Dance Dance Revolution

[LostintheCycle]

Am I seriously the only active Dance Dance Revolution player in this whole forum?
I've been doing very well recently, been holding off on posting here again but now I've got some achievements which are really worth bragging about.
I almost hardly play singles now. I play doubles 80% of the time, still without the bar. It's got a way higher difficulty ramp but I actually like that. I am not much into super-accuracy because I feel like that's a tedious way to play when you should be pushing yourself and having fun. I'm all about seeing how high I can pass, and the most I push for in accuracy is seeing if I can get a solid AA.
I still play some singles though, mostly been working on this one map that was an 18. It took at least 30 fuarrrrking tries, but I got there in the end with an absolutely trash score. Honestly I consider it a win that I managed to do it without collapsing. Now that I've got an 18 under my belt I feel like I've won DDR now.
The part where it's all on the bottom panel is very deceptive. You'd feel like since it's a constant rhythm it could be trivial to do, but that's actually the only part that stops me from consistently clearing this chart, because it's very easy to slip out of time and get slammed with a ton of misses.

And today I cleared my first 15 doubles. I was absolutely flying across the machine to do this one, and most crazy thing was that it was mostly a sightread; I played once by accident, I selected it thinking it was the singles map. It had LIFE4 on so I failed pretty quickly.
I honestly didn't think I'd get as high as a B+ because I was really struggling to keep up. But hell, maybe next time I do it I'll be in the running for an A- or an A.

 

[LostintheCycle]

I feel like I should start taking videos and stick the good ones onto YouTube, though I dunno where and how I could set something up to record since the arcade is way too compact, machines are really squeezed together there.

 

[bnuungus]

I feel like I should start taking videos and stick the good ones onto YouTube, though I dunno where and how I could set something up to record since the arcade is way too compact, machines are really squeezed together there.

i would watch

 

[jaedaen]

Fuckin record that shit then lost in the cycle. I will watch it. I play it, but at a lower level just to work out for like 30 minutes a day. Getting old is a bitch. I know yall youngins don't get it, but listen to grandpa simpson at a time in the 90s when I laughed at his ridiculous shit but now see the wisdom in those words:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV0wTtiJygY

 

[LostintheCycle]

 

[LostintheCycle]

Fittingly, it's been exactly a month since I first passed Bi 18. Since then, I've given it maybe 5 or 6 tries, and finally managed to clear it for the second time.
I have improved some technique in this. For instance I'm learning what parts to do bar/nobar for, because in some cases I think nobar can be more comfortable and energy efficient. For the infamous jack stream I found that if I hold the bar and pull myself towards it very intentionally, it helps keep my jack in line with the rhythm (too often I would get slightly out of sync and quickly fail because of the barrage of misses). I dunno exactly why it works, but it works
End result is I got an upscore of 73k

Then I got cocky, played some 19s and failed them all within seconds lol

 

[LostintheCycle]

Welcome back to my DDR blog. Today I am posting because I have an achievement that I truly want to celebrate, which I've been working on for the past week and a half. My first machine score on an 18 single.

Was not easy. Took me a bit of studying the chart to make a strategy, and about a dozen attempts.
The prior score was ~796k which is kinda low but that's probably because it's nuts. The last half is all eighth note streams at 360bpm, with one section where you have to twist around 3 times a second to maintain the combo. I cheesed that section by only aiming for five out of eight of the notes and not twisting, because I just don't yet have the flexibility to twist that fast and maintain my timing.
On a related note, I had my fourth dream the other night that I was playing Pump It Up so I decided I just have to do it. I trekked for an hour forty to the nearest PIU machine, half on foot. I ended up having a lot of fun, and really wish it were closer so I could go more often. The max level I managed to clear was a 15 single, I squeaked out a 9/10 double as well, which I am pretty happy with.

 

[brentw]

Never got super into it, but I've always thought DDR was pretty neat, and fun to play every once and a while.
I actually own DDR Mario Mix for the Game Cube.

