So I want to get a DDR pad and game

[Reincarnate]

holy crappola

thanks halogen, haha

psychoangel: Arcade mod in what way? Like a bar?

I was considering getting a wooden board to go underneath the pad and then install a bar into it, but hm.

[TC_Halogen]

The arcade mod adds panels to the corners (on numpad: 7 9 1 3) so that you can feel your footing a bit better.

Wooden board underneath the pad and a bar installed is a good idea and is probably the most conventional way to do it.

[thesunfan]

Kinda adding to this, if I'm a super poor (100 bucks to spend max atm) would it be worth it to get one now, or just save up? I'm looking for basically the same thing OP is

[Guest15937]

Just don't go the way I did. I got the game ~2 weeks ago but in a combination of cheapness and bad research ended up with a $10 plastic pad that worked for about three songs before the up and down arrows started to go off-center.

[dragonmegaXX]

Trust me the problem is either how hard you step, or just what floor level your on. I can play on my arcade cabinets so quietly that no one can hear it, and I can also make the whole house shake with them.

It all varies on your technique. I would recommend trying out these
http://precisiondancepads.webs.com

I've heard nothing but good thinks, plus its super lightweight compared to other metal pads so it should be quieter.

[Reincarnate]

Yeah, I pulled the trigger on the "ITGX" pad from the Precision Dance Pad website.

This one:

http://www.precisiondancepads.com/in...in-itg_ac_skin

And you're right -- the noise is dependent on how I step. I practiced yesterday by just moving around the wooden floor. If I flat-foot, it's quite stompy and noisy. If I play on my toes it's pretty much silent. It might actually be better if I play on my toes because IMO it requires more exertion, which is the point!

[Wayward Vagabond]

Get ready for your calves to burn like all hell

[MixMasterLar]

Nice link Hologen

sigh....I was actually carious if my stuff was there. Alas, nope.

Wyde's here though he had great stuff back when. I might need to get back in there later and clean house.

Also Rebirth is amazing everyone needs that

[demonllama6124]

I just got my cobalt flux hooked back up to my PC. Sadly, there is a bad lag and I can't use it on SM

[Ohaider]

Originally Posted by Wayward Vagabond

hard foam pad that came with my ddr extreme 2 for the ps2

Represent

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Wayward Vagabond

Get ready for your calves to burn like all hell

In my experience, it was always my shins (and the arches of my feet) that hurt when I played too much.

[Reincarnate]

Which version of Stepmania should I install? (I've been out of the loop for a long while... I have no idea what version supports what anymore or which one is best suited for this kind of thing)

[Oni-Paranoia]

Throwing in my input from experience.

A soft pad is more than enough to get basic stuff down and anything above is just fancy. I was able to duck tape the corners of a soft pad onto a hard floor and using a table as bar, pass VerTex with a 90+. Mind you, this was back in 07-08.

If this is all fitness based then it is best to play using the top of your foot rather than your whole foot to avoid stomping. It also stresses your legs a bit, drains your stamina much faster and can possibly make it harder to obtain a marvelous/fantastic.

You'd also want to keep it to more simple songs to actual feel a workout. Along with working out in general, it's better to do easy for a long time than hard for a short time. So I'd say when everything is setup, start aiming for AAAs on DDR 7s and move upwards playing on the top of your feet. Allows yourself to work out your legs without doing too much and allows you to adjust to the timing you need to obtain marvelous/fantastic. I'm not saying to ignore other songs, but because I don't know your natural level of play I can't really say to do push yourself to getting quads on 11s etc...

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Oni-Paranoia

If this is all fitness based then it is best to play using the top of your foot rather than your whole foot to avoid stomping. It also stresses your legs a bit, drains your stamina much faster and can possibly make it harder to obtain a marvelous/fantastic.

Yeah, these are my thoughts as well. Probably a blessing in disguise if I can't flatfoot, as I'll be forced to move around more.

Originally Posted by Oni-Paranoia

You'd also want to keep it to more simple songs to actual feel a workout. Along with working out in general, it's better to do easy for a long time than hard for a short time. So I'd say when everything is setup, start aiming for AAAs on DDR 7s and move upwards playing on the top of your feet. Allows yourself to work out your legs without doing too much and allows you to adjust to the timing you need to obtain marvelous/fantastic. I'm not saying to ignore other songs, but because I don't know your natural level of play I can't really say to do push yourself to getting quads on 11s etc...

I can pass stuff like Tribal Revival (IIRC a 10) and feel pretty tired. Max 300 makes me winded. I played Energizer on Expert a few times and the one time I passed it I had to go running to the nearest bathroom to puke my guts out, lol.

IMO that's a good benchmark to start out with (7's moving upward), thanks

[Wayward Vagabond]

Any version of sm should be fine. I'd say use sm5 though since it supports widescreen and its easier to get it set up(it comes with a built in calibration thing)

[ddr_f4n]

depends on the type of pad files though

Most of the stuff from divinelegy and r21freak are meant for ITG2/OpenITG, so I recommend using OpenITG for that stuff, especially if you wanna start playing higher-level pad files.

[Reincarnate]

What are some differences between SM5 and OpenITG?

Which one allows for cooler themes?

[ddr_f4n]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

What are some differences between SM5 and OpenITG?

Which one allows for cooler themes?

Depends on what kind of themes you want. OpenITG is a bit more limited though but there are some great themes out there like the Super Meat Boy theme, but SM5 has a bigger variety overall.

SM5 does have more features in the end, but there are quite a few pad files with foreground changes that ONLY work with ITG2/OpenITG which I wouldn't skip out on since they are usually great. SM5 also has this thing where if you open up the file in edit mode, it'll automatically convert any neg bpms into warps that OpenITG can't read whatsoever.

[Reincarnate]

I'll prolly stick with SM5 in the end -- any cool techy-themes out there? (lots of blue, black, that kind of thing?)

[TC_Halogen]

Not many people have made themes for SM5, but I do know that there's at least an actual ITG3 theme out there:





Link here if you're interested: https://github.com/freem/itg3theme/archive/master.zip

(There might be an updated version later.)