Getting Started

Clone Hero is compatible with keyboard controls, gamepads (Xbox, Playstation, etc), guitar controllers, and drums (gamepad style and midi style).

For a comprehensive overview of compatibility and requirements, please review the community maintained spreadsheet. If you have questions about how to bind your controls, please see the controls section of the manual.

If you are unable to navigate the main menu, be sure that you have pressed start and selected a profile before any trouble shooting. On keyboard, you will press ENTER and then us the A key to "Accept" and the S key to "Cancel" by default.

Controller Spreadsheet

You can find information about every official instrument and its connection method on this wiki, but we also have an alternative view of this information in the form of a spreadsheet, which can be found here.

The spreadsheet is read by identifying the guitar type and the console it originates from, and then reading the note that corresponds to the number listed in the cell.

For example, if you have a Guitar Hero 5 controller from the Xbox 360, then the corresponding note (11) says "Must be paired to a 360 controller receiver, Type !receiver for more info". You can find information about the receiver through the wiki's search bar, in our Guitars, Drums, Controllers section, or you can join our Discord server and type !receiver in one of the channels.

Recommended Guitars

See our Recommended Guitars page for more information

Where to buy

The best places to buy guitar controllers are thrift shops, pawn shops, Craigslist/your country's equivalent, Facebook Marketplace and, occasionally, eBay auctions. Generally speaking, $60 USD is considered expensive; $30 USD is considered a good buy.

When buying a guitar, be sure to factor in the cost of the dongle (if wireless), the Wiimote (if a Wii guitar), or the breakaway cable (if a wired Xbox 360 guitar).

WiitarThing

WiitarThing is software used to facilitate the use of Wiimotes on PC. There are many versions of Wiitarthing on the internet, but we only recommend the latest version of a specific repository, as it has the most stable driver and drum support. You can find said repository here. Make sure to carefully follow the guide, especially if you're updating from an older version like 2.7.

Vocals and RB Keyboard/Piano

These are not supported and there are no plans to support them moving forward.

Xbox 360 Controllers and Mac

Since the ~~Ventura~~Monterey (version 12) update for Mac OS, Xbox controllers no longer work. There is no known workaround for this. If you are on a Mac we highly advise that you avoid all Xbox controllers and guitars.