The Canada Thread

not many of us any more apparently :/ I just updated the Aberdeen Centre listing as I dropped by there a couple of times lately. We used to have a solid community of rhythm game players in Vancouver 4-5 years back mostly at CHQ (Metrotown) and E-Spot (Richmond), most of us were on the bemanistyle.com forums, but people have mostly dropped out now it seems.

Odd thing in Vancouver: I've been to Tinseltown (International Village) a couple times recently and there's a new arcade on the second floor - small, with GF/DM V6 machines and some other stuff which was not GF/DM (you can see my game priorities...). There are hand-made signs promoting it around the mall as well. Only, every time I've been, it's been closed, with no indication when it might be open. Anyone know anything about it? Did it open and close down already, or has it not opened yet?

BUMPED because of DanceDanceRevolution A's release!



I have retracted parts of this post.

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Oh yeah, speaking of DDR A in Canada, it's been confirmed that Vaughan D&B will not be getting a cabinet. Fingers crossed for Buffalo.

I dream of the day SDVX comes to Toronto.

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never happening unless konami magically becomes a good company + playdium becomes a good company

Well this sucks, maybe it should come to all Cineplex locations including SilverCity Richmond Hill!

I saw the exchange you had on Reddit with Kevin Bachus, D&B's Senior VP. What he said was "no plans to do so, at least not in the first wave." With The Rec Room and Xscape as competitors, it would make sense for D&B to bring DDRA to Canada during wave two.

Sound Vortex (which I know almost nothing about) is a niche even smaller than beatmania, which is a niche even smaller than DDR. I'd say that if there's any chance for other Konami games to be found in Canada, DDR (and DDRA) needs to be well-established first.

As far as Cineplex/Playdium goes, YMMV. Cineplex Barrhaven is pretty good at machine maintenance, and so are the Laval and Québec City locations. These tend to be the exception, though, not the norm.

SilverCity as a brand is on its way out. Of the 32 built, only 20 remain today. SilverCity logos are gone at Gloucester; I highly suspect it will become Scotiabank Theatre Ottawa. Both it and Richmond Hill could really use an Xscape arcade, though! That would be neat! :-)

The way Xscape is currently running could use some improvement. I've been to five locations (Lansdowne, Queensway, the Laval former Colossus and the Ottawa and Scarborough former Coliseum) and game availability is literally all over the map. For example, Laval and Ottawa have DDR Extreme, but Queensway and Scarborough have ITG2 and Lansdowne has no dance game. Scarborough is the only one with Mario Kart, but this location lacks Pac-Man, just like (AFAIK) Queensway. There are many other examples, but my point is this: I think Xscape should offer a more consistent game selection, e.g. all locations have a dance game and four-player racing.

Getting DDRA &/or PIU 2015 at all 20 Xscape locations would help raise brand awareness for both the games and Xscape. They could also roll out classics like racers and Pac-Man on a more consistent basis. If ever they did a WorldGaming event themed after any such games, it'd be much easier to promote if the games are at Xscape. I'm gathering a few goodies to start my own grassroots memory card club (Cineplex Beauport already has a card reader, plus I'm talking with Venny and others about installing a second card reader.) Meanwhile, I encourage you to share your ideas regarding a DDRA campaign in Canada. It'd be a very helpful social activity. :-)

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oh yeah, d&b isn't getting ddra at all their locations. they're only bringing it to about ten

The SDVX community is sorta like an iceberg. I feel like SDVX has a larger following than IIDX.

Sucks for people like me who find IIDX to be their jam! Showed my friend IIDX and he shrugged his shoulders then showed him K-Shoot and he fell in love.

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lol, sdvx is dead in japan and more importantly to us, canada.

literally 90% of the music game community here is IIDX or dance games.

tho with pigs' latest installment of pissing off konami maybe more ppl will play it

I must be really out of touch haha. Although I still wouldn't call it niche relative to other rhythm games. Rhythm games as a whole are pretty niche.

Might be different for where you are, but I know in terms of Ottawa there's a lot of ITG stuff going on. DDR has some presence, but in terms of crowds and machine count, ITG is most dominant here. As for IIDX, not much if anything lol

I've been teetering over whether it might be worth while hosting a rhythm game meet at the Algonquin campus somewhere. Might think of going through with this once work dies down.

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I have a PlayStation card reader that I'm hoping to get installed on a DDR Extreme machine in Ontario. So far, getting a hold of a good arcade hasn't been easy, but perhaps we would have a better chance if we together as a group advocated for this. Plus, on the right is an e-Amusement card reader for DDR Extreme (and even some older games) developed by dieKatze88. This reader adds Internet ranking support. I'd like to see these make it to Canada, but I think we should focus on the PlayStation card readers first.


