Post #1 · Posted at 2018-09-26 06:46:50pm 5.5 years ago
Hey! So I've been seeing a lot of people on various social media outlets posting their "thank you DDR!" posts and such and was kinda thinking it would be really nice if we had a thread on here for us to post about what DDR has meant to us, some fun stories we remember, whatever, because it's been really sweet reading all these things and I'd hate for them to become lost! So if you have a story or anything PLEASE share it here, and thanks again DDR!
I'll copy and paste my VERY long story I put on Facebook!
----------------------------------------------
So it’s Dance Dance Revolution’s 20th anniversary today and since everyone is posting their stories this is the perfect time to tell mine I guess!
I first played DDR, Dancing Stage in Europe, in 2000. It was in Great Yarmouth, near the pier, and I got my ass handed to me playing It’s Like That on Basic. I was 7 or 8 and took the boos that the in game crowd made personally aha, and I decided I hated the game. But something about it obviously intrigued me, as a while later my local arcade Hollywood Bowl got a EuroMIX cabinet and it suddenly became my obsession.
I got good very very quickly, and was busting out songs on Difficult fairly soon. I would beg my parents to take me to Hollywood Bowl just to play a round. I would get huge crowds; in its infancy playing anything above Basic was enough to get people watching.
My addiction got even worse when I was bought the Playstation version of EuroMIX, and whilst it didn’t include a bunch of my favourite songs from the arcade version (RIP Captain Jack) and was as basic as a game could get, I loved hooking my soft mat up and practicing. My addiction was being noticed in primary school too, as during a free lesson I scribbled down the lyrics to Do It All Night by E-Rotic, my teacher found it and called my parents in to ask what the fuck I was doing righting down these very very sexual lyrics.. I was like 8/9!! I didn’t know any better!
The first time I spotted a EuroMIX 2 machine I lost my shit, I believe I was in Milton Keynes, and I heard Cotton Eyed Joe whilst in an arcade. I followed the music and found it and was awestruck. This was very early internet days so I had no idea a second mix was even out! My Hollywood Bowl got it not long after and suddenly its popularity skyrocketed, and I continued to get better.
My setlist was usually Crash! (Awful song), B4U (ZA B4 BEAT MIX), and MAX 300 on Difficult. By this point I also owned Party Edition on the PlayStation and had gotten to beating some songs on expert, but MAX 300 was something I was shocked by when I first saw it. How could a song be that fast! Laughable really that we now have songs that scroll at 600, 800, 1200 beats per minute aha.
Fast forward to secondary school and the PlayStation 2, at this point I was an expert, I could pass the boss songs (barely mind you!) and had even downloaded Stepmania, a free game on PC where you could and still can download songs and packs and play at home on keyboard. I used it as practice, I’d use two fingers as if they were legs so I could understand the patterns the game was trying to get me to do better so when I were on my feet I could nail the tough sections. Around this time I was also beginning to make my own custom files for Stepmania and whilst they were trash, eventually I got half decent and landed a paid job at Flash Flash Revolution, a DDR clone for web browsers, designing stepcharts, and to this day I still make stepcharts, albeit to a much higher quality, and regularly get donations from other players and requests.
Around the time of the PS2 however, I somehow got my friend from school Dom into the game, and it was like I took him under my wing. I watched him progress as I did, I enjoyed having somebody into it too, and we ended up looking forward to spending our minuscule pocket money on arcade sessions at the weekends.
When I heard about the next game in the series, Dancing Stage SuperNOVA, I was extremely excited, this wasn’t a dumbed down version of the Japanese games like we got with EuroMIX, this was a worldwide release. I emailed Hollywood Bowl about it and to my surprise they actually ended up getting the machine, the first one in the world [I believe], and included quotes from my email in the promotion for it. It felt awesome to be heard and when I walked in and finally laid eyes on the machine my heart leapt out of its chest!
Many a weekend would be spent here, and this would be Dom’s first time playing on the arcade version.. He promptly tried to hit the left arrow, overstretched, fell off the machine and proclaimed “this game is shit”. But he dusted himself off, got back on and progressed even further, even managing to beat 10 footers, which were back in the day the hardest rating songs you could find outside of Stepmania and In The Groove, another DDR clone.
