--- 2023 UPDATE --- - ECFA has been rebranded to the International Timing Collective (ITC). International Timing League is the new name of the annual tech event. find out more here: itc.dance/ - A new fork of Stepmania called ITGmania includes fixes, built-in online connectivity and the simply love theme by default. It is now the recommended software to use for ITG. - For those prefering Waterfall, the theme has been expanded with more features. Link down below. - Various links have been updated.
hey man really really great video!!! your presentation is so easy to digest and at such a good pace that this is now my go-to video for getting people caught up with the 4-panel status quo. i hope to see more stuff like this from you in the future!!
Oh my gosh it's kkclue!! Thank you for the kind words! Your DDR controllers video is amazing and was one of the things that inspired this video in the first place! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Cool to see the community still exists. Went to regional tournaments organized on DDRFreak in New England around 2002-2004 playing on 5th-Extreme machines usually focused on Perfect Attack but often with Freestyle competitions as well, super memorable and influential times in my life.
Absolutely man, those were the days of ddr freak and I loved ddr freak radio on live365 back in the day for internet radio! I miss also all the Freestyle videos from jimthefly, nugget, phrekwenci, Mel b, j Dogg, 8 ball and just so many more people....
I do think that the scoring system changes made with 4th and 5th mixes started shifting more focus away from freestyling which I found disappointing IMO. I liked the freestyle stuff more than the perfect attacks, those were too technical for my liking and not enough "flow".
@@delrachdubal Hell yeah bro I forgot all about live365, got into so much music from that site. I remember downloading real player videos of those freestylers at the public library bc that was before the times when everyone had PCs at home.
This video was very well done! Informative, cleanly edited, and shouts out various communities and creators/groups, with all the links provided: 10/10. Thanks for your hard work to keep both novices and veterans of the DDR world aware of the scope of the modern times.
Does anyone remember Flash Flash Revolution? It was probably the first community-driven browser version of DDR back in the mid 2000s. My cousin and I were avid DDR fiends at our local mall's arcade, but between mall time we would log onto AIM to chat and then get on FFR. On dial-up internet speed back then, each song would take like 3-5 minutes to load and synchronize with each other for multiplayer. Good times
FFR still exists as it currently stands within its community - you just cannot play it on most browsers since the depreciation of flash. Which is why they're downloadable Adobe client based now. Anyways, who remembers ThirdStyle? That was basically like FFR until that got shut down for unknown reasons to this day.
While I do appreciate this video. As a 20 year veteran of ddr, I appreciate what roxxor games as done. If it wasn’t for itg I really believe dance would have really died. Sadly having access to ddr is all about luck. Here in the USA arcades are so spread out and not all of them have dance games, you’d have to consider yourself very fortunate to have access to anything modern. That’s why stepmania as flourished as much as it has. The simply love theme offers so much functionality that I can’t believe that it’s actually free. It truly is amazing. That being said, piu needs its own video. As for myself, I started out as a 4 panel player but eventually moved over to piu. I just grew bored of ddr and wanted to push my stamina more. I always felt that ddr didn’t really allow you to that, because back in the day everyone was obsessed with pa’ing and not really caring about difficulty. I know the difficulty has really picked up extreme. Difficulty wise there’s no comparison between ddr and piu. I love the fact that the difficulty ceiling is so high that you can constantly push yourself no matter how good you get really speaks volumes about piu’s replay value. My local d&b only has piu so no complaints here. Sadly we only have maybe 5 serious players. I wish more people played but this isn’t a game for lazy people. I currently have 2 stepmaniax stages at home and primarily switch between doubles and stamina charts. I really wish I had a piu cab at home but my place isn’t big enough to accommodate both so I split my time between playing at home and playing at d&b. I’d say that there are plenty of options today compared to years past if you have the room and willing to learn how to do the maintenance for a cab. I loved the video and its thorough explanations for the different communities. Hoping to see more vids in the future.
It is luck all around the world, unless players buy arcades themselves. However, it makes me quite sad to know that no matter what you or anyone does, the equipment will eventually break down completely. Luckily, new cabs are being made, but to me it feels there’s always a timelimit ticking on when you can’t play anymore.
On a similar note (bum dum tish), I'm glad that the community kept this game and others alive for two decades, but now I feel that there's a massive gulf between anyone starting out and the people who stayed on, got lucky with arcade access, or went hardcore with Stepmania in the interim. I'm just getting back into dance games after a really long hiatus (picked up and dropped some bad habits along the way) and I feel like I'm the only person, at least at my Round1, that's not a total beginner who gets scared after flunking their first song, but not someone who grinds boss songs in their sleep. I just got back in because of the convenient location and the need to get actual cardio in because of me being lazy in my exercise routine with weights only, but the only people I see on the machines these days are the aft-mentioned groups of people. They always existed, but you also had quite a few intermediate players around back in ye olden days of the Bush years that made progress look plausible. Now, unless you're a has-been like me, you're just grinding with no end in sight because the chasm between you and any other player is likely massive if you're not familiar with the antics. I'm used to it after many years of playing, and my goal isn't to PFC some absurd 18 chart with over 900 steps, but I kinda miss the casual times a lot. You could impress and have fun on multiple levels and it was easier to practice at home as a novice. On a side note, the new rhythm games are weird and scary to me as an old man, especially since they're all imports and I never learned moonrunes. 😭
What a fantastic overview of the ITG community in 2021! Your descriptions struck an excellent balance of accurate and engaging, and the videos you used were appropriate and (importantly) representative. I smiled so much while watching - thanks for putting this together. 🙂
Thank you so much for the kind words! The game would not be what it is today without the insane amount of work and love that you and the SL team put towards it.
really good video! although i would like to mention, for the mods part of the video, UKSRT is not the only mods event - there's plenty of other tournaments ran by different creators most are held at Rumble in the Prarie (aka "RIP") at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the spring and fall, although some are held at different locations there hasn't really been a mods tournament since 2019 though due to COVID
Very informative and approachable video on the state of Stepmania play. Nice work! I do have a few corrections to make: - ~11:30 People generally run SM 5.0.12 or 5.1; 5.3 (Outfox) is closed source and still rather split from the general SM5 community atm - ~12:30 Starlight is the name of the theme; our team is called Midflight Digital Thank you for the shoutout for DDR XX btw 🥰
Yeah, I personally use outfox because I don't need anything from source and its just better and keeps getting better. I hope the split stops someday in any shape and form, but with outfox planning to be its own entity using the engine with more game modes I think that just won't happen :(
@@dancingmaractus Outfox is great, it’s frustrating that it’s still closed source though so when I’m not playing BMS files or testing out new features I just use Simply Love on 5.1.
the devs have said they plan on opening the source once they get certain parts finished. haven't looked into that in a while though so it could have changed
Like Dancing Maractus, I'm not interested in using Outfox until it's open-sourced at some point later down the line, if it ever will be. I also respect the Midflight Digital team for all of their work on the Starlight theme and DDR XX song pack. However, I'm still using Simply Love since it's more performance-friendly by default and slightly less buggy (Starlight doesn't use the correct selected noteskin at the time of commenting for me, even after uninstalling/reinstalling).
I've been playing DDR for as long as I've been alive practically, and I was expecting to stop watching the video midway through as it wasn't what i was looking for, but i actually feel like i learned something and think I would refer new players to this video as a primer.
Oldschool ddr player here, this is such a cool video thank you! Glad to know there are still thriving communities out there today. I'm currently trying to price out and compare different metal home pads to figure out which to save up for. I miss the game and can't go to arcades right now. Oh just so you know there was another Stepmania-age (possibly before it) ddr emulator! It was called Dance With Intensity or "DWI". There are some .dwi stepcharts out there still, and they do read in Stepmania. Have a good one, and thanks again for this vid!
