Stepmania + DancePad + Disney = Lots o family fun

[JamIt]

I know there have been numerous topics on "the virtues" of Stepmania.  Just thought I'd add my experience to the mix.  I've had Dance With Intensity on my cabinet for years now but only played with the buttons.  While it was kinda fun (especially when playing against someone) I always wanted to try it with some pads.
Side note: I don't dare play against those young-ins (I'm old at 33, yeesh) at the arcade.  They seem very adverserial; brings back memories of my old breakin' days.  I digress...

Anyway, I couldn't justify buying (or making) the pads since the kids were too young, my wife wasn't terribly interested, friends don't come over that much, etc.  Last week my bowling teammate happens to mention that she has a spare dancepad.  So she ups and gives it to me, I buy a PSX to USB adapter, hook it up to my laptop, download Stepmania software, and its DANCE FEVER BABY.

Kids are old enough now and they wanted in on the action.  But the few songs I downloaded don't really have appropriate lyrics.  Did some searching around and came across www.ddruk.com.  Holy mother of pearl!  I'm not a "ddr freak" or anything so I don't know if the "dance files" are true ports, but I was able to pull down a couple of the Disney "Bumper Packs" and they are an absolute blast!

Its been a week now and my 6 year old is getting close to actually clearing some levels.  Its cute watching her practice the moves while its someone else's turn.  My 4 year old just cracks me up!  He just hops around the pad randomly, hoping that the room lets out a cheer when he gets the occasional "PERFECT" or "MARVELOUS".  After hooking it up to our 37 in LCD, my wife has even become interested; which is good since I know I'll want to "upgrade" to better pads; maybe even some dual pad action.

Anyway, thanks for listening.   :notworthy:Stepmania rocks.   :notworthy:ddruk rocks.
--JamIt

[wana10]

howdy, glad to see your havin' fun. i myself got sucked in and now have built my own pad. the stepfiles from ddruk are the official files, note for note, so they follow the same rules as mame roms. have fun, and watch for the slow creeping speed up at the end of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
making a pad is fun, i personally suggest the stoli design, though the ddrhomepad and the riptide are both good designs as well

[dek]

I saw a disney ddr at Disneyland a couple years back, would love to get something like that for my daughters. Where can I find the Stoli plans to build ?

[Glaine]

I home-built the ddrfreak pad (its somewhere in their forum, been years - don't remember where). Good times were had with the ole' stepmania.

Check out www.bemanistyle.com sometime also, lots and lots of home-made stepfiles, lots of em good, some of em with background vids (usually anime theme songs).

I also like Drummania a little & love Beatmania alot still. Never got very big on Guitar Freaks though. Happy hunting.