[DDR] Life Stories.

[Kamashi-Kun]

Share Your DDR Life.

Hmmm... That takes me back.

It was late 2000. I was getting bored of my pokemon stuff, so I went to Gamestop to trade them in for $$$. Two employees were setting up two DDR mats. and they were offering 10 dollars store credit for the guy with the highest score. it was my first time on a pad so I sucked the long and hard one at it.
Two years later, the spring lake arcade got a 3rd Mix machine, and I got hooked. I lost interest for two years. Around January this year, I discovered TGA, and have made a long life vow to play the Four arrow wonder forever. ^_^_

[Craz]

I rember it like it was yesterday. I was at the Showcase cinema's for the opening date of The Mummy Returns and i saw this dancing game. First thing i saw was Monty freestyleing to butterfly doubles and i was like :O . Then i saw Dillenger play Dead End doubles and i was like "DAMN i need to play". I went to the movie, came out, HUGE crowd. I FINALLY got my turn, and failed Silent Hill Basic. Then i went nextr weekend, and i played the game to the point where i sightread butterfly upswing basic and SS'ed it. I was hooked and to this day im still playing this damn game. Thjink of all the money i would haved saved. THINK OF IT!

[Devil Warrior]

Think of all the money saved huh... guess its time to quit DDR and get rich.

[fruitee]

My shit is still weak with the game. I remember wanting to play it for the longest time, but being a total puss, I never had the cojones to get up and dance. It took several attempts by a very good friend to finally get me playing, and that was only a few months ago. It was exactly a week before I decided to buy a pad for home. It's all been downhill from there. Chalk up another on my long and ever-growing list of addictions. Next up, IIDX.

[Catastrophe]

*walks into a friend's dorm room*
Me: "Oh my God what are you doing?"
Alex: "(Out of breath) its a playstation game."
Me: "I see. What ... uh ... is ...."
Alex: "Wait. ... .. There the song is over."
Me: "What game?"
Alex: "Dance Dance Revolution 4th mix. Its new."
Me: "How do you play?"
Alex: <explanation> "Here. You try."
*I fail something on basic, he passes something on maniac, over and over.*
Alex: "Try this one (Bumble Bee on light)"
*I try to pass it for a least an hour, but I can't.* <- (I was using a Topway pad.)
*I pass BBGYL on basic.*
Alex: "Oh good. Here, take these." *Hands me a PSX swap disc, the Topway pad, and 3rd mix*
Me: THANKS!!

*the next day*
Alex: "Theres an arcade version of this game 45 minutes away in Natick. They have tournaments and stuff."
Me: "Yeah? Lets go!"
*Alex gets A's in SSR mode*
*I bar-rape (it wasn't a crime yet) Boom Boom Dollar (KOG G3) of all things on basic.* lol
Me: "Yes! Thats like the song I've ever passed!!"

Awhile after that the Solomon Pond Mall got their DDR machine as well and I was hooked.

[kamilumin]

Think of all the money saved huh... guess its time to quit DDR and get rich.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/kamilumin/17284.html

I forget what year it was, maybe 2000. During summer, I was at Vegas, bored due to being a minor. Saw DDR and PPP, decided to give them a try. So I did. The end.

[Juggatard]

My story goes back to 19..99? I think. I was in San Fransisco with my mom and sister and we went to Metreon. There was a cool arcade there, so we checked it out. There was a DDR machine there and some kid freestyling. I of course said "That's gay."

Cut to a few years later, same shit as craz, in fact we were at the same movie. However, I skipped out of the movie because it was gay and saw DDR. Again, I decided not to play.

Cut to two or so months later. A message board I frequented (this was before the days of Juggatard) created a subforum for DDR. I eventually just decided to try it.

Here I am now.

[Junior Asparagus]

I had heard about it in late 2000, but I'd never seen a machine. Then while I was in Chinatown, I stopped by The Arcade to kill some time playing fighting games, but they had 1.5 Mix. I just watched people play the whole time. Then I went back a few days later and played with one of my friends. Passed my first two songs ever!

But yeah, just about everyone who was playing that long ago has stopped. :-/ It's kind of sad. I miss them all!

[Valcion]

Well, it was a few years ago, last showing of the school's play, i was in the cast. Someone brought a PS2 to kill some time before the show, and they had like konamix running on it. Saw my friends playing, but didn't try.

Flash forward 6 months, cast party of another school play. Much DDR playing. Tried once, hardly touched it afterwards....

Flash forward even more to earlier this year. I was hanging out in the arcade with my good buddy Brendan/Piano Man, and i watched him play some Doubles. Decided to go up and try a bit... passed a few songs and then i was hooked.

And here i am today.