We had Christmas meetups at Hollywood Bowl for the various other players that frequented the arcade, including my friend Ross who I met there, until the machine out of nowhere was removed I want to say a few years later. I had no other option, if I wanted the arcade experience I needed an arcade pad at home, so I bought a Cobalt Flux, the best pad money could buy, and got it shipped from the USA. This was a metal, heavy duty pad; it cost a LOT. But it was worth it and 7/8 years later is still plays as well as it did on the first day.
When SuperNOVA was removed it did however kill the social side of things, and I had to seek other machines in the country to play on, which led to me the London Trocadero, without a doubt the greatest video arcade I’ve ever been to which has sadly gone now, Southend on Sea, Las Vegas Soho, among others. Interest was beginning to fade as Japan and America continued to get great new games, whereas Konami Europe gave us broken and unplayable conversions. After DDR X2, they stopped production in Europe.
That is until the current mix, Dance Dance Revolution A or Ace as some call it. With the worldwide release that has finally found its way to the U.K., DDR had a surge in popularity, especially within the USA, and birthed major interest in tournaments such as the Konami Arcade Championships, and I have enjoyed seeing the game become as popular as it is so much. Rhythm games never really died but they became a niche at least in the U.K. When I wasn’t playing DDR I was playing Pump It Up, a Korean dance game that came out near the same time as DDR, and I got so good at that that I became one of the best in the UK.
Whilst I can’t play as much as I used to, I still regularly go to Ross’ house to play on his metal pad, I still create stepcharts that are universally praised (and used in some schools in the USA as part of their fitness classes, as a handful of teachers have actively sought permission from me to do so!), and I still follow every bit of news I can, and when I saw the countdown to the 20th Anniversary I knew something special was on the way.
So there’s my story and as long as it is I know I have missed things out, like my milestone first 10 pass, passing a level 18 for the first time, smashing my face into the screen in an arcade and having my nose bleed everywhere or my numerous tournament wins. I’ve met some of the best people in my life whether they be in person such as Ross or over the Internet such as Sarah and I’m so thankful to DDR for that. I’m so excited to be able to celebrate and participate in the anniversary event going on right now whilst in Japan for the next few weeks. Akihabara is calling me more than it ever has!
I’ve enjoyed reading everybody else’s posts, stories and experiences and I might look back on this post in a years time, or 5 years time, and cringe, but one thing is guaranteed, and that is that I will still be playing, because if I’m not bored of it after 18 years I never will be.
Thank you and happy 20th anniversary to Dance Dance Revolution.
I'll copy and paste my VERY long story I put on Facebook!
----------------------------------------------
So it’s Dance Dance Revolution’s 20th anniversary today and since everyone is posting their stories this is the perfect time to tell mine I guess!
I first played DDR, Dancing Stage in Europe, in 2000. It was in Great Yarmouth, near the pier, and I got my ass handed to me playing It’s Like That on Basic. I was 7 or 8 and took the boos that the in game crowd made personally aha, and I decided I hated the game. But something about it obviously intrigued me, as a while later my local arcade Hollywood Bowl got a EuroMIX cabinet and it suddenly became my obsession.
I got good very very quickly, and was busting out songs on Difficult fairly soon. I would beg my parents to take me to Hollywood Bowl just to play a round. I would get huge crowds; in its infancy playing anything above Basic was enough to get people watching.
My addiction got even worse when I was bought the Playstation version of EuroMIX, and whilst it didn’t include a bunch of my favourite songs from the arcade version (RIP Captain Jack) and was as basic as a game could get, I loved hooking my soft mat up and practicing. My addiction was being noticed in primary school too, as during a free lesson I scribbled down the lyrics to Do It All Night by E-Rotic, my teacher found it and called my parents in to ask what the fuck I was doing righting down these very very sexual lyrics.. I was like 8/9!! I didn’t know any better!
