The Clockwork Mansion

Underground Warehouse => Treasury => Castle Keep => Topic started by: luiqui on September 13, 2006, 06:09:00 PM

Title: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: luiqui on September 13, 2006, 06:09:00 PM
I've seen DDR mentioned around here a few times, but I have tried and failed to find a specific thread for it. Naturally, both shock and horror coursed through my mind! I hope this thread isn't too late. I hope.

So! How long have you been playing? How often do you play? Would you describe your skill level as good, or awesome? What are your top songs? Got any screencaps of particular successes? Are you part of a local DDR 'scene'? If so, are you feared in it? >:3 Do you play at home? Play Stepmania or Flash Flash Revolution? Got a metal pad? Built a metal pad? Have you, heaven forbid, wasted £1000* buying an actual machine? Intimidated by this constant string of questions? I know I am.

Well, about me. I been playing for many years, probably about 5 or so (I think) when I just played the arcade machines on occasion on holiday. I started playing at home to lose weight, and became decent at the game. Then, at the beginning of this year, I got Serious and started training in the arcade on weekdays. Nowadays I can do 9-footers, but I still look like an angry monkey whilst playing :grin My fave songs are probably Tsugaru and Afronova at the moment. I suppose I am known 'in the scene', considering that it consists of two guys. And I'm the worse of the two :animesweat

* Yes, I'm British. The secret's out. You... you can still talk to me...  :<
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Kitsune Ascendant on September 13, 2006, 06:14:44 PM
I've been playing for... about a month, now, I think. I'm already up to doing the ocasional six footer on standard. and if I try REALLY hard, I can just eek past captain jack on standard. that's hard, though. I play the ddr extreme machine we have on campus.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on September 13, 2006, 07:31:56 PM
Whoooo! I am all over this thread.

Since April (when i first started playing), I have become somewhat addicted. I just today finished downloading Dancing Wipeout 2 and the In the Groove 2.2a theme for Stepmania 3.95 CVS. I want to do SMOnline (http://www.stepmaniaonline.com/), too, with my dual Ignition 3.0 (http://www.redoctane.com/ignitionpadv3.html) pads.

I started off with the ultimate n00b DDR: Mario Mix. The max difficulty rarely pushes a 7-footer, with the hardest being called a 9 when ported to Stepmania (it's more of an 8.) Holds are nonexistent and there are no modifiers available. So, I got good and was soon getting AAAs on nearly all the songs. (every arrow "perfect"). This is because the timing window is, quote, "Large enough to drive a truck through." unquote. (Taken from some DDR forum. Dunno which.)

So, June rolled around, and with it, my birthday. My mom got my DDR Extreme 2 for the PS2, as well as a PS2 compatible dance mat. I proceeded to go all out with Extreme 2, getting introduced to the greats like Speed over Beethoven, Butterfly, Afronova, and more. It was hard for me to do 7-footers, but I kept going.

Then, my mom gave my In the Groove for PS2. I was somewhat disinterested at first, what with it not being DDR, but after I started playing it I was all "ZOMG, the arrows... have color! For note placement! Hallelujah!" I became more of an ITG player at this point than a DDR player, mostly due to the fact that DDR SuperNOVA sucks, IMHO, lacking any of the songs I liked from the other games. Plus, there's also an ITG2 cabinet at the local arcade, and it's infinitely better than the SuperNOVA machine 10 feet away.

ITG modifiers are also funky, and I appear to be rambling and have lost my train of thought...

*Ahem* Currently, I can do most nines and some tens. I haven't grasped the whole "using the bar" concept, and I'm not sure I ever will. (Some say that's cheating, and I can neither agree nor disagree.) I also am in love with doubles (8-panels, two pads) and solo (6-panels, one pad) modes. It depends on the songs - I can do around 7-8 difficulty on these modes.

I've tried my hand at making my own simfile, but got bored and decided there were enough others out there that do it. 'Sides, I'm no good at background graphics...

I've just registered at ITGfreaks (http://itgfreak.com/phpBB2/), and there's a $&#^load of talent over at those forums. Most of the .crs technicalities go WAY over my head.

Erm, that's all my brain has decided to spew out for now. I now want to go try out some of the new songs I downloaded.