Thanks! DWI was the name of the first version of Stepmania if I'm not mistaken, before Stepmania 3.5 and eventually 5. I know some old charts like Emerald Sword and Dokudenpa are in .dwi format. Early 2000s custom files are really fascinating!
@@SylvainHunter ah sure thing ddr fam! Eventually I'm gonna make my own modded rig, and I def will be adding all my dwis to it. Some really neat fan creations yeah (and some that are impossibly hard if not on a keyboard tbh). One I play on stepmania all the time is this one pacman one, tho can't remember if dwi or not. It's a great vibe.
Those were the days, when on the school computer back in 2005, wouldn't load stepmania, but it would load DWI because it was less intense resource wise than Stepmania. I still play DDR on and off though I started in 2005. The best Home Pad all around right now is the L-Tek pad, followed by the Stepmaniax Pad, then an actual Arcade Pad. If you can somehow find a MyMyBox Blueshark Metal Pad, that is better than the L Tek but very rare to find anymore. Cobalt Flux's are Good, but the price they go for now you might as well get an L Tek, it's way better and they just got improved from the drifting -1000mhz adreno problem in which even before the fix, was way more accurate and responsive than the Flux. L Tek is the Best bet overall for Performance and Price. The Sensitivity out of the Box Stock is good enough, and it can have a Penny Mod to make it even more responsive. L Tek with shipping and taxes is probably $350-$450 but it is well worth it. I personally have one and it's the best you can get besides Blueshark, Stepmaniax pads or an actual machine
@@delrachdubal tysm for this and hello fellow DDR vet! I'll definitely be saving up for an L tek now, I always try to choose consistent quality with stuff like this and hearing use-cases helps clear up that choice for me! Since the pandemic began I haven't been able to play ddr, and I really miss it. 🤟
@@delsings The L Tek is ridiculous and worth the money. Why? The world is upside down, no one knows if there will be another pandemic or something crazy happening to limit arcades being open, thus just leaving the home option. L Tek unmodded is better than a Cobalt Flux especially now that the 1000 mhz pulling adreno problem is fixed. It was already really good before, between the Size of the Panels, the Sensitivity of the Panels right out of the Box, and the fact that there isn't Arcade Sized larger Bracket Screws to trip up your feet make harder songs a BREEZE to play, and the Sensitivity equals that of a MODDED DDR Arcade Cabinet! It's already really sensitive, but if you are looking to increase the sensitivity even more, you have to Penny Mod the Pad which will make it as sensitive as a Stamina Pad that people play in which the slightest bit of weight will trigger it, but this is bad for heavier weighing people and bad for No Bar as it is too much pressure and sometimes you will get pad misses because the arrow is activated at the SLIGHTEST amount of pressure.
Didn't realize I was pushing myself towards Stamina play, I just generally play songs back to back as fast as possible trying to get lamps on my local machine
2:47 the crowd cheer made me laugh! I forgot about how loud it was back on A and A20. A20 Plus really lowered it by a lot. Jokes aside, this was really informative on how Stepmania and its communities work as a whole. Thanks for this vid!
Hey, thanks for the video! I love the coverage here, very inclusive! As far as where I'm at in all this, I'm kinda in the middle of DDR and ITG tech. Thanks for the XX shoutout as well!
Played DDR since DDR Max, super old. I understand having to make newer challenges and difficult songs but I like to move on my pad and dont find much fun and enjoyment in a lot of the newer stuff that requires such restricted/minimal movement in order to hit em that fast. I dont like holding on to the bar. Thats why it was hard for me to beat songs harder than Tribal Style on ITG when it came out. But im a fitness player rather than accuracy, too each is own.
Maybe it is because I am old enough to remember playing the game when it came out in the arcade but I always felt the bar changed the nature of the game. One of the ways the game adds depth to the skill cap is by requiring you to maintain balance while you hit each combo. With the bar it removes that aspect in exchange for a higher ceiling on other skills like sight reading and step speed. Eventually songs got to the point where the bar is almost mandatory.
@@NONO-hz4vo The bar did change the nature of the game, but the nature of the game was meant to be standing on the center panel and returning to it after every step. The game literally teaches you to play this way. So maybe the nature of the game kinda sucked and it's a good thing the community learned to play in other ways?
@@Nifterific The game with the bar and just shuffling your feet a few inches on the most sensitive pad is weak. Sure it is skillful but the strength and balance it requires is far less than playing without it. I prefer a more balanced approach of the two.
@@NONO-hz4vo If it requires less strength and balance I'm sure you could hop on a pad and just start banging out passes on ITG 15s then right? Of course you can't. What you're doing is showing the elitist attitude that plagued the dance game scene back in the mid 2000s and made people hate these kinds of games. It's why so few people play in arcades and people want a setup at home. People like you are a cancer on any video game community. You're not better for playing without the bar dude. Your way of playing isn't inherently superior like you're claiming it is. Having a way you like to play is one thing, shitting on other players like you're in here doing is another.
Appreciate this! I recently got back into playing after not playing regularly for 10ish years and I was blown away by some of the newer songs! Back when I played nearly daily, we rarely used the bar (compared to now when it’s commonplace) and while we went for the AAA there was no marvelous and there were no 16-18 footers. I feel very behind and like I’ll never get to that point (and by behind, I mean right now I’m playing 12 footers regularly with up to 14 mixed in). It’s hard not to feel like you don’t belong anymore when everyone else playing is AAA MFC 16-18 footers and you’re getting AA GFC on 10-12 footers and struggling to keep your stamina up. Granted most of these players are in their 20s and I’m 33 but still!
My sentiments exactly. I haven't played seriously since 2006 and seeing how much the game has changed is almost surreal. Bar holding is accepted and now there's quite a few folks that have entire setups in their homes. I want to get back into it but there's a lot to take in now lol
@@barronmiles7266 I’m getting there! I’ve embraced bar playing and I’m def picking it all back up very quickly. Definitely a challenge to relearn how to use your feet from no bar to bar - but getting there. The good thing is, unlike back when we started playing, people seem to be a lot more accepting of more amateur or casual players, so get back into it!
@@barronmiles7266 I'm curious where you were playing in 2006 that the bar wasn't accepted. Extreme was a few years old by that point, and SuperNOVA was even out by then. ITG had been out for a while and r21 was being phased out in favor of hacked cabs. Everything local plus what I saw online the bar was normal. Either way, the game is a blast and just play how you want to play.
I'm old school DDR and I still play to this day. Good video! People using the bar to keep balance to finish higher tier songs is cool now especially for doubles but I wouldn't feel right using the bar for a whole single play song.
This. Each player does what they want. Personally, I can’t think of it as a “Dance” game if one stays glued ti a bar just moving their feet. Maybe I am one of those stuck on old times that are often mentioned here, maybe this is a scene that is different from the one I was on (or how I do my solo DDR these days)
Dance With Intensity I had to install on the school computer, because they limited the space on the computer for Stepmania or I would have done that. DWI was a great alternative until I got home to play Stepmania back in 2005.
@@delrachdubal I figured out pretty early on that i can run these games straight from a flash/portable drive. Stepmania ate up to much memory on my school log-in!
Anyways, having finished the video, really good job explaining the different parts of the modern DDR community. I would say my experience in the community is questionable but that's probably because I'm among the outliers within the main community since I just like to play DDR as it is and practice using Stepmania at least once weekly. I don't have a pad, but that doesn't stop me and I do have an arcade that lets me test out my skills, so I have a way to test the results of my training. But I do a lot of things that a lot of DDR players don't handle too well. I exaggerate a lot for the fun of it but in the end, it's my goal to clear every song and chart without the bar, and I tend to see the fun in every kind of chart, whether tech, stamina or mod (gimmick) charts. Kudos to all fellow no bar players, keep on dancing!
