Rock Band Scores

There are several reasons why scores need to be entered manually. Since this app is not affiliated with Harmonix, it has no way to access the databases that keep track of your scores on XBox Live. In addition, the app lets you take a picture of your score, which is something the game does not do. Further, you may not always be playing on your own XBox under your own gamertag. Therefore, the only way to capture your scores under all of these conditions is for you to enter them yourself.

Simply swipe over the score in the score list. Then you will see a big red Delete button, which you can tap to delete a score.

Swipe past the right-hand side of the star meter and it will change to gold stars.

The leaderboard feature was removed in version 2.0 because the Rock Band leaderboards site had not bee updated in a very long time. The leaderboard site was updated at the Rock Band 3 launch. At this time, I am evaluating whether to re-implement a leaderboards feature. If this is something in which you are interested, please let me know.

Every week, Harmonix releases new songs for Rock Band available for purchase on the Rock Band Music Store. These song releases are commonly known as "DLC."

On the front screen, tap on the Data tab. Next, tap on the Update DLC option. Tap the Update DLC button to begin the update process. Note that you will need to have an Internet connection (3G or Wifi) for the update to work.

On the front screen, tap on the Data tab. Next, tap on the Export Data option, and tap the Export button to export your data to iTunes.

Next, plug in your phone and select it in iTunes. Click on the Apps tab at the top of the window, and look for the File Sharing section. Click on RockScores.

You will see three CSV files and one folder. The folder contains all of your score pictures, which you may copy to your computer. The CSV files contain the following information.

• Notes.csv: information about song purchases, song ratings, and text notes.
• Profiles.csv: information about each profile.
• Scores.csv: information about the scores for each profile.

You can copy these files to your computer by selecting them and dragging them to your desktop. If you want, you may edit these files and copy them back to your phone. Note that the files must be in the same format as when they were exported. For example, if you use Excel to edit them, you must save them back as CSV files and keep the same column header names at the top.

Perhaps the most common use of the score export feature is to backup your scores. This backup can be used to restore your scores in case you need to re-install the app or wish to move your data from one device to another. To completely back up your scores, make sure you copy the three CSV files as well as the Images folder to your computer.

There are other fun things you can do with your score data. Here are some ideas.

• Plot your progress. Make a chart showing how you score on your favorite songs for your favorite instrument. Or, see if you are improving on songs you find difficult.
• Run statistics. Find out how consistent you are in your playing, or if your scores are highly variable. Or, see if you play significantly better in a band than by yourself.
• Post them online. Show off your scores to your friends by posting them online.

If you do something creative with your score data, I'd love to hear about it!

Importing your scores is simple. If you edited your scores, first drag the new CSV files into the File Sharing tab in iTunes. Next, launch the app and tap on the Data tab. Select Import Data, and tap on the Import button. The app will then import the scores, profiles, and song notes found in the CSV files.

Due to the way that profiles are stored, the app is unable to figure out which of the profiles in the CSV file match the profiles in its internal database. Thus, the app creates a new profile record for each of the profiles found in the CSV files.

Despite this limitation, creating new profiles also provides a level of safety in case the data in the CSV files are incorrect or unable to be imported. If you import your data and find that it is correct, you may delete your old profiles. But, if you import your data and find that something is missing or incorrect, you can delete the new profiles without losing your existing data.

My roommate and I picked up Rock Band in Feb. 2008 and were absolutely terrible at it. Bowing to certain social pressures from our friends, we started playing on Medium. As we got the hang of the game and ventured into "Hard" territory, we constantly questioned whether we could really do a song on Hard, or if we just failed out on it. And then, once we started playing on Hard, the questions all became about Expert. This lead to us creating a massive Excel spreadsheet where we recorded, for each song and instrument, the highest percentage score we got on that song, and the difficulty level we got it on. Every time we asked a question like, "Can I do Flirtin' With Disaster on Hard Guitar yet?", we were able to answer it with this spreadsheet.

The reason I created this app for the iPhone & iPod Touch is to help other people answer the simple questions of, "Can I play this song?" and "How well can I play this song?" without having to resort to creating their own gigantic spreadsheets. Further, Rock Band is a highly social game that encourages people to play in a variety of non-home settings, such as living rooms, dorm rooms, work, campus spaces, the bar, etc. With Rock Band Scores, you don't have to worry about remembering that you passed Green Grass on Expert guitar — just record your score and take a picture of it, no matter where you are playing!