Run: Stepmania.exe ...
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: insanekaosx on September 13, 2006, 08:18:38 PM
I've been playing for about 4 years now, maybe a bit less. I'm decent on heavy, passing most 8 footers, and some 9. And Breakdown. Breakdown is my song. I've recently learned I can get Tsugaru on heavy as well.

I need to play more, but can't play at home anymore because my brother *the bastard* sold his PS2, so all I have is Mario Mix fro playing at home >> It is really no challenege at all. I try to go to the arcade at MIT campus on friday nights to play some, its cool.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Miaka on September 14, 2006, 07:17:36 AM
I've been playing on and off for about 3 or so years, and I suck complete and utter ass. ohyay.
Well... Not too horrible. Like I can pass. But that's on beginner/maybe light so that doesn't really say much. >>
*totally hasn't only been playing even this much 'cause Kaos made me...*
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: luiqui on September 14, 2006, 10:07:09 AM
Quote from: insanekaosx on September 13, 2006, 08:18:38 PM
I've been playing for about 4 years now, maybe a bit less. I'm decent on heavy, passing most 8 footers, and some 9. And Breakdown. Breakdown is my song. I've recently learned I can get Tsugaru on heavy as well.

Oh yeah, Tsugaru is the best. It's what got me onto the hard stuff (and that kinda sounds as if I'm talking about drugs). Try Can't Stop Falling In Love; it's a bit of a wokout though :)

I wish I could play all those exciting variations that you american types have, like In The Groove. We don't even have Extreme; we're stuck with Euromix 2 mostly. We have SuperNova, and SuperNova is great, but I've only been to one place that has it, which was in London. No-one else can be bothered to upgrade. I'm a little worried that they'll take the local one away actually, considering that it's been there for quite a while, but it does still seem to be a hit with the teenage girls.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Kitsune Ascendant on September 14, 2006, 04:27:04 PM
I just discovered that absolute is the best game on ddr extreme to learn crosovers. it's medium speed ('bout 140ish), and is full of five-stepers that need a crossover, like < V > V <. also, the music is awesome.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on September 14, 2006, 05:01:07 PM
For higher speed crossovers, Boom Boom Dollar (the K-something mix) is good. I think that's on Extreme...

It's hard, though. I got murdered trying it when I was learning.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Nimrods Son on September 18, 2006, 05:48:33 AM
DDR = Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) = Former Eastern Germany
I'm not sure if this is fun, or just doesn't matter anymore in the year 2006.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: luiqui on September 19, 2006, 07:32:32 PM
Quote from: Angantyr on September 18, 2006, 05:48:33 AM
DDR = Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) = Former Eastern Germany
I'm not sure if this is fun, or just doesn't matter anymore in the year 2006.

Yeah, I reckon that's why they changed it to Dancing Stage in Europe.

It does make me wonder what an actual DDR themed DDR would be like... :S
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Howru on September 20, 2006, 01:45:35 AM
I got started around 2001, stopped around 2004, and trying to get back into it since SuperNova came out at my local arcade.  I'm trying to get my stamina back up to what it used to be, as well as the faster paced songs.  I can pass almost everything up to heavy 9-footers (except for fast songs with harder step sequences, like Cartoon Heroes...I'm working on that)

I'm a decent singles and doubles player on heavy mode.  My favorite doubles songs so far on SuperNova is Flowers and Himawari.

Favorite mix was 3rd Mix Korea v2.  It had SSR Mode (only heavy mode), some korean songs, and lyrics to many of the songs (I know what they're singing!).  At least Stepmania lets me play those songs.

I haven't tried ITG yet, but heard many great things from the other players.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Zedd on September 20, 2006, 02:25:27 AM
 I like the song Waka laka for a reason O.o
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Nimrods Son on September 20, 2006, 05:44:09 AM
Quote from: luiqui on September 19, 2006, 07:32:32 PM
Quote from: Angantyr on September 18, 2006, 05:48:33 AM
DDR = Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) = Former Eastern Germany
I'm not sure if this is fun, or just doesn't matter anymore in the year 2006.

Yeah, I reckon that's why they changed it to Dancing Stage in Europe.