@@VideoGameStarChannelSupreme Also my friend, if you can afford one, the L Tek is the way to go. Though it is $350-$450 with shipping and taxes included, it's well, well, well worth the money!
I play DDR almost everyday at the arcade in 2022. For fun and for excercise. I love it and have met so many cool people playing it. Even met some nice women on the ddr cab 😉
😆 yeah some of us like to refer to this as the new age "bridge club" just to stay social and active. Continuing to play DDR is how I'm going to maintain my cognitive function as I age.
Thanks for the update!!! I'm happy to see how much it evolved. I want to get more into it again because it's just a wonderful game and it seems the community is so supportive. I stopped at DDR 7 xD
I'm an etterna/osu mania/quaver player and it always fascinated me how while ddr is so similar in some ways, that a simple change in controller drastically impacts not only how songs have to be mapped, but how they're played. The fact that some inputs which are challenging but stil very doable become this insane is really cool.
Incredible video, thank you for this! I hope many people end up seeing this, you've made quite the comprehensive overview of 4-panel gaming in the 2020s. Great clip choices too. ^^
I haven’t play ddr since 2008 and i retire from it . I thought ddr was done but it's going strong and i'm happy. I'm coming back to ddr i miss it so much.
I LOVE DDR!!! As a member of the OLD SCHOOL community (foam mat+DDRMAX on PS2) the level of skill people have achieved blows my mind. I am still playing but I might have to join the community because I'm crazy for this game and the feeling it gives me.
I cried when my city removed the last DDR machine in 2018, I no was the best in the world, but I was pretty good and played I played a lot of years... I really miss it☹️💔💔💔
5:19 Most dedicated players use the bar now. Official DDR charts are still designed to be played without the bar, whether it's practical or not. 6:04 Most of these "tech techniques" are present in all official DDR charts, once you reach the level Konami thinks they're appropriate for (without bar). Bar players just solve them with minimal movement.
as a nobar player, i'm annoyed about ur comment! just stop! i get so sick and tired of so many people complain about who uses a bar or not, just be grateful tha game is still alive urrrghhh
@@blakedmc1989DDRHD Stating the objective reality is not complaining, and it's not even an opinion. If people want to play with the bar, no one is stopping them but themselves.
@@illshouyu i only play No Bar because of my Raynauds and i hate every bit of it, if i didn't have Rayauds, u better believe i'll be using a bar all tha time
I want so badly to be able to play some ddr at home, but it feels like every pad option is either bad, very expensive, hard to get a hold of, or requires so much maintenance or effort to be a reasonable option. Frequently they are even multiple of these like how stepmaniax pads go on sale like twice a year and sell out in 40 seconds, or how some hard pads cost 500 bucks and have generally negative receptions. I really hope that some company can finally get accessible, reasonably priced pads that don't suck.
The L Tek is the best option man.... It really is though you are correct for expensive, it is $350-$450 depending on shipping and taxes but it's so good, so so good!
Here is my setup, its pretty cheap and not hard to work with if you dont want a bar, and you might have it all at the house. Usb soft ddr pad Foam workout mat (the high density stuff that slots together Old yoga matt Put the workout mat together so its just a bit bigger than the pad, cut the yoga mat in squares or circles that are roughly the size of the buttons on the matt (you can do just 4 or all of them, i just do 4) then tape the buttons to the back of the matt. Then duct tape the corner or use small screws to fasten the corners to the foam matt. This way you have a nice soft low impact setup that can be tucked away and only cost about 35 bucks. You can also do things like taping the seams of the matt and puttinf tape all along the edges to give it a bit more substance, but its not really nessecary.
5:20-5:24 Laughs in 2005 1x No Bar. Still play No Bar because it's now extremely rare and unique, and past level 15's is where the real fun begins, especially at 235 lbs. The Challenge to me is really fun especially with passing/scoring good on harder songs with that method. Nobarben is a "Marvelous" example of this.
Man I wish Konami would release a newer one for consoles. I had Supernova on PS2 with a soft pad back in high school. I put it in the basement and came back and my parents threw it aways. I always wanted to get a hard pad for it. I still have the actual game and my PS2. I'm going to try and find a new pad and hook it up again.
I haven't played DDR in about 10 years, me and my friends always played more to put on a show by actually dancing on the pads but modern players seem to have lost that by only moving their feet and not actually dancing
Freestyle was and still is incredible haha! From all the Dynamite Rave freestyles to Boom Boom Dollar, to doing the forbidden Matrix Walk on the Machine haha! Those were indeed the days...
Personally, it's because DDR charts just don't lend themselves well to freestyling for most players. They're trying to clear super difficult charts as accurately as possible, and using up even more energy to 'dance' while doing so just gets in the way of the former goal. Besides, Konami literally made a rhythm game named Dancerush that's much more suited for actual dancing.
Yeah if you're wanting more freestyle I suggest dancerush stardom plus with the new e20 machines I would say you can pull off some freestyle because the pads are more sensitive then the older ones. But that's my own personal opinion.
DDR is a rhythm game first so many charts are mostly designed for playing just to complete it optimally. It only takes a few more creative minds to turn any given chart into something than can be Freestyled, of course. I've found some StepmaniaX Full Mode charts are unintentionally designed to be really good for freestyle so the art is not dead lol
The community complains and says past a 9 rating, songs become nearly impossible to score on, and here I am Age 35, 240 lbs and can get a AA+ on Max 300 Expert (Level 15) and can pass 16's and some 17's. All it takes is practice, and to quote undertale.... Determination. No Bar is rare, keep it up and never give up!!!
@@delrachdubal I don't like bar songs. I just like to dance and have fun. When you play bar songs everyone has to to the crab dance and everybody holds the bar and looks the same and it's boring for me. I don't care about getting AAA score on the hardest songs in the game. I play the game to DANCE.
I think DDR isn't the same anymore after naoki maeda left 😔 well, I've been playing DDR since 2002, my fav is 4th plus and max 2. freestyle competition is the most fun event, creating dance routine is the most fun thing to do for me. I think I'm still remember some famous chart such as dam dariram or dynamite rave. because of my limited stamina and speed, the hardest song I can do is maxx unlimited heavy 😂 what a memories.
Great video man!, from what i remember i started playing StepMania since 2009 and if i remember correctly my favorite song back then was MAX 888 even though it didn't had the best chart but it was a time that i only played most of the max and paranoia mixes made by the community. 10 years later i managed to finish that song on pad although ever since i started i played on keyboard on one-handed, never switched or tried index gameplay. But nowdays i'm more on pad playing on Outfox with a ton of variety of songs and it's great to keep going after so many years :)
Funny. I just randomly got back into DDR after not playing for about 15 years. DDR EXTREME for PS2 with pad at a garage sale for 7 bucks. Im addicted again and now looking to get any pad better than the mat.
Thanks for making this! I've been playing on and off forever, but I'm finally gonna take this weekend to create a new PC built specifically for DDR play for all my styles except Etterna! I've been fighting issues around resolution in notITG, offset between DDR, SM, and ITG content, and so on, so making a PC just for this should be super useful, maybe even a modified Windows desktop launcher to let me switch between Outfoxed, Starlight, Waterfall, notITG, and so on. Thanks; I'm gonna keep this bookmarked so that I can more easily show my friends the variety of modern playstyles!