In other news, it might not seem like something big at first, but SilverCity Gloucester has been renamed Scotiabank Theatre Ottawa. Likewise, SilverCity Polo Park has been renamed Scotiabank Theatre Winnipeg. The most noticeable change so far, besides the logo, is that there will be a standalone Yoyo's Yogurt Café at the Ottawa location. Whereas SilverCity was considered more of a teen brand, Scotiabank Theatre is a more premium brand which is mainly designed for business customers. Hopefully we can see the arcade get upgraded in the near future: it would be neat to have Xscape play cards, a fixed SuperNOVA machine and a new DDRA machine.


The only hope we have in that regard is to keep the rhythm game community going in Canada. Like I've said before, if DDR and ITG are doing well, they can consider games like IIDX or Guitar Hero. BTW The Rec Room is hiring dedicated game techs. Sounds good.

There is some truth to this, but ITG is now down to four locations in Ottawa after Midway sold theirs. Also, three of the four are not so great: McArthur Bowling has lag and bad pads, StarCité Gatineau only allows one song and Merivale Bowling sometimes has a loud radio right next to ITG. South Keys is the best and this is almost always where people play. There are overall more DDR locations (two Extreme, two SuperNOVA and one X2) and of these, only Scotiabank Ottawa's SuperNOVA is in meh condition. The others all work rather well, but just as you have said, the DDR scene isn't as big in Ottawa.

That would be an awesome idea! I'll PM you about this. I've written to Club Animé Québec (in Québec City) about DDR and they seem interested in the idea. Having an Ottawa club would make it easier to unite DDR and ITG players from across the country.

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So Playscape in Pacific Mall was replaced with FUNtime. As expected, it's shit. The Technika, ITG2, and PercussionFreaks are all gone. Four of the six Wangan cabs are gone as well.

Fuck Cineplex.

Yikes, a low-profile Chuck E. Cheese contender axing the iconic Playscape arcade? I never saw that coming. Investors have no clue about it, as the FUNtime brand was completely absent from Cineplex's Q1 2016 Investor Presentation. I wrote an article (DanceDanceRevolution.ca/Pacific-Mall) about this blunder and gave you credit for it. Please let me know, here or by PM, if you want me to make any changes. I'll be reaching out to Cineplex for comment. For now, I think we should keep focusing on the Dance Dance North group to have a voice regarding this.

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We're getting DDR A in the new Oakville D&B location opening in November of this year. Woo.

im glad to see you ven

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I think this goes without saying, but after visiting multiple arcade locations across Canada (I've noted at least 40 different machines throughout Canada, all but a few contracted by Cineplex), I have been very disappointed with the state of dance games in Canada. Simple fixes such as repairing dead sensors or even cleaning pads are almost always neglected unless fans end up doing the tech's job. This has led me to one of the only reasonable resorts available: purchasing my own Dance Dance Revolution machine.



Although it's currently running Extreme, I have a SuperNOVA kit on the way and I also plan to experiment with other System 573 mixes such as DS EuroMix 2. I'll get some composite speakers instead of playing around with the marquee. I hope to find a nice place for the machine to be played in public, but for now, it's in storage and available to play by invitation only. One or two players.

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If you're planning on buying more BEMANI cabinets:
jubeat :http://www.arcade-game-sales.com/arcade-machines/arcade-music-machines/jubeat-copious/11149-1.html or http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Jubeat_Qubell_Machine_10006.html

IIDX: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Beatmania_II_DX_18_Resort_Anthem_8429.html

Reflec Beat: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Reflec_Beat_8979.html

Pop'N Music: http://www.arcade-game-sales.com/arcade-machines/arcade-music-machines/pop-music-party/9683-2.html or http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Pop%27n_Music_20_Fantasia_9041.html

DanceEvolution: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Dance_Evolution_Arcade_9095.html

GuitarFreaks: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Guitar_Freaks_V8_8700.html

DrumMania: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/DrumMania_XG_8571.html

and non-BEMANI cabinets:

Groove Coaster: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Groove_Coaster_Arcade_Machine_9534.html

maimai: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Mai_Mai_Music_Arcade_Machine_9222.html

Music GunGun!: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Music_GunGun_2_8998.html

Technika: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/DJ_Max_Technika_3%3A_Crew_Challenge_9155.html

Ez2DJ: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/EZ_2_DJ_Azure_Expression_machine_9379.html

Pump It UP: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Pump_It_Up_2015_Prime_Dance_Machine_%2852_inch_screen%29_9922.html

Taiko: http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines/Taiko_No_Tatsujin_14_Machine_8316.html

Honestly does it really have to be just DDR?

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I have to see how much these machines cost, where I could install them and how worthwhile this all is. If the DDR machine turns out to be popular enough, I can look at other games. :-)

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(Hell, you could even rent a vacant space for an arcade!)

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