Progress Reports and Accomplishments

200th post!

You know, the more I play, the less I focus on grades and scores. In the arcade, most of the time I just hit the button before I even look at my grade anymore. If I got a full-combo, I know it before the grade pops up and I check to see if I got a AA, but that's about it.

My only new accomplishment of late is that I did really well on the Hop Step nonstop (Candy Heart, Twin Bee, Witch Doctor, 321 Stars). I'm pretty sure I had less than 3 non-combo steps, but I didn't pay much attention to the scoring screen (see above). :)

Got a B on Do It Right 80's Electro Mix, my second Oni song passed :)

I got a Cobalt Flux metal pad for Christmas so I've been playing a lot at home and my scores are improving! I got a C on So Deep which I'm VERY proud of. I also got A's on Kakumei and I Feel.

Also, finally passed Trip Machine Climax. What a devilish song, ugh, those steps just annoy me. And by the way, I played Drifting Away for the first time the other day without looking at the foot rating and thought "Wow, I didn't know this was a 9-footer" and then I looked at saw it's actually an 8. Am I handicapped, or this song pretty hard for an 8?

So what's the verdict on the pad? The CF's look nice, but they sure are expensive. Do they deliver?

If they started shipping a secondary break-out box that connected them to X-Box I might be sold.

Drifting Away is hard until you figure out that the last half is just repeating the same rhythm over and over and over (and over). And it matches the music perfectly.

So you got the CF pad? The one that costs $300+? Cool.

O_____o *droooools over his CF pad* I would kill for one of those. From what i've read they are better than arcade pads! How can you get better than the arcade?! O_o It's beyond me, but EVERY review i've read has said the same thing, and that price is well worth it.

Yep, the CF pad is awesome. It feels more responsive than the arcade, only because you can actually feel the button pressing down when you step on it. My grades are getting better too, and I have HORRIBLE timing, yet I'm getting more perfects than ever before.

The pad is also awesome looking, all shiny, smooth and slick (I found that out when I played with socks on and nearly went sailing through the wall). The decals are also very nice looking. It barely moves during gameplay, and I haven't even put the grip strips on it yet. I would also guess that's roughly the same size as an arcade pad.

The pad DOES take a little getting used to though. I had to start using bare feet (even though the manual says not to) to get a "feel" for the pad. After a couple of songs I was comfortable with it and could play just fine with my shoes on.

CF just introduced a new 2.0 pad, but my order had been placed to late to recieve it. I consider myself lucky for that. I just glanced at CF's forums and it appears a lot of people are having trouble with the new 2.0 pads.

I think it's worth every penny, though I'm very glad I got it as a gift :). I just wish I could play more on it, I'm sick and one song pretty much wipes me out.

Yesterday I AA'd 4 more 9fters: Rain of Sorrow, Colors (oni), Twilight Zone, and Tears, which was surprisingly hard! O_o And i have no idea how i AA'd it when i had 41 greats either.

Speaking of greats, I got 65 greats on Burning Heat, which for me is pretty good. Gotta get the great count down tho. And i'm still trying to AA Afronova, there's always 1 place in the song where i always miss a step, then of course the jumps at the end. >___> *hates those jumps* *** Edited 1/1/2004 3:49:55 PM UTC by Kel***

I guess you can call this a progress report , but me and my friend are bringing DDR fever to our school.

Progress:6 people play it.

He can beat a few songs on heavy , but i'm still learning how to read notes. I never noticed that the arrows were different colors.

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I played on his metal pad last night. Much fun!

Progress Report for Kel: :)

Today i finally AA'd Xenon and FC'd it. (I forget how many perfects and greats, though)

I also got a high A on Max300, getting 407 Perfects (a lil over 80%), 100 and something greats and 20 or so non-combo steps (goods, boos, and misses).

...and Kel officially becomes 17 times better than anyone else on this board. AA on Xenon?!? Dang. That's probably the hardest PA there is.

On New Year's Eve, I went to a party (adults and kids), and someone broke out the DDR pads. Some kids were playing on light (stomping as hard as they could), and then someone asked me to play (apparently my reputation proceeds me). So I play Groove 2001 (a 7-footer), and people are freaking out because it's so "hard." Then I switched games and played Drifting Away (an 8-footer), and people said I was so good it was freakish, and asked if I was a cyborg. :)

I wanted to play So Deep or Tsugaru for them, but I realized I'd make a fool of myself on the slidy soft pads, so I gave it back over to the little kids (who proceeded to put the old game back in and play Remember You 10 times in a row... seriously). :)

Hehe, I love getting that reaction also. :) And for some reason i seem to like to help people get better at DDR no matter what level they're at.

As for Xenon, it's not THAT hard once you know the pattern. For some crazy reason i can playback Xenon's step pattern in my head exactly the way it goes, so i have a lil advantage.

