As if Guitar Hero II wasn't enough on its own, it seems the X-plorer guitar does even more than expected. Our overlords and fellow slaves of rock at Joystiq have discovered that the X-plorer guitar controller that ships with the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II works flawlessly with Windows. The device reportedly works in both Windows XP and Vista. The fret buttons correspond to buttons 1 through 5, back and start control 7 and 8, the D-pad and strummer control the Point of View Hat, the whammy bar controls X rotation, star power controls Y rotation and the Z-axis moves as you move the guitar.

With some control configuration, the peeps at Joystiq even managed to get the guitar up and running with the freeware PC Guitar Hero clone, Frets on Fire. Getting the guitar to control a guitar game is interesting, but we're not satisfied. No, we won't be satisfied until we're pulling off headshots with our guitar. Even better, we'd like to see someone rig a music program to use the guitar as an actual instrument. Maybe someone could whip something up with Game Studio Express. Anyone care to take up the challenge?

[Via Joystiq]