The first time I spotted a EuroMIX 2 machine I lost my shit, I believe I was in Milton Keynes, and I heard Cotton Eyed Joe whilst in an arcade. I followed the music and found it and was awestruck. This was very early internet days so I had no idea a second mix was even out! My Hollywood Bowl got it not long after and suddenly its popularity skyrocketed, and I continued to get better.
My setlist was usually Crash! (Awful song), B4U (ZA B4 BEAT MIX), and MAX 300 on Difficult. By this point I also owned Party Edition on the PlayStation and had gotten to beating some songs on expert, but MAX 300 was something I was shocked by when I first saw it. How could a song be that fast! Laughable really that we now have songs that scroll at 600, 800, 1200 beats per minute aha.
Fast forward to secondary school and the PlayStation 2, at this point I was an expert, I could pass the boss songs (barely mind you!) and had even downloaded Stepmania, a free game on PC where you could and still can download songs and packs and play at home on keyboard. I used it as practice, I’d use two fingers as if they were legs so I could understand the patterns the game was trying to get me to do better so when I were on my feet I could nail the tough sections. Around this time I was also beginning to make my own custom files for Stepmania and whilst they were trash, eventually I got half decent and landed a paid job at Flash Flash Revolution, a DDR clone for web browsers, designing stepcharts, and to this day I still make stepcharts, albeit to a much higher quality, and regularly get donations from other players and requests.
Around the time of the PS2 however, I somehow got my friend from school Dom into the game, and it was like I took him under my wing. I watched him progress as I did, I enjoyed having somebody into it too, and we ended up looking forward to spending our minuscule pocket money on arcade sessions at the weekends.
When I heard about the next game in the series, Dancing Stage SuperNOVA, I was extremely excited, this wasn’t a dumbed down version of the Japanese games like we got with EuroMIX, this was a worldwide release. I emailed Hollywood Bowl about it and to my surprise they actually ended up getting the machine, the first one in the world [I believe], and included quotes from my email in the promotion for it. It felt awesome to be heard and when I walked in and finally laid eyes on the machine my heart leapt out of its chest!
Many a weekend would be spent here, and this would be Dom’s first time playing on the arcade version.. He promptly tried to hit the left arrow, overstretched, fell off the machine and proclaimed “this game is shit”. But he dusted himself off, got back on and progressed even further, even managing to beat 10 footers, which were back in the day the hardest rating songs you could find outside of Stepmania and In The Groove, another DDR clone.
We had Christmas meetups at Hollywood Bowl for the various other players that frequented the arcade, including my friend Ross who I met there, until the machine out of nowhere was removed I want to say a few years later. I had no other option, if I wanted the arcade experience I needed an arcade pad at home, so I bought a Cobalt Flux, the best pad money could buy, and got it shipped from the USA. This was a metal, heavy duty pad; it cost a LOT. But it was worth it and 7/8 years later is still plays as well as it did on the first day.
When SuperNOVA was removed it did however kill the social side of things, and I had to seek other machines in the country to play on, which led to me the London Trocadero, without a doubt the greatest video arcade I’ve ever been to which has sadly gone now, Southend on Sea, Las Vegas Soho, among others. Interest was beginning to fade as Japan and America continued to get great new games, whereas Konami Europe gave us broken and unplayable conversions. After DDR X2, they stopped production in Europe.
That is until the current mix, Dance Dance Revolution A or Ace as some call it. With the worldwide release that has finally found its way to the U.K., DDR had a surge in popularity, especially within the USA, and birthed major interest in tournaments such as the Konami Arcade Championships, and I have enjoyed seeing the game become as popular as it is so much. Rhythm games never really died but they became a niche at least in the U.K. When I wasn’t playing DDR I was playing Pump It Up, a Korean dance game that came out near the same time as DDR, and I got so good at that that I became one of the best in the UK.
Whilst I can’t play as much as I used to, I still regularly go to Ross’ house to play on his metal pad, I still create stepcharts that are universally praised (and used in some schools in the USA as part of their fitness classes, as a handful of teachers have actively sought permission from me to do so!), and I still follow every bit of news I can, and when I saw the countdown to the 20th Anniversary I knew something special was on the way.
