outside of Japan). In this game, the players first select a genre of music like techno-pop, hip hop, or reggae. They score points by following an indicator on the screen and tapping any of five buttons on a keyboard and spinning a turntable to produce rhythms in sync with the music. Players seem to get a kick out of trying their hands at being a DJ. The game has become a big hit, and three upgraded versions complete with the latest hit songs have recently been released. On the newest version
the number of buttons has been increased to seven, making it even more challenging."

Trivia:
1) The player is a club DJ who must manipulate the controls according to the instructions on screen to win the praise of the audience. Each game consists of a set number of songs of various difficulties, and each song must attain a certain degree of satisfaction from the audience in order to progress to the next.

2) Predecessor of 'Guitar Hero", "Rock Band" and similar games.

3) Emulated in: MAME (not fully emulated).