Da Butt Hut, Brownsburg, Indianapolis

[Diamondback1996]

I'm curious, can I get more info about this stepman cabinet? I'm assuming you started with an old DDR machine am I right? How much did that run you, and how much has the project cost so far? What changes have you made so far?

It's the USA that was at Tilt and I believe it was $1000. Although you could have found that info for yourself.

[Merk]

Now now, it's alright, let's not have everyone get all passive aggressive here.

Machine was $1,000
Minimaid (control board that takes input from the pads and send them to Stepmania on a computer) was ~$170
New computer dedicated to run Stepmania ~$200
New PC video card that an arcade monitor can display $100

All in all about $1,500 at an absolute minimum. Now, Chad paid for someone to deliver it from the arcade to his house so that was an extra couple hundred dollars. He also got brand new sensors as well which probably ran him pretty high depending on where he got them. Betson lists on their website that each sensor costs $25 dollars and there are 32 sensors in a DDR machine which would run some chump about 8 hundos if they didn't scope out a deal.

He also pardoned me for a card table that I stole from his house that I use to play Beet on in exchange for setting up video, Stepmania, and the Minimaid on his cabinet. The card table was about $25.

For the curious my Drummania cabinet with all the Minimaid fixings was about $2100 after it was all said and done. I also had to put up with a shit load of more grief in getting video working than Chad did since neither of us had fucked with getting this sort of stuff working before.

[Fluffyumpkins]

I've purchased sensors from 2 vendors to date.

Uniarcade - http://www.uniarcade.com/dance_machine_ ... switch.htm
Betson - http://www.betson.com/products/IMP-92-501032

The Uniarcade sensors were absolute crap. The game was unplayable.

The Betson sensors have been great so far. Do you have some previous experience that might indicate otherwise?

I was able to talk Betson down to $11.

EDIT: Merk's calculation is pretty accurate. I'll need to make some speaker repairs, but otherwise that's correct.

[Diamondback1996]

The Betson sensors have been great so far. Do you have some previous experience that might indicate otherwise?

DDRX. Although that may be the pad design... But the ones you got work so that's good.

[Merk]

Chad,

What songs do you have on the cabinet? Is it literally the same Stepmania install that we had back in the Japan Night days? CAN WE PLAY MERKTUNE? Can you get all DDR songs on there?

I want to make Stepcharts so bad, my dick's hard.

[Fluffyumpkins]

Chad,

What songs do you have on the cabinet? Is it literally the same Stepmania install that we had back in the Japan Night days? CAN WE PLAY MERKTUNE? Can you get all DDR songs on there?

I want to make Stepcharts so bad, my dick's hard.

All of the old stuff + the latest DWI Extreme Packs. Load time is still retarded long, even on this new PC. MerkTune is on. I have DDR songs through Arcade Extreme, Ultramix 3. I need to get packs for newer stuffs.

Lots, if not all, of the old stuff is out of sync and will probably need to be redone manually.

[DAVE101]

In that one link I posted a long time ago, some reputable step artist/sync'er has uploaded DDR 4th-8th mixes resynced. Even people that know what they're doing send their files to this guy to better sync them, so it may be worth checking out if you absolutely have to play dumb dumb revolution songs.

[Fluffyumpkins]

In that one link I posted a long time ago, some reputable step artist/sync'er has uploaded DDR 4th-8th mixes resynced. Even people that know what they're doing send their files to this guy to better sync them, so it may be worth checking out if you absolutely have to play dumb dumb revolution songs.

I'll probably do that. The only other option is to play a song from the mix (probably on light), turn on autosync, figure out the offset, and manually edit each SM file. Booooorrrriiiinnnnng.

[Diamondback1996]

Speaking of DDR vs ITG, what would VDO be on the ITG scale?

Anyway, ZIv has all of the packs 1st-X2 with X3 already being worked on. DDRII should be game-accurate as they were ripped (like you would want to play those anyway).

[DAVE101]

It's worth mentioning that sync on a PC and keyboard isn't always the same as sync on a machine. The ones I linked you to are meant for a dedicab which has a global offset of -0.012 seconds. Zenius-i-vanisher is probably synced from some dudes PC. You can't know which will work better on your machine until you try it. Personally I can never tell the difference, and if you're not trying to quad something it doesn't really matter.



WTF is VDO

[Amp Divorax]

VDO is Valkyrie Dimension Challenge/Oni, the One More Extra Stage song of DDRX2 in Replicant D-Action mode and the first song to be rated 19 out of the 20 scale used since DDRX1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2k8742Q9-s shows the chart in question.

[Merk]

What the eff is Replicant D-Action mode?

[Fluffyumpkins]

Sounds like the Extra stage or something.

For Replicant-D Action, each song have their own requirements to access them. Pierce The Sky is accessed by passing at least 20 songs in the X2 folder. Sakura Sunrise is accessed by passing at least 2 songs in each song folders (at least 24). Shiny World is accessed by passing 6 courses and 1 drill course. POSSESSION is accessed by getting at least 100 difficulty ratings on CHALLENGE difficulty, then score AA or better on Pierce The Sky and Sakura Sunrise on the same difficulty. New Decade is accessed by getting full combo on 15 different stepcharts (not necessarily different song), then score AA or better on Sakura Sunrise and Shiny World on the same difficulty. Anti-Matter is accessed by playing Trial Mode 3 times, then score AA or better on Pierce The Sky and Shiny World on the same difficulty. (Note that POSSESSION, New Decade, and Anti-Matter's difficulty depends on what difficulty the player pass on previous songs). Scoring AA or better on each song would net a medal.
When the player subsequently earn all six, the player immediately access the Encore Extra Stage, Valkyrie dimension on Expert. The player is forced to play the song, which means the player cannot change options.

Replicant D-action EXTRA STAGE songs (7 Total)

"Pierce the Sky" (bg) JAKAZiD feat. K.N. First song in series
"Sakura Sunrise" (bg) Ryu☆ Second song in series
"Shiny World" (bg) CAPACITY GATE Third song in series
"POSSESSION" (bg) TAG Underground Fourth song in series
"New Decade" (bg) Sota F. Fifth song in series
"Anti-Matter" (bg) Orbit1 & Milo Sixth song in series
"Valkyrie dimension" (bg) Spriggan ENCORE EXTRA STAGE for Replicant D-action

This is exactly why I like Stepmania.

[Diamondback1996]

I like Stepmania (ITG included) for custom songs; I like DDR for the characters, engine, and songs (when it works properly, of course).

Speaking of DDR machines that don't work properly, I went to Tilt yesterday to play some DDR. X has bad pads as usual and reset on me (it seems to do that a lot). The SN2 was fine, but I can't AAA things easily so I don't know if it would be fine for other people.

[Merk]

Sometime in the coming weeks Da Butt Hut will be adding a grill for all our barbecue needs. Chad and I will plan out a get together sometime to celebrate the grill once we actually run into each other at home and talk it out.