Dance Station Thread

Call for Contributions:
Please DM me or post in this thread if you have any resources to share. This preservation effort is still ongoing, and every piece of information matters!

Valuable information include:
• Official songlists
• Game assets
• Screenshots or gameplay footage
• Arcade recordings
• Or anything else you consider useful for this project

Information could refer to Dance Station 3DDX, Dance Station Stepper, or Digital Dance Station. Even the files used by Dance Station 3DDX D-TECH Viewer program (.mp/.dat/.alz) could be very useful.


Context:
The Dance Station 3DDX was a dance rhythm game developed by the Korean company NGG (Next Generation Games) and released in 2000, containing 34 songs. The game featured 4 foot pads (↙️↖️↗️↘️) and 4 hand sensors (⬅️⬇️⬆️➡️), which was pretty innovative back in that time. The 3D in the name comes from the inclusion of hand sensors, while DX stands for "deluxe," referring to the game’s cabinet with a massive 52-inch screen. There was also SOLO version of the game (with just one dance pad) sold with a SX cabinet.


In 2002, NGG released a sequel titled 3DDX 2 D-TECH, adding 26 new songs to the Korean version. Both the 3DDX and D-TECH were distributed via CD according to the specs. An international version was also released, featuring additional songs. However, due to the lack of online records, most of these songs remain unknown, but a few pictures from the CZ community show that the banners were translated into English (e.g. “경고” being shown as “Caution” in the international version). It is likely that some of these songs later appeared in other rhythm games released by NGG ouside Korea.

NGG also tried to release a "non-deluxe" version called Dance Station Stepper (with a SX cabinet), which later got a Windows port. This game was meant to compete with other dance rhythm games of its time. Initially, the arcade version featured a 5-panel layout (↙️↖️⏹️↗️↘️), but the Windows home version later introduced support for a 4-panel mode (⬅️⬇️⬆️➡️) and included a mini-game that uses all 9 panels. The AC version had four regional variations: Korean, American, Indonesian, and Brazilian.


NGG also released another Windows game focused in the US market, Digital Dance Station, which was essentially a home version of Dance Station Stepper based on a DDR'99 simulator (with .msd files, and supports DDR/PIU modes) and includes most of the Dance Station 3DDX tracks. The game was sold with its own dance mat.


The 3DDX game style went really popular in China, and after NGG went bankrupt around 2004, the Chinese company AAM (Advanced Amusement Machines) started developing 3DDX 3 D-TECH. Most of the videos you’ll find online today refer to this version. The 3DDX 4 D-TECH is a complete mistery, but some videos suggest that certain songs later appeared in 4DSS — e.g., in this video appears 成人礼, a variation of the original 성인식 (Adult Ceremon) by Park Ji-yoon, with a longer intro and the chinese banner.


In 2007, the same Chinese company released a bootleg version called Dance Super Station (4DSS, Passional), built on the StepMania engine and sold as an "upgrade" of the D-TECH serie (that's why some of the cabinets artwork refered it as the 3DDX 5 D-TECH instead of DSS). The cabinet used for DSS was the same as the original D-TECH version but with a new marquee and painted in green.


These cabinets started disappearing after the release of Dance Master Station (e舞成名 -eDance To Fame-, or simply E5) in 2010, also developed by AAM. This game introduced a touchscreen display, freeze arrows and a 5th center foot pad (↙️↖️⏹️↗️↘️) alongside the 4 hand sensors (⬅️⬇️⬆️➡️), and it's still being very popular in China, with monthly online updates. Most of its songs are unlicensed or "borrowed" from other rhythm games.


There's a StepMania-based simulator for E5 called e5mnq. By subscribing, you gain access to a wide selection of song packs, which include audio, banners, and empty stepcharts. As your subscription remains active (and not banned like mine 😅), the simulator can download the actual stepcharts on the fly when you select a song. However, these simfiles don’t support hand sensors, making it essentially a Pump It Up simulator. This limitation comes from the StepMania build used in the simulator, which doesn’t support E5 mode (ds3ddx-single5 and ds3ddx-double5), a feature later introduced in OutFox.

In 2021, AAM also released a home version of this game called Dance Home E5+ (unboxing & demo video). The game includies a dance mat, a 3D camera for motion tracking, a remote control, and a USB stick containing the game, which features a library of over 5K songs (which step charts are downloaded on the flight).