So there’s my story and as long as it is I know I have missed things out, like my milestone first 10 pass, passing a level 18 for the first time, smashing my face into the screen in an arcade and having my nose bleed everywhere or my numerous tournament wins. I’ve met some of the best people in my life whether they be in person such as Ross or over the Internet such as Sarah and I’m so thankful to DDR for that. I’m so excited to be able to celebrate and participate in the anniversary event going on right now whilst in Japan for the next few weeks. Akihabara is calling me more than it ever has!
I’ve enjoyed reading everybody else’s posts, stories and experiences and I might look back on this post in a years time, or 5 years time, and cringe, but one thing is guaranteed, and that is that I will still be playing, because if I’m not bored of it after 18 years I never will be.
Thank you and happy 20th anniversary to Dance Dance Revolution.
Post #2 · Posted at 2018-09-26 09:50:08pm 5.5 years ago
 01angel | |
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I put mine on this thread: https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/thread?threadid=10023&page=6#p418251
Post #3 · Posted at 2018-09-26 11:57:40pm 5.5 years ago
I started playing DDR in 2000, when I was 6 years old. My first ever game was DDR 3rd Mix for the PS1. I had great times playing with my older brother, even though we could only play up level 6 or 7 on soft pad (we were afraid of songs like PARANOiA Rebirth o AFRONOVA). Then we continue to collect the rest of japanese PS1 games + KONAMIX, until we had them all. My favorite songs at that time were Boom Boom Dollar (K.O.G. G3 MIX), Do It All Night, Dam Dariram, Together & Forever, Furuhata's Theme and Healing Vision.
Then, when the games do the jump to the PS2 I lost the track of DDR due to not having a PS2, and that in city, the only DDR arcade was an old 3rdMIX that didn't function well. So I stop playing and knowing anything about DDR, until I had a PS2 in 2008 when I as 14 years old and my brother gave me DDR SuperNOVA 2 US as a gift. At that time, my real addiction began. I had all the PS2 games, US and JP versions, I discovered Stepmania and began to make simfiles, I discovered that there were other BEMANI games (I had all the console games at that time) and that is until now.
I live in Peru, so I have no access to any modern arcade game, so the best I have is an old DDR EXTREME AC, a SuperNOVA2 JP AC and a X2 US AC. Now I have 24 years old and I'm still following the news and playing all the songs on Stepmania.
DDR was a very big and important part of my life, and I'm very grateful that I discovered it. I can't imagine how would I be without this game. Happy 20th anniversary, Dance Dance Revolution!
(English is not my native lenguage, so sorry if something is wrong
)
Then, when the games do the jump to the PS2 I lost the track of DDR due to not having a PS2, and that in city, the only DDR arcade was an old 3rdMIX that didn't function well. So I stop playing and knowing anything about DDR, until I had a PS2 in 2008 when I as 14 years old and my brother gave me DDR SuperNOVA 2 US as a gift. At that time, my real addiction began. I had all the PS2 games, US and JP versions, I discovered Stepmania and began to make simfiles, I discovered that there were other BEMANI games (I had all the console games at that time) and that is until now.
I live in Peru, so I have no access to any modern arcade game, so the best I have is an old DDR EXTREME AC, a SuperNOVA2 JP AC and a X2 US AC. Now I have 24 years old and I'm still following the news and playing all the songs on Stepmania.
DDR was a very big and important part of my life, and I'm very grateful that I discovered it. I can't imagine how would I be without this game. Happy 20th anniversary, Dance Dance Revolution!
(English is not my native lenguage, so sorry if something is wrong
)
Post #4 · Posted at 2018-09-27 02:03:17am 5.5 years ago
| PixelAndy | |
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I have a (kinda weirdly structured [and very shortened]) story on my Twitter.
Here's a more complete version of it.
You see, I discovered DDR when I was only 4 years old. A popular movie theater from a nearby city had a bunch of arcade machines; in between them, they had 3rd Mix. And it caught my attention.