Tears on the other hand was a AA i had to really fight for...

Tried another 10ft. run today (3rd one) and i actually passed it this time. B on Max300, B on Sakura(!) and B on Paranoia Survivor. I guess 3rd time's a charm. *** Edited 1/6/2004 10:35:07 PM UTC by Kel***

My parents recently saw me play for the first time and I got the same reaction. I guess they didn't realize how difficult the game could actually be :)

Finally got rid of my cold and went to the arcade and I'm almost finished with the 9-footers! Beat Captain Jack, Dance Dance Revolution Oni, Dynamite Rave Oni, Sync Oni, Paranoia Eternal and A Oni all for the first time. All that leaves is Cartoon Heroes and V Oni. I got further than ever on Cartoon Heroes (past those heinous jump steps) and got pretty close to beating V, but died near the end. I'm fairly confident I can beat it, and sort of confident I can conquer CH.

Also upped my grade on Exotic Ethnic to a C and I was on my friend's soft pad, go figure!

CH is a pretty crazy song...i haven't even come close to AAing it. But one of these days i'll start trying. My main focus right now is probably consistency and AAing MAX300. *** Edited 1/8/2004 8:28:02 PM UTC by Kel***

I've tried CH heavy twice and passed it the second time (x1), and probably won't ever try it again. The steps just aren't that fun, IMO.. and the standard steps are a blast.

My focus is carving out a segment of time in my schedule to actually make it to the arcade...

I've noticed that Den and Kel are REALLY good at the game. Same with the lot of you, but Kel, you've some good accomplishments about you. As for me? Been forever since I posted last, but I've gotten better, as well.

I don't play singles on DDREx anymore. There's no point, unless someone wants to challenge me.

All about playing doubles now. Favorite song to play and actually pass? Sakura Oni. I know it's only 9 feet, but I'm still proud enough to be able to get an A on that. As for heavy? No way anytime soon am I going to be able to pass that.

Currently working on So Deep, and Waka Laka. As for SD, the notes that I THINK are 16th notes near the end of the song are what kill me. I can do most of the song itself, but when the 16th notes go from left to right pad to left again, with a pattern of left, down (L), to down, right (R), I get too tired, too quickly.

Another song that I like to pass with an A or B? Telephone Operator. Double stepping (Don't know the correct term) is fun when it goes from side to side.

The fun stuff about doing doubles is probably when I'm asked to do a song I've never actually tried before, and passing it with relative ease, such as Frozen Ray. B on first try.

As for the crowds? Not as big as they used to be when someone would play, but if I were to play Ex at Magic Mountain, I'd get a relatively good crowd while playing doubles. Same with Game Works or Disneyland.

Where's Magic Mountain's extreme machine? When i was there back in March all they had was a crappy 1.5 Mix in the arcade back by the river rapids ride.

Heh, you say Magic Mountain, I think of the two arcades near my house of the same name.

Niko, you're apologizing because you can "only" beat 9-footers on doubles? Dude, that's awesome. *No one* around here plays doubles. I like playing it, but the best I can do is maybe a 6-foot standard. But I get more crowds playing Afronova light double than I do playing So Deep heavy single...

That's one thing i wish i could do: doubles. I'm about Den's level on doubles but i'd like to get better...the thing is it's sort of expensive, and i need to basically start over, learning how to read the arrows, and what not. Not that i can't apply myself, but i'll tackle doubles another day ^^;; maybe i'll go to Nickel Nickel to practice (they have Joint Premium on their Ex mix).

And Mike. Magic Mountain's Ex mix is in the arcade by Colossus (sp?) If you walk from Goliath, under Superman towards Gotham City, keep looking to your left. You can't miss it.

Speaking of which, i need to get my season pass ^^;

Mike, just as Kel said, it's near Colossus. Dollar to play with no joint options. 4 songs with relatively sensitive pads.

Den believe me. 9 foot songs on doubles aren't easy. I should be able to at least pass one 10 footer, but that won't happen any time soon, hehe. Some of the 9 footers that I've been able to pass to date? Sakura Oni, Trip Machine Survivor, Candy Star & Heart, Can't Stop Falling In Love (Speed Mix) *recent*, Dance Dance Revolution, and R3 *recent*. Not a lot. More often than not, you'll see me do loads of 7 and 8 foot songs.

Just fyi, the only two 10 foot doubles songs I can get about half way or a little less on are Paranoia Survivor and Max 300.

Kel, you should come to Tilt dude. I know it's somewhat further from you, but you won't get the wait line to play it as long as you would at Nickel Nickel. Trust me. I'm on the Ex almost all day long if I'm not working, or I'm on my break. We have the 75 cent joint for 3 songs, if that's okay with you, but the lines are less, hehe.