The program was originally for Windows -only, but after a donation drive in earlyit was ported to Mac OS X.
Hosted as an open-source project on sourceforgeit was released under the MIT license. Synthesia was started around by Nicholas Piegdon, and was originally named 'Piano Hero'. It was originally named Piano Herodue to the similarity of gameplay with Guitar Hero this was until Activision the owners of the rights to Guitar Hero sent a cease and desist to the program's creator, Nicholas Piegdon. Additionally, Synthesia can be paired with MIDI keyboards that have illuminated keys, or with virtual player piano on screen, which some people believe makes learning piano easier for beginners.