I run Simply Love at 1080p on an i7-3770 and GT 710 (both of which I had lying around), and it’s perfectly smooth (definitely hitting a few hundred FPS, on 5.1 I should mention), so actually the pads are actually the most expensive part for me LOL
Noice video! :D Felt like I learned a fair amount of things about DDR stuffs like a lot of the clients using Stepmania as a baseline, a new client being made to help with mod charts (NotITG), etc.!
nice video! ive been playing 4 key vsrg on keyboard for 2 years now and im itching to get my hands on my own pad. every time i find a DDR/stepmaniaX machine in a mall or arcade I always have such a blast! i look forward to playing through many of the packs you mentioned in this video sometime in the (hopefully) near future!
Bro a new ddr games , with the same vibes of early 2000 era , cool anime effects , cool Japanese songs , for modern consoles would be a dream , I don’t understand why not
WOW. I lost track of DDR and Stepmania back in like 2009. It is now 2023 and just randomly thought, "I wonder what happened to DDR? Does it still exist?" and sure enough it is still around. But what is mind blowing to me is that people use the handlebars now. They didn't back then hehehe
Would have been awesoome in early 90s when techno was full on.late 80s probly to early,but still would have been fun! i think its awesomme,thanx for creatin n sharing.only found this vid lookin 4 my grandchildren a 5yrr n 6yr old they are,a mat hehe.cheers!
Back in 2018 I thought Stepmania’s Note style, was completely original but then I heard about this ddr thing. Took me a while to realize that stepmania was based off of it.
I just bought 2 of the EX Pro models and I was pretty impressed at how fast they came and how well they perform. I doubt there is a better board for the money especially when you consider it should be in your house in 1-2 weeks.
So on a budget(chap dance pad + no handle) would you recommend ddr on pc for exercise? maybe 20 mins a day? Wanted to go outside and run, but this pandemic is very scary.
It may sound ridiculous, but just forgo the pad altogether, and pretend. Nothing is cheaper than free, and unless you buy one of the more expensive pads with panels you can feel the outline of, you may as well just pretend.
Do you know what the green long arrows mean in step mania? They look like the blue ones where you're supposed to hold your foot down, but when I hold my foot down on the green arrows it says "bad". Thanks!!!
Nice video! I really want to get myself an L-Tek so I can play custom songs or even just play DDR without spending money. Lately I’ve been going to Round 1 to play A20. Best experience but you spend money lol but hey its worth it
L-teks cost something like >$400 delivered to the US but they’re what most people use besides SMX stages. You could also always build one yourself, or mod a soft pad by putting wood underneath and vinyl over top to start.
![GEEK TIMË [OFFICIAL AUDIO]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ry-6RvkH880/mqdefault.jpg)
--- 2023 UPDATE ---
- ECFA has been rebranded to the International Timing Collective (ITC). International Timing League is the new name of the annual tech event. find out more here: itc.dance/
- A new fork of Stepmania called ITGmania includes fixes, built-in online connectivity and the simply love theme by default. It is now the recommended software to use for ITG.
- For those prefering Waterfall, the theme has been expanded with more features. Link down below.
- Various links have been updated.
it
hey man really really great video!!! your presentation is so easy to digest and at such a good pace that this is now my go-to video for getting people caught up with the 4-panel status quo. i hope to see more stuff like this from you in the future!!
Oh my gosh it's kkclue!! Thank you for the kind words! Your DDR controllers video is amazing and was one of the things that inspired this video in the first place! Glad you enjoyed it :)
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your that guy!?!?!?
I loved DDR back in 2006 I still play this game till the day I die.
same
Finally, a DDR video that doesn't come off as immature, uninformed, or stuck in the past. Amazing video!
Then everyone would’ve been canceled for grooming lmfao
@@YeungMoni what?
@@YeungMoni Bro, this isn't fnf.
@@YeungMoni???
@@YeungMoniwhat
Cool to see the community still exists. Went to regional tournaments organized on DDRFreak in New England around 2002-2004 playing on 5th-Extreme machines usually focused on Perfect Attack but often with Freestyle competitions as well, super memorable and influential times in my life.
Absolutely man, those were the days of ddr freak and I loved ddr freak radio on live365 back in the day for internet radio! I miss also all the Freestyle videos from jimthefly, nugget, phrekwenci, Mel b, j Dogg, 8 ball and just so many more people....
I do think that the scoring system changes made with 4th and 5th mixes started shifting more focus away from freestyling which I found disappointing IMO. I liked the freestyle stuff more than the perfect attacks, those were too technical for my liking and not enough "flow".
@@delrachdubal Hell yeah bro I forgot all about live365, got into so much music from that site. I remember downloading real player videos of those freestylers at the public library bc that was before the times when everyone had PCs at home.
I still play DDR up to this day at the nearby Round1USA, and I play Stepmania and Pump it Up as well
This video was very well done! Informative, cleanly edited, and shouts out various communities and creators/groups, with all the links provided: 10/10.
Thanks for your hard work to keep both novices and veterans of the DDR world aware of the scope of the modern times.
Does anyone remember Flash Flash Revolution? It was probably the first community-driven browser version of DDR back in the mid 2000s. My cousin and I were avid DDR fiends at our local mall's arcade, but between mall time we would log onto AIM to chat and then get on FFR. On dial-up internet speed back then, each song would take like 3-5 minutes to load and synchronize with each other for multiplayer. Good times
I remember, those FFR charts go crazy 😂
Couldn't find data about when ffr started but stepmania came out 2001. Not sure which was first
FFR still exists as it currently stands within its community - you just cannot play it on most browsers since the depreciation of flash. Which is why they're downloadable Adobe client based now. Anyways, who remembers ThirdStyle? That was basically like FFR until that got shut down for unknown reasons to this day.
I played that so much
While I do appreciate this video. As a 20 year veteran of ddr, I appreciate what roxxor games as done. If it wasn’t for itg I really believe dance would have really died. Sadly having access to ddr is all about luck. Here in the USA arcades are so spread out and not all of them have dance games, you’d have to consider yourself very fortunate to have access to anything modern. That’s why stepmania as flourished as much as it has. The simply love theme offers so much functionality that I can’t believe that it’s actually free. It truly is amazing. That being said, piu needs its own video.
As for myself, I started out as a 4 panel player but eventually moved over to piu. I just grew bored of ddr and wanted to push my stamina more. I always felt that ddr didn’t really allow you to that, because back in the day everyone was obsessed with pa’ing and not really caring about difficulty.
I know the difficulty has really picked up extreme. Difficulty wise there’s no comparison between ddr and piu. I love the fact that the difficulty ceiling is so high that you can constantly push yourself no matter how good you get really speaks volumes about piu’s replay value. My local d&b only has piu so no complaints here. Sadly we only have maybe 5 serious players. I wish more people played but this isn’t a game for lazy people.
I currently have 2 stepmaniax stages at home and primarily switch between doubles and stamina charts. I really wish I had a piu cab at home but my place isn’t big enough to accommodate both so I split my time between playing at home and playing at d&b.
I’d say that there are plenty of options today compared to years past if you have the room and willing to learn how to do the maintenance for a cab. I loved the video and its thorough explanations for the different communities. Hoping to see more vids in the future.
It is luck all around the world, unless players buy arcades themselves. However, it makes me quite sad to know that no matter what you or anyone does, the equipment will eventually break down completely. Luckily, new cabs are being made, but to me it feels there’s always a timelimit ticking on when you can’t play anymore.
@@Jukeboksi not at all. Just learn how to do the maintenance yourself and you’re all set.
@@RyuHirakashi1 Perhaps I should but I won’t
StepmaniaX stages are convertible to PIU pads, iirc. Officially.