It does make me wonder what an actual DDR themed DDR would be like... :S

I'm pretty sure it would be all about not-too-wild-but-mild '70s disco stuff and German schlager (= superficial disco-equvalent sung in Bavarian-flavoured German, which emulates American hillybilly pronounciation pretty well).
Oh, an for the occasional regime-critical dissident, there'd be acoustic guitar songs by Wolf Biermann (= kinda folk music, "liedermacher" music)
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: RJ on September 21, 2006, 10:21:14 AM
I've been playing for ages now, yet I'm lucky if I can even keep up with Standard mode >.< My two fav songs are Love Love Shine and Kind Lady.

I just wish that the only time I could play the arcade version wasn't whenever I go see my grandma or go to Sydney. There's no good arcades anywhere near my area.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Kitsune Ascendant on October 13, 2006, 09:02:36 PM
huh. been a bit since people have posted in here. anyways, I've gotten to the point where I can do a few songs on heavy (love shine, hyper eurobeat, nori nori nori), and I'm wondering what's a good song to practice on hard.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on October 13, 2006, 09:47:16 PM
Hmm, what an intriguing time to revive this thread. I just completed some steps for the song 'Cubi Fight (http://'Cubi%20Fight) by Tapewolf (as mentioned in this (http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php?topic=1245.msg47158#msg47158)[/url] thread.) I'm still working on the background and banner, but I'm quite happy with the steps as they are now.

The song is designed with and for Stepmania. I'm having my friend (who is just as good as I) test the steps. So far he seems to be doing quite well.

Oh, hey, he just passed the hardest version with a 60%. He failed his first three tries. I think that's sufficiently hard enough.  >:3

Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: DigitalMan on October 13, 2006, 11:58:27 PM
Jeez, I just got DDR Extreme 2 a couple weeks ago... does that make me a n00b?

I've got four AA's on beginner songs, and A's on a few Light modes... but Standard is still entirely out of the question. And now I have to get used to it again, because I figured out today that the beat was out-of-synch and changed it to -1.

My favorite songs are... most of them, really. Especially Butterfly, Speed Over Beethoven, Captain Jack, Boom Boom Dollar, and Wonderful Night. I think this version has the best song list. But I want to "collect them all," as they say, because other versions have unique songs that I'd like the chance to dance to. *shows off his MP3 collection of probably every song from every DDR version ever*

And I have a year to prepare before I get the chance to use the Solo 4th Mix at Geauga Lake... I intend to be a god by then... :mwaha
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on October 14, 2006, 12:11:16 AM
Quote from: DigitalMan on October 13, 2006, 11:58:27 PM
But I want to "collect them all," as they say, because other versions have unique songs that I'd like the chance to dance to. *shows off his MP3 collection of probably every song from every DDR version ever*

I'm pretty sure I have them all... stepcharts, songs, backgrounds, etc. You can download them from a number of sites and play them on your computer via Stepmania.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: DigitalMan on October 14, 2006, 01:44:44 AM
Yup, those are the sets I have, but I was just aiming for the music xD My controller can't plug into the PC, and even if it could, the screen is way too small x.x
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Kitsune Ascendant on October 14, 2006, 03:49:15 AM
you know? something kinda weird happened today while I was playing. I was playing a song on heavy (hollic, I think), and it had this crazy long stream, and I nearly get lost. In fact, I do conciously get lost, but I sort of defocus, and all of a sudden I'm staring at the screen without making any concious connection between the arrows and my foot movement. yet somehow I'm hitting all of the steps perfectly. my guess is some weird subconcious thing. this happen to anyone else?
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: DigitalMan on October 14, 2006, 01:27:55 PM
Quote from: Kitsune Ascendant on October 14, 2006, 03:49:15 AM
you know? something kinda weird happened today while I was playing. I was playing a song on heavy (hollic, I think), and it had this crazy long stream, and I nearly get lost. In fact, I do conciously get lost, but I sort of defocus, and all of a sudden I'm staring at the screen without making any concious connection between the arrows and my foot movement. yet somehow I'm hitting all of the steps perfectly. my guess is some weird subconcious thing. this happen to anyone else?

