Universal Multiplayer Complete!
For the longest time, users of the Velocity engine were only able to play with other users of the Velocity engine on Multiplayer, and those using the Legacy engine were only able to use the Legacy engine. Thanks to the help of the devs (arcnmx and Velocity, and shame on you for not knowing them), all of the Multiplayer clients have been unified.
The links are as follows:
Legacy:
http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/game/ffrLegacyUMPEdition.swf
Velocity:
http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/~velocity/ffr_Wide_UMP.swf
R^3 (Connect to Universal):
http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/~velocity/R%5E3.swf
As usual, go to their profiles and thank them for their hard work!
FFR Multiplayer Tournament 2013 — Sign-ups open!
Sign-ups for the FFR Multiplayer tournament have opened! Check out the thread in the FFR Events Forum, located here: http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/vbz/showthread.php?t=130488
Read the thread for all details and any questions you might have!
June Event(s?) Update (and more)
Hey guys. I feel like it’s somewhat important to keep in touch with the active community about things that are going on, and I know I haven’t been doing the best of jobs with that, so I’m going to give you guys a little update on what’s going on.
First off, the FFR Multiplayer Tournament was supposed to be run in May, but I simply couldn’t get it off of the ground due to how tied up I was with the May-hem event. Even with some help from the rest of the FFR Events Team, I had major issues trying to keep things tame and updated. Those of you who are still waiting on your prizes: don’t worry; I haven’t forgotten about you. I’m trying to figure out a way to optimize my credit distribution in such a way that allows me to hand you guys your prizes in full sums, rather than tiny chunks. Leaving it in tiny chunks makes things hard for both parties.
With that being said, the MP tournament is set to go off of the ground this month: if everything goes on schedule, look for the thread to be in the Events area on June 7th, with an event start date of the 14th.
I would also like to take the time to promote the FFR Simfile Batch — the batch is now permanently open and fills in 120-file groups; if you have a file to send for review, you can send it at any time. I’m bringing this up because the 9th Official Tournament is in the planning stages, but in order for it to be successful, FFR needs files from you. If you have some spare time at any point and are capable of making some simfiles, send them! Questions regarding file submissions can be posted in the Queue/Batch Discussion Thread. If you haven’t submitted a file in a while, I encourage you to read the first post fully, as the submission system has undergone some slight changes.
Finally, I would like to take the time to congratulate two users:
- One Winged Angel is now a Global Moderator for FFR’s forum boards.
- Staiain is now a local moderator and has moderating abilities in the StepMania forum.
Keep up the great work, guys!
FFR Idol: Token Extravaganza
Welcome to FFR Idol: Token Extravaganza – the premier event where you will be presented the opportunity to embarrass yourself on the internet for plastic coins! You have been tasked with the epic quest of performing your rendition of any Normal Token or Skill Token song for the world to hear. Your entry will be submitted into a randomly selected draw to win one of PrawnSkunk’s beautifully assembled gift baskets.
The rewards? Tokens! Rejoice!! No, unfortunately this is not another support token payout. The spoils involve IRL tokens that you can caress, smell and taste. For your convenience, PrawnSkunk has recruited the legion of FFR bots to beautifully handcraft these ancient relics. Perhaps one of these tokens will make a good addition to your ffr setup – perhaps next to your Gorilla Munch cereal?
Every participant will win credit prizes and be entered into a draw to win 1 of 10 freshly minted FFR Tokens.
To read more, discuss and post your submissions, please visit the official FFR Idol event discussion thread.
- PrawnSkunk and the FFR Events Team
Halogen edit: There will be some more information coming about an event preceding this one in the middle of June — I’ll have a front page post about it on the 5th.
Songs of the Week (May 25, 2013)
If you happen to fall under the category of being either a fan of these front page posts, somebody who likes to stay in the know when it comes to the world of FFR, or simply have this website’s front page bookmarked and can’t be bothered to change it to either the main page of the forums or your engine of choice, then you probably noticed that the past two weeks have come and gone with no mention of the corresponding weekly releases whatsoever. The front page has stagnated and become little more than a murky reflection of what once was. Of course it goes without saying that such inactivity is unforgivable in today’s ceaseless ebb and flow of gastropubs and Fast and the Furious 6 screenings, but before you slip on your specially-fitted Angry Email Writing Gloves and prepare to fire off one of the meanest blurbs that you’ve ever written, please keep in mind the reason as to why this post is so late. To make a long story short, it basically boils down to the fact that…uhh…well, it’s like this: sometimes one thing leads to another and before you know it you’re in the midst of eating an entire pizza all by yourself while listening to J-Pop and wondering where your life went wrong, y’know?
