In this thread we talk about rhythm gaming histories

[MrRubix]

I was posting in another thread and it got me into nostalgia mode, a bit. I've been playing since Dance With Intensity was released in early 2001 or so, although in terms of DDR, I've been playing since a couple years prior to that.

In terms of era, I associate a lot of the early DWI/SM days with BemaniRuler, who, at the time, was known for making the hardest simfiles around (does anyone remember the "Legend of ART" songs in the DDREI Tournamix files that made fun of BMR for this?). By today's standards, BMR's files are really easy and we wouldn't give them a second thought -- they're only marginally tougher than Max 300 was at the time. My very first DWI files were Nori Nori Nori, Bakkwo, Captain Jack, and B4U. B4U was the file I used in order to learn how to read better... and then I moved onto Paranoia Evolution until I could FC it on Heavy. Eventually I moved onto Max 300, and then BMR's files. One of the earliest DDR videos (from 1998, the year DDR came out) you'll find on the internet today: Butterfly. I'll always have a soft spot for this file, too. :P

The file that I'll always remember was "Angelfalls." When I first started playing, a friend of mine at the time gave it to me and said "Check this file out -- it's INSANE." Remind you, I was playing B4U at this time. Angelfalls looked incredibly crazy in comparison. But eventually I was able to play not only Angelfalls, but V (which taught me staircases), Afronoia (which I used to learn how to read runningmen), G2, and Gravity (basic jumpstream). Then there was the 3000+ step file "Pulse," which was supposed to be BMR's goodbye-file (it wound up not being his last, but I'll always associate it with the end of the BMR era, since everything he made after that was not as widely publicized/official). All of this took place at DDRManiaX, and the Pulse release was a pretty big deal at the time. TaQ stepfiles were also really popular during this period (many of which came from Dj Ren, who also enjoyed stepping Onoken files -- I used to playtest his files before he released them). His files also got me interested in competitive play and I was the first to AAA many of his files (of course, this gathered BS calls like no other).

[If anyone still has the old BMR BG videos please let me know (the ones for G2, V, Nemesis, etc)... these videos were on an old, old computer that broke down and I can't find these videos anywhere anymore. But anyway...]

Then there was the "Golden Era" of Stepmania, which was around... maybe 2003-2004 or so? The community was incredibly active and there were DDR/SM/DWI sites *everywhere*. DDR Extreme was making its rounds and Legend Road was considered insanely impossible until we saw guys like JSB and Yasu (of Aaron in Japan fame) dominate it -- also recall Kobayan's domination of Maxx Unlimited doubles. One of my favorite videos was one of JSB getting SDG on Legend of Max. Unfortunately, JSB was also a bit abrasive. We can't forget guys like Sketch, either. :P The video of some dude juggling pins while playing So Deep on Heavy is still pretty sick by today's standards.

But in terms of keyboard gaming, I associate this time with guys like Reach, Nima, and Arch0wl, who at the time were considered the megabeasts of the community (but not without a lot of drama). This is, in my opinion, where skill took off. We started seeing large skill gains and people were hammering out some relatively tough stepcharts (Payon, Cold Breath, Vanish Into Thin Air, Dignity, Ice Climbers, Club, Reality, etc).

In late-2004/early-2005, as I recall, we started getting a taste for things like ITG, which pushed the boundaries of pad-play. Stuff like Pandemonium would have usually been considered a keyboard file, but hoolllyyy ****. Anyone remember the old video of Foy playing Pure Hell before it was renamed to Breaking Point -- our first preview of ITG? ("3x sudden got me" lmfao)? That video blew a lot of people away. Also check out the first previews we ever got of stuff like Vertex, Hardcore of the North, and later Energizer. These files are still considered decently hard today, but at the time you have to understand just how much crazier they were compared to the stuff DDR was pumping out. We basically went from LoM and PSMO to Vertex and Pandemonium. And now we can see some pretty crazy stuff nowadays that was previously thought to be impossible.

And SOLO SUCKS ANYWAYS!

I joined FFR in 2004, but 2006 was when I remember playing in a more competitive capacity (namely once I saw that there were skill tokens to be had). The bluenote files were not all that fun, and so it wasn't until we saw stuff like NeoMax (one of the earlier colored/Note files) that I started finding FFR to be worth returning to. While I had needed to adjust my timing to account for framers, hammering out a Lawn Wake IV / Caprice AAA (first FGO AAA on the site) was really easy... but here on FFR, it generated the start of all the BS drama, especially since, at the time, my history was relatively unknown to newcomers. This was the thread where I basically came out of nowhere and got a great score on LW4 and eventually tied Shash for the only LW4 AAA on the site.

I had always wanted to make this kind of thread, and was upset that I never got the chance to make it before FFR initially went down -- so here we go. :P Discuss any memories you have or things you want to share about your history.

EDIT: Will be updating this post as I remember more.

[Kasumi-chan]

This is more of the history (and evolution) of 4-panel based rhythm gaming. I remember playing Beatmania long before DDR. Where the hardest songs were 5-stars, then we got songs like Attack the Music (omg why are there more stars than the default?). Now it's IIDX Sirius I think?