That probably means you've actually memorized the song D: Memorization is key... especially for people who have to repeatedly look down at the pad to make sure they're centered on it x.x Or perhaps you play it so much that your mind knows how to react automatically, which happens to me occassionally (but not nearly enough :sweatdrop)

And for those looking for an arcade version, don't forget about http://www.ddrfreak.com/! It has a locator, and you'd be amazed at where those things will pop up.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Kitsune Ascendant on October 14, 2006, 02:46:28 PM
actually, I'd never played the song before on that difficulty. it was kind weird, but so freakin cool. it was probably the latter thing you mentioned. I do play a fair amount.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: luiqui on October 14, 2006, 03:38:54 PM
Well, on the really hard songs, it become harder and harder to actually process the steps without doing that automatic thing. That's why Paranoia is so evil; it's got such a random step sequence it's very hard to do this.

Oh no, I'm out of practice... I've just gone off to uni, and there are no arcades here :<
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: insanekaosx on October 14, 2006, 07:05:19 PM
Quote from: DigitalMan on October 14, 2006, 01:27:55 PM
Quote from: Kitsune Ascendant on October 14, 2006, 03:49:15 AM
you know? something kinda weird happened today while I was playing. I was playing a song on heavy (hollic, I think), and it had this crazy long stream, and I nearly get lost. In fact, I do conciously get lost, but I sort of defocus, and all of a sudden I'm staring at the screen without making any concious connection between the arrows and my foot movement. yet somehow I'm hitting all of the steps perfectly. my guess is some weird subconcious thing. this happen to anyone else?

That probably means you've actually memorized the song D: Memorization is key... especially for people who have to repeatedly look down at the pad to make sure they're centered on it x.x Or perhaps you play it so much that your mind knows how to react automatically, which happens to me occassionally (but not nearly enough :sweatdrop)

And for those looking for an arcade version, don't forget about http://www.ddrfreak.com/! It has a locator, and you'd be amazed at where those things will pop up.

Thats how I beat Breakdown on Heavy, I kept playing it over and over until I memorized it *not for that purpose, but I liked the song and the speed of the steps*.  Now I can A it pretty easily >>

Even just memorization helps with getting good at other heavy songs though, my reaction time had to hit up a bit to catch all th ebreakdown arrows to memorize them after all.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on October 20, 2006, 06:07:41 PM
Whoah. Looks like Konami acquired ITG's intellectual rights.

http://www.inthegroove.com/page/Press_Release

Funky... majorly owned. There's discussion all over the ITG and DDR boards.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Draksaith on October 20, 2006, 06:10:18 PM
The world of DDR is changing... For better or for worse we know not...

One can only pray...

Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: DigitalMan on October 20, 2006, 06:27:00 PM
Derr... Intellectual property rights... What does that all mean, exactly?
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Tapewolf on October 20, 2006, 06:29:40 PM
Quote from: DigitalMan on October 20, 2006, 06:27:00 PM
Derr... Intellectual property rights... What does that all mean, exactly?

Nothing:  http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml


By the way, how did it go with the 'cubi fight song, Supercheese?
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on October 20, 2006, 06:56:20 PM
Quote from: Tapewolf on October 20, 2006, 06:29:40 PM
By the way, how did it go with the 'cubi fight song, Supercheese?

It's all good - just need to find a place to host the .rar file, since I can't seem to access my webspace...
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Draksaith on October 20, 2006, 06:58:49 PM
He also made it very... very... hard, a nine-ten footer.

My Second run through merited me a 61.00 percent.

*Supercheese's friend In Real Life*
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on October 20, 2006, 07:00:31 PM
There's also easier versions... you just played the Challenge mode...
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on October 24, 2006, 09:16:07 PM
Double post of -5 to attack roll...

Anyways, I've finally finished the DDR file for the Cubi Fight song that's been mentioned several times:

http://home.earthlink.net/~yinou/cubi_fight.rar

It is designed for Stepmania - in order to get it to load (if you don't already know how), you need to extract the song into a subfolder under the C:\Program Files\Stepmania\Songs (or other default) directory - not directly into the directory itself. The software itself, more information, better guides, etc. can be found at the Stepmania homepage (http://www.stepmania.com).

This is only my second DDR simfile ever, so the difficulties of the steps may not be entirely accurate - i.e. the "beginner" steps may be harder than normal beginner steps, the "standard" difficulty may be more like "heavy" etc. The song is passable (using a dance pad) on all difficulties, and there shouldn't be any synching problems.