Since time is of the essence and audience participation is all the rage these days, we here at FFR figure that the best way to atone for our tardiness-related sins is by allowing you, the loyal fanbase that in accepting the Terms and Conditions of this site have relinquished their souls to us, to match up these short clues to their corresponding songs. Now, you might be thinking something along the lines of “What’s in it for me?” or “What do I get if I win this little contest of sorts?” The answer, of course, is the satisfaction of performing a job well done, as well as the contents of this mystery box that I have in my hands and definitely exists. Get ready!
A Lifetime (F-777 ReMiX) by Soulero (PrawnSkunk) – Challenging [52] / 2:00 / Dance2 / Trance
Art of the Madness by kil (MarioNintendo) – Very Challenging [60] / 1:54 / Classical / Progressive Baroque
Dim Wood by Cour (gameboy42690) – Tricky [36] / 2:34 / Dance / Symphonic Techno
gPrOeWaEtRaFnUdL (Dave! Remix) by Supersaw Hoover (megamon88) – Very Challenging [59] / 1:53 / Misc / Hard Gabba
Grassland Filled With Fighting Spirit by Y.W (bmah) – Very Challenging [63] / 2:10 / Arcade / Game Remix
Rill Rill (Dr. Ozi Remix) by Sleigh Bells (Coolboyrulez0) – Moderate [24] / 2:15 / Misc / Dubstep
Dead Batteries by SnappleMan (Silvuh) – Expert [64] / 3:35 / Arcade / Drum’n Bass Remix
electrolysis by YOSHl (YOSHl) – Difficult [42] / 2:13 / Dance / Techno
OVERklock by Blue Stahli (DarkZtar) – Master [75] / 2:18 / Rock / Industrial Rock
Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky (MarioNintendo) – Beginner [4] / 1:37 / Classical / Ensemble
Tied the Room Together by DJ Nubbin (Jake Ferguson) – Tricky [34] / 1:02 / Misc / Piano Breakcore
toki by puru (bmah) – Expert [67] / 2:31 / Secret [16,000] / Progressive Trance
1 – This release should be recognizable by a certain fanbase that idolizes travel-sized creatures of varying ferocity.
2 – The subject matter of this release’s samples are definitely no stranger to the stepartist.
3 – This release has a lot of investment in the number four.
4 – This this release release likes likes doubles doubles.
5 – This release will require your utmost attention; after all, it’s only fair to the many artists that put so much time and effort into their respective works.
6 – Since it’s impossible for inanimate objects to possess intellect, this release is presumably refering to light levels as opposed to brain power.
7 – This release shouldn’t make you too steamed, unless of course you’re not the biggest fan of runningmen intermingled with jumpstream.
8 – From colorful stepartist to colorful song artist, the person solely responsible for this release does it all.
9 – This release joins the ever growing repertoire of tracks that originally appeared in OCRemix’s Project Chaos album.
10 – Let’s hope that this release doesn’t garner as much controversy as its stepartist’s previous work did.
11 – This release will push your stamina past what you once thought was its threshold with its high BPM and fast trills.
12 – This release marks a certain stepartist’s initial foray into the FFR stepping scene. And no, the answer isn’t Rainbow Tylenol.
Post your guesses in the comments section of this post to be eligible for victory. If you’re the sort of person that prefers routine as opposed breaking the mold then you can also leave your thoughts and opinions on this batch of releases either right here or over on the forums. It’s all very standard issue, folks.
Songs of the Week (May 11, 2013)
A very wise person once told me that the secret to achieving fantastic scores on FFR is to purchase him cigarettes from the variety store that he was hanging out in front of and then make a blood sacrifice to the Dark Lord Samael. Naturally I treated his outlandish claims with the level of skepticism that’s more or less expected from an educated twenty-first century citizen such as myself, but after performing the tasks that were asked of me and then patiently waiting a couple of years until I could reap the rewards, I was quite shocked to discover that the person was right! Songs that I used to find next to impossible to simply pass were being AAA’d with the greatest of ease. I did not reluctantly accept temporary overexhaustion, I resurrected Death Piano just to murder it again, and I laughed at vROFL right in its big stupid face. And to think, all I had to do was break the law and massacre a live goat in my basement! Oh, and also put in hours upon hours of hard work and practice into the game, but without that special young man’s advice I don’t think that those two things would’ve had any sort of effect whatsoever. Perhaps one day you too will come across your own version of the young man with khaki board shorts and a caterpillar-esque mustache prominently on display atop his face as he loiters out in front of your local variety store, and perhaps you’ll be able to utilize their words of wisdom to completely demolish this week’s batch of releases just like I theoretically did.