On a similar note (bum dum tish), I'm glad that the community kept this game and others alive for two decades, but now I feel that there's a massive gulf between anyone starting out and the people who stayed on, got lucky with arcade access, or went hardcore with Stepmania in the interim. I'm just getting back into dance games after a really long hiatus (picked up and dropped some bad habits along the way) and I feel like I'm the only person, at least at my Round1, that's not a total beginner who gets scared after flunking their first song, but not someone who grinds boss songs in their sleep. I just got back in because of the convenient location and the need to get actual cardio in because of me being lazy in my exercise routine with weights only, but the only people I see on the machines these days are the aft-mentioned groups of people. They always existed, but you also had quite a few intermediate players around back in ye olden days of the Bush years that made progress look plausible. Now, unless you're a has-been like me, you're just grinding with no end in sight because the chasm between you and any other player is likely massive if you're not familiar with the antics.
I'm used to it after many years of playing, and my goal isn't to PFC some absurd 18 chart with over 900 steps, but I kinda miss the casual times a lot. You could impress and have fun on multiple levels and it was easier to practice at home as a novice.
On a side note, the new rhythm games are weird and scary to me as an old man, especially since they're all imports and I never learned moonrunes. 😭
What a fantastic overview of the ITG community in 2021! Your descriptions struck an excellent balance of accurate and engaging, and the videos you used were appropriate and (importantly) representative.
I smiled so much while watching - thanks for putting this together. 🙂
Thank you so much for the kind words! The game would not be what it is today without the insane amount of work and love that you and the SL team put towards it.
Funny how you mention this when title is about DDR. Not ITG.
⬅️⬇️⬆️➡️ 😌💛
really good video! although i would like to mention, for the mods part of the video, UKSRT is not the only mods event - there's plenty of other tournaments ran by different creators
most are held at Rumble in the Prarie (aka "RIP") at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the spring and fall, although some are held at different locations
there hasn't really been a mods tournament since 2019 though due to COVID
Very informative and approachable video on the state of Stepmania play. Nice work!
I do have a few corrections to make:
- ~11:30 People generally run SM 5.0.12 or 5.1; 5.3 (Outfox) is closed source and still rather split from the general SM5 community atm
- ~12:30 Starlight is the name of the theme; our team is called Midflight Digital
Thank you for the shoutout for DDR XX btw 🥰
Yeah, I personally use outfox because I don't need anything from source and its just better and keeps getting better. I hope the split stops someday in any shape and form, but with outfox planning to be its own entity using the engine with more game modes I think that just won't happen :(
@@dancingmaractus Outfox is great, it’s frustrating that it’s still closed source though so when I’m not playing BMS files or testing out new features I just use Simply Love on 5.1.
the devs have said they plan on opening the source once they get certain parts finished. haven't looked into that in a while though so it could have changed
@@werdwerdus this is true still, but I think it'll be awhile
Like Dancing Maractus, I'm not interested in using Outfox until it's open-sourced at some point later down the line, if it ever will be. I also respect the Midflight Digital team for all of their work on the Starlight theme and DDR XX song pack. However, I'm still using Simply Love since it's more performance-friendly by default and slightly less buggy (Starlight doesn't use the correct selected noteskin at the time of commenting for me, even after uninstalling/reinstalling).
I've been playing DDR for as long as I've been alive practically, and I was expecting to stop watching the video midway through as it wasn't what i was looking for, but i actually feel like i learned something and think I would refer new players to this video as a primer.
Oldschool ddr player here, this is such a cool video thank you! Glad to know there are still thriving communities out there today. I'm currently trying to price out and compare different metal home pads to figure out which to save up for. I miss the game and can't go to arcades right now.
Oh just so you know there was another Stepmania-age (possibly before it) ddr emulator! It was called Dance With Intensity or "DWI". There are some .dwi stepcharts out there still, and they do read in Stepmania. Have a good one, and thanks again for this vid!
Thanks! DWI was the name of the first version of Stepmania if I'm not mistaken, before Stepmania 3.5 and eventually 5. I know some old charts like Emerald Sword and Dokudenpa are in .dwi format. Early 2000s custom files are really fascinating!
@@SylvainHunter ah sure thing ddr fam! Eventually I'm gonna make my own modded rig, and I def will be adding all my dwis to it. Some really neat fan creations yeah (and some that are impossibly hard if not on a keyboard tbh). One I play on stepmania all the time is this one pacman one, tho can't remember if dwi or not. It's a great vibe.
Those were the days, when on the school computer back in 2005, wouldn't load stepmania, but it would load DWI because it was less intense resource wise than Stepmania.
I still play DDR on and off though I started in 2005. The best Home Pad all around right now is the L-Tek pad, followed by the Stepmaniax Pad, then an actual Arcade Pad. If you can somehow find a MyMyBox Blueshark Metal Pad, that is better than the L Tek but very rare to find anymore. Cobalt Flux's are Good, but the price they go for now you might as well get an L Tek, it's way better and they just got improved from the drifting -1000mhz adreno problem in which even before the fix, was way more accurate and responsive than the Flux.
L Tek is the Best bet overall for Performance and Price. The Sensitivity out of the Box Stock is good enough, and it can have a Penny Mod to make it even more responsive. L Tek with shipping and taxes is probably $350-$450 but it is well worth it. I personally have one and it's the best you can get besides Blueshark, Stepmaniax pads or an actual machine
@@delrachdubal tysm for this and hello fellow DDR vet! I'll definitely be saving up for an L tek now, I always try to choose consistent quality with stuff like this and hearing use-cases helps clear up that choice for me! Since the pandemic began I haven't been able to play ddr, and I really miss it. 🤟
@@delsings The L Tek is ridiculous and worth the money. Why? The world is upside down, no one knows if there will be another pandemic or something crazy happening to limit arcades being open, thus just leaving the home option. L Tek unmodded is better than a Cobalt Flux especially now that the 1000 mhz pulling adreno problem is fixed. It was already really good before, between the Size of the Panels, the Sensitivity of the Panels right out of the Box, and the fact that there isn't Arcade Sized larger Bracket Screws to trip up your feet make harder songs a BREEZE to play, and the Sensitivity equals that of a MODDED DDR Arcade Cabinet! It's already really sensitive, but if you are looking to increase the sensitivity even more, you have to Penny Mod the Pad which will make it as sensitive as a Stamina Pad that people play in which the slightest bit of weight will trigger it, but this is bad for heavier weighing people and bad for No Bar as it is too much pressure and sometimes you will get pad misses because the arrow is activated at the SLIGHTEST amount of pressure.
Didn't realize I was pushing myself towards Stamina play, I just generally play songs back to back as fast as possible trying to get lamps on my local machine
“Let’s talk about DDR in 2021”
*talks exclusively about ITG*
The whole world dose not have access to actual DDR.
Yeah (I don't either), but Zenius is full of DDR-style charts.
ITG is best
Really really good and much needed video !
Also thanks for featuring my video, I can tell my mom I'm in a hunter production uwu
11:11 hey mom I'm in the video
But no seriously, thank you for being part of the video it was awesome!
2:47 the crowd cheer made me laugh! I forgot about how loud it was back on A and A20. A20 Plus really lowered it by a lot.
Jokes aside, this was really informative on how Stepmania and its communities work as a whole. Thanks for this vid!
That stream setup at 13:05 showing the judgment on each panel is dope!
Hey, thanks for the video! I love the coverage here, very inclusive! As far as where I'm at in all this, I'm kinda in the middle of DDR and ITG tech. Thanks for the XX shoutout as well!
Played DDR since DDR Max, super old. I understand having to make newer challenges and difficult songs but I like to move on my pad and dont find much fun and enjoyment in a lot of the newer stuff that requires such restricted/minimal movement in order to hit em that fast. I dont like holding on to the bar. Thats why it was hard for me to beat songs harder than Tribal Style on ITG when it came out. But im a fitness player rather than accuracy, too each is own.
Maybe it is because I am old enough to remember playing the game when it came out in the arcade but I always felt the bar changed the nature of the game. One of the ways the game adds depth to the skill cap is by requiring you to maintain balance while you hit each combo.
