Robert Summa — erstwhile Joystiq journo, now bitter Destructoid blogger — contacted The Ant Commandos, the company who released that god-awful Shredder Guitar Hero controller and are currently being sued by RedOctane for it. Which is ridiculous, since RedOctane has a history themselves of producing non-licensed controllers for musical games such as Dance Dance Revolution.

To highlight the absurdity, The Ant Commandos gave Robert this timeline of how the Guitar Hero controller was ripped-off... sorry. Born.

• 1999: Topway Electrical Appliance (part owner of TAC) patents the Magical Guitar controller for Konami's Guitar Freaks. The design had five fret buttons very similar to what Guitar Hero has now.

• 2001 and 2004: CEO of RedOctane, as well as a sales manager, made several visits to a Topway factory in China and inquired about the Magical Guitar controller.

• From 2001-2004: RedOctane purchased "several hundred" Magical Guitar controllers.

• 2005: RedOctane releases Guitar Hero with a controller that looks "exactly like" the Magical Guitar.

TAC have countersued. Damn right. Although I take exception with this explanation from Olivia on why the TAC controllers lack the "essential tilt function." She claims you have to shake the Shredder because it's aimed at younger audiences who don't know how to tilt. Is that really more plausible than the stone cold fact that the controller fucking blows? Florian Eckhardt

Ant responds to RedOctane/Activision lawsuit [Destructoid]