The thing is...I (obviously) didn't know how to play. And I couldn't play.
My tiny legs didn't reach the arrows on the pad.
But still, something about that game peaked my interest.
This lasted aprox. 3-and-a-half years.
After those 3-and-a-half years, suddenly, without warning, all machines just kind of...disappeared.
Yet, I still was quite interested in DDR.
All I had then was the internet and YouTube.
I spent a lot of time growing up just "seeing the series continue to grow up from afar". It's in this time that I discovered the rest of the BEMANI games and this site, though that's not too important now.
Basically, it was like I was there, experiencing a lot of important moments in the DDR community, despite the fact that I had almost never played seriously.
Around late 2015, me and my family discovered an arcade not far from where we lived, so we decided to go there.
The few times I went there, I played on an ITG machine that had songs up to X3, plus a PIU machine. It was through these games that I slowly got better at dancing games.
A year later...
An arcade was finally opened in the same building as the movie theater from before.
(Well, ain't that closure.)
In there, they had a lot of games, most of which were used frequently, and others...not so much.
But, almost like it was destiny, in a corner, I see two machines.
Pump It Up.
And DanceDanceRevolution.
Sadly though, this machine was short lived.
It was soon replaced with an ITG3/Stepmania machine with more songs.
And now, I am here.
I do not believe I am the person most equipped to be here, saying this.
I know that my experience with DDR was very distanced.
But still...I want to say this.
Happy 20th Birthday, DDR.
Despite all of this that I have wrote, I still want to thank you for bringing me joy all these years.
Here's a more complete version of it.
You see, I discovered DDR when I was only 4 years old. A popular movie theater from a nearby city had a bunch of arcade machines; in between them, they had 3rd Mix. And it caught my attention.
The thing is...I (obviously) didn't know how to play. And I couldn't play.
My tiny legs didn't reach the arrows on the pad.
But still, something about that game peaked my interest.
This lasted aprox. 3-and-a-half years.
After those 3-and-a-half years, suddenly, without warning, all machines just kind of...disappeared.
Yet, I still was quite interested in DDR.
All I had then was the internet and YouTube.
I spent a lot of time growing up just "seeing the series continue to grow up from afar". It's in this time that I discovered the rest of the BEMANI games and this site, though that's not too important now.
Basically, it was like I was there, experiencing a lot of important moments in the DDR community, despite the fact that I had almost never played seriously.
Around late 2015, me and my family discovered an arcade not far from where we lived, so we decided to go there.
The few times I went there, I played on an ITG machine that had songs up to X3
A year later...
An arcade was finally opened in the same building as the movie theater from before.
(Well, ain't that closure.)
In there, they had a lot of games, most of which were used frequently, and others...not so much.
But, almost like it was destiny, in a corner, I see two machines.
Pump It Up.
And DanceDanceRevolution.
Sadly though, this machine was short lived.
It was soon replaced with an ITG3/Stepmania machine with more songs.
And now, I am here.
I do not believe I am the person most equipped to be here, saying this.
I know that my experience with DDR was very distanced.
But still...I want to say this.
Happy 20th Birthday, DDR.
Despite all of this that I have wrote, I still want to thank you for bringing me joy all these years.
Post #5 · Posted at 2018-09-27 03:05:48am 5.5 years ago
| PaperSak | |
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Member |
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Last updated: 2018-09-27 03:09am
I think I was done with freshman year in high school just entering cringe phase but realizing I was cringe all the way up to that point. I'd always wanted to play DDR because it looked really fun but I didn't want to do badly in front of people. The opportunity arose at an amusement park with an arcade most kids probably ignored because they were outside being amused. But I don't know, it was hot outside or something, I didn't like people enough to be hanging out with anyone at the time, and I went inside to find a DDR Extreme machine in the center. And arrows were mashed! Many of them missed! But I was going to be okay at that game before I left. It was actually fun.