[MrRubix]

Yes but this thread is about any form of rhythm gaming history. I'm sharing my own experience -- you should share yours, too.

[Shikari]

Well, my history with rhythm games started with DDR 3rd Mix, about 9, 10 years ago. I had a copy for PSX, and I always played with a cousin and a friend. Me and this friend were always competing against each other, playing Afronova, PARANOiA Eternal, Dead End. No, we don't played in pad, we used PSX joypads. Then, I got 4th and 5th Mixes, and started to read everything, I could do rolls, staircases, I FC'd like everything in this three mixes. But, at the time, I never played with a pad. And I still don't play.

Hanging around a brazilian DDR community, a guy, who is now my friend, introduced me to Stepmania. At first, end of 2006, iirc, I started playing just with joypads and Otaku's Dream megapacks (da good ol' times...).

Then, about 2007, I switched to keyboard and files like Blue Army, Lawn Wake IV hvy, Beautiful Synergy, and found out the brazilian Stepmania community. No, we never had any good stepartists, and still don't have, but, back in that days, we had relatively good players for our standards. In comparison to the world community, we had a MICROSCOPICAL community, formed by 5, 6 good players, and, as I played more and more, I became one of them. During 2008/2009, I had incredible skill boosts for me, playing harder files (snow05, Scarhand, Reality) and getting good scores, earning respect between the (really small) brazilian community of players. Also, in 2008, I found out about FFR, but never was a part of the forums, I just started to play seriously this year, and here I am. Nowadays, I'm still a weak player compared to many players around here but, seeing what I was in 2007, well... I'm really proud of my skills today.


That's my rhythm games history.

[Emo_Saur_]

I remember I first started to play Guitar Hero, and whoring the crap out of those drum games in the Arcade. I then really really got into DDR. I got a Ion metal pad hooked my laptop to my TV, then my pad to my computer and played some piss easy keyboard files. I miss the days of my youth, watching in awe at friends raping at DDR. I found out about this site earlier than the time I made this account, I had another account like 2 years before that but I can't remember what it was at all. Recently, I've been looking for an ITG machine around me there is one at a Casino but I really don't want to drive 15 minutes to get to a machine.

[MrRubix]

I know Leonid's been around since like 1998-2000. Are there others?

I'll be updating my main post as I remember anything else of interest.

[Superfreak04]

I'm not exactly sure when I started toi play DDR, but it all started like this. Me and my family went to a mall and I noticed an arcade, so I immediately ran into it to play some shooting games since those were my favorite. yet then, I heard some catchy dance music and I looked over my shoulder, and as steriotypical as it sounds, I see a group of asians jumping around on a metal pad. So out of pure curiosity, I go by the game to see what exactly they were playing. It was a DDR Extreme american cabinet. I felt that the music was kick ass, so I figured I would try out the game, full well knowing I wouldn't do so well. I don't remember which song I picked, but even on beginner I failed, and all the asians laughed at me. I was very embaressed at the time, but once me and my family left the arcade I told my father, "Dad I want that game for my birthday". About a week or so before my birthday started we went to a mall that's really close by my house, and I went into Game Stop. After about 5 minutes, I see DDR "Konamix" bundle pack, my mouth opened and I was in awe. I had completely forgotten about DDR since I was busy looking forward for other games, but once I saw that girl on the cover doing that DDR pose, I knew I had to have the game.

After about 20 minutes of begging, my dad purchased the bundle pack for me, and right when I got back to the hotel, I plugged that sucker into my ps1 and played for hours on end. We were celebrating my party at a hotel since it had a pool and stuff. yet with me being this excited for DDR, I can say that I only went swimming about twice that whole week, well every other minute of my time was playing DDR. My brother watched me play, and he got really interested in the game, and he quickly started to play with me as well. After hours of practice, I eventually was able to do standard songs, and then eventually heavy within a weeks timespand. This is when I figured out that I can adapt to rhythm games quite easily. I couldn't pass all the songs on heavy, but I was very close, and I also didn't know about speed mods either, so I was soley practicing on 1x everytime.

Eventually I got so crazed about DDR, I went to an arcade with my dad and brother everyday for 2 years, playing DDR 5th mix. Here is where I entered my first and only tournament ever. I ended up losing the second round because what the staff did was really stupid. They let the contestants from heavy division play there whole tournament first, then once it was over, they gave them an option to play in standard or light division once they were done, yet they had to pay another entry fee for the tourney. That was complete bull****, you have elite players playing agaisnt people who weren't playing for a while, so me and my brother got creamed and it was completely unfair. **** that tournament.

