The perfect DDR spot

I think I've found it, right here in my hometown, and luckily less than three miles from my house.

It's not an arcade, it's an LAN gaming center. The DDR machine is located in the back, in a clean, quiet, dark, small room all by itself. There's two fans, the machine is loud and it costs 50 cents for FOUR songs. It takes quarters, not tokens. There's a concession stand with your typical LAN beverages (Mountain Dew and BAWLS). Perhaps best of all, they don't advertise the machine so there's NO NOOBS or gawkers... just serious players.

The place has been open for a year now, but until last week they had the boring DDRMAX. Now they have Extreme, plus they replaced all the arrow sensors - but they didn't up the price. I think I've found my new DDR homebase.

Just wondering, what would it take for you to call a machine "perfect"?

Pretty much everything you said above would make a DDR machine's location "perfect" except maybe a bit more traffic... I tend to be an attention whore at times :-/

There's a pool hall not too far away from my house with 50 cent/3 song Extreme machine. There's a bit more traffic, but mostly just the regular pool-hall dwellers. Rarely do you see any *hardcore* DDR players there. The DDR players at my old school all know about it, and aparentally that's the only way people know about it - word of mouth.

Turns out as soon as the location hits the DDRFreak database, you start getting lots of DDR traffic...

The perfect DDR spot would have to be in my house. There is always people over here, so I can be the attention whore all I want. Nice quite, no newbies to ruin the fun. But then again, I don't have a few thousand dollars for a machine, so I'll stick with your place.

The only machine around here is at a Gameworks an hour away, so there is nothing perfect about that is there. Any machine that opened nearby would be perfect to me.

Heh, I'm always checking eBay for DDR machines even though I know I'll never be able to buy one...

btw, I forgot to mention, my "perfect" spot above is next door to Pizza Hut, Donato's and Wendy's.... mmmm.

Well, I think any machine would be perfect to me if it was within 3 miles of my house!

Let's see....next nearest machine to me.....Knoxville.

Great.

The perfect machine would:

1. have frequently maintained pads
2. be located by itself, or at least away from other random noises.
3. have a price of 50 for 4 songs. There's one of those nearby my place but it doesn't meet the 2nd criteria.
4. attracts other DDRers (not DDR players, but DDRers...there's a difference i tellz ya.) =)

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Den said:
I think I've found it, right here in my hometown, and luckily less than three miles from my house.

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LanLords by chance?

Then again, when they finally get that 'Bemani Heaven' thing opened in Huber Heights (GOM Arcade... and yes, that's the actual name), I'll be making the trip north.

With DDR Extreme, Guitar Freaks, IIDX, and Pop'n all within an hour's drive, I'll be happier spending the extra for gas.

-Chris

Yes, it's LanLords. Went there last night... it's so cool, no little kids, only college-aged people and older. And a couple of guys were playing on light, but there was no mocking, only encouragement.

I also found another reason that place is so cool: the x.5, Wave and Brake options are selectable.

Unfortunately they don't have anymore Bemani there, but you can play the Japanese console versions of IIDX with Beatmania controllers. Is that Huber Heights thing a guaranteed deal? Isn't that the one supposedly being run by a high schooler?

Chris, you should come up to Columbus once in a while. :)

I think I know the DDR capital of the World...Geneva on the Lake, Ohio. They have at least 20+ machines all with in a hundred yards of each other! They have Soo many machines, it will take them all a long time to wear down. There are huge arcades up there one right after the other. I think I have seen every mix from the 3rd on up too. Some are in the back of places, some are right in the open air front. Everyone I played was in great working condition and very loud.

DDR Freak lists only three machines up there, but maybe it's inaccurate.

Anyway, I think the ultimate arcade is the Dance Beat Arcade near Nashville:
http://dancebeatarcade.com/games.html
Check out that list of Bemani!

I'm looking forward to my trip to Vegas in November - and the Circus Circus arcade, which supposedly has many DDR versions, IIDX, Guitar Freaks, etc.

My DDR spot has two DDR machines, Extreme and MAX2. They're both maintained well, and and have nice volume. My favorite is the MAX2, it has the better pads of the two, and is the loudest. Plus, I can play Stay, Trance De Janeiro, Baby Love Me and Justify My Love :). There's also Dance Maniax (which is nice and loud also!) and Beatmania, which I never play. There's also a few hundred other arcade games, but I never really play them.

The music games are also all far away from each other so there's no distraction. Although there is an UNBELIEVABLY loud Dr. Mario next to the Max2, but hardly anyone every plays it so it's that much of a problem.

It's never really crowded either, most of the time me and my friends are the only ones playing DDR. And with two DDR machines you never really have to wait if there's other people playing.

What are the orther games you people are talking about. dose any one have pics of them

I go to Geneva On The Lake at least once every year, and there really is at least 20 machines. Theres like two in every arcade and there's an arcade like every five steps. But theres alot of hillbillies and noises. *** Edited 8/19/2004 10:54:32 PM UTC by xTTDx***

Well CRAP.

I just heard today that my perfect spot will be closing down next month.

Apparently it was making money, but the owners don't have enough time to run it, and the lease is about to expire. Sounds like things that are easily fixable to me, but whatever.

I guess after Dec. 10 it'll be back to driving 30 minutes one-way and paying $1 per game to play DDR again. :( :( :( :(