I still remember the first time I got to play the game -- it was February 23, 2002 at an arcade in Sevierville, TN. I played around on a Pump It Up machine at a Gattitown during a school trip to the area before but, being the Japanophile I was, I craved getting to play an actual game of four-panel, Japanese DDR. I had seen it on the Internet, on Tech TV's Extended Play, and then finally, on that fateful night, in person: (ironically) a Korean 3rd Mix, if I remember correctly. ...but it was DDR! I played either bumble bee or Butterfly and failed horribly. That night was only possible because my mother, sister, and I drove down and stayed at a hotel for an impromptu one-night vacation -- now that I think about it, there were some other notable firsts on that trip: I bought my first Sega Genesis and I got to watch the premiere of Adult Swim Action, experiencing the full, Japanese gloriousness of Outlaw Star's OP, "Through the Night," on American cable TV for the first time (we didn't get Cartoon Network locally -- I'd often have my dad or grandmother tape Toonami or Cowboy Bebop for me -- so it was a big deal).
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| When I was a teenager, Japanese stuff was still pretty niche (especially in Southwest Virginia). Seeing DDR on King of the Hill felt like a glorious affirmation of my interests. |
Dance Dance Revolution has always been a sort of catalyst for me. It seemed to consolidate many of my interests and desires into a single vehicle that influenced my progress and experience in different areas of my life: social interaction (both online and irl), Japan, athleticism, music, philosophy, and, of course, dancing.
I'm really thankful that my family was, for the most part, really supportive with my hobbies. My dad lived in the city so every time we'd go visit, he'd go out of his way to take me to arcades so I could play some DDR. My sister and I spent many, many afternoons and evenings playing DDR at The Stadium, a bowling alley/laser tag/arcade/etc hybrid in Lexington. Since I only got to play when we were traveling, he helped me get a copy of DDR Konamix and a dance pad for the PS1 so I could play at home -- which I did, all the time. Bless my grandparents for their patience and love for us -- we'd be stomping and jumping so hard in the back living room that the entire house would shake!
Around the beginning of 2004, my local Namco-operated arcade in Middlesboro's mall, Aladdin's Castle, got their first DDR machine: DDRMAX2. The same day my sister and I discovered the mall machine, we found out that the Papa John's across the street had a 4th Mix Plus cab. My 13-year-old self was stoked. We went back and played every chance we could -- or rather, my grandparents were awesome enough to drive us over to Middlesboro, wait around for us to play, and then drive us, tired and drenched in sweat, back home. Most of my free time not playing was spent reading through DDR Freak's forums, the local community BBS (KYDDR and TNDDR), or listening to DDR and other anime music at home. Over time, Aladdin's Castle closed and the mall turned the old space into their own game room, choosing to keep a DDR machine. That machine was eventually upgraded to a DDR Supernova cab and was finally removed in 2017, shortly after Diana and I got back from Japan. There were a lot of memories made in old arcade.
Even though I've played a lot over the years, I've often found myself struggling with progression and improvement. My teenage years were defined by one wall in particular: Max 300. This boss song, one marked by a new difficulty level of 10, represented the shift from (then) old DDR and new DDR and required a certain amount of stamina that I just didn't possess at the time. I was able to pass a number of other technically difficult or stamina draining songs, but Max 300 felt like an obstacle I just couldn't overcome. I eventually stopped playing the game as much and got more interested in running (and girls) instead. I'd still play occasionally, especially to show off when me and a group of friends would come across a machine in the wild, but I pretty much limped away with my tail between my legs, defeated...
Earlier this year, I started playing again. Lee, the former manager of Middlesboro's G2K store, threw out this post on FB seeing if there was any interest in getting together for some DDR sessions. I knew Lee was really into rhythm games (the Norton G2K had a Pump It Up machine when I first started school at Wise) so I figured I'd give it a shot. We've been playing pretty consistently, twice a week, since then and I think it's my healthiest and most fulfilling experience with DDR yet. I'm scoring well and passing Max 300 and other difficult songs pretty consistently, but I'm finding a lot of success in trying new things: new songs, new mixes, and even new games like the DDR spiritual successor, In the Groove. I've even been tempted to start playing Pump It Up if we could find some pads or a machine (this is a major shift that my 13-year-old self would never anticipate).
Beyond the fact that we get to play on his Cobalt Flux pads (essentially the holy grail of home pads -- the closest retail option you had next to playing on an actual arcade machine), I think my playing mindset itself has evolved greatly in the time since my stint in 2015. In my opinion, most of that growth came from the experience I had with Dance Dance Revolution during my year in Muroran in Japan -- an experience that changed how I saw the game and, by extension, how I saw my life. More about that next time...
