Making the jump from DDR/ITG to Pump

Hey there folks.

I have been playing DDR and ITG for the last 5 years (The last 2 years not so much) however I have recently moved to Coventry and the only game available here is a wonderful condition NX2 on 3 credits for a pound (2 songs per credit with a bonus stage possible)

I have never really been a huge pump player, I went on it now and again (mainly on Exceed) but I could never really get into it as if I had a choice I would always get on a DDR or ITG machine.

As a DDR player I used to be able to pass most songs on expert bar Parinoa Survivor Max Oni, One of the Maxx mixs (Legand?) and a couple of other tens however 9s were comfortable, since then I stoped playing and gained a fair bit of weight, when I came back I have only passed a couple of tens since so my stamina is not the best.

What I am wondering is as follows.

Is there any thing I need to learn as a pump player that I would normally do as a DDR player?

What is the best kind of songs to get me back into it? (I love songs like Starian that is a nice long decent paced run, I am not a fan of jumps due to my size)

The USB slots, will they take any usb?

anything I should watch out for?


Thanks guys and gals

You don't live to far from me, why not continue playing DDR/ITG. There are enough machines near by

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mainly as each one of the DDR machines are a bus/train trip away and also £1, this way (at least for the moment) I get a new experiance, cheap play and somewhere a 10 min walk away.

You have to buy a special USB drive from Andamiro. It's available on their website.

If I remember correctly, Andamiro stopped supported NXA recently, so it stands to reason that NX2 is also no longer supported. In which case, there's no point buying an NX USB drive.

(Fiesta doesn't require a specific USB drive, but Fiesta isn't NX2.)

Welcome back to the scene, Markman

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The main difference is the way streams and crossovers work. If you alternate stepping on arrows with your left and right foot and never double-step, then it's possible to combo almost any stream. Once you've played a lot of low-level crazy songs, and your brain picks up the patterns, it's a lot more natural than DDR.

Some songs around cata level (on crazy) :

Beat # 4
Bust Back
Dr M
Enter The Dragon
Go!
Kiss Me
Typhoon
Vook

Cheers for everything guys, I am going for a small session on Wednesday so I will try a couple of those songs Tyma and I will buy a cheap USB and see if it works, if not, there is always Ebay as I could not find a usb on the Andamiro site.

Nothing except the Andamiro USB will work :{

Well then, time to see if I can get my hands on one

I've only played NX and Fiesta to any extent, I'm not sure what else is on NX2. But:
* Turkey March
* Will-o'-the-wisp (a bit harder)
* Chung Hwa Ban Jeom
* My brother is street singer <3
* Very Old Couples
might be fun.

If at some point you're looking to train stamina, Dignity full (Hard) is really fun but crossoverish.

and Brazen, PIU totally is better than DDR/ITG

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Someone might have said this, but speed mods are not as effective as they are in DDR/ITG, so if you play 3X, you might want to go 5X on PIU.

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I do have a basic knowladge of the game, I know the mods, I can play some songs at an alright (if not impressive level) and I do have a basic grasp of it, the main things I need are just small little prods of good songs, good stamina songs, most common mistakes etc etc

Brazen, yes, you are right, no big deal alright?

I think the most common mistake is that people lean forwards when they go from playing DDR to playing Pump, and use their chest as the center of gravity, instead of the hips. Because the distance from one panel to another is a little bigger in Pump, you have to take a slightly wider stance when you play, and keep your back upright instead of tipping forwards on streams.

Another thing that really seperates DDR from Pump is that in DDR, you never have to deal with jumps that go from both left arrows to both right arrows, which means jumping off both feet and landing squarely on the other arrows. At first, It feels kind of like you're doing a long-jump.

The best way to actually do it is to put the weight into your toes, and push off your toes to slide backwards, and land on the other panel, then put your heels down to stop the slide, as soon as your over the center of the other panels. It's the only step combination on any dance game that you can't bracket, so it's something that turns a lot of ITG players off Pump instantly :{

Haha. The majority of ITG players I know play pump too.

I'd say practice M runs, if anything. It's the only thing I have a problem with now. Love Is A Danger Zone 2 full version has them at the 100BPM part at the beginning, and they should be easy to practice there (I'm don't know of any other examples). LIADZ2 also has a really awkward freeze section that would make good practice if you can learn how to do it. I don't know if that's on the mix you have access to though.

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What's going on Crazy should be pretty easy to get to know.
As should turkey march crazy. (its' just easy 16th patterns)

I've only been playing pump a bit (I'd say maybe 30-50 games in the past year and a bit, very spread out), but I also recently downloaded a few pump sims for 3.9 and played them on the number pad with my fingers as legs. Helped me work out the patterns for crossovers and such.
Then last week I went to play nx2 for a couple of games ($2 per, lol), passed Energizer crazy after failing it twice. (once on the last step)
That was pretty awesome.

There's alot of good songs hidden in there that help you learn how to play and are fun to play once you know.
You need to really look up videos of them though.

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Had a bit of a session today, the machine is NX Absolute. I managed to get a couple of decent songs in (A on Turkey March Crazy, S on Starian Hard, 30 seconds or so into Destiny crazy)

So, as I put the wrong machine, anything else I need to know?

Put the wrong machine?

Try "What's Going On" (crazy) for streams and different crossovers, plus the jumps from one side to the other.

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What I ment Aegis is that I had the wrong machine in mind, I thought it was an NX2 Machine thus thinking it was a completly different set list than it was.

Looking at "What's Going On" it looks like it is within my range (if very very tiring) so I will give that a go tomorrow.

I am also planing on trying some more crazy songs soon, I had a good at Turkey March and I passed it (with a little struggle due to not having it fast enough) but it was doable.