[Shin-Peter]

My lil sister and lil brother told me about this arcade game that was reallllly fun... at Natick Mall. I was kind of skeptical about the whole thing, so I happened to go to the arcade and my siblings introduced me to the game. I played UPSIDE DOWN BASIC and failed horribly, then I passed my next 2 songs, which was SILENT HILL BASIC and IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE BASIC... I was hooked and in the for the next 2 weeks, I was playing it everyday non-stop... I got to SSR after 2 1/2 weeks. When I got back from my first semester of college, I was able to beat all the songs in the game on single and play some SSR doubles.

DDR Tournament was happening at Natick, and I didn't feel like going, infact, I slept at home. I woken up around 11:45 AM and completely forgotten that my sister wanted me to support her during the tournament. I ran from my house to the mall and thought that I came too late. However, the tournament hadn't started yet, and I decided to sit back and relax. My appearance at the tournament wasn't too much of a good idea. People that known me for playing there kinda forced me to participate. There was some competition from Goodtimes, Mary and Frank, with their so-leet 5th mix. My sister lost to a GT person, which I believe was Mary, so that kinda inspired me to take it seriously. The last match was really really close, the combined scores between me and Frank was well... breathtakingly close. I believed that after we got the results screen, it took the audience around us about a good 6 seconds to figure out who won. So, I won my first tournament at Natick, even though I never intended to compete...

From there, I play crazy amounts... but I don't feel like going into detail... but, I will leave the story as it is now... Too much happen.. To sum things up, I stopped playing seriously for about 2 years till now... I had a good 1 hell of a year of DDR. I still kinda play it, but mostly for exercise purposes. Sometimes my stamina needs a kicker. :)

Yeah, I have the only video of the tournament. I believe there was 2 camcorders used, but I have the original tape of the tourney. Maybe, I will show it someday... Haha... right...

[Junior Asparagus]

The last match was really really close, the combined scores between me and Frank was well... breathtakingly close. I believed that after we got the results screen, it took the audience around us about a good 6 seconds to figure out who won.

Yeah, he tried that spin at the end and got a miss, and that cost him first place. XD Dummmmbbbb

[Stax Kazama]

Started playing 3 or 4 years ago, was with a freind up at some arcade in MA and we played a bit. I think my longest combo was a 4 at the time. Played a bit at the showcase not too long after that..I still sucked (and failed) but got the jist of it a little better, then I borrowed Monty's DDR pad and practiced for a bit..started playing at Tilt with 3rd mix, and just kept playing for a couple years..on and off. I'm semi-retired form DDR but I still play every so often. Mostly at home.

[Got Turkey?]

the year is 2002


i am invited to my cousin's house for a 4th of july party.

he has Konomix, he plays it on Maniac and stomps everyone at the party.

i see him do that and i just think to myself: "OH MAN, i wanna do that" so i did

i bought a home pad and played on normal for a while, then moved up to tricky, then i went to the mall.


there i saw a guy (whom i thought was Nougat) playing DDR on heavy and doing Rythem and Police.

i was in awe from that, after he was done, i went up and tried to play on the machine, i failed a standard song first try.

from then on, i ended up going to the mall more often, eventually got up to heavy mode, passed my first cata (Drop Out!) AA'd my first cata (Matsuri Japan)


then i moved on to doubles and am going to get a C with a full combo on Jane Jana :gator:

[iceymoon]

(think story-telling kid from animaniacs)

so i downloaded this song called butterfly one day and i played it over and over and my brother was like "what the hell is that song?" and then he came home from the santa monica pier one day and he was like "woah jen, i heard your song on a video game today, it's called like dance dance revolution 3rd mix or something" and he started playing and then we borrowed homepads and stuff and i started playing and then i got better and better but then i got worse and then i got better again but i'm still not good.

[Radio]

I started around late 2002. I have only recently been able to qualify in regional tournaments.

[Ichigo Momomiya]

Hrm.... I had gone to the movies with everyone, and we decided to hit the mall, I guess. We went in the arcade and saw the game, and we were all telling each other to play it. I forgot who did, but we did Butterfly.. yeah. I came home, downloaded it, got the steps off DDRFreak, and practiced. Within a week I had DDRMax, the pad, blah blah. I've been at the mall every week since. -.-;

[Garrett]

Well, I was on a trip to Arizona to do some intense Kenpo training at a camp call The Gathering. Our plane to go home left Sunday night, so some of the people from my dojo decided to go to this Amusement park. They had a DDR machine and I had heard of it before so I gave it a shot with my crazy Filipino friend. I played on a DDR US mix, and then as I was leaving I saw a Max2 or Extreme or something and these guys were doing Sakura. I was sooo impressed.

When I got home from that trip I asked my mom if she would front me the cash to buy the home version and she WOULDNT! She didn't believe there was a video game that would help me exercise. So I order a bundle off e-bay and I was on my way to stardom!

