Stepmania dance pad

z00m · Basic Member Joined: 06 Dec 2005

I would like to know if any dance pad which has an usb adaptor for PC can be used to play Stepmania(PC).

I'm specially interested in knowing if this dance pad can be used to play stepmania:
http://www.ddrgame.com/dance-dance-revolution-m03831.html

Thanks!!!

PedanticOmbudsman · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:22 am Post subject:

Looking at the photograph and description, it seems that what they're actually selling is two regular PS2 soft pads and a dual PS2 to USB converter. So it should work with no problem. But those pads are crap. And they're probably tacking on some extra price for the "convenience" of throwing two PS2 pads and a USB adapter into one box.

p.s. "You will feel refreshed and energetic afterwards"?! Geez, I must be doing something wrong.

z00m · Basic Member Joined: 06 Dec 2005

Laundry · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 12:54 pm Post subject:

PedanticOmbudsman · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:32 pm Post subject:

If you're a new player on Light mode, and you don't use shoes or otherwise abuse the pads, they could probably do okay for you for as long as several months. Standard can be done tolerably on a soft pad, but it'll hold you back a bit, and you'll wear out the pad faster. Some people can do Heavy on a cheap soft pad but most people wouldn't put up with the level of frustration involved and the hassle of burning through a pad per week.

A soft pad is okay for first-timers to let them get an idea of what the gameplay is like at easier difficulties and decide if it's a hobby they want to stick to long-term and invest more money in. But eventually you'll want and need something more.

z00m · Basic Member Joined: 06 Dec 2005

Well, i will play barefoot and I think i'll play light-standard. Also, i only wheight 40 Kg. Do you think the pad will last long?How much time aproximatley?

Thanks!!!

z00m · Basic Member Joined: 06 Dec 2005

Well, i think I'm goinig to buy a hard pad so, can anyine recomend me one good pad compatible with stepmania?(would be better if it was 100-200$)

Thanks

z00m · Basic Member Joined: 06 Dec 2005

Can someone tell me if this pad will work with stepmania?

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=22&products_id=8082&#accessories

You can see its adaptor clicking in the image

Thanks!!

PD Please answer i really need your help!

gamer4ever · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:02 pm Post subject:

One thing! DO NOT USE A PS2-PC ADAPTER FOR STEPMANIA. I tried it, it didn't work. Because it thinks the arrows as a regular D-Pad/analog stick, so how can you do up and down together on a regular controller? Same thing implies to the dancepad. Up was Down, Down was Up?

PedanticOmbudsman · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:09 am Post subject:

Travelsonic · Trick Member Joined: 08 Oct 2005

dcardinal · Basic Member Joined: 06 Jan 2006

We bought a pair of these for our daughter for Xmas. The pads are inexpensive, which is fine since we're all beginners. BUT, the PS2 adapter didn't come with a driver so of course it didn't work right.

We finally got DDRGame on the phone and got a driver. However, now both pads look identical when we put them in dance pad mode, so we can only use one pad or the other.

At that point we decided we wanted better pads anyway, so we ordered a couple of the Ignition 3 pads from Red Octane.

Unfortunately, despite what it says on their website, Red Octane doesn't seem to be shipping the pads, we can't track the order and their email and voicemail boxes are overfull so they are both bouncing. The pads sound good anyway, but we have no clue whether they really are selling them or not.

But in the meantime we're using the DDR pads "one at a time" and that works okay as long as you don't have shoes or get too violent. I can see that we'd outgrow them pretty quickly though.--David

dcardinal · Basic Member Joined: 06 Jan 2006

The 3.0 pads arrived and plugged right into a USB hub (using the provided pigtail that replaces the XBox one). They provide both Axes & Button info, so Stepmania 3.9 automatically ignores the axes & picks up the buttons, so they worked perfectly right off.

PS They come with a small headphone cord extender. I'm not sure I have a clue what that is for, since I didn't see any audio out capability from the pad itself, but I may have missed something.

--David

Calvin&Hobbes · Basic Member Joined: 20 Jan 2006

Did you have any problems getting StepMania to go into versus mode? I just bought two ignition pads and they both work fine, but I can't select versus mode.

BTW, the headphone extender is for Xbox Live.

dcardinal · Basic Member Joined: 06 Jan 2006

As I recall our Ignition pads worked pretty much right off. I went into the Gamepads Control panel applet to tinker, but I'm not sure anything I did in there mattered.

We _DID_ have to program the keys for each dancepad separately and specifically inside Stepmania, but that was the only part that took some thought.--David

Calvin&Hobbes · Basic Member Joined: 20 Jan 2006

Ok, that's the same thing I did.

I'll try using different USB ports to see if it makes a difference.

Royal Master · Basic Member Joined: 21 Jan 2006

This is what I just got:

Challenger Super Deluxe Pad:
http://www.elementsource.com/bxbduvesuded.html
PS2 to USB converter:
http://www.elementsource.com/bps2psxtopcu.html

It was almost exactly $50 shipped.

The 1" hard foam pad seems to be working nicely.

CoasterKrazy · Trick Member Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Location: Northeast Ohio

If you play Beginner/Light/Low Foot Standard Songs, a Red Octane 3.0 will get the job done nicely.

If you play 7-12 Foot songs, then a metal pad is the only way to go.

As for the adapter, I bought one from Red Octane for use with my Cobalt Flux (both of which have not arrived yet). From other reviews, the Adapter works flawlessly after downloading the drivers, with no lag or anything.

_________________

adp10390 · Basic Member Joined: 22 Jan 2006 Location: Santa Barbara

I would have to disagree with you about needing metal pads; I play up to 11 feet and I'm using a soft pad with no trouble at all. I'm using RedOctane's ITG Official Pad. I prefer it to their Ignition because the Ignition has too much padding and it doesn't feel right. The cheaper one is nice because:
a) It's got a lovely bottom surface that hardly ever slips around even on 11-footers
b) It's thick enough to be comfortable in bare feet/socks and thin enough that you don't feel like you sink into it or lose your balance; you can feel the floor beneath it.
I've been using the pad for about 4 months now and it's been great.

As for adaptors, I highly reccomend the SmartJoy Dual Plus which can be found at http://www.lik-sang.com. Most controller adapters will map the direction buttons to x or y axes as opposed to individual buttons, which means that you can't press up and down or left and right at the same time, which is obviously bad for DDR. SmartJoy Dual Plus maps to individual buttons automatically; you don't even need to input the standard start + select or whatever it is code to change it, at least if you're using Mac. Which is another thing; this will work on both PC and Mac. If you're using a PC, it comes with a floppy disk containing the driver and a utility that lets you change the button mappings (and I'd imagine you can change the way it maps directions too). If you're using a Mac, throw the disk away, plug the pad into the adapter into your USB 2.0 on your Mac, and fire up Stepmania. You can configure the buttons from the Options menu in Stepmania, no hassle. The only trouble with this is that the only place I know of to get this godsend is from lik-sang; which offers free shipping, but it can take up to 2 weeks because they ship from Hong Kong.

Happy dancing!