A lot of the details are fuzzy for then 'cause that was like... 13 years ago? Somehow I got my sister and my cousin into it, and at some point a guy told me that his friends all go to a different arcade on Friday nights. A real arcade, even, not the kind that is just in an amusement park. And after that I met a whole group of complete strangers just under my age who all had this in common with me. It was amazing, like, there was no such thing as nerds at my elementary school. It was just "nerd." These new people at this arcade were all into games and anime like me. Granted I did eventually find some at my high school, but this was an entire pool of people I wanted to talk to all at once.
I met friendly people, crazy people, sketchy people, crazy sketchy people, just kept meeting people because DDR was such a niche game that if you found somebody else who liked it it made you unique and part of the squad. This sort of bleeds in to the background dancer subset fandom. Those people are uh... all kinds of goofy (of course including myself), but you were one rare gem if you were a DDR character artist. My art sort of fades into the background of other fandoms, but in the DDR character group you eventually just knew everyone that liked characters. The first road trip I went on ever was to meet one of them in real life and I had a blast.
Another fun thing about the background characters are just the fact that they reminded me of my friends. Not so much they matched personalities or anything but just this random group of people who have nothing in common other than they're all part of this game. Zero's DDR X story helped iron that feeling into place. Sometimes my fanfics that ranged from cute to awful were inspired by my friends and how I felt about them.
Somewhere around college, my sister and my now-husband were learning Japanese all while I was erm, following some of the character artists. Leeching their knowledge, I still can't read worth a dime but I was able to draw chat with one of them and even go to Comic Market to say, in person, how big a fan I was. Like, even now, I'm still probably weeb-level Japanese but some of those artists talk to me and remember me anyway. It's crazy how some of them hover around my age and I've been following them for so long, sometimes noticing posts about how they're growing up, too...
Nowadays I have friends all out of school and some of them with machines in their basement, grinding away at those streams. Pokken has kind of made me a potato, but I still look back on how much DDR and its fans changed my life, directly and indirectly.
As of this year, I live walking distance from that old arcade I went to every Friday. The arcade long since went out of business, but it's crazy that I can just walk across the parking lot and the bridge that my friends used to.
Time goes by so fast. ;______; Happy 20th birthday, DDR. I'ma go cry now.
A lot of the details are fuzzy for then 'cause that was like... 13 years ago? Somehow I got my sister and my cousin into it, and at some point a guy told me that his friends all go to a different arcade on Friday nights. A real arcade, even, not the kind that is just in an amusement park. And after that I met a whole group of complete strangers just under my age who all had this in common with me. It was amazing, like, there was no such thing as nerds at my elementary school. It was just "nerd." These new people at this arcade were all into games and anime like me. Granted I did eventually find some at my high school, but this was an entire pool of people I wanted to talk to all at once.
I met friendly people, crazy people, sketchy people, crazy sketchy people, just kept meeting people because DDR was such a niche game that if you found somebody else who liked it it made you unique and part of the squad. This sort of bleeds in to the background dancer subset fandom. Those people are uh... all kinds of goofy (of course including myself), but you were one rare gem if you were a DDR character artist. My art sort of fades into the background of other fandoms, but in the DDR character group you eventually just knew everyone that liked characters. The first road trip I went on ever was to meet one of them in real life and I had a blast.
Another fun thing about the background characters are just the fact that they reminded me of my friends. Not so much they matched personalities or anything but just this random group of people who have nothing in common other than they're all part of this game. Zero's DDR X story helped iron that feeling into place. Sometimes my fanfics that ranged from cute to awful were inspired by my friends and how I felt about them.
Somewhere around college, my sister and my now-husband were learning Japanese all while I was erm, following some of the character artists. Leeching their knowledge, I still can't read worth a dime but I was able to draw chat with one of them and even go to Comic Market to say, in person, how big a fan I was. Like, even now, I'm still probably weeb-level Japanese but some of those artists talk to me and remember me anyway. It's crazy how some of them hover around my age and I've been following them for so long, sometimes noticing posts about how they're growing up, too...
Nowadays I have friends all out of school and some of them with machines in their basement, grinding away at those streams. Pokken has kind of made me a potato, but I still look back on how much DDR and its fans changed my life, directly and indirectly.