Also, there is another 3DDX bootleg with just 4-pad panels and 4-hands sensors called King of Dancer (舞王争霸), developed by Xiongye, with 3 releases, which also introduced a touchscreen display and freeze arrows, but there is not much information about it online. Looks like a bunch of 3DDX songs were included in this game (check this songlist video). It also has a 5-panel variant with no hand sensor (let's say a PIU bootleg) called King of Dancer X.


Just to clarify, Dance Station 3DDX, Dance Super Station (4DSS), Dance Master Station (E5), and King Of Dancer (KOD) are all different games, even though their cabinets look pretty similar. The only game known to be based on StepMania is 4DSS, the rest of them have their own engine.

In summary:
Game                     Developer       Hands    Center    Holds   Platform
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
DS 3DDX                  NGG (KR)        ✅       ❌       ❌      AC
DS 3DDX 2 D-TECH         NGG (KR)        ✅       ❌       ❌      AC
DS 3DDX 3 D-TECH         AAM (CN)        ✅       ❌       ❌      AC
DS 3DDX 4 D-TECH         AAM (CN)        ✅       ❌       ❌      AC
DS 3DDX 5 D-TECH / 4DSS  AAM (CN)        ✅       ❌       ❌      AC
DS Stepper               NGG (KR)        ❌       ✅       ❌      AC / CS*
Digital DS               NGG (KR)        ❌       ✅       ❌      CS*
E5                       AAM (CN)        ✅       ✅       ✅      AC
E5+                      AAM (CN)        ✅       ✅       ✅      CS
E5MNQ                    ??? (CN)        ❌       ✅       ✅      CS
KOD, KOD2 & KOD3         Xiongye (CN)    ✅       ❌       ✅      AC
KOD X                    Xiongye (CN)    ❌       ✅       ✅      AC
Dancing2008              PikoMonkey (CN) ✅       ❌       ❌      AC?
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
*supports 4 and 5 pads


About the Song Packs:
The Dance Super Station 4DSS pack was recovered directly from an arcade dump, with the stepcharts already in .sm format and includes original banners, music, and videos. The pack includes the base song list (119 songs), and also two patches (adding 40 new songs).

The Dance Station 3DDX pack was converted from a dump of a Chinese bootleg called 手舞足跳2008 (Dancing 2008) (by PikoMonkey). This is essentially a reskin of 3DDX D-TECH that preserved the original music, stepcharts, and most banners (some with modified backgrounds). The stepcharts are defined in .mp files (a proprietary format) and were converted to .ssc to handle songs with BPM changes across difficulties.


About MP file format:
This binary file format seems to have been introduced with the D-TECH release of 3DDX, and it's likely used in other bootleg or unofficial versions of the game as well. It stores metadata, timing info, and note data.

FILE HEADER (248 bytes)
OFFSET  SIZE  CONTENT
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0x00    20   Signature "3DDX 2ndStep" (string)
0x14    148  Song audio file name (string)
0xA8    40   Song title (string)
0xD0    40   Song artist (string)
0xF8    36   Chart header (see below)

CHART HEADER (36 bytes)
OFFSET  SIZE  CONTENT
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0x00    8    Initial BPM (double)
0x08    8    Audio offset (double)
0x10    8    Difficulties (0-1=Pretty, 2-3=Power, 4-5=Dual)
0x18    2    Padding (null bytes)
0x1A    4    Unkown values (bytes)
0x1E    4    First note offset (uint32)
0x22    2    Padding (null bytes)

NOTE DATA (48 bytes per note)
OFFSET  SIZE  CONTENT
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0x00    8    Segment BPM (double)
0x08    8    Stop duration (double)
0x10    8    Unknown values (bytes)
0x18    16   Column flags (see values below)
0x28    2    Next note offset (uint16)
0x2A    2    End flag (00=continue, FF=end)
0x2C    4    Next chart offset (uint32)

COLUMN FLAGS (uint16 values)
VALUE   DESCRIPTION
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0x0301  Left Hand (←)
0x0501  Down Left Pad (↙)
0x0601  Up Left Pad (↖)
0x0101  Up Hand (↑)
0x0201  Up+Down Hands (↑↓)
0x0001  Down Hand (↓)
0x0701  Up Right Pad (↗)
0x0801  Down Right Pad (↘)
0x0401  Right Hand (→)

NOTES
• There are 52 ticks per beat (instead of standard 1/48)
• Numbers are encoded in little-endian format
• Strings are encoded in EUC-KR


Dance Station 3DDX D-TECH Viewer:
A freeware program that allows users to practice ds3ddx at home back in the 2000s. This program spacifically reads .dat files, which are essentially a concatenation of .mp (step charts) and .mp3 (audio) files, and those .dat files were commonly shared among users in .alz archives (a Korean zip-like format) sometimes accompanied by additional segmented files with extensions like .a00, .a01, etc.



