DanceDanceRevolution X (AC) (International)

This statement is pretty accurate.

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I doubt I'm the only one to mention Electrocion.

They're the official UK distributors, so regardless of where to buy a cabinet from, if the cabinet is legal to operate in the UK, it comes from Electrocoin. We know that Konami have sent out blueprints for English cabinets to UK manufacturers, but we don't know whether Electrocoin themselves put the cabinets together, or whether they pay a 3rd party to do so. They've certainly been producing arcade cabinets for 30 years, so we know they have a good track-record.

I'm sort of bias, because I grew up on Electrocoin cabinets, and my local arcade gave me one a few years back, as a "thank you", for dumping hundreds of pounds into their DDR machines over the years. They have a good track record, so it's safe to assume that Electrocoin are producing the cabinets, too. It would be a shame (and a waste of money) for them not to.

Chi spoke to them at depth at ATEI. He knows the full story, wheras I'm filling in the blanks, and trying to stay out of the thread, until I know for sure exactly what's happening.

For those of you who don't go to AIJ, DDRfreak457's DDR X got a lag fix and pad fix recently. He seems really impressed with it and got a AAA PFC with 1 in 11 perfect/marv ratio on it. You can read about it here.

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Glad to hear the good news continue to come in; hopefully what he says about eAMUSE soon comes true and it looks like we might actually have widespread playable machines before too long.

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Did he post the full story somewhere out of curiosity?

So Electrocoin operates in the EU only? Do they also work in Japan or does Konami handle production there, I had heard someone years ago say that all Japanese cabinets were Electrocoin. I've long wanted to learn more about them and seldom even hear people mention their name.

Will and Loving You are late as shit with the fix, noticed that they were later than the other songs beforehand but now it's blatantly obvious. Practically all the DDRX native stuff is fine, however the pads either need to be improved or better yet, replaced with the JP panels. I still feel like if you're not killing the pads on every step you will not get anything better than a great on them even if you're on time. Still seems to have framerate problems here and there too.

Sod this Will is getting an edit thats the Expert chart shifted a 1/16th bar earlier...

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He's posted it at least twice in this thread, but keeps getting ignored, because so many other people are posting hear'say stories that contradict him.

Electrocoin operate in South Wales. We don't know if they produce the cabinets in their workshop, or whether they employ a 3rd party to build the cabinets. We don't know who is building EU cabinets, US cabinets or Japanese cabinets. They could all be the same person, or they could be various regional workshops, who have all been sent the same blueprints.

We don't know who built the previous DDR cabinets, either. The only thing we know is that there are at least 3 distinctive cabinets produced before DDRX. The The only discernable difference is in the stages :

1) 'Dancing Stage'
Default stage for first 4 (Japanese) generations of DDR

2) 'EuroMIX' Stage
Slightly larger stage which ships by default with EuroMIX, most asian, and some newer Japanese cabinets

3) 'Festival Stage'
Ships with all "post-Extreme" games. We assume this is built by a different manufacturer, or with different materials. Has a reputation for NGing freeze arrows and pad misses, and has to be "worn in", before it responds like the other stages.

That's literally everything we know about DDR Cabinet production. Electrocoin and Betson are definately distributing the game, but neither have told us where they source the cabinets from :{

They definitely aren't built up in the UK anyway. The machines have to be shipped from the US.

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Lol, AeronPeryton on his usual games based on "wot I've heard, mate" rather than actual experience, about a cabinet that isn't even available in the region of the world he lives in - and then namedrops people who might actually know what they are talking about and who want to provide correct information as "trolls" (in which case all I have to say is "Fee-fi-fo-fum") Nice going, chap!

I don't know where this information about the pads having only one sensor comes from, but there are definitely 4 sensors per pad, in the same locations as the classic DDR stage. I've confirmed this (by triggering on the very edges of the plexis with the toe of my shoe) not only on the test machines I saw, but some of those in the wild too (the one at the Troc is a strange exception, and that's because the staff there actually removed the sensors for some bizarre reason (not to mention it being the Japanese-built US-test loke cab, of course). Interestingly, the operator menu for DDR X does not have the option to poll individual sensors any more (as all previous DDR mixes up to and including SuperNOVA 2 did). That's a real shame, as it is really helpful for an op to diagnose stage problems with this.


Haha, I've just got home to Manchester and was about to post to correct this

As the second out of the four people that popped over to blind test the new modifications on that day (THANKS LIME!), I agree with what LIME-01R said; the latest mod that was made makes the stage good in terms of sensitivity (better than unmodded original pads) - but as he said, I wonder how durable the mod will be (in the worst case it could just be replaced every 3-6 months, though), but the pads were such that they could be triggered with firm single finger pressure. That puts it on a par with my (modded) old-style stage at home.