As of this year, I live walking distance from that old arcade I went to every Friday. The arcade long since went out of business, but it's crazy that I can just walk across the parking lot and the bridge that my friends used to.
Time goes by so fast. ;______; Happy 20th birthday, DDR. I'ma go cry now.
Post #6 · Posted at 2018-09-27 04:03:29am 5.5 years ago
Post #7 · Posted at 2018-09-27 04:42:29am 5.5 years ago
| DarkFeline | |
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Member |
| 801 Posts | |
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| Reg. 2010-08-31 | |
| "My paw is incompurrable!" | |
I started playing DDR back in 2000 when it was a Christmas gift from my brother. My first mix was the very first: DDR 1st Mix. (This is also the reason why I widely play x1) It took me until 2002 to clear my first Expert chart (Wonderland in 3rd mix) so dedicated to do myself better in DDR since I didn't expect to pull something off like that despite being obese.
I lost interest at around 2003 but my skills were still there so I play in occasion. Once DDR SuperNOVA came out in 2006, I decided to give it a try after a long hiatus. The best part about it is that I was with my friends when I played it. One of them was inspired to replay the game after he had his hiatus as well.
From then on, I would always play DDR (it's been 12 years) and was very grateful to my friend for bringing back DDR to my life.
I lost interest at around 2003 but my skills were still there so I play in occasion. Once DDR SuperNOVA came out in 2006, I decided to give it a try after a long hiatus. The best part about it is that I was with my friends when I played it. One of them was inspired to replay the game after he had his hiatus as well.
From then on, I would always play DDR (it's been 12 years) and was very grateful to my friend for bringing back DDR to my life.
Post #8 · Posted at 2018-09-27 12:18:26pm 5.5 years ago
I've shared this story before, but this time, here is a full description of my DDR history.
The first time I ever heard about DDR was when I was around maybe 5 or 6 back in my hometown. I saw this 3rd Mix machine at my hometown's main mall. I never had a chance to play it, though, because I was too shy and didn't want to let my family and cousins embarrass me to death over that. (yeah, I was a sensitive kid
) Until I was 7, I guess my parents caught on with my DDR interest, or as they would call it "Dance Revo," so they gave me a soft mat, with DDR 1stMIX, 2ndMIX, and BEST HITS. I played those games for HOURS, far longer than all the other PS1 games I had.
And then when I had a PS2, the very first DDR game I got was SuperNOVA. But I didn't bother using my soft mat so I used my controller instead. Then 2007 came, and I got SuperNOVA 2 from my grandfather. Throughout my whole 4th grade, I would play DDR every day, after school, until 7 PM. After that, I played a lot less often. I had Extreme US, Max 2, X, and X2 at the time, but I rarely played on pad. Then by 2012, I just stopped using my soft mat, and my PS2 entirely. And I didn't touch my PS2 again until 2015/2016, which was when I started picking up my DDR games again, and making YouTube videos.
The arcades were a different story. I guess my earliest memory of playing arcade DDR was I think in 2005, when I played DDR Extreme at a mall in Manila, and my dad recorded me playing it. I also remembered playing the other mixes like 2ndMIX, 4thMIX at MGM in Las Vegas, 5th Mix, USA in... the US, and even an In The Groove when I vacationed in Illinois one time. I remembered playing half of those mixes because those memories were before SuperNOVA became a thing. THEN I played SuperNOVA more often than those other mixes. I don't exactly remember when I started playing on the higher difficulties. However, I once played ORION.78 (AMeuro mix) on Difficult, and failed Silent Hill (3rd Christmas Mix) after watching Fungah/ICNH/ddrmast3r do it in Max 2. That was all I remembered, before deciding not to go to arcades again. I didn't even have a chance to play SuperNOVA2 or X.
I pretty much forgot about the arcade scene after that, from 2010-2015, when I finally joined this community. I would read updates on DDR X2 and X3 but I wasn't motivated to play at arcades, even if those machines were in the Philippines already. I would just pass by them and not even bother playing one set at all. I guess it was because I grew shyer as I grew up, and I didn't want to be seen as a scrub. I just dwelled in Stepmania and just make simfiles for myself. However, I still had the game in my mind.
