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Selling an (in)famous part of Bemani history. My last Beat-Gear DDR pad

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Post #1 · Posted at 2012-09-30 12:56:35am 11.4 years ago

Offline thewheel
thewheel Avatar Member
6 Posts
Not Set
Reg. 2007-01-07

Okay everyone,
It's finally come time for me to sell my last remaining Beat-Gear (I've owned 2 complete ones; one now belongs to Nick Randall). I haven't used it seriously in ages so it feels completely wasted just sitting in my closet. I own a solo cabinet with 573/mimimaid combo so anytime I want to actually play that's my go-to. As a collector/preservationist of DDR I hate to get rid of it, but I'd really like to see someone actually use it as it's easily the best non-arcade DDR pad I've ever played on (and sometimes I consider it better than arcade).

Some back story about these pads
Long ago in the history of our community Cobalt fluxes were literally the pinnacle of home pads, but they were far from arcade accurate. A man by the name of Derek Leuridan (derekleu) commissioned himself to create the best DDR pads the world had seen. By some measure of voodoo science and engineering skills he developed an injection molded hard plastic inner pad (supported by an outer steel frame) that could be used on the playstation/ps2. He took pre-orders on his now defunct site (www.beat-gear.com) to be able to build and ship them from his Peruvian labor camp/warehouse he had set up to build these things. Long story short: He didn't have his shit together and scammed a LOT of people. Only 18-19 of these were ever actually built (I believe Chris Danford got the very first two for testing purposes) and those that DID make it to America got stuck in a customs warehouse in Florida. Fast forward a little bit where a guy who actually knew that DDR existed bought the entire storage locker and sold them on eBay. Not sure where they all went, but someone named Dave Campbell (h20fun) ended up with 8 of them, and I ended up with 2 1/2 (2 fully working ones and a "shell).

More info
I used to cart these around to cons and small events. It is an EXTREMELY sturdy pad. They originally came hard wired with a Ps1/Ps2 controller, but they often (read almost always) got fried and had to be re-wired. Using a harness that h20fun designed and built if the included control box ever breaks (a Red-octane one) it's as simple as fixing the control box and not having to screw around internally. The sensors themselves never really "break" as it's a design of two copper plates that are pushed together via a rubber spacer between the bracketing and arrow. I do not have the green solo arrows for this pad (Nick got that one) so I simply had to use leftover parts from my "shell" pad (hence the blue left/right arrows being used as corners). The control box is attached with a serial-cable (also included). I will be including ALL extra parts from the "shell" pad, so if you ever need any additional parts you have them.

My pictures
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/thewheel/Beat-Gear/BeatGear1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/thewheel/Beat-Gear/BeatGear2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/thewheel/Beat-Gear/BeatGear3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/thewheel/Beat-Gear/BeatGear4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v26/thewheel/Beat-Gear/BeatGearSensor.jpg

Price
$350.
I will be willing to ship this, but it's freaking monstrous. It weighs somewhere between 85-125 pounds just by guessing. If you're in the Midwest (Chicago-land, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa) I'd be willing to deliver this to you for the cost of gas (day-trip yay!)

Any other questions? JUST ASK
Via PM or email @ thewheel@gmail.com

Some other pics of Beat-Gears from h20fun's site
h20fun's beat-gear page

Post #2 · Posted at 2012-10-12 08:35:58am 11.4 years ago

Offline radim
radim Avatar Member
1 Post
Not Set
Reg. 2012-10-12

Hey, that's really neat! I never heard about the more recent history of this until now. I was actually the owner of the original metal prototype pad, that Derek auctioned off on eBay sometime around the summer of 2001. I think I got really lucky, I was the only person that didn't get scammed from that whole fiasco!

My friends and family and I had a lot of fun with it, but we eventually stopped using the thing years and years ago. I think the controller connector stopped working at some point, or I got rid of my console or something so no longer had a use for it.. it's probably sitting in a storage shed somewhere. The thing was SO heavy!

Anyway, so funny to hear that the first batch of finished pads were actually produced, and ultimately recovered and sold. I had thought they were gone for good.

Post #3 · Posted at 2012-10-12 09:07:04am 11.4 years ago

Offline bacon
bacon Avatar Member+
114 Posts
United States
Reg. 2006-08-05

"HURRRR"
those pictures you linked were pretty cool. i've been waiting to play on nick's beatgear, but we don't have a control box.

here are some pictures from when they were constructing them http://media.rhythmatic.net/gallery/v/machinesdb/beatgear/

Post #4 · Posted at 2012-10-16 07:12:05am 11.4 years ago

Offline Suko
Suko Avatar Member
77 Posts
United States
Reg. 2007-08-11

Wow. That's awesome.

I was always amazed that during DDR's peak in popularity that more arcade-like pads similar to this weren't made. As you said, SF's were about the best thing that the masses could get. It's a shame that current players have even less options than most of us did in 2005.
https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/ddrsig/1509.png?t=1497826651 http://www.techno-hut.com/avatar/sukotto-deep_banner.jpg
"Arcades have gone away, but the culture isn't gone."

Post #5 · Posted at 2012-11-25 04:31:54am 11.3 years ago

Offline Noise-Tank
Noise-Tank Avatar Member
1 Post
Not Set
Reg. 2012-11-25

This is a stretch, but, does this offer still stand?
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