To me, the limiting factor which makes me slightly (and to be honest, aesthetics aside and on performance not by very much) prefer the older cabs at the moment is no longer the pads, but a very slight screen lag (which - looking at the increases in performance over time of the approximately 6 or 7 people playing the 20090723 patch of DDR X; i.e. the one that is out in location in the UK - most people tend to compensate for after playing on the cab for a while). If all the pads in all DDR X machines are patched to be the same quality as the best one from the ones I tried, I'd be more than happy to play the game (and I highly expect the same would be said for more casual market of DDR players - i.e. the ones that chuck a credit in whilt passing by on a whim, and whom make up the majority of income for most average arcades in the UK).


I don't quite see what this has to do with the thread, your argument or in fact anything at all. Seven years? Heck, I've been playing it for almost 9 years now, and I personally know two other people posting in this thread who have been playing longer than me. Oh, and one of these aforementioned old timers is...:


I spoke to (an understandably rushed off his feet, given it was a major amusements expo) James Anderson of Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. at ATEI about a few issues I had a personal interest, namely eAmusement pricing and availability and the likelyhood of upgrade kits for older cabs - naturally this information is now almost 8 months out of date (since that was late-Jan, and we are now in September), but the general gist was:
1) the US and EU cabs were to be substantially the same (or at least exactly the same spec and design - though the implication seemed to me to be that parts for them would be manufactured at the same source for both too - but that may have been me just reading too much into it),
2) upgrade cabs were not planned at that stage and;
3) eAmusement exists but costs a fair bit, and no ops seem to have taken it up yet

I couldn't tell you where the cabs are manufactured, nor where they are assembled - I don't know that for sure and won't speculate. I also spoke again to James about a few things at the pad-mod test (again, about items of my own personal interest and not all DDR-based), but given the context of when and where these conversations took place, I don't feel at liberty to post about these conversations on a public forum or PM or anything like that (please don't ask). The one thing I can say is that I believe he genuinely cares about doing all he feasibly can to address the issues being raised.

However, I was fortunate enough to have a sneak peak at the I/O hardware inside the cab, and can see why an upgrade kit would be tricky (yes, I kept championing the upgrade kit cause, I have a personal interest in this as I'd probably end up buying one ) - the I/O for the US/EU cab is significantly different from all earlier releases - I didn't see a single PCB that was in common with either the classic cab or the SuperNOVA cab (of which I know in great detail from first hand experience of both). I believe that very few arcade ops would spend the time trying to install something so non-trivial into an existing cab.

What I don't know is whether or not an upgrade kit based on the JP upgrade kit hardware (I've not seen one, but it appears to be significantly simpler with more in common with the SuperNOVA 2 cab e.g. the dreaded Extended I/O board that I still can't buy for less than £750) would be feasible. Technically feasible I'm sure would be a "yes", but as to whether or not it would be financially feasible, and whether there would actually be any demand for these in Europe from operators... I couldn't possibly even speculate.


It wasn't much more detailed than that (I don't have any "privileged" information, it was just a question to them from a potential buyer - me), but here ya go:
http://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/viewthread.php?threadid=1923&page=2#p86413

Electrocoin are a big name in cabinet construction, and have been around for about 30 years - however, joe public wouldn't know an Electrocoin-built cab from any other type of built cab so they don't get mentioned much outside the trade - I can't think of any UK/EU ops who wouldn't have heard of them, though. Lots of private arcade collectors think they have produced some of the best woodie-style cabinets of all time (their Neo Geo cabs are revered by many) - personally, I'm into Japanese-style candy cabs

http://www.electrocoin.net/

They were sold worldwide. Their cabs have always been solid bits of workmanship, able to survive the rough handling of arcades and pubs The thing that always let them down for me was the crappy sticks and buttons that were always popular here in the UK (ops always preferred cheap and rugged over delicate and precise [and expensive ]) - grab yourself an Electrocoin cab and mod it to take Sanwa parts and it'd be good stuff

They are also the European and African distributors for Konami (having replaced Avranches in Europe, PMT Sales in the UK and godknowswho for Africa (migth also have been Avranches but I never bothered to check).


This is the (dreadful) stage as used for Dancing Stage Fusion, right? If so, I got the impression in the past (but I don't know for certain) that this was of different manufacture to those on the SuperNOVA dedicabs. It certainly felt a league better!

Right, that'll do for me for now I'll proof-read this stupidly long post later on to fix typos and to make sure I've not dropped any clangers, but for now... enjoy!

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Any idea which UK locations are running current software and have current pad mods?

Because I actually really want to play this game :{


I don't know anymore. I've seen people complaing about the same things for every game released since Max 2. Japanese SuperNOVA 2 felt exactly like DS Fusion did, for the first few days of playing both machines, so I assume most SuperNOVA cabs are the EuroMIX stages, or the Festival / Fusion stages that have been modded or broken in.

AFAIK, all UK DDR X cabs are now running the latest version of software (the one with HDX:E:A:A:2009072300 as the ID stamp) - if there are any running the older software, we should let Konami know so they can patch it. This is the version with USB support (which may be off in the ops menu :/) and reduced lag (in my own opinion: no discernable input lag, a slight trace of screen lag).

None as yet have the newest pad mods, i.e. the ones tested on Friday (this may well change during the next couple of weeks though ), but I believe (but don't quote me on this- I might be wrong) the one in Trafford Centre in Manchester has the first mod (which IMO makes the pad perfectly playable by not dropping freezes all over the shop and needing quite a bit of pressure to trigger the pads - but isn't so great if you are looking to PA) - there may be others, I don't know. At some point I'll pop over to the Traff and try it out for myself and let you know before you do a road trip (prob won't be till next week though).

Also, I quite like DDR X itself (I can zone out the crap announcer).


The Fusion stages had a weakness in design that can't be broken in - they have to be modded to lift the sensor up a little in the sensor holder (I just re-played a credit of Fusion in Kingston this weekend - the pads really aren't great). My experience of the SuperNOVA pads is that they just needed time to break in - of course, they may just be modded Fusion/Festival pads - I don't know.

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The latest software might not be 7/23 anymore. Someone over at aij reports this:

Yeah, I didn't include the revision number from the previous location test's at Acton. For the US software. This is indeed the same software that was running at the test.

However, A bug is present when running edits atm, which will make the machine crash. So I'm sure we won't see the update at every location.

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That's interesting... from what I can see of the error message it reads:
"システム設定の変更"
"新しいデバイスのインストールが完了しました。 デバイスをサポートするゾ<can't read the rest>"
"は、コンピュータを再起動するすく必要があります。"
"今すぐ起動しますか？"
"はい（Y)"

Which translates as:
"System configuration change"
"A new device installation has completed. Device support is [Can't read the rest as it's offscreen]"
"It is necessary to restart the computer."
"Restart now?"
"Yes (Y)"

Lol, Windows

EDITED BECAUSE SOMEHOW I COULD SUDDENLY SEE MORE OF THE SCREENSHOT, THANKS FIREFOX :/

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I wouldn't say it's a crash. Windows is doing it's thing and just taking focus away from DDR X lol.

Bump: Haha, Chi, I fixed Adam's BBCode so it'd take 640 pixels width wise so it wouldn't clip off.

You could've seen the whole image if you right click the image and click View Image in Firefox too.

HDX:U:A:A:2008081900 (1st US loc test)
HDX:U:A:A:2009020600 (BZN loc test)
HDX:U:A:A:2009060301 (US release)
HDX:U:A:A:2009072300 (1st US update)
HDX:U:A:A:2009080400 (2nd US update)

I didn't notice from playing that the stage changed size over the years. The oldest machine I've played on was an Asian 1st, quite a few 2ndMIXes, and even more Asian 3rdMIXes.

I didn't really think that the stage changed at all in regards to how it feels to play. Though I do remember that a local SuperNOVA felt stiff, had to be played for a few weeks before it was nice and responsive.


Most of what everyone knows is what they've heard or learned. A small portion of our collected knowledge is actually first hand experience. You lambasted me for helping someone with their machines because I said something I didn't know what wrong. Next time try explaining things instead of leaping to the conclusion that someone is deliberately lying.

btw, I only just moved to Malaysia from the United States. Almost nothing but EXTREME here unless you pop into Singapore.

Thanks for the info about the machines though.


Oh Windows...

DDR X uses Windows XP Embedded right?

He did explain things in extensive details

Also ddr x running on bemanipc is old news.

excuse me guys, just TROLLING HERE DONT MIND ME

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...
ye' old "New Device Detected" issue, present in XP that doesn't have SP2 or SP3.
Maybe the issue is from the cab or is generalized to the update... if the issue is caused by the update... that will be a BIG problem. (that only e-amusement can solve)

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