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| An excerpt from my very first LJ post. A wallscroll purchased on that trip is currently hanging in my game room. |
Around the beginning of 2004, my local Namco-operated arcade in Middlesboro's mall, Aladdin's Castle, got their first DDR machine: DDRMAX2. The same day my sister and I discovered the mall machine, we found out that the Papa John's across the street had a 4th Mix Plus cab. My 13-year-old self was stoked. We went back and played every chance we could -- or rather, my grandparents were awesome enough to drive us over to Middlesboro, wait around for us to play, and then drive us, tired and drenched in sweat, back home. Most of my free time not playing was spent reading through DDR Freak's forums, the local community BBS (KYDDR and TNDDR), or listening to DDR and other anime music at home. Over time, Aladdin's Castle closed and the mall turned the old space into their own game room, choosing to keep a DDR machine. That machine was eventually upgraded to a DDR Supernova cab and was finally removed in 2017, shortly after Diana and I got back from Japan. There were a lot of memories made in old arcade.
Even though I've played a lot over the years, I've often found myself struggling with progression and improvement. My teenage years were defined by one wall in particular: Max 300. This boss song, one marked by a new difficulty level of 10, represented the shift from (then) old DDR and new DDR and required a certain amount of stamina that I just didn't possess at the time. I was able to pass a number of other technically difficult or stamina draining songs, but Max 300 felt like an obstacle I just couldn't overcome. I eventually stopped playing the game as much and got more interested in running (and girls) instead. I'd still play occasionally, especially to show off when me and a group of friends would come across a machine in the wild, but I pretty much limped away with my tail between my legs, defeated...
...until 2015, anyways. I had just finished grad school, endured a very brutal (and ultimately life-affirming) quarter-life crisis, and happened to visit an arcade outside of Cincinnati -- Diana and I had been in the area to visit a Japanese art exhibit. This arcade had two DDR cabs, one in the X series and then one I knew like an old friend, DDR Extreme. I spent a lot of time playing that day and found that I could still pass most of my old favorites even after 9+ years of not playing on a regular basis. I still couldn't pass Max 300 (I tried) but I felt like I was in the zone. I drove back up to the arcade a few days later and spent the afternoon playing. After that, I went to Home Depot, bought some lumber, and followed an old Angelfire-hosted tutorial that helped me build my own modded soft pad (exactly what I needed to play harder songs at home on my PS2). My next visit to Cincinnati a few days later included meeting up with a guy I found on Craigslist to buy his Precision Dance Pad (a fan made hard pad) for $250. I was obsessed. DDR, once again, was all I talked about, all I read about, and all I thought about. I officially had caught the bug again and this time, I found results. Finally, at the age of 26, my 13-year-old self was vindicated as I passed Max 300 with a B.
In the following weeks, I managed to pass Max 300 over and over, eventually getting to the point where I could comfortably clear it 4-5 times in a row. A major obstacle had been overcome. But guess what happened next? I lost interest in the game. I went from playing for at least an hour or two a day to playing maybe once a week. By the end of the year, my pads were gathering dust while I found myself facing my next gaming obsession, Final Fantasy XI (and that's a whole different story). What happened? At the time, I saw it was another ebb and flow of my interests and hobbies -- for practically my entire life, I'd move from gaming to music to running to reading back to gaming and so on and so forth, a slave to some intrinsic desire or attachment that I couldn't quite control -- but now I think it's because I had gotten to what I had always thought of as the end of the road. I had spent most of my adolescent life wishing and wanting to beat Max 300, but was that really my ultimate goal? What did beating Max 300 really mean? I wasn't really sure so I moved on.
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| The fateful post. |
Earlier this year, I started playing again. Lee, the former manager of Middlesboro's G2K store, threw out this post on FB seeing if there was any interest in getting together for some DDR sessions. I knew Lee was really into rhythm games (the Norton G2K had a Pump It Up machine when I first started school at Wise) so I figured I'd give it a shot. We've been playing pretty consistently, twice a week, since then and I think it's my healthiest and most fulfilling experience with DDR yet. I'm scoring well and passing Max 300 and other difficult songs pretty consistently, but I'm finding a lot of success in trying new things: new songs, new mixes, and even new games like the DDR spiritual successor, In the Groove. I've even been tempted to start playing Pump It Up if we could find some pads or a machine (this is a major shift that my 13-year-old self would never anticipate).
Beyond the fact that we get to play on his Cobalt Flux pads (essentially the holy grail of home pads -- the closest retail option you had next to playing on an actual arcade machine), I think my playing mindset itself has evolved greatly in the time since my stint in 2015. In my opinion, most of that growth came from the experience I had with Dance Dance Revolution during my year in Muroran in Japan -- an experience that changed how I saw the game and, by extension, how I saw my life. More about that next time...
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