Major announcement for Muncie players!

[Amp Divorax]

Ok, ever since Sultan's Castle went down the toilet there have been people in the area asking me left and right if another arcade would open up. What we got last year was the Play Station which decided to hire Zane Ross (The former manager of Sultan's Castle) to run it's arcade portion citing 20 years of experience, but the overall consensus is that the arcade portion has been a immense failure. (Edit: I will also confirm that it is entirely due to Zane Ross that the Play Station didn't get a DDR machine.)

Well, I have the announcement that I know several people in the area have wanted to hear for a long time. DDR is back in Muncie! This Monday with the opening of Eatsa Pizza, a buffet pizza joint, a DDR Extreme machine will be in the area once again. I have visual confirmation of the machine, but I cannot confirm the condition of the machine yet. I will followup on Monday when I am able to check it out after work.

For those who are interested, here's the address for the location:

2701 N. Wheeling Ave
Muncie, IN 47303

I won't go into full details, but I know that quite a few people (myself included) will give this place alot of business out of spite due to how Zane Ross alienated all of the DDR players in the area by talking shit behind their backs then tried to act all nice the next moment.

[Ho]

I obviously don't get up to Muncie too much, but I hope that machine works out well.

[lgolem]

Yeah someone will have to keep me posted cause I go to BSU all the time to see my friends and 9 times out of 10 I feel like playing dance games.

[Jeff Jeff Revolution]

a buffet pizza joint, a DDR Extreme machine

Which am I more excited about? Both are great news.

I'm not necessarilly planning on going TO Ball State, but I go there once a year for Journalism Day for Newspaper class.

[Amp Divorax]

Oh, if anybody is interested in going there Monday as a mini-gathering of those in IndyDDR that are in the Muncie general area drop a line as while I will be checking it out shortly after noon I know most people wont' be able to do anything until the afternoon/evening.

[Amp Divorax]

I'm bumping as I just got to check out the machine in question. I didn't try the food there as I have to workout in an hour or so.

The machine looks to have been recently restored as it as the panels are different from the standard stensil used, along with the buttons and the platform. A company from South Bend is responsible for providing the machine and I will state that this is a top notch machine.

However, there are 3 substansial downsides. First is that the machine is NOT unlocked. Second, it's a little more pricey than other locations at 4 tokens to play for only 3 songs, and no joint premium. The final issue which is the only major issue is that the volume is EXTREMELY low to the point where I cannot hear it at all when I play. (All the other machines are much louder than it is, nuff said.) I have informed them of the volume issue and the machine being locked and they have stated that the problem will be fixed this week. I will check back there to see if it has been remedied. As for unlocking the machine I may have to take the codes to the worker who checks on the arcades so he can put that in.

Something else that I will mention is that we need to get people here to show support for the machine. This may be Muncie's last chance at getting a DDR machine and I want to make it work.

[Amp Divorax]

Triple Bumped for status update:

The audio issue has been fixed. The sound is now at what has to be the perfect level for the facility as the people in the arcade area can hear it, but in the eating area you can barely even hear it. Also, as an added bonus the Time Crisis 3 machine that is right by it has been turned down. The overall arcade environment usually doesn't have too many people there which is both good and bad as it's good for playing DDR uninterrupted, but bad in the fact that aside from me, Jizzon, and one other person I haven't seen anybody else play on it yet.

Unfortunately, the machine is still locked so I'm presuming that the people who own the machine don't know how to do it. I may see to giving the place the instructions Ho wrote for DDRfreak (albeit I will probably redo the layout slightly to be printer friendly) so they can pass it on to them.

Overall though I have to give the location a tenative thumbs up for now, hopefully the machine will start picking up more people in the long run.

[Dyme]

whats the name of the vendor? cause the machine by me is from a vendor in south bend and the machine is fucking crap.

[Amp Divorax]

I don't know the name of the vendor in question, but I think there is only one company from there. The main thing that I don't like about leasing out arcade machines is the lack of regular maintaince which is most likely what you are putting up with.

[Dyme]

I don't know the name of the vendor in question, but I think there is only one company from there. The main thing that I don't like about leasing out arcade machines is the lack of regular maintaince which is most likely what you are putting up with.

yeah. i think they send out a couple guys like once a week. the only problem with our machine is the pads. they need new sensors but they wont replace them since the ddr scene up here is COMPLETELY dead.

[Amp Divorax]

Yea, it's kinda of a catch 22 when it comes to arcades that don't have inhouse maintence unfortunately.

Edit: The price to play was reduced to 3 tokens. Hurray!

[Amp Divorax]

In what has made me go WTF, this facility actually sells beer!

Beer, buffet pizza, and DDR. My god the only thing missing is Pop'N and IIDX. Wait, then it would just be TGA 2, but that would be fucking awesome.

Edit: The right panel on the player 1 side is sticking and it happened while I was playing. Well, that kinda exposed the fact that they were using cheap 3rd party sensors and panels rather hardcore. I don't think it will get fixed anytime soon either so only player 2 works now.

[Amp Divorax]

Ok, I'm recommending that nobody give this place any business as they won't take care of their machine. The player one start button will not hold a large amount of the time which is not cool. When I showed this issue of it the manager of the facility tried to say that it as it only happened on one song out of the 3 I selected she said "Just don't pick that song" and also stated that they think it works just fine. As Jizzon can mention firsthand, the machine has issues so I cannot support them in my right mind. They have also decided to say that I am the only person who complains about these issues and that nobody else has this issue. In the end I told them that I cannot give them any further business until I see a commitment to maintain their machines better. The reality though is that I refuse to pay the salary of their manager (Ruth) as her unprofessional behavior (Not to mention acting like the machine has no issues with it) is completely unacceptable.

[danc1005]

Boycotting by hardcore players is usually very ineffective.
The dbv in me makes me say I will back this up if need be.

[Amp Divorax]

Well, I'm not boycotting the machine per say, I'm mainly recommending against playing there. Personally, since Supernova 2 is coming out this month and in my opinion it reeks of fail (espically since the new notecharts for classic songs songs unlocked by just having it and the Zukin Wars will not be available unless they get E-Amuse) I'm inclined to stop playing alltogether and devote my time to Pop'N Music and IIDX.