My DDR Page
My DDR Page |
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An actual arcade machine costs about $8,000. |
About DDR
A long time ago, I saw a segment about DDR on TechTV. I didn't think much of it at the time, but about a year later, on a whim I looked up the nearest machine and tried it out. I don't know why I wanted to try it out, but once I did I was hooked. I already had a Playstation 2 (for Linux duty), so I decided to go buy a copy of DDR and a pad.
I doubt that Konami knew what they were creating when they created DDR. In addition to being a whole lot of fun, DDR is great exercise. I hardly got any exercise before I started DDR, but now I'm in great shape. And, since DDR is a lot like learning to play a four-key piano with your feet, timing is a big part. I play the violin and I have noticed a big improvement in my timing since I started DDR. Also, DDR has also helped my concentration. At the arcade, all those lights, the frenetic background, the music, and all the people are really distracting, and to get the full combo (every note), you have to be concentrated.
Additionally, there appears to be some evidence to suggest that DDR might be an effective treatment for ADD. Seriously. A lady at my church who runs a private school for ADD kids has had a lot of success with "Interactive Metronome Training," which is kind of like really, really boring DDR with a metronome instead of music. The theory behind it is that people with ADD lack timing, and they will improve if their timing is developed. She has asked me about using DDR in her school. That is still in development.
Selecting a Pad
When I first started, I got a metal arcade-style pad on eBay for $50 plus $50 shipping. Unfortunately, it broke in less than a week. The guy was nice and sent me a replacement square, but I broke that, too, after I broke the other three. My last effort was to get some specially cut Lexan squares and tape foil to the bottom. Getting this to work was a great pain, and it never really did work. Eventually, it just stopped working due to the wires fraying (from what I can gather).
Right now, I'm using my second Mad Catz Beat Pad, which the least expensive pad there is ($20) and is also the lowest quality. To keep it from moving, I keep a rubber pad underneath it and anchor it down with a a C-clamp tied to the leg of a table. It still moves around a little, but it's not too bad. The buttons on my first Beat Pad got unbearably unreliable, but when I got a new one, I found that if you never fold it up, it will work pretty well.
If you want the ultimate, a Cobalt Flux pad is the way to go. It's made out of galvanized steel and Lexan, and from what I understand, even the people who dance like elephants in clogs can't break it. To flaunt the durability of their product even more, the Cobalt Flux people ran a pad over with a Ford Explorer and showed that it wouldn't break. To make you feel extra safe, it comes with a six-month unconditional warranty. As usual, the "ultimate" costs a lot of money. The Cobalt Flux pad is about $300.
If you want something a little more budget-minded, I hear the Red Octane Ignition 2.0 pad is the second best. Before the Cobalt Flux pad came out, Wired magazine said this was the best pad you could get. It's not a hard pad, so shoes probably wouldn't be good. The sensors are very precise, and it has three hardish foam rubber inserts to keep it stiff. The Ignition pad is $100.
And while I'm pushing products I've never used, there's a great DDR emulator for the PC called Step Mania. It looks like it's just as good as the real deal. I want to see if I can get it running on my Linux PS2.
If you just want to try DDR to see if you like it, DDRFreak.com has a listing of the location of pretty much every DDR machine.
How to Play DDR
First of all, NEVER PUT YOUR FEET IN THE CENTER. Leave your feet on the square you just stomped or on the left and right squares. In DDR 8th Mix (more commonly known as DDR Extreme), there's a "Beginner" level which has a computerized person in the background "helping you out." Unfortunately, the computer person keeps reverting to the middle. The people who are doing it for the first time want to do it "just like you're supposed to," so they do it like the computer person, but doing it that way is no fun. It causes you to work twice as hard and makes you off balance. Since the Extreme machines came out, I have only seen one beginner. I think Konami is chasing off all of the new people with the Beginner mode. In addition to the revert-to-center thing, the Beginner mode is mostly notes by themselves instead of a "stream" of notes. It is far easier to do a stream since you start feeling the beat. If you aren't having any luck with Beginner mode, you might try the Light mode.
Once you get up into Heavy mode, conservation of motion is a must. First, instead of picking your foot up and holding it over the button until the arrow gets to the top, keep your foot where it is and move it to the next square at the last possible moment. This expends a lot less energy. Second, play on the inside of all of the squares. You may make an exception for the back square unless you're comfortable with using your heel to hit the button. Of course, if you do this on the other modes it's really boring. I don't know whether you should learn this way from the beginning or relearn it when you get to Heavy.
Third, you have to feel the beat. You can't just look at the arrows.
Also, if you're at the arcade, don't hold the bar. It's not a security blanket. The only time it's permissible to hold the bar is in Heavy mode when you want to take weight off of your feet so you can move them faster. Even then, it's still not good form. It's sort of considered cheating, but people don't care so much if you're just using it to learn a song. After you get the song down, you shouldn't have to use it. On the positive side, it does build upper-body strength.
Since this doesn't fit anywhere else on this page. I think I'll stick it here. To see some cool DDR videos go to AaronJapan.com/ddrvideos.html.
It's strange that something that was originally tangential to my PS2 Linux project has grown so big.
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