 

[SpeedSleek]

My Dave and Busters has DDR 4. Maybe I'll go there one day and give it a whirl if there aren't a bunch of hobbyists grinding on it.
Stopped going there altogether after they started replacing the actual arcades games with giant phone app bullshit.

 

[LostintheCycle]

 

[LostintheCycle]

 

[Screen.Thief]

Hey fuckers,

Any of you all ever play any DDR? I was quite good back in the early 2000s, though I mostly played at home then. I was quite fit in those days, and it was the only thing to ever motivate me to do so. I remember the elation when I beat MAX 300 for the first time, swimming in sweat. The high was incredible.

This fat fucker wants to get in to shape again. I'm more interested in how it made me feel than anything. I bought a new pad, an L-TEK EX PRO 2, it seems quite responsive and stable thus far, though I'm only really doing 6-8 footers (old difficulty scale, so what's that, 9-12?) at the moment on Stepmania 5 via old DDR packs. I'm working my way through the catalog. My stamina is absolute shit, and my basic foot patterns are extremely sloppy compared to back in the day, but I'm old and it's been so long since I've done this. Crossovers still mostly feel pretty natural at least.

It might be fun to compete with someone or a couple of people around my same level by posting a song and practicing it for a week to compare high scores or something. Anyone interested? Seems like everyone plays bar nowadays which is something I will never do, as I am forever a member of House Barless. To me, a jump means a JUMP. Not denigrating you min-maxers out there, I just don't understand that style of play at all.

I used to play DDR hottest party 3 on the Wii. Very fun at a young age, but I feel like it's obsolete. A very weird game to keep high scores of for sure, but I guess someone's gotta do it!

 

[HammerKoopa]

Absolutely love DDR, the music from the PSX's 4th and 5th mixes is what i listen to at the gym. The 3rd world corner of the world where im from makes it hard and RETARDEDLY expensive to get quality dance pads but i would love to get me hand on the aforementioned L-TEK EX PRO 2. DDR Konamix has a real special place for me nostalgia wise, game night with me sisters when i was little would be plugin in the dance mat into our PS1 and playing Konamix till we slipped and tripped, i still remember their favorite songs Afronova Primeval 8 bit and No.9 End of the Century.

All gear i have now a days are two of those original shitty dance mats and a PS2 to PC adapter, with Konamix and 5th mix on the Duckstation emulator, it is not the best set up because Windows recognizes them as generic controllers and their Xbox controller driver is unable to recognize opposite direction presses at once. So <- -> and ^ v are impossible without basically cheating. Despite that i am still very happy to play it during the weekend!
The level of skill displayed on this thread is fucking insane tho lol, i still struggle to get past foot 5 songs and have never been near a modern DDR cabinet

Why is getting an Arduino so expensive these days? I thought the point of them was to be reasonably cheap.

I have one that i've had collecting dust for a while, given me shitty set up situation making a custom Dance Pad out of it might be a good side project

 

[LostintheCycle]

I have one that i've had collecting dust for a while, given me shitty set up situation making a custom Dance Pad out of it might be a good side project

If you want to go bargain bin, this one is very popular

I found getting the interlink sensors too expensive because of shipping from USA, plus arduinos are way too expensive at the moment, so that's why I didn't end up doing this. It was honestly not that far from the price of just buying an L-TEK, which was really weird..
I'd rather save up a lot of money and buy something that I won't have to spend as much configuration and maintenance time on. I have enough of that in life already.

btw I've nearly got my first AAA. Got a bunch of charts I've landed around ~980k lately, just can't get that last bit. One of them is sitting at 986k, barely 4k points away. It's like three or four less greats or something?

 

[Z0diacK]

I love DDR, I used to play it alot. Quite frankly, I'm not that old and still in very good shape. I would love to play this again, I just have to look for it. Or I'll follow the video from above, this game is awesome.