With the bar it removes that aspect in exchange for a higher ceiling on other skills like sight reading and step speed.
Eventually songs got to the point where the bar is almost mandatory.
@@NONO-hz4vo The bar did change the nature of the game, but the nature of the game was meant to be standing on the center panel and returning to it after every step. The game literally teaches you to play this way. So maybe the nature of the game kinda sucked and it's a good thing the community learned to play in other ways?
@@Nifterific The game with the bar and just shuffling your feet a few inches on the most sensitive pad is weak.
Sure it is skillful but the strength and balance it requires is far less than playing without it. I prefer a more balanced approach of the two.
@@NONO-hz4vo If it requires less strength and balance I'm sure you could hop on a pad and just start banging out passes on ITG 15s then right? Of course you can't. What you're doing is showing the elitist attitude that plagued the dance game scene back in the mid 2000s and made people hate these kinds of games. It's why so few people play in arcades and people want a setup at home. People like you are a cancer on any video game community. You're not better for playing without the bar dude. Your way of playing isn't inherently superior like you're claiming it is. Having a way you like to play is one thing, shitting on other players like you're in here doing is another.
Haven't played in 6 years, but I find the bar and minimal movement really boring.
Appreciate this! I recently got back into playing after not playing regularly for 10ish years and I was blown away by some of the newer songs! Back when I played nearly daily, we rarely used the bar (compared to now when it’s commonplace) and while we went for the AAA there was no marvelous and there were no 16-18 footers. I feel very behind and like I’ll never get to that point (and by behind, I mean right now I’m playing 12 footers regularly with up to 14 mixed in).
It’s hard not to feel like you don’t belong anymore when everyone else playing is AAA MFC 16-18 footers and you’re getting AA GFC on 10-12 footers and struggling to keep your stamina up. Granted most of these players are in their 20s and I’m 33 but still!
My sentiments exactly. I haven't played seriously since 2006 and seeing how much the game has changed is almost surreal. Bar holding is accepted and now there's quite a few folks that have entire setups in their homes. I want to get back into it but there's a lot to take in now lol
@@barronmiles7266 I’m getting there! I’ve embraced bar playing and I’m def picking it all back up very quickly. Definitely a challenge to relearn how to use your feet from no bar to bar - but getting there. The good thing is, unlike back when we started playing, people seem to be a lot more accepting of more amateur or casual players, so get back into it!
@@barronmiles7266 I'm curious where you were playing in 2006 that the bar wasn't accepted. Extreme was a few years old by that point, and SuperNOVA was even out by then. ITG had been out for a while and r21 was being phased out in favor of hacked cabs. Everything local plus what I saw online the bar was normal.
Either way, the game is a blast and just play how you want to play.
I'm old school DDR and I still play to this day. Good video! People using the bar to keep balance to finish higher tier songs is cool now especially for doubles but I wouldn't feel right using the bar for a whole single play song.
This. Each player does what they want. Personally, I can’t think of it as a “Dance” game if one stays glued ti a bar just moving their feet. Maybe I am one of those stuck on old times that are often mentioned here, maybe this is a scene that is different from the one I was on (or how I do my solo DDR these days)
YO Thanks for putting some footage from my youtube up on the video! This video is really nice and informal. Good stuff :)
for some reason i find the sound of rapidly stepping on a dance pad satisfying
My first PC based dance game was Dance With Intensity. I still play that and step mania on occasion. It’s been 18+ years! 😅
Dance With Intensity I had to install on the school computer, because they limited the space on the computer for Stepmania or I would have done that. DWI was a great alternative until I got home to play Stepmania back in 2005.
@@delrachdubal I figured out pretty early on that i can run these games straight from a flash/portable drive. Stepmania ate up to much memory on my school log-in!
5:25 No bar player here giving a friendly hi to the community here
Anyways, having finished the video, really good job explaining the different parts of the modern DDR community. I would say my experience in the community is questionable but that's probably because I'm among the outliers within the main community since I just like to play DDR as it is and practice using Stepmania at least once weekly. I don't have a pad, but that doesn't stop me and I do have an arcade that lets me test out my skills, so I have a way to test the results of my training.
But I do a lot of things that a lot of DDR players don't handle too well. I exaggerate a lot for the fun of it but in the end, it's my goal to clear every song and chart without the bar, and I tend to see the fun in every kind of chart, whether tech, stamina or mod (gimmick) charts.
Kudos to all fellow no bar players, keep on dancing!
@@VideoGameStarChannelSupreme Keep on rockin no bar man, DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP! Go out there and give Em a 2005 Ass whipping!
@@VideoGameStarChannelSupreme Also my friend, if you can afford one, the L Tek is the way to go. Though it is $350-$450 with shipping and taxes included, it's well, well, well worth the money!
@@delrachdubal Got it, thanks for the support and suggestions!
as a nobar player myself, i'm sick of people still complaining about Bar USE
i only play nobar because of my Raynauds
This was so helpful as someone who just got their first pad in 15 years. Happy to be back
Man I wish I never stopped. I used to play on the developers machine here in WA. Best I did was a 14. Played since I was like 10.
Great video
it's been over 20 years since first time I played DDR. what a memory...
I play DDR almost everyday at the arcade in 2022. For fun and for excercise. I love it and have met so many cool people playing it. Even met some nice women on the ddr cab 😉
😆 yeah some of us like to refer to this as the new age "bridge club" just to stay social and active. Continuing to play DDR is how I'm going to maintain my cognitive function as I age.
2:34 wow, it me! Fun video, thanks for the feature!
Thanks for the update!!! I'm happy to see how much it evolved. I want to get more into it again because it's just a wonderful game and it seems the community is so supportive. I stopped at DDR 7 xD
Fine, I will get back into it
I'm an etterna/osu mania/quaver player and it always fascinated me how while ddr is so similar in some ways, that a simple change in controller drastically impacts not only how songs have to be mapped, but how they're played. The fact that some inputs which are challenging but stil very doable become this insane is really cool.
Incredible video, thank you for this! I hope many people end up seeing this, you've made quite the comprehensive overview of 4-panel gaming in the 2020s. Great clip choices too. ^^
Brilliant video with really good insight on the whole scene. Much appreciated!
Thanks for this video. I've played DDR since the early days and am diving back in a bit. The bar was super off limits back then haha
don't let his propaganda convince you otherwise, the bar will always be cringe
Just what I wanted an informed video on this community I didn’t really know existed
I haven’t play ddr since 2008 and i retire from it . I thought ddr was done but it's going strong and i'm happy. I'm coming back to ddr i miss it so much.
I LOVE DDR!!! As a member of the OLD SCHOOL community (foam mat+DDRMAX on PS2) the level of skill people have achieved blows my mind. I am still playing but I might have to join the community because I'm crazy for this game and the feeling it gives me.
Blimey, just discovered my old dance mat’s They are Fire!! Those were the days, mate. Pure nostalgia, innit
Everyone's a FA or stamina and then theres me playing kick the can for fun...
As long as you're having fun that's all that matters!
I remember getting something like 5 greats on that song a while ago. No shame in playing easy songs!
I cried when my city removed the last DDR machine in 2018, I no was the best in the world, but I was pretty good and played I played a lot of years... I really miss it☹️💔💔💔
5:19 Most dedicated players use the bar now. Official DDR charts are still designed to be played without the bar, whether it's practical or not.
6:04 Most of these "tech techniques" are present in all official DDR charts, once you reach the level Konami thinks they're appropriate for (without bar). Bar players just solve them with minimal movement.
as a nobar player, i'm annoyed about ur comment! just stop! i get so sick and tired of so many people complain about who uses a bar or not, just be grateful tha game is still alive urrrghhh
@@blakedmc1989DDRHD Stating the objective reality is not complaining, and it's not even an opinion. If people want to play with the bar, no one is stopping them but themselves.