Please note that it is incompatible with the Groove 2.0 theme for Stepmania CVS, if anybody uses it. Furthermore, the animated background may cause frame rate reductions when running at higher resolutions. I presume this depends on one's computer.

So... yeah, that's pretty much it. Not sure how many people other than myself have a dance pad compatible with the computer... I'm just crazy like that.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Kitsune Ascendant on November 05, 2006, 08:40:19 PM
'ey everyone. I'm back again. and again, I'm lookin for any good songs to practice on hard. love shine's a piece of cake now, I could probably beat hyper eurobeat easily enough, maybe a few other sevens, but I'm feeling kinda stuck. except with senorita, which I just started trying. haha, that is one hell of a song. I can get about two thirds of the way through it right now, and it's like my feet are on automatic.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Rowne on November 27, 2006, 04:11:19 PM
H'lo folks.

A friend of mine has recently been looking for a good DDR mat and well ... to be honest, mine wasn't up to much cop either, so I couldn't recommend that.  I figured though that if there were a group of people who knew what they were talking about when it comes to this kind of thing, it'd be the DDR folks here.  So what dance-mats would any of you recommend for the purposes of both response time and quite importantly, durability?

I've been thinking that likely the best mats won't be bought from big companies but produced by some garage-company guy or small business somewhere.  Much like the best PC arcade sticks are (and those are beautiful) but I've not tested the waters of the realm of dance mats much so I wouldn't know really without research.

And researching I shall be but any advice is welcome.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: DigitalMan on November 27, 2006, 08:28:27 PM
I actually looked into this myself, because the crappy pad that came with an old PS1 game for little kids wasn't working very well.

Do you know what pad works best? Any of them, believe it or not. The Gamestop/Pelican brand ones, the official pads, all have the same potentiol, both to work and to fail.

So the most common thing to do amongst heavy DDR players is to modify a basic pad. Usually that just means taping the pad to an appropriately-sized piece of plywood and covering it with clear plastic stuff. More detailed instructions can be found online.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: God Tweeter on November 27, 2006, 08:29:37 PM
I have a pal who loves DDR, but I just find it scary.  :< :kirby
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Kitsune Ascendant on December 02, 2006, 08:14:35 PM
Hey everyone.  I need some opinions on metal dance pads, preferably from people who have them.

two that are currently in consideration:
http://www.redoctane.com/redoctanemetalpad.html
http://www.ddraction.com/dance-dance-revolution-2addrpmp.html

If any of you have either one of these, tell me what it's like.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on December 03, 2006, 01:23:50 AM
I'd personally say to get a Blueshark (http://www.mymybox.com/ddrmbsgxg365.html) pad... I can't recommend one of the two you chose over the other.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Nikki on December 03, 2006, 01:27:31 AM
i got pwn't today at DDR ;;
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on December 03, 2006, 01:28:56 AM
Quote from: Xze-Xze on December 03, 2006, 01:27:31 AM
i got pwn't today at DDR ;;

Try In the Groove. It's better.

... and don't try to use the bar. It actually makes you worse until you build enough skill.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: luiqui on December 03, 2006, 06:45:41 PM
Quote from: Supercheese on December 03, 2006, 01:28:56 AM
Quote from: Xze-Xze on December 03, 2006, 01:27:31 AM
i got pwn't today at DDR ;;

Try In the Groove. It's better.

... and don't try to use the bar. It actually makes you worse until you build enough skill.

Not everyone has ITG in their arcade.
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: Supercheese on December 04, 2006, 01:10:58 AM
Quote from: luiqui on December 03, 2006, 06:45:41 PM
Not everyone has ITG in their arcade.

Alas, yes. And I don't believe any more ITG machines are being made, either.  :<
Title: Re: The DDR thread. Yep.
Post by: gryn on December 08, 2006, 03:22:44 PM
Oh DDR.  I lubs me da DDR.  I've been playing for about 3 and a half years.  I'm not that good, most 7-8 footers don't give me any trouble, and I can even pull some crazy shit on 9 footers.  That's on a pad.  On a keyboard using stepmania, I can AAA just about anything.  Mmm...hamz....