Devil’s Music Box by Jake Ferguson (Jake Ferguson) – Very Challenging [58] / 1:27 / Misc / Xylophone
Enkan No Kotowari by ETIA. (MrPopadopalis25) – Master [73] / 2:21 / Dance2 / Trancecore
Heartsifter by Jackal Queenston (_.Spitfire._) – Expert [61] / 1:41 / Purchased [1,800] / Techno
tetris by songstowearpantsto (YOSHl) – Very Tricky [37] / 0:53 / Hip Hop / Hip Hop
Throwin’ Down by Psychostick (samurai7694) – Master [74] / 5:17 / Rock / Nu Metal
VALLISTA by sakuzyo (LongGone) – Master [75] / 1:56 / Secret [43,000] / Drum’n Bass
We kick off this week of releases with a song that is eerily reminiscent of the opening jingle that plays whenever you start up the Gamecube only with a bit more oomph. Jake Ferguson makes his song and step artist debut with Devil’s Music Box, an xylophone-tastic piece that seamlessly transitions into the stepchart format since it was created with four-key rhythm games in mind. Although the instrumentation utilized may sound lighthearted and bubbly by nature, the song stays true to its name as it poses a significant challenge all throughout. Players will have to deal with syncopated notes, single extended jacks, jumpjacks, jumpstream and an ending that is guaranteed to make at least one or two players choke before the day is done. A piece as unique as this one can only be found in the Misc genre.
Next up on this sextet of releases is Enkan No Kotowari, a fairly fast-paced remix of a song that originally appeared in the “Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica” anime. Originally submitted as part of the BMS of Fighters event, ETIA. pumps his piece full of heavy synths, driving basslines and plenty of climactic moments while some really cool dude named plopadop transfers the seven-key intended song into the four-key format that we all know and love. Enkan follows plopadop’s love for dreamy stream as it features dense, lengthy jump- and handstream runs in conjunction with jumptrills that are interspersed with 32nd bursts. With no magical girl related entropy to worry about, feel free to stream to your heart’s content over in the Dance2 genre.
If you’re in the mood for some hardcore techno that will get you headbanging so hard that your glasses, your headphones and perhaps your most beloved booger will accidentally dislodge themselves from your face then you’re definitely in the right place with our third release! ._Spitfire._ pours the strained remnants of that infamous organ located within your chest into Jackal Queenston’s Heartsifter and infuses it with so much love and passion that you might just blush during your playthroughs. Things begin relatively low key with some broken jumpstream and the occasional 32nd burst before the latter half turns things up with denser layering and even more complicated bursts. Make sure to give this one a go after you make an offering of 1800 credits to the faceless FFR machine. Where do all of those credits go anyways? It’s probably for the better if you don’t ask.
Much like Silvuh and Ikodo Moonstrife or hi19hi19 and SSH or mi40 and The Flashbulb, the top shelf combination of songstowearpantsto on music and YOSHl on steps is definitely one that should be familiar to the FFR community. Based on the song title alone, it should come as no surprise that this song’s backing track and primary lyrical concern are both Tetris related. Down-tempo jumpstream mixed with the odd jumpjack and YOSHl’s unofficially trademarked usage of colored notes all lend themselves to a file that roughly correlates in difficulty to having your screen half full on level three of the original NES Tetris…maybe? Try to sing along with the lyrics if you’re coordinated enough to arrow smash and lay down the fresh beats simultaneously.
Unless for some reason you find trancecore to be the funniest thing in the world, Throwin’ Down marks the second of two comedy-centric releases for this week. Psychostick gets your blood boiling with an aggressive nu metal style that’s juxtaposed with vocal samples of an over-possessive and distrustful significant other rambling in the background and an enraged person yelling in the foreground. Believe me, the song sounds a lot better than what you’re probably imagining right now. Step artist samurai7694 makes sure to transpose the aggression into his chart as he incorporates jumpjacks, handjacks and, yes, even quadjacks into the mix. Combine these patterns with a marathon song length and you have yourself the recipe that’s necessary in order to mimic the angered screaming that mitigates into desperate sobbing near the end of the song.
Our final release of the week comes to us courtesy of BMS virtuosos LongGone and sakuzyo. VALLISTA, which is the second seven-to-four-key conversion of the week, starts off innocuously enough, but with that 75 difficulty rating you should know well enough that any moments of ease are merely temporary. Dense jumpstream, fast minijacks and difficult bursts of all shapes, sizes and colors are fired at your receptors at a relatively high BPM that will surely make your fingers ache and your eyes get all bugged out. Interested in playing this bad boy? Excellent! The only thing that serves to separate you from enjoying the entity known only as VALLISTA is a prerequisite of 43,000 credits. Don’t have enough cash? Perhaps the gambling hall can give you the dough that you need…or perhaps it can take away what little you have now. Oh well, po-tay-to po-tah-to.
And that’s it for this week. This post is now officially over. There’s nothing left for us to discuss here, save of course for the fact that last week’s veteran songs Waterfall and MEPHISTO are now available for public consumption. Oh, and a reminder of that whole “share your questions, comments and concerns in either the comments section of this post or over on the forums” thing. Oh, and that totally fun and never-too-late-to-join May-hem event thing too. Oh, and a reminder for you to actually head out and play all of these new songs. Okay, maybe this post isn’t over just yet…
…sike.
May-hem: Days 9-11
All three challenge days have been posted at once, due to some schedule constraints.
Challenges <- clicky
Work, school, and an impending move leave me very little time to keep this maintained for the next few days; two of the senior Event Staff members (foxfire667 and PrawnSkunk) have decided to aid in the challenge of maintaining this — YoshL is in the middle of studying and taking finals, and has understandably declined due to time constraints of his own.
As usual, post any results in the thread here.
Songs of the Week (May 4, 2013)
Much like a boy band that has fallen prey to the unstoppable force of aging or a Youtube fad that has diffused so widely throughout the populace that your seldom seen and presumably insane uncle links you to a video of it in an email with the title “RE: FWD: FWD: RE: FWD: FWD: HILARIOUS VIDEO! MUST SEE!!!”, so too has April come to an end. Although in many places “April Showers” took the form of “April Blizzards,” spring has nevertheless come to…wait, hold on a second, why are we talking about the weather? This is a FlashFlashRevolution front page post, not forced smalltalk with coworkers! Is discussing how “absolutely gorgeous” it is outside really appropriate in a place such as this? No, definitely not. Let’s say we push the chitchat aside, admit that neither one of us desires to speak to each other in even the slightest amount while we twiddle our thumbs waiting for the coffee pot to refill, and sink our teeth into this week’s selection of new releases ASAP?
car select by katoh (MarioNintendo) – Very Challenging [59] / 2:12 / Skill Token / Jazz Fusion
(Gonna Rape) Kylie by Annoying Ringtone (Wayward Vagabond) – Tricky [34] / 1:43 / Dance / Dancecore
MEPHISTO by LeaF (bmah) – Master [74] / 2:02 / Classical / Progressive Baroque
NEXT STAGE!! by Y.W. (Silvuh) – Very Tricky [39] / 1:52 / Arcade / Game Remix
Pull in Pull in Popped Syo Call up Arrest by MOSAIC.WAV (jimerax) – Very Tricky [37] / 1:43 / Misc / Lounge Pop
Waterfall by Jon Schmidt (DarkZtar) – Challenging [57] / 2:58 / Classical / Piano Contemporary
car select
In case you’re wondering, then the answer is yes: this is the very same song that automatically plays in your head whenever you’re in the market for a new vehicle. Nobody really knows why this phenomenon occurs, but at the same time you should be very happy that it does, primarily because if it didn’t then we wouldn’t have been graced with this superb file from resident stepartist MarioNintendo. katoh seamlessly fuses jazz, rock and apparently just a tiny bit of magic in order to create two minutes and twelve seconds of pure finger-tapping bliss. However, don’t expect to play this bad boy right off the bat. In order to unlock car select, you must first achieve a score of exactly 5 goods, 5 averages, 5 misses and 5 boos while still passing The Five, the song which you may or may not recall has served as the temporary conclusion to the nearly double-digit long “Skill Token Chain,” patiently waiting to be usurped for nearly six years now. What does the future hold for this chain? Only the game managers know, and every time I ask them about it they throw things at me until I leave.
