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A Beginner's Guide to the Dance Dance Phenomena
An anonymous reader writes "I just saw a rather interesting article over at LANParty.com about breaking into the world of Dance Dance Revolution. The article has a humourous story about going from DDR mocker to DDR fanatic thanks to a seven-year-old kid. Also, it has reviews of some home DDR equipment for those too timid to play in public. The article is written from a beginner's perspective, and has some good resources for newbies! If you've ever thought of hopping up and 'busting a move', be sure to check it out."
I work on an open-source DDR/Pump simulator called StepMania. It's almost feature identical to the DDR MAX/MAX2 and has a ton of customizable features.
Download StepMania, download some songs, and at play it with a keyboard. Slowly you'll start tapping your toes. Then, buy some pads, some USB convertors, and practice up. You'll be ready to wow everyone at the arcade!
DDR is a very fun game, although it does take a little practice to get used to. For anyone interested, you can usually get 2 dancemats and the first US version for around $40-$60 dollars, and it's well worth it. And, once you start getting good, you'll enjoy it a lot more. Also, girls LOVE playing this game, I wish I could convey how often I have ladies over to "dance" with me. Highly recommended for excersise, improving pedal-dexterity, and impressing ladies who think 6'2" 200lb men can't dance.
Amusingly, the Geek aversion to dance and/or public situations is similar to that of the Japanese public. A wholy heart-warming and amusing movie about this from Japan is Shall We Dance. It could be found at our local library in the foreign films section and I would highly recommend it.
Swipe your badge? No Way, dude.
Dance the right steps? You are in!
Combine security and corporate fitness all in one...
http://www.somethingawful.com/article.php?id=378
The last entry is no joke. The kids you'll find in Hawaiian and Californian arcades (in my experience) just don't mess around.
I guess every generation needs its killer app arcade game. Back in my day (said the ancient 20-something), it was 2-D fighters like Street Fighter II et al. Seeing my nieces and nephews dominate the DDR machines reminds me of when _I_ was the little Asian punk keeping everyone else off the SF2 machine. =P I guess the difference (actual non-violent physical activity vs. non-physical fantasy violence) is a good one, but I'm too set in my fuddy-duddy fighter ways ever to give DDR a shot.
I'll take a joystick or Ascii Pad FT over a dance mat/platform any day.
< tofuhead >
It is still the dark of night.
I must say this is one of the greatest arcade games ever invented.
Sure, when you are new to the game, you look like a retard who doesn't know the difference between stepping left and right on a pad, but hey, you have fun. Once you get good at the game, you can draw a crowd (seriously!) and have a lot of fun. It's one of the only games that women will actually stop and look at (yes fellow geeks, I said women, got your attention now?)
For those of you who say it is expensive, go to a place like Nickel City where games a lot cheaper. Many of these "nickel" places have DDR for you to play for around 20 cents. Now that is not expensive. It would cost you about 2 bucks an hour to just keep playing. Going to a movie is more expensive than that. And just imagine how many calories you could burn! You may actually *gasp* lose weight!
A great resource for information about DDR is www.ddrfreak.com. Go look at some of the videos.
BTW, there is DDR for the playstation if you are interested. Go to your local gaming store if you are interested in getting it.
Nothing's like DDR when it comes to song selections and intensity. I haven't seen anything as intense as those songs. I love most of the songs, and its in a relaxed atmosphere. No lessons, no need for partners or dressing up. And DDR machines around here are in our local malls, so we can just go whenever.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Be sure to try Rich "Lowtax" Kayanka's take on DDR:
http://www.somethingawful.com/article.php?id=142
It's quite fun, with two action-packed levels of flash goodness.
On the exercise bit, check out this school that uses the DDR machines for gym class . . .
I've been playing Dance Dance Revolution since the end of may of this year, and I can attest that it is indeed an addictive game, and a fairly fun one at that. When I started I, like so many technically inclined people, had absolutely no rhythm. DDR can be an aid for developing rhythm (most songs are in 4/4 time, there are a few exceptions). Here's a little info for those who haven't played or might be interested:
DDR is a great way to lose weight, when you get good you'll be sweating from just one song, granted it may be an expensive diet (see below for cheaper ways to play)
DDR can be basically free: there are a number of projects dedicated to bringing DDR to the PC (Konami released a version...but it isn't better than some of the freely available ones). There is Dance With Intensity, Diet Diet Revolution, and my personal favorite (also a sourceforge project), Stepmania, www.stepmania.com. You can play with the keyboard, but chances are you don't want to burn fat from just your fingers. You can build a dance pad (you even get a fun hardware project doing this!), you can find links and help on the forums on www.ddrfreak.com - ddrfreak also provides a nice little script that will spit out all the steps for a song, and another script that shows all known machine locations in the US! If you are lazy (what?) you can buy Konamix (available at www.redoctane.com or Electronics Boutique, and some other places). It runs on a PS1, so you can use the ps2 to play it. You can get a very good (IMO) dance pad from www.redoctane.com for about $100, the ignition 2.0 pad is excellent. You can go with cheaper ones if you wish, but you'll be very frustrated when your skills improve, the mat sticks to your free, and you flop around like a fish out of water.
I know people who saw others playing DDR and thought it was easy, wow, you step on a little pad when an arrow hits the template...their views quickly changed when they played the game. For new players it can be very difficult, but once you are over that little peak you can really start to have fun. I enjoy the challenge of playing more difficult songs.
Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes