History of the Japanese DDR Scene/Community

I'll add something about the french community, because i'm scared that my previous post could make a confusion with french players.

There is hardcore players but mostly doesn't play like japanease. I mean, playing all songs and collecting AAA.
The frenchies still loves the game and try to promote it more and more.

Thats why we have the ddr league in France. But first, i have to explain one point.
The players are kind of divided in France. There is MANY organization in France, maybe 5 or 6.
Each one, with forums and players. Each organisation is like the community of one part of France.
It's, IMO, one of the problem. Even if it have some advantages, the main problem is that it's not easy to talk with ALL the players (unless you know them at least a bit).
I mean, if i want to post something about the new pack i made or my lastest achivement... i have to post in all the forums.
That's why, some frenchs are on more than one french forum at a time. But i'm tired of this. I stick with one french forum and zi (i'm more on ziv now, lol).

So, France is divided... but we have a ddr league.
How it works ?

Every association will run like 3 tournements at least during a period of aproximatly 9 months.
On each tournement, you'll get point.
Everytime you play in a tournement you're collecting point but you can't colet points from different region.
For exemple if i play 2 tournement in the south and one in the north, my north point won't count. Unless i asked for being a part of the north area so the consequences are that i made the 2 south tournement for fun only.

After this, we made a ranking. The TOP5 players on EACH region (or organization) in france (oh wait there is DDR Belgium too, from Belgim obviously) will go to the Japan Expo at Paris to play the finals.

Last year (July2010), players could play on a DDRX2(EU) beta cab. Same for the year before, with a DDRX(EU) beta cab.

Also, Naoki himself came to the Japan Expo. I forgot to say that the league is in partnership with Konami.
I don't have all the deatails since i didn't compete on it and i'm not a staff. But that's a prety big event in France.

I think some other frenchs players could have explain a lot better this ^^'


More on topic : Hmm ok about the japanease players. Yes Brosoni is here, i remember when i saw his score tracker with some wtf AAA a while ago.

I'll wait a bit until i start reading again the pdf. So i'll see more changes (new informations/pictures).

I'm still impressed by you guys, the way you know all those informations (especially the very particular ones).

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Wow, thanks for that. I'm actually quite interested in the development of the communities in Europe since compared to the US, I know so little about it in comparison.

Okay, I am up to revision 30 now. The basic changes since the last few updates (that I posted here) are:

* Note on Challenge modes on DDR 4th/Extra mix CS and how it influenced tournament "extra" events up to the present day
* DDRMAX and how Trance music was all the rage at the time (and pushed sales of CDs like Fantasia : Best of World Trance)
* The Groove Radar in DDRMAX
* The Internet Ranking Server crash from Max2
* Wording of the play styles in the DDRX section
* Some more pictures
* I started added names in the Special Thanks section, though I debate on leaving it online names or trying to use real names (privacy issues and all)

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I read your entire 104-page history in one sit-in, which was probably the most I've read at once ever. I honestly thought it was one of the best entries I've read about the history of DDR and how each mix affected the players of Japan and overseas. It was quite the interesting read and really clued me in on certain periods of time and events that changed DDR history and views of the game; one of which was Japan being on the opposite side of the bar debate. Made me tear up inside. T-T



btw Panstyle needs to make one more post.

Oh ? Why ?
Is this ironic ? (can't really tell o internet) Because i made walls of text and...

OH WAAIIIT


<- Evil GET

I don't know if i should post something somewhere asap or just leave this ahah.

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My user id trumps your post count.

On topic, I guessed right in anticipating more revisions to this paper. I'll be looking forward to reading revision 30 this weekend. I'd read it now if it weren't for homework,

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If you can wait, I may have a minor revision 31 coming today or tomorrow.

There are a few people proofreading my English, but one thing I wanted to add from recent discussion was the random bugs in DDRX and the prompt update/fix of the situation and how the Japanese reacted to that (actually, they laughed and played along with it because most of them believed it would be patched/fixed very soon after). The same type of thing happened with X2 and the My Groove Radar bug that would send your "Voltage" meter shooting out beyond the screen

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I will be waiting for the update. Was just about to go to the first page and view the PDF.

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Okay, and I am actually up to Revision 32 now

This time I only added a few small things.

* A bit of wording around the 2003~2005 section
* Wider response to the Max 2 unlock system (for players that didn't go to an arcade where people were AAAing things left, right and center
* A few more silly pic inserts
* Updated a tiny bit in the "About the Author" intro. I might as well put down I'm responsible for those Pop'n Music Freestyle videos (good or bad depending on how you look at it).

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I beg your pardon?

The following quote was pulled from page 4.


I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that first understood it as EXTREME2. I recommend to type out the number to avoid any misunderstandings.

"......in the home version of DDR Extreme, two days before....."

