DDR bug has hit hard
..but I would do it ;)
Jeff - I told the story of my metal pad early in this thread, I think. But to summarize:
-I ordered from eBay for $99
-it arrived in 4 days
-it works absolutely perfectly.
Now granted, after almost four months of heavy play, it is showing some signs of wear, such as cracked arrows and some bending. But I have NO sensitivity problems... when I get a miss, I know I deserve it. And it feels pretty close to the arcade. Plus it looks great - really professional.
I can't seem to convince anyone on DDRfreak.com or this site that the BNSUSA old-style metal pad rocks. :(
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He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking; can't shake the devil's hand and say you're only kidding.
Yeah, but you've read DDRfreak's forums. The bad stories outweight the good by ten to one. That would make me very nervous about buying from any of these people.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure
kcgreg said:
"Any chance we will see an Xbox version? Doesn't look like it, but maybe somebody here knows otherwise. Would be nice so I don't have to buy PS2 just for DDR "
I wouldn't count on it. You'd probably be more likely to see DDR on Gamecube than Xbox. I'm definately going to have to go out and buy a PS2 sometime soon so I can play MAX.
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What are you going to do? Release the dogs? Or the Bees? Or the dogs with bees in thier mouth and when they bark they shoot bees at you? ~Homer Simpson
Jeff,
As far the "switches" go, there are no actual switches. The pad registers a step by completing a simple circuit. It works because with each step arrow there is a 9"x9" piece of sheet metal attatched under the lucite (plexiglass) that makes contact with another 9"x9" sheet of sheet metal on a piece of pegboard. Each arrow's piece of sheet metal has one ground wire soldered to it and the other piece of sheet metal has a directional arrow wire soldered to it. A circuit is completed when the two pieces of metal connect (when stepping on the arrow, the lucite bends just a little bit, making contact with the metal below it) and an arrow hit is then registered. (Of course, there is a little a bit more to constructing a step arrow, but you get get the general idea.) You can even adjust the sensitivity of the arrows to your liking...my pad was a bit "spongy" at first, but several rounds of Healing Vision (Angelic Mix) from 5th mix took care of that problem rather quickly...
As I understand it, the arcade machines utilize microswitches placed on the outside of the four sides of each arrow. Microswitches are hellaexpensive and also would wear out over time. I built my first pad in July, and it has not failed me once thus far; I play on it almost every day for at least an hour or two...No cracked lucite, no problems with wiring coming loose or steps not registering...zero problems whatsoever...I can't give any advice on buying metal pads, except that you can usually make one for less than buying one. It was actually quite a bit of fun making one, plus if the thing ever does quit working, you should be able to easily fix it yourself...one piece of advice though when building your own, is to take your time...I have seen several other home pad constuction pics and you can tell they were a rush job and it seems they are always having problems when playing with them.
For anyone interested, I'm going to be in Sandusky this weekend to close out the season at CP...I can bring my pads along with me if anyone is interested in playing, or just to see how well they work...And I'm not some weird stalker...Sean F. can vouch for me :)
ron
*** This post was edited by pokeyron on 10/23/2002. ***
It's still a switch, even if you're not willing to call it that.
What kind of material isolates the two pieces? Something has to create the "spring" since gravity would tend to cause one piece to sit on the other.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure
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-Joey-
Ninjas are cool; and by cool, I mean totaly sweet.
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Kara (car-uh)
1024 Laps
621 in '02
Listen to this!!
CoasterBuzz Street Team
Greentree my ass... we'll be at Lighthouse Point. Never far from the real action!
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure
Jeff,
I guess when I think about it, it could be called a switch...I'm just used to discussing it terms of circuits...what holds the two pieces of sheet metal apart from making contact until you step on the directional arrow is several pieces of weatherstripping along the sides of each arrow, and triangles of foam core in each step corner.. The weatherstripping is "closed cell" and is able to absorb impact (your step) and then "bounce" back into place. I found my directions to build my pad here... http://www.angelfire.com/d20/ddrhomepad/ This might be more helpful then my awful explanations :)
So, is anyone interested in getting together this weekend?...
ron
Ah yes, I've seen that one. If it weren't for all that cutting stuff (sharp objects scare me), I'd build a couple.
I don't know if you've seen it, but here's a full description, with photos, that shows what's inside the real thing:
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure
Actually, you can get almost all of the construction "items" precut for you; Lowe's precut all of my plywood, (well, the first time they cut the step squares wrong, so I had to fix that) but they also cut the arrow step supports and lucite to size correctly and my sheet metal was cut to size by a local sheet metal company. I just pretty much had to put it together from there :) I've read other horror stories about trying to cut the lucite and sheet metal...my solution was to have someone else more qualified to do it for me :)
Concerning that link, I have seen it before; I spent about 4 weeks (no kidding) researching and reading everything I could get my hands on regarding home pad construction...I think I made some improvements over ddrhomepad's design, but it was mainly in the area of non-step arrow construction.
ron
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-Joey-
Ninjas are cool; and by cool, I mean totaly sweet.
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- John
I got a B&M T-shirt!
Who does kneedrops? Don't you look dumb enough just trying to step on the right arrows? ;)
Seriously though, I don't get the freestyling thing. I don't care how I look when I play. My wife tells me I need to loosen up, but that's just how I do it.
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A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.
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- John
I got a B&M T-shirt!
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A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.
I told you I wasn't going to let this thread die! ;)
Anyway, just wanted to report that I played DDR at home for the first time on something other than my metal pad. It was a cheap plastic pad. I don't know how you guys do it... on the metal pad I consistently can get a B on 95% of the trick songs and at least 10 maniac songs, plus some A's in there too. But these plastic pads kept moving and bunching up. I know I was doing the steps right, but it seems like half of them weren't registering. As a result, I couldn't get better than a C on *anything.*
Jeff, what are those pads you were using Saturday night? Are they modded? Do they work OK? I need a second pad but don't wanna spring for another metal one.
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A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.
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Yeah, we started the night with a DPR2 (which had been working for me well until last night) and a MadCatz, then Kristin showed up with her Ignition pads. Natalie managed to unlock pretty much everything in Max with those, so I'm going to take a guess that, while they might not be the perfect ideal, they are adequate.
Check 'em here, I think these are like Kristin's:
http://store.yahoo.com/futureexpo/50501047b.html
These, allegedly, are the ultimate, but I'd really like to hear from someone who has been using them for awhile:
http://www.redoctane.com/ignitionpad.html
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure
Closed topic. Archived.
