The Shrine

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Since Mental is making some hard metal pads, and Zeus is intrested in imports i wanted to share my experience with some things.

I started playing DDR about 9 months ago. It kinda started with me wanting to prove white people could play the game (specially tall ones =p). I played at the arcade at first, and well i sucked bad, at this time someone informed me about a home version of the game. Finally a couple months later i managed to track down a homepad and the USA mis. So i got that and started playing. I practiced at home quite a bit. Sometimes even going on 2 hour marathons (basic songs were easy =p). At the same time i was going to this side school for Cisco, and alot of the people in the class were into burnt PSX games. I found out about the imports, and bought a copy of 3rd, 4th, and 5th mix. I learned how to do the swap trick on my PSX (which works on every version). SO i practiced on that alot and eventually moved from basic to trick, and finally to maniac. At the same time i started to play at the arcade again. Which took sometime cause i was so used to my home pads size.

The trick to DDR is simply practice, watch other people techniques. Have fun, make sure to drink fluid and strech. Practice at home. Make sure not to care about what other think while you play, and just enjoy. If you do buy a soft DDR pad, a good idea is to mod it, otherwise its going to go bad to quickly. My suggestion is to get a piece of particle board, and tape the pad down to it. And if you have problems keeping your place on the mat, and wonder where your feat are, cut up some card board squares and put those on top of the arrow, if you do it right you will not have any problems.

As for modding your PS2, 6th mix came out a couple of months ago. So i decided to mod my ps2 with a chip. I paid someone to put it in, and they sold me a burnt copy of 6th mix. Its one of the coolest mixes, but its a bitch to pass Max 300 on a soft pad. It cost me $100 when all was said and done, and it was worth it.

DDR is actually slowly dying in the US and Japan. Konami is closing the US coin-op office, which is bad since DDR is losing popularity in Japan. If japan stops making the game that it, cause the US office will not release another US mix. So its gonna be interesting what happens. 7th mix is awesome and has some really fun songs.

To get more info-guides-videos-or ddr news go to www.ddrfreak.com</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I never really got into DDR - was a much bigger Samba fan. Got stuck at that godawful "get 400000 points on the hard version of La Bamba" challenge, though, and haven't picked up my maracas since. I do have DDR and two pads tho, maybe I'll try to get back into it someday.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>If you have the USA mix its hard to get into, thats why i got the imports, much better songs</div>

<div style='font: ; text-align: left; '>http://www.ddrmaniax.net/ - going through some tech problems right now but a good site for news

http://www.dynamik1.com/ddrmaniax/DWI/ - Dance With Intensity - PC DDR simulator. You can find on the net DWI files of all the songs from every mix as well as custom ones that people like me have made

http://www.ddrei.com/ - another good news site and a good site for DWI files from 7th mix and customs

One piece of advice for when you first start to play. Try not to get into the habit of comming back to the center whenever you make a step. Harder songs this wont work for, so get out of the habit before you start</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>lol true that, that holds alot of people behind, specially newbies to the game</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I've been playing DDR since the first one came out...I used to be one of the Saturday night "regulars" at my local arcade. I'm kind of past the whole "scene" now, but I play it to keep in shape.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Woah, DDR "scene"?</div>

<div style='font: 11pt "Fine Hand"; text-align: left; '>"Arcade" scene. But he's distuinguishing himself from the Street Fighter 2 gangs....I guess.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>The people who play it three times a week, who hang out at the arcade and meet people through DDR, who yell "Red Bull Gives You Wings!" as a way to cheer you on while you're playing. As for that last one...don't ask...</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Hi : )

Here's a few other things that might help people just starting with DDR :O

Start with the songs that don't have "trick steps". I.e., all the notes are on eighth and quarter notes. No triplets, no 16th notes, just fast paced stepping. Makes it really easy to get the hang of. Classic examples are Boom Boom Dollar, Butterfly, Hero, Dam Dariram KCP Remix, Do It All Night, etc.

Before DDR MAX/MAX II (6th and 7th Mix) there was no way to tell how much trick steps a song has. Now if you can read the Kanji characters one of them indicate the "Mixture" of a song, pick one that has very little of that for starting songs.

Don't bounce don't hop don't hold on to the bar.

Scratch that. Don't bounce, don't hop, but definately use that bar behind you for balance. Put one hand on that bar and practice getting used to stepping all 4 while maintaining a centering position. This kills your style, but if you are just starting it's a good idea to get a sense of balance.

Eye-Feet Coordination is not as important as you would logically think you need. It's more about getting the basics down then you can do all the songs. Certain songs have certain tricks to it. For example, Paranoia has a part which is just the same sequence 4 times but facing different directions. Afronova has a seemingly tough sequence towards the beginning that could just be done by turning sideways and repeat a few simple steps. Find out the trick to the songs and master it.

Move to harder difficulty as hard as you can possibly get without just standing there and staring and giving up. The harder the songs you do, the faster you learn. Remember, don't start with Drop Out and stand there and go err.... slowly move the difficulty up to the point that you might pass but have a very difficult time at pulling it off, that's how you get better.

And as someone already said... practice practice practice : )

Having girls or friends at the scene usually promote your abilities to perform for some odd reason.

Last but not least, play with a friend. Preferably a friend that is good. Or just a friend that can pass songs on basic modes (not possible to have two separate modes while in USA Mix unless you use "Little"). This way you get to practice and not waste too much money.

I dislike home versions because I have never been able to get a nice pad -_-. Maybe you guys will have nice ones and can just practice at home.

Andy (Credientals: first generation DDR tournament player, So Cal Arcade Infinity/Speed Zone - home of all the latest pirated games from Japan) :O</div>