What is vib-ribbon?
vib-ribbon is a PlayStation rhythm/music game developed by NanaOn-Sha in 1999, designed by Masaya Matsuura. You control Vibri and guide her across a course of sound-generated shapes by pressing the corresponding buttons.
The defining aspect of the vib-ribbon series has always been its use of external media for level creation. While other games such as Ridge Racer supported using swapping into music CDs to listen to them while playing, vib-ribbon was the first music game to use music from CDs for level generation. The game's future japan-only sequels for the Playstation 2 also used different media for level creation. Mojib-Ribbon (2003) allowed you to create levels out of .txt files in the form of rap verses, and Vib-Ripple allowed the usage of pictures as levels, in the form of trampolines.
Each generated vib-ribbon level is unique, but the obstacles generated might not match with the beat of the level. Classical, chill music can give unforgiving, hard tracks, while sometimes Death Metal might provide fairly easy stages, But nevertheless it's still fun and interesting to try all kinds of music in the Vib-Ribbon!
Quick rundown of the Controls
＊Vibri's voice was made by Masaya Matsuura himself using a NTT voice synthesizer. The exact software used is unknown.
＊From December 1999 to April 2004, Vibri was allegedly featured as a presenter for the "Viewsic Countdown 100" event, as well as other Viewsic Countdown events, from the japanese Sony Music channel "Viewsic", with a series of clips that would play between songs. No recordings of such clips have ever been found, and the only surviving proof is the image shown on the right.
＊Several patents from around the year 2000 reveal possible previous plans for games in the franchise, including:
An old icon classic Mac OS icon set rescued from an old NanaOn-Sha Geocities Japan fansite which has since been shut down. Converted to work on Windows Systems. You might have to set icon size to small for these to be displayed properly. Two Parappa the Rapper icons included as a bonus!
Download .hqx (original for older Mac OS systems)