I'll PM any other small things that might stick out.

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EDIT> Revision 33 is up. I made some fixes and changes based on PMs and added a bit about the combo/grade letter issue coming most prominently to light during the 5th mix days (courtesy of contacts through mixi).

EDIT Again> Revision 34. I added a bit in the Max 2 section about the oni course addition and the oni course-only songs.

EDIT days later> Revision 35 up. I cleaned up a bit of the wording and touched up the design of the cover and special thanks sections and expanded a small point about the calorie count in SN2.

EDIT later still> Revision 36 is up. I added a bit of info. about the DAM-DDR Karaoke mixes (1999-2000)

Amazing EDIT from the grave> Revision 37. Changed the title to "Combo's Continuing" ("The History of the Japanese DDR Community" sounds a bit dry on its own) and added a blurb about Martial Beat in 2002

silenttype01> Ah, good point. I fixed that just now and am reuploading

Aeron> The videos out for around 8 years. eBaums stole my video first and then a few others, but I kept the raw videos on my site anyways. They are all on youtube now anyways.

(There are about a half dozen other vids. This should give a taste for what they were like. Yes, Pop'n freestyle was very popular for a while in Yokohama)

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lol I remember watching that Samurai Syndrome video years ago.

Anyways, nice job seishinbyou. It was really interesting to read (and to contrast with my country's scene, where the DDR peak interest lasted just a couple of years, though machines still can be seen over here and over there).

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Okay, revision 39 is up now. 38 took care of some small grammatical errors I caught and some formatting. Revision 39 adds a bit about the photos of AAAs (why they are at the results screen and not at the song selection screen).

I also added a photo I dug up of the folding fan given away as part of the 5th mix Internet Ranking.

I played around with a small paperback book sized version but that does make some of the photos/comments under them either take up too much room or too small when I shrink them even more. I'll think of something.

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So I just read all 80 something pages of it and now i'm tired. Cheers and goodnight.
well, sort of.Would make a brilliant log of everything DDR to date though. Good job aaron. Hello, I am a novice, because we have a common interest so I entered this BBS. Hope everyone of light after oh oh oh.

Just finished reading.. I'd like to know more about Yasu though, did he retired in the 2003-2005 era when there were no new DDR? Did he complete the game, AAA'd all difficulties?

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Well, Yasu didn't bother going to AAA all songs on all difficulties. He mostly stuck to playing the same songs he was most comfortable with. When Supernova came out there were a few songs that got his interest (Healing D Vision for one) but until then, he was mostly messing with Max 300 and a few of the Afronovas. He would play the Legend Road oni course and purposely fail out on the 2nd song just to see his Marvellous count on Max 300. AFAIK, there were a few songs he never got, namely Legend of Max and I *think* PSMO. He played around with the home version of ITG when it was new but he never really go into it

Yasu and I were flown to London around 2005 and before then we met up to practice. We were still up to par with our respective favourite songs but Yasu and I didn't have *that* much going on DDR-wise up until a few months before that.

Funny you mention Yasu, because I just met him again tonight.


By the way, is there any interest in me printing this off as a book? I can't legally have it published with all the Konami photos and such, but some online publishers/printers will allow things like personal poetry/photo books to be printed regardless of copyright issues (it is just a personal book; doesn't get an ISBN code). I'm not sure how much it would cost to print this up in B&W or color though

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I thought he plays all songs and track scores lol
Does he still play now? Are there any newer songs that he got caught up with?

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He still plays occasionally but nothing hardcore like he used to (read: spend entire weekends from opening to close at the arcade)

Yeah, many of our other DDR friends went on to play all the songs on all difficulties single/double (or just moved to double) but Yasu only ever liked a few handfuls of songs to play and do them over and over again.

I'm not sure what recent songs he *really* likes but he has talked favourably about the Max 300 Super Max Me Mix, Paranoia Respect, Roppongi and RDA charts. Super Samurai and I'm So Happy (Challenge) too.

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What is the last revision of the essai ?
If i read above i an see "39" is this the last one ?

I think i read more than 2/3 of an old revision (maybe 25) so i want to check again and restart from the beginning.

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The one up now should be "40" from March 3rd, 2011.

I thought about adding a personal addendum to it but I already do that in parts throughout the essay and anything else I add would be unrelated to the original scope of the essay)

Also, I have chatted with some of the online publishers. lulu.com is willing to publish this "as is" provided I don't register an ISBN for it since well, copyright issues with Konami, screenshots, players, events, etc.

A Black and White print with color covers will be $8.50 US. I can make it up, but should I resize the book to be 6'x9' or leave it at "Letter" sized paper? Letter sized seems a big large for a book, but then again if I make it 6x9, it will be almost 300 pages unless I condense the text/spacing, etc.. If I make it full color it will be over $20 but that is another story.

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