[Zurden]

Around March, I find I have a free Wednesday, so after school, Bob and I go to the mall. I had wanted to try DDR, so I decide to go up and play. Been addicted ever since.

I just noticed, I never remember these things. ¬.¬

[KenpoCoyote]

(Summer, 2002?) Ok, so life is boring in Acton, MA, so my old friend Igor and I are chillin and he's all like, "d00d! check out this game!" so we go to the acton bowladrome and being the insolent kid I was at the time didn't not regard the DDR 4th Mix Plus machine in awe, but rather watched as Igor mustered an average attempt at some unrecognizible J-Pop that quickly turned into a 1st round failure. And he's like, "uhh... i didn't want that song." And I'm just like, "yeah... ... ... ... .."

It wasn't until... a lot later anyhow, that I played DDR and then I didn't play it for awhile... it wasn't really until about early December 2003 that I really got hooked. (And I know who to blame for that!*cough* "Catastrophe" *cough*) So anywho, I was hooked on DDR MAX 2 and Extreme. My greatest moment of my rookieness was full-combo-ing BreAk Down on Light mode after really only a month of playing.

March 2004: I go to London, no Ps2 DDR... so I hit the arcades for the first time. DDR's VERY popular, at least at the two I hit up over there. LOTZA cute asian girls. :gator: ;) :p

I finally got my own PS2/DDR MAX 1/DDR MAx2 japanese/2 non-working swap discs in May 2004. That's my (abridged) life story. Long live DDR.

[Hi-C]

one day a friend of mine asked me to come to his house to check out this game called dance dance revolution.at first i was like wow this game must be stupid. i went over his house and watched him play Konamix on standard. i was like " wow ur good at this". he let me try and of course i sucked. i got hooked on the game and wanted to get better at it. one day he called me up again and asked me to go to this DDR arcade called TGA that he found off of DDRFreak. i said ok lets go and we went over there and we seen all the other machines there. we played ddr and i was on light still. after that day i bought the home version of DDR and got on to heavy within 4 months. and after the first time i visited TGA, ive been going there at least one-two days a week, every week to play the machines and stuff there.

and here i am today :D

[Great For Dipping]

Uh - a year ago this summer, my friend Ryan (DuranDuranRevolution on DDRFreak) and I were arguing online about how Nashua had no good arcades. He contested that Funworld was alright, and I disputed that Funworld lost its charm after getting rid of the Ridge Racer car. We went there for the hell of it, and ran into our mutual friend Matt, along with several others. Ryan played a game of DDR with Matt, and I laughed. About a week later, Ryan and I went to Old Orchard for 2 nights, and he kept badgering me to try DDR, and I finally folded, saying "this is gonna be stupid". $10 later, we were hooked. That summer was then filled with DDRama, involving myself, Ryan, and two other TGA Forum regulars. Anyway, a year later, here I am, hardly playing DDR ever. Rock on.

[DJ_Midnite]

My start in DDR came from other games. There are very few people out there who can say they got into DDR as there second bemani ^_^.

Cant think of the year off the top of my head but I think it was 2002. Ya, November or October of 2002 I started playing a game at our arcade called Dance Freaks. My friends played it alot and were insane at it (From my eyes) I saw them play songs like Butterfly and thought that the circle was impossible 0_o. Ended up mastering the game about 5 months later and got Jam into it w/ my friend Billy. Jam eventually passed Billy and then when I saw he was getting good I started playing again. We have been equals ever since.

Soon we grew tired of the 30 or so songs on DF. Billy had gotten DDRMax for PS2 and had a few friends over to play one night. Billy was on Standard, I played Sandstorm light as my first song. Passed it with a C. Then he was an ass and had me do Max 300 light. I got up to the freeze arrows (Didnt relize how good that was). So ya, Thats when they told me that I should tag along with them to a tournamentwith them. I was really geanuinly bad at the game for a while while I played home version. But I got better. in a month I could AA Dyanmite Rave on light. So I decided to eneter the tourny, I ended up getting dead last since there were good people there (JA and XAlastor were there). The songs weer More Than I Needed to Know (Std) Got a B. and .59 (Hvy) Which I passed with a D which was the first song on Heavy I ever passed. Then I started to frequent Solomon more, AAed Brilliant 2 U (Orchestral Mix), Cowgirl, and Freckles within 4 months of starting.

Then we got DDR Extreme at the arcade in my town and Ijust got really good, But now Im starting to slack and am thinking of being a Pop'n/DM/IIDX player since I started out well on them, Well not too well on IIDX but Im gettin there. So ya, Thats how I got into this world called bemani. ^_^

There were rumors for 3 months that our arcade was getting DDR, But we didnt believe them.