Then Late 2015 came around. I had a week of no classes in college, I was staying at a hotel right beside a mall that had a DDR machine in walking distance, and I thought to myself that I really should play DDR again. So I played the DDR X3 at that mall, and before I knew it, I got hooked to playing DDR at the arcades again. And I started to play at the higher difficulties much more often after years of tapping my feet to practice songs and unconsciously annoying the hell out of everyone I knew.
This video was one my of favorite accomplishments at the time.
3 years later, I'm finally back! Especially with DDR A around, I now go to arcades much more frequently. I finally got to meet the DDR community in person (rather the BEMANI community in the Philippines), and even met the first fellow ZIv member from the Philippines.
Happy 20th Anniversary, Dance Dance Revolution! You made me what I am today. This nostalgia is making me emotional, man.
The first time I ever heard about DDR was when I was around maybe 5 or 6 back in my hometown. I saw this 3rd Mix machine at my hometown's main mall. I never had a chance to play it, though, because I was too shy and didn't want to let my family and cousins embarrass me to death over that. (yeah, I was a sensitive kid
) Until I was 7, I guess my parents caught on with my DDR interest, or as they would call it "Dance Revo," so they gave me a soft mat, with DDR 1stMIX, 2ndMIX, and BEST HITS. I played those games for HOURS, far longer than all the other PS1 games I had. And then when I had a PS2, the very first DDR game I got was SuperNOVA. But I didn't bother using my soft mat so I used my controller instead. Then 2007 came, and I got SuperNOVA 2 from my grandfather. Throughout my whole 4th grade, I would play DDR every day, after school, until 7 PM. After that, I played a lot less often. I had Extreme US, Max 2, X, and X2 at the time, but I rarely played on pad. Then by 2012, I just stopped using my soft mat, and my PS2 entirely. And I didn't touch my PS2 again until 2015/2016, which was when I started picking up my DDR games again, and making YouTube videos.
The arcades were a different story. I guess my earliest memory of playing arcade DDR was I think in 2005, when I played DDR Extreme at a mall in Manila, and my dad recorded me playing it. I also remembered playing the other mixes like 2ndMIX, 4thMIX at MGM in Las Vegas, 5th Mix, USA in... the US, and even an In The Groove when I vacationed in Illinois one time. I remembered playing half of those mixes because those memories were before SuperNOVA became a thing. THEN I played SuperNOVA more often than those other mixes. I don't exactly remember when I started playing on the higher difficulties. However, I once played ORION.78 (AMeuro mix) on Difficult, and failed Silent Hill (3rd Christmas Mix) after watching Fungah/ICNH/ddrmast3r do it in Max 2. That was all I remembered, before deciding not to go to arcades again. I didn't even have a chance to play SuperNOVA2 or X.
I pretty much forgot about the arcade scene after that, from 2010-2015, when I finally joined this community. I would read updates on DDR X2 and X3 but I wasn't motivated to play at arcades, even if those machines were in the Philippines already. I would just pass by them and not even bother playing one set at all. I guess it was because I grew shyer as I grew up, and I didn't want to be seen as a scrub.
I just dwelled in Stepmania and just make simfiles for myself. However, I still had the game in my mind.Then Late 2015 came around. I had a week of no classes in college, I was staying at a hotel right beside a mall that had a DDR machine in walking distance, and I thought to myself that I really should play DDR again. So I played the DDR X3 at that mall, and before I knew it, I got hooked to playing DDR at the arcades again. And I started to play at the higher difficulties much more often after years of tapping my feet to practice songs and unconsciously annoying the hell out of everyone I knew.
This video was one my of favorite accomplishments at the time.3 years later, I'm finally back! Especially with DDR A around, I now go to arcades much more frequently. I finally got to meet the DDR community in person (rather the BEMANI community in the Philippines), and even met the first fellow ZIv member from the Philippines.
Happy 20th Anniversary, Dance Dance Revolution! You made me what I am today.
This nostalgia is making me emotional, man.