 

[HammerKoopa]

If you want to go bargain bin, this one is very popular

Really good place to start! This would be as much of an amateur job as it gets if i do end up traveling that path so i did not think about using FSRs. I would attempt to make it bigger and a tad sturdier considering i am big fat man

I've nearly got my first AAA. Got a bunch of charts I've landed around ~980k lately, just can't get that last bit. One of them is sitting at 986k, barely 4k points away. It's like three or four less greats or something?

Are we getting that AAA by halloween?

Since nobody has shilled their favorite DDR song yet, here is mine.


When i think of DDR i think of Naoki Maeda. B4U, Glorious Style, 1998, Dynamite Rave, MOTHEFUCKING PARANOiA to name a few. Maeda's music helped give the PSX DDR games that distinct vibe, when i was a kid it was like nothing i've heard before

 

[LostintheCycle]

I would attempt to make it bigger and a tad sturdier considering i am big fat man

Yeah the one he's got I think it's way too small, it's really for those people who do minimal movement steps. Increasing the size of everything would be easy, it's just where do you put the sensor then that it's gonna be registered everytime? Not quite sure

Are we getting that AAA by halloween?

As soon as I get it I'll probably post on here, so we will see. The journey to getting a AAA has been way tougher than I thought it would to be honest, to do that you have to get a 990k out of a max of 1,000k score, so you've got to get nearly a perfect full combo with only a tiny amount of greats. It's tough trying to stay in the concentration zone, and when you make one mistake you get nervous and make a bunch more...

When i think of DDR i think of Naoki Maeda. B4U, Glorious Style, 1998, Dynamite Rave, MOTHEFUCKING PARANOiA to name a few.

Man I love the Paranoia series, some of those early ones have really fun doubles charts. Sadly so many people I meet have had this opinion transplanted into them that 'Old charts suck, Paranoia sucks, etc' because some youtubers say that. Mate even if the songs are a bit corny, they're bangers, and the charts are awesome fun. People pay too much attention to this meta and don't just play the game

 

[HammerKoopa]

because some youtubers say that.

How many good things have been ruined because of this.

I was not aware the current DDR scene was like to the old songs, they are a bit corny as you said definetly. But fuck if that doesnt add to the "COME ON DANCE! LETS DANCE! ITS THE TURN OF THE MILLENIUM LETS DANCE!" aesthetic of the first 5 mixes, its all part of the charm to make you get lost in the idea of being a pumped up dance master of the directional arrows.
drop the bomb, end of the century, captain jack, cutie chaser, are some corny fucking ones that come to mind, but when you are in the DDR mindset they are part of the experience

 

[Z0diacK]

I love DDR, I used to play it alot. Quite frankly, I'm not that old and still in very good shape. I would love to play this again, I just have to look for it. Or I'll follow the video from above, this game is awesome.

Alright, after I made this post I looked up close arcades and found one 45 minutes away. Went there, and it was very expensive. It's a credit-system. I pay 16,95 for 30 credits. 1 game costs 3 credits. Okay, atleast I have 10 games but still, 16,95 is the cheapest option here. It wasn't DDR though, some other one called Prime Time pump it up or something. Nothing gets saved and u can just see your scores only for a little bit. I played bad apple and some other fun songs, it wasn't the same as how I was used to but it was still fun. I'm gonna find a way to get it in my room. (EDIT: Oh yeah, I sweat like Adolf Hitler after hearing about his gas prices while playing this game)

 

[Z0diacK]

Alright, once again went to a different arcade. For 15 euros you can get into it, and play everything for free. It opens at 12, closes at 11! Anyways, they had "DDR" which was basically Stepmania 5 with a kinda glitchy theme on it. Played it all day and never had so much fun in my life! I the highest level I can do with an A is 5. It is quite hard, but boy was it fun. Thanks to this thread I found out about DDR again!