(Gonna Rape) Kylie
Don’t let the particularly obscene song title force you to shy away from giving the second of this week’s releases a go. (Gonna Rape) Kylie is musician Annoying Ringtone and acclaimed stepartist Wayward Vagabond’s second collaborative effort, the first of which being Extratone Pirates (Drunk Optimus Remix). Much unlike its blisteringly fast and almost comically difficult predecessor, this release comes in at a much less intimidating 34 on the 100 point difficulty scale. Although still a fairly aggressive song that features 8th note minijacks and 16th note gallops, at the end of the day (Gonna Rape) Kylie should prove to be a much more agreeable experience for those that aren’t quite ready to tackle Extratone Pirate’s speedcore goodness yet.
MEPHISTO
Our most difficult selection of the week and the first of two song titles that are in all-caps is none other than MEPHISTO. This highly Bemani-esque sounding classical remix marks song artist LeaF’s first in-game feature and bmah’s…uhh, not first in-game file. If the dense jumpstream and burstacular patterns don’t give your fingers a workout on their own then perhaps the extended 12th jumpjacks and 16th minijacks can provide the extra oomph that’s necessary in order to make you frown and whisper “ouch” while blankly staring right through the dismal song results screen. Venture on over to the eclectic yet surprisingly cohesive Classical section to give this one a try.
NEXT STAGE!!
THE SONG TITLE SO ENTHUSIASTIC THAT A SINGLE EXCLAMATION MARK AND TRADITIONAL CAPITILIZATION JUST WASN’T ENOUGH FOR IT!! Those of you that have played any of the numerous Pokemon games or its wide array spinoffs in the past should be more than familiar with Y.W’s remix of one of the series’ flagship pieces. Silvuh keeps the difficulty of the file low enough for intermediate players to enjoy themselves while still adding in the occasional jumpstream run to keep more advanced players that “gotta catch ‘em all” on their toes. And yes, I would like to apologize in advance for that awful shoehorning.
Pull in Pull in Popped Syo Call up Arrest
By now it’s a generally accepted fact that MOSAIC.WAV and rhythm games go together like bread and butter, like frosted and flakes, or like self-loathing and the bathroom mirror. Thankfully for us, Pull in Pull in Popped Syo Call up Arrest is no exception to this rule. Aside from the occasional colored notes, this piece is a subtly nostalgic throwback to jimerax’s stepping style of yesteryear, both in terms of file content and song choice. MOSAIC.WAV turns their usual fast-paced denpa style down a notch or two in order to provide us with something that’s a tad more suitable for those that aren’t exactly the most enthusiastic to listen to their unique brand of J-Pop. Normally this would be the section of the paragraph where I would make some sort of dreadful pun on the song’s title, but I think that even the writers who work on bubblegum package jokes would struggle with this one.
Waterfall
Are you a fan of constant 12th notes that are interspersed with minijacks, jumps and hands for good measure, the likes of which extending on for almost three minutes straight with little to no opportunity for rest and repose? What about exemplary piano tunes? What about waterfalls? What about all of the above? Of course the answer to all of these questions is an emphatic YES, otherwise DarkZtar wouldn’t have stepped this Jon Schmidt piece and submitted it to FFR for your playing pleasure! If you’ve ever wondered what a waterfall comprised mainly of purple and red looks like, then turn downscroll on and check out the Classical section to give this one a try.
And once again we’ve reached the conclusion of the post. Our time together always goes by so fast, doesn’t it? As always, leave any thoughts, comments, incoherent ramblings or pictures of you struggling to lift weights in either the comments section of this post or the respective forum topic. In other news, the exciting May-hem event is in full swing, so make sure to check out the forums and participate if you want to have some good ol’ fashioned FFR fun while simultaneously getting the opportunity to earn some neat prizes (spoilers: you totally do).
Old New Song
Some of you might remember Ochitsukeruwakenaiwayo! [Super] from last year’s April Fools’ Day, the file with the crazy name and even crazier gimmicks halfway through. Well it’s been re-released as Ochitsukeruwakenaiwayo! [Heavy] minus the arrow gimmicks, and is available for purchase from the FFR Store for 3000 credits.
Ochitsukeruwakenaiwayo! [Heavy] by Yuuyu (jimerax) – Master [74] / 1:37 / Purchased / Happy
Have fun!
- OWA