@@illshouyu oh i see
@@illshouyu i only play No Bar because of my Raynauds and i hate every bit of it, if i didn't have Rayauds, u better believe i'll be using a bar all tha time
Modern DDR is driving 200 miles to your closest machine.
i love that there are fewer ddr players now, that means i always get as many turns as i want!
Haven’t heard Sakura in like 15 years so many memories hearing that in the background! Good video.
I'll forever associate holding onto the bar with mid noughties chavs playing Afronova 😅
This is a well made video. I am considering buying a pad and wanted more info and this video helps!!
Cool video, and thanks for including some clips from my stream! 😀
No prob! Your stream is a visual marvel and you deserve a lot more love!
I want so badly to be able to play some ddr at home, but it feels like every pad option is either bad, very expensive, hard to get a hold of, or requires so much maintenance or effort to be a reasonable option. Frequently they are even multiple of these like how stepmaniax pads go on sale like twice a year and sell out in 40 seconds, or how some hard pads cost 500 bucks and have generally negative receptions. I really hope that some company can finally get accessible, reasonably priced pads that don't suck.
The L Tek is the best option man.... It really is though you are correct for expensive, it is $350-$450 depending on shipping and taxes but it's so good, so so good!
Here is my setup, its pretty cheap and not hard to work with if you dont want a bar, and you might have it all at the house.
Usb soft ddr pad
Foam workout mat (the high density stuff that slots together
Old yoga matt
Put the workout mat together so its just a bit bigger than the pad, cut the yoga mat in squares or circles that are roughly the size of the buttons on the matt (you can do just 4 or all of them, i just do 4) then tape the buttons to the back of the matt. Then duct tape the corner or use small screws to fasten the corners to the foam matt.
This way you have a nice soft low impact setup that can be tucked away and only cost about 35 bucks. You can also do things like taping the seams of the matt and puttinf tape all along the edges to give it a bit more substance, but its not really nessecary.
5:20-5:24 Laughs in 2005 1x No Bar. Still play No Bar because it's now extremely rare and unique, and past level 15's is where the real fun begins, especially at 235 lbs. The Challenge to me is really fun especially with passing/scoring good on harder songs with that method. Nobarben is a "Marvelous" example of this.
Yeesss. No bars baby!
I too appreciate the added physical challenge of no bar.
lol i’ve seen nobarben whenever i go to the arcade
I only ever use the bar for flips and tricks.
most of these nobar players who complans about people who plays on bars kinda makes me look bad even though i'm a nobar player myself
Man I wish Konami would release a newer one for consoles. I had Supernova on PS2 with a soft pad back in high school. I put it in the basement and came back and my parents threw it aways.
I always wanted to get a hard pad for it. I still have the actual game and my PS2. I'm going to try and find a new pad and hook it up again.
I haven't played DDR in about 10 years, me and my friends always played more to put on a show by actually dancing on the pads but modern players seem to have lost that by only moving their feet and not actually dancing
Freestyle was and still is incredible haha! From all the Dynamite Rave freestyles to Boom Boom Dollar, to doing the forbidden Matrix Walk on the Machine haha! Those were indeed the days...
Personally, it's because DDR charts just don't lend themselves well to freestyling for most players.
They're trying to clear super difficult charts as accurately as possible, and using up even more energy to 'dance' while doing so just gets in the way of the former goal.
Besides, Konami literally made a rhythm game named Dancerush that's much more suited for actual dancing.
Yeah if you're wanting more freestyle I suggest dancerush stardom plus with the new e20 machines I would say you can pull off some freestyle because the pads are more sensitive then the older ones. But that's my own personal opinion.
DDR is a rhythm game first so many charts are mostly designed for playing just to complete it optimally. It only takes a few more creative minds to turn any given chart into something than can be Freestyled, of course. I've found some StepmaniaX Full Mode charts are unintentionally designed to be really good for freestyle so the art is not dead lol
I still play ddr on my PS2. I have all the games released for the console. I play the new ddr at Dave n Busters. I NEVER use the bar lol.
The community complains and says past a 9 rating, songs become nearly impossible to score on, and here I am Age 35, 240 lbs and can get a AA+ on Max 300 Expert (Level 15) and can pass 16's and some 17's. All it takes is practice, and to quote undertale.... Determination. No Bar is rare, keep it up and never give up!!!
@@delrachdubal I don't like bar songs. I just like to dance and have fun. When you play bar songs everyone has to to the crab dance and everybody holds the bar and looks the same and it's boring for me. I don't care about getting AAA score on the hardest songs in the game. I play the game to DANCE.
I only touch the bar for freestyling tricks, never for support.
I really wish i kept my game now :(((((( so hard to find
@@yourstruly9978 good luck tryin' to No Bar び Challenge on DDR A20 lol
Great video! Glad to see a familiar face from the ECFA discord. You made this video a very appropriate length.
Man. I’m such a old school that only plays song list from DDR Supernova 2 and under. 😂
I appreciate the breakdown of the naming of the various versions / iterations of this game.
Freestyle and Doubles are my favorite! I'm disheartened to learn that they're only popular enough to get a 10-second mention. 😭
Check out Marc Ribellet "Flamingo"
loved the video! been getting into pad play recently and have been enjoying it
I think DDR isn't the same anymore after naoki maeda left 😔
well, I've been playing DDR since 2002, my fav is 4th plus and max 2. freestyle competition is the most fun event, creating dance routine is the most fun thing to do for me. I think I'm still remember some famous chart such as dam dariram or dynamite rave. because of my limited stamina and speed, the hardest song I can do is maxx unlimited heavy 😂
what a memories.
Nice vid. Shoutouts to the DDR Supernova Machine at the MTL Forum
Don't remind me...
I miss the old days of arcade gaming. I remember going to the local mall to play 3rd strike and MvC2 and the DDR arcade was packed! Awesome crowd! 😊
Great video man!, from what i remember i started playing StepMania since 2009 and if i remember correctly my favorite song back then was MAX 888 even though it didn't had the best chart but it was a time that i only played most of the max and paranoia mixes made by the community. 10 years later i managed to finish that song on pad although ever since i started i played on keyboard on one-handed, never switched or tried index gameplay. But nowdays i'm more on pad playing on Outfox with a ton of variety of songs and it's great to keep going after so many years :)
Funny. I just randomly got back into DDR after not playing for about 15 years. DDR EXTREME for PS2 with pad at a garage sale for 7 bucks. Im addicted again and now looking to get any pad better than the mat.
L Tek is what you're looking for!
Thanks for making this! I've been playing on and off forever, but I'm finally gonna take this weekend to create a new PC built specifically for DDR play for all my styles except Etterna! I've been fighting issues around resolution in notITG, offset between DDR, SM, and ITG content, and so on, so making a PC just for this should be super useful, maybe even a modified Windows desktop launcher to let me switch between Outfoxed, Starlight, Waterfall, notITG, and so on.
Thanks; I'm gonna keep this bookmarked so that I can more easily show my friends the variety of modern playstyles!