Some files can be found at /nggworld (Daum) but unfortunately many of the official files haven't been preserved. Some known but now unarchived examples include ozings' links and nggworld's links. If you come across any of these files on the Wayback Machine or any other website, I’d really appreciate if you share them.


References:
• Dance Station 3DDX (by NGG)
• Dance Station 3DDX 2 D-TECH (by IceZero)
• Dance Station 3DDX 3 D-TECH (by Ez2Dance)
• Dance Station 3DDX (GAMICUS article)
• Dance Station 3DDX (Arcade Museum article)
• Dance Station 3DDX (Namu Wiki article)
• Dance Station 3DDX (CoinExpress publication)
• Dance Station 3DDX (ChannelBeat publication)
• Dance Station 3DDX D-TECH (ChannelBeat publication)
• Dance Station 3DDX (Czech MusicGames post)
• Dance Station 3DDX (Czech Community post)
• Dance Station 3DDX (Livejournal, Stasie post)
• Dance Station 3DDX (BeatmaniaIIDX website, Stsung post)
• Dance Station Stepper (Kotaku screenshots)
• Dance Station Stepper (Windows game, by NGG)
• Digital Dance Station (by NGG)
• Dance Super Station (by ANZHENG)
• Dance Master Station E5 Online (by AAM)
• Dance Master Station E5 Online (Baike Baidu)
• King of Dancer (by Xiongye)
• King of Dancer (Baike, Baidu)
• King Of Dancer (ChannelBeat publication)
• King of Dancer 2 (Wenky Baidu)

Ooooh! We use to have a Dance Station 3DDX cab in the UK nearby in the early 2000s, I remember playing Genie In A Bottle I won't be able to play on pad/with sensors, but I'm looking forward to seeing these! good work

---

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it

I was able to play 3DDX just once around 2007 in my country, and since then I wished to port it into SM. I remember to play "Mambo No.5" as my first song and didn't clear it 😅 Hope somebody out there could have more resources or information to keep expanding this project.

I just uploaded a batch of pictures such as taken at IBA (a.k.a International Bowl Arcade a.k.a. International Bowling and Arcade) from August 10th, 2001. My batch starts at image id 67753 and goes through 67767. For the record, they had 7 dance machines in a row - a very primitive DDR (probably O.G, maybe USA?), 3rd Mix Korean v2, Dance Station Stepper, and 4 Pump It Up Cabinets. I'd been trying to remember the name of this game for years. I finally excavated these pictures and found the name... which immediately led to this post, so hopefully this helps.

I definitely can say that our cabinet had the DJ Doc's classic "Run to You" as well as a version of "Tarzan Boy". We also definitely played WAY more DDR 3rd Mix Kv2, so it's quite possible that I didn't even play every song on that machine.

Wow. It wasn't a myth at all. Thanks for sharing!

I found the data from the Windows version of Dance Station (though I’m not sure whether it's the Stepper or Digital version). According to Kotaku's article the banner I got matches the Stepper version, but who knows how reliable that source is. The data is in encoded .msd files (predecessor to .dwi) with some customization to support pump mode. Sadly, I only have a 10-second preview of the songs.

I hope someone out there still has a copy of it.

---

Just for the record, I added the spec of the .mp file format (used by the D-TECH version) in the first post.

I'm still trying to find the .dat files (which act as containers for the .mp and .mp3 files) that were shared by the Korean community back then, but no luck so far. The PC versions of the game sold by NGG in Korea (Dance Station 4th) and in the USA (Digital Dance Station) may contain many of the missing audio files. If anyone has them or know where can I find them, DM me.

Also, I noticed that King of Dancer 2 includes several songs from the D-TECH series (as seen in this video), so a copy of that game could be very helpful as well.