Months later, they replaced the 5th mix machine with an Extreme machine, and I was disapointed because I really preferred 5th mix over extreme because of the song selection. From there on we still continued the same routine by going to the arcade everyday, but then my life changed. I went to go play DDR and then my friends who I met at the arcade told me of a new machine the arcade had gotten, and it was called In The Groove 2. At first I thought the game was stupid and a DDR ripoff. but at that time, I didn't take into account the overall improvisions ITG had done with dancing games. They made everything better, the pads, songs, graphics, etc. I play ITG for the first time, and since I was very good at DDr on heavy at this time, I immediately went to expert, but that was a horrible choice. Since I was playing on default 1.5x because I didn't use speedmods at all, all the arrows were smushed and I was all WTF?!?!?!? I even saw the patterns of streams that were in ITG and I asked myself, how is that even possible? This is when I realized that ITG took dancing games to a whole new level. I realized I would have to start at hard mode if I wanted to get used to streams and stuff that I wasn't used to. I also realized that using the bar was essential. During my years of palying DDR, I was one of those guys who thought it was stupid to use bar and it was cheating if you did use it. I only felt that way because that's how the rest of the DDR community thought, so I just followed. But after seeing ITG, it totally changed my outlook on it, if the bar was put there, it was meant to be used, not neglected. So I started on hard and worked my way up. I had also saw that ITG now had quads on them, requiring me to use my hands. I was chubby at the time, so it was very difficult for me to do them, so I avoided songs at all costs that had any hand usage. But as time went on, I got really good at ITG and can now perform streams and crossovers, etc. for long periods of time, especially after losing so much weight. To this day I still play ITG, but not often because the arcade took away our USB ports, and officials get boring. The only thing I have to work on is timing, I can tri-star expert songs, like 10's, even 11's, but songs above that I can only double-star or single-star.

And in relations to SM/FFR, I found this site by watching Arch0wl's Quasar video, and at the end it said Arch0wl.com. So I decided to check it out, and here I am. This site and the video is what introduced me to SM, and then eventually I took Sm and FFR seriously and got better after practice. I was a hardcore index player because I didn't know spread was possible. But once I found spread, it was very easy to FC stuff back then before av-miss glitch fix. That's pretty much my whole story on how I got into rhythm games, now I pretty much play any type of rhythm game.

[Shikari]

I don't think any of you guys played Bust-A-Groove, for PSX, which was one of the first rhythm games I ever played.


Edit: That's quite a history, Superfreak. I'll read it.
Edit2: Seems like I'm the only one who went from KB to pad, not the opposite way.

[Sprite-]

I wish I could relate with you guys. My first rhythm game experience was FFR back in 2005. Didn't play anything else until around 2007, when I first downloaded Stepmania.
/lame

[Shikari]

At least you're a Tier 0 nowadays, Sprite.

[Kasumi-chan]

I'll give you my background into rhythm gaming:
I started with a game called Bust-A-Move. It wasn't really a rhythm game, but a input-comboing game. Then I borrowed Beatmania from my brother's ex's brother (yay PS1 modding, pad-playing ftl). Anyways, during the times as a young bowler, we would always travel to Las Vegas for Junior Bowling Tournaments (like LVIJT, and Wipeout Tournaments). But, we would only have arcades, and that's how I was introduced to DDR (DDR 1st US, omg why is Paranoia so fast?). I kept playing and then... I stopped my active lifestyle and began playing FFR because in 8th grade, my friend told me to start playing this game. (9 years ago) I didn't make an account at the time because I played on his account (lol fail). I later got into computer rhythm games like O2JAM, DJMAX, BMS LITE, Osu!, and arcade games like Pop'n, Guitar Freaks, Dance Maniax, PPP.

Currently I'm playing DJ MAX Technika, and I am the real DJ Kasumi. Seriously, there's already this idiot that copied my DJ Card name.

[PrawnSkunk]

I'm a late-comer

I started FFR in 2007-2008 under a different account name. in about Grade 7.
I was introduced by a friend who played Death Piano. At that point I didn't know about "mashing" and "quadding", i thought he was actually getting 100 combos by hitting every note.

I knew nothing about Rhythm games. I started on Level 1 songs (Power). 1x speed. oh baby.

My inspiration was a video on youtube, of a guy playing CIA Rave.

That was my goal. To FC CIA Rave. 2 years later I did that.
3 years later, here I am now. 1.75x spread, and can FC Szamar Madar.

My goal now is to FC Kidney Stone. Wish me luck

[Shikari]

Originally Posted by Kasumi-chan

I started with a game called Bust-A-Move. It wasn't really a rhythm game, but a input-comboing game.

Yes, someone who actually played this game.

[tastelikepeaches]

oh..wow i love.. bust a move but its called "puzzle de pon" in my local arcade

i am the master of it

[Kasumi-chan]

Originally Posted by tastelikepeaches

oh..wow i love.. bust a move but its called "puzzle de pon" in my local arcade

i am the master of it

That game for me takes one credit to beat 90% of the time.

[tastelikepeaches]

it takes me none... just a wink... at the staff
.....100 percento

i am the master

[MrRubix]

Updated main post again

[Kasumi-chan]

Note that if you don't have a credit (whether it's free or not), you are unable to play a game, period.

[Shikari]

Hey, Rubix, isn't funny when you see a thread where everyone was calling you BS, and nowadays almost everyone knows you?

[tastelikepeaches]

Originally Posted by Kasumi-chan

Note that if you don't have a credit (whether it's free or not), you are unable to play a game, period.

regardlesss...100 percent

..i am the master