I run Simply Love at 1080p on an i7-3770 and GT 710 (both of which I had lying around), and it’s perfectly smooth (definitely hitting a few hundred FPS, on 5.1 I should mention), so actually the pads are actually the most expensive part for me LOL
IMPORTANT LINKS TO EVERYTHING MENTIONED (IN ORDER)
ARCADES WITH THE LATEST DDR
www.round1usa.com/
www.daveandbusters.com/
life4ddr.com/
STEPMANIA
www.stepmania.com/download/
STEPMANIA THEMES
Simply Love: github.com/Simply-Love/Simply-Love-SM5/releases/tag/5.0.1
Waterfall: docs.google.com/document/d/1-13VfHKUM_b2WHZpQodrdLu3Pe-IWqrgJBBIHFq6y_Y/edit
Digital Dance: github.com/Hayoreo/digital-dance/releases/tag/v1.0.3
DDR XX Starlight: drive.google.com/file/d/1HLQuGQ1C2VxUapiVaR4scweKuTqevekJ/view
Club Fantastic: wiki.clubfantastic.dance/
notITG
notitg.heysora.net/
Etterna
etternaonline.com/
WHAT PAD TO BUY
USEFUL GUIDE FOR PADS: ruclips.net/video/sEWj2_BNG_0/видео.html
StepmaniaX Stage: shop.steprevolution.com/
L-Tek Pad: www.maty-taneczne.pl/
FIND SONGS FOR STEPMANIA
search.stepmaniaonline.net/
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F1IURV1UAYiICTLhAOKIJfwUN1iG12ZOufHZuDKiP48/edit#gid=1878312571
zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/simfiles.php?category=simfiles
- TECH PLAY -
Tech notation guide: ruclips.net/video/QtgBRtwx0Q4/видео.html
PACKS:
BemaniBeats: search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/bemanibeats
XGuys1Pack: search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/guys1pack
Club Fantastic: wiki.clubfantastic.dance/
Skittles Selection: search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/skittles
Notice Me Benpai: search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/benpai
ITGAlex: search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/ITGAlex
ECFA: sites.google.com/view/ecfa-2021/
twitter.com/ecfaofficial
East Coast Fantastic Attack Discord invite:
discord.com/invite/eXBMw7K
- STAMINA PLAY -
PACKS:
SHARPNELSTREAMZ : search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/sharpnel
Pendulum Act 1-3: search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/pendulum
Eurobeat is Fantastic: search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/eurobeat+is
Oh Henry! Mad Stamina: search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/oh+henry
Cranked Pastry: search.stepmaniaonline.net/packs/pastry
Stamina Safari: www.mediafire.com/file/7h797555si5bf5x/ITGAlex%2527s_Stamina_Safari.zip/file
Stamina Starter Mini-Guide: docs.google.com/document/d/1NNGn81-_uAzMCNYB86QPSPOvNwNBP5H1TZeoZcXHVEM/edit
Stamina RPG: srpg5.groovestats.com/
East Coast Stamina: ecs9.groovestats.com/
Stamina Nation Discord invite:
discord.com/invite/3GBx3Kg
- MOD PLAY -
notITG: notitg.heysora.net/
Mod files converted for Stepmania 5: ruclips.net/user/MrThatKid4
UKSRT: uksrt.heysora.net/
UKSRT discord invite:
discord.com/invite/Zt3DTb6
Dance Dance Revolution Starlight: drive.google.com/file/d/1HLQuGQ1C2VxUapiVaR4scweKuTqevekJ/view
Dance Dance Revolution XX pack:
zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/viewsimfilecategory.php?categoryid=973
wiki.clubfantastic.dance/
Pack me and my friends made: ruclips.net/video/w4UcpfZQXnk/видео.html
This was very well done! I learned quite a bit, definitely I am an amateur fan, but this was very cool to discover!
Noice video! :D Felt like I learned a fair amount of things about DDR stuffs like a lot of the clients using Stepmania as a baseline, a new client being made to help with mod charts (NotITG), etc.!
As someone who has been otu of the game for a loooooong time, this was super interesting! I'm glad theres still a scene around!
It gotten even bigger since I've released this video. The ITL event from this year managed to gather 1400 participants!
I love how it looks like they're not even touching the arrow pads.
Awesome vid! really love how this video was formatted, much love from FA gang
nice video!
ive been playing 4 key vsrg on keyboard for 2 years now and im itching to get my hands on my own pad. every time i find a DDR/stepmaniaX machine in a mall or arcade I always have such a blast! i look forward to playing through many of the packs you mentioned in this video sometime in the (hopefully) near future!
I finally decided to just get 2 of the L-Tek pads after my Cobalt Flux was destroyed in a flood, and wish I would have done it sooner.
Bro a new ddr games , with the same vibes of early 2000 era , cool anime effects , cool Japanese songs , for modern consoles would be a dream , I don’t understand why not
always a fun game at the arcade. i didnt know the small step tech and community was still at large.
Never played it, till yesterday! Pretty fun to watch a bunch of 30/40's dudes trying to not gas out.
Wonderful video, thank you!
I love DDR. Thanks for making this video. Very nice work!
I remember sucking ass at ddr as a kid, so now I am redeeming myself in 2024 because I am having a mid 20's crisis 💪😎
WOW. I lost track of DDR and Stepmania back in like 2009. It is now 2023 and just randomly thought, "I wonder what happened to DDR? Does it still exist?" and sure enough it is still around. But what is mind blowing to me is that people use the handlebars now. They didn't back then hehehe
Would have been awesoome in early 90s when techno was full on.late 80s probly to early,but still would have been fun! i think its awesomme,thanx for creatin n sharing.only found this vid lookin 4 my grandchildren a 5yrr n 6yr old they are,a mat hehe.cheers!
Protip : this video has little to nothing with actual modern ddr.
Just 4panel dancegames.
Back in 2018 I thought Stepmania’s Note style, was completely original but then I heard about this ddr thing. Took me a while to realize that stepmania was based off of it.
@5:20 "Everyone uses the bar now" As a casual player I don't, and I get plenty compliments from strangers.
Its usually to keep balance. Its not needed but it help's. The best stamina player for awhile played no bar, so its possible to play without it.
Yeah I mostly don't either and I don't even consider myself casual (to be clear I'm also far from top tier).
r/usernamechecksout
@@werdwerdus the juice LOL I just saw that
@@dancingmaractus i meant the arrogant amateur haha
What an amazing compilation! Makes me want to purchase one of the polish dance platforms and start practicing :D
I just bought 2 of the EX Pro models and I was pretty impressed at how fast they came and how well they perform. I doubt there is a better board for the money especially when you consider it should be in your house in 1-2 weeks.
Is there a community for people who just wanna hit some arrows and have a chill time?
So on a budget(chap dance pad + no handle) would you recommend ddr on pc for exercise? maybe 20 mins a day? Wanted to go outside and run, but this pandemic is very scary.
It may sound ridiculous, but just forgo the pad altogether, and pretend. Nothing is cheaper than free, and unless you buy one of the more expensive pads with panels you can feel the outline of, you may as well just pretend.
YOOOOOOOO shout out to my boi control at 8:30, he got me both into stamina play AND PIU
Awesome video. Thanks for making this!
hey, super random, but where are the best places in montreal for good arcade cabinets of itg or ddr, etc?
Do you know what the green long arrows mean in step mania? They look like the blue ones where you're supposed to hold your foot down, but when I hold my foot down on the green arrows it says "bad". Thanks!!!
Awesome video! Any chance you can share the spreadsheet of displayed at 4:30? Thanks for making this!
itgpacks.com
2:45 had me rofling 😆
another underrated pack is the DDRMAX3 pack which brings a lot of nice classic style with 2000s Bemani tracks + Dancemania Liecenses
Mind blown … I’ve been playing on the Wii 😃
Nice video! I really want to get myself an L-Tek so I can play custom songs or even just play DDR without spending money. Lately I’ve been going to Round 1 to play A20. Best experience but you spend money lol but hey its worth it
L-teks cost something like >$400 delivered to the US but they’re what most people use besides SMX stages. You could also always build one yourself, or mod a soft pad by putting wood underneath and vinyl over top to start.
The MTL poutine pack killed me xD
that's too funny
It's real too! We made two of them
I remember playing with Box at my arcade once without knowing it was him