I was amused, listening to the latest ATP, as they talked about gaming.
Especially the talk about gamers, and having console machines. They mentioned gamers having consoles. And I've got several sitting around.
I've got a Turbo Duo (I had a Turbo Grafx as well, but got rid of that a long time ago), a Dreamcast (pissed that I recently went looking for Crazy Taxi for that, and couldn't find it), a Playstation or two (not sure if any of them still work, though), a Playstation II (still gets used occasionally for DDR-related exercise), and a Wii (which I enjoyed for a while, but haven't turned on in several years).
Mostly, I was amused because I do have several around (actually, I'd forgotten a couple of them), but none of mine are even recent, let alone current, and they rarely get turned on.
I did recently turn on the Duo to play around with Bomberman (wanted to see if I could get the Saxophone powerup again). But other than occasional DDR (and even more occasional Karaoke Revolution games), I don't use any of them anymore.
And none of them really for gaming, per se.
I'm not sure what that says about me, really, but I thought it was interesting. And I wonder whether that sort of thing is typical.
These days, almost all of the gaming is iOS-based, and mostly games that can be played in very small chunks.
I do have games on my Mac, but those are also very rarely played. I did, recently, get a couple new games, but I haven't played them either.
I need to do a bit better, somehow, I think.
Showing posts with label ddr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ddr. Show all posts
20140505
20100603
Dance to the Beat!
When my wife and I got our old house ready to sell, I had to pack away DDR. In particular, the pads were too big and heavy to keep handy (I got metal pads from this place, which are fantastic if you play on the higher levels of difficulty, and especially if you play a lot). I also packed the game discs away quite early (well, most of them), which made the pads issue pretty much immaterial.
Being unable to play most times of the day also limited options (between work and my daughter's sleep schedule), and the game being set up on the top floor of our old house meant it was nearly impossible to play for six or so months.
Well, I finally got everything set up last night. Actually, that was kind of interesting also; previously, I'd had the game hooked up to an old 32" CRT. Well, here I had it hooked up to a 1080p LCD. I didn't really expect that to cause any issues (I'd only seen issues with that sort of thing once at a friend's house (he had a DLP rear projector that caused about 7/10ths second delay; boy, was it fun playing DDR with that. I had to re-teach myself how to play, practically)), but was surprised to see that there was a noticeable delay (probably two to three tenths of a second). After monkeying around for a bit, I found a game mode which got rid of the delay.
But the new house got rid of most of the difficulties. It's a) single family, so I don't need to worry about the neighbor; b) can set up in the basement, where the sound doesn't carry; and c) because of those first two, I can play after my daughter goes to bed. I knew there was a good reason we moved. :)
Well, after not playing for over half a year, I was surprised that I didn't have too much trouble playing at the Hard difficulty level. I wasn't in any danger of getting any AAs, but only one or two might have tossed me (I had it in exercise mode, so it's difficult to be certain).
I played for 27 or 28 minutes, and burned about 450kcal, according to the game. My only recent exercise being chasing my daughter around, I was surprised that I wasn't wiped out by that at all. In fact, the calories are close to twice what I was planning to do; this was supposed to be very light exercise (ok, compared to some of my workouts when I was serious (either trying to get in particularly good shape, or to lose a little weight), that is very light, but I wasn't comparing against that standard in my mind). It made for a very pleasant surprise.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens when my daughter gets old enough to play. I could see that going in several different directions; although the thought of her possibly being able to beat me when she's like seven or eight is a bit scary. Well, a bridge for when we come to it.
Being unable to play most times of the day also limited options (between work and my daughter's sleep schedule), and the game being set up on the top floor of our old house meant it was nearly impossible to play for six or so months.
Well, I finally got everything set up last night. Actually, that was kind of interesting also; previously, I'd had the game hooked up to an old 32" CRT. Well, here I had it hooked up to a 1080p LCD. I didn't really expect that to cause any issues (I'd only seen issues with that sort of thing once at a friend's house (he had a DLP rear projector that caused about 7/10ths second delay; boy, was it fun playing DDR with that. I had to re-teach myself how to play, practically)), but was surprised to see that there was a noticeable delay (probably two to three tenths of a second). After monkeying around for a bit, I found a game mode which got rid of the delay.
But the new house got rid of most of the difficulties. It's a) single family, so I don't need to worry about the neighbor; b) can set up in the basement, where the sound doesn't carry; and c) because of those first two, I can play after my daughter goes to bed. I knew there was a good reason we moved. :)
Well, after not playing for over half a year, I was surprised that I didn't have too much trouble playing at the Hard difficulty level. I wasn't in any danger of getting any AAs, but only one or two might have tossed me (I had it in exercise mode, so it's difficult to be certain).
I played for 27 or 28 minutes, and burned about 450kcal, according to the game. My only recent exercise being chasing my daughter around, I was surprised that I wasn't wiped out by that at all. In fact, the calories are close to twice what I was planning to do; this was supposed to be very light exercise (ok, compared to some of my workouts when I was serious (either trying to get in particularly good shape, or to lose a little weight), that is very light, but I wasn't comparing against that standard in my mind). It made for a very pleasant surprise.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens when my daughter gets old enough to play. I could see that going in several different directions; although the thought of her possibly being able to beat me when she's like seven or eight is a bit scary. Well, a bridge for when we come to it.
20090521
trying new ddr version
Mostly, I play DDR Extreme2, which has an awesome 'Endless' mode. With its very short breaks, and high difficulty, that's a great way to play for exercising (or for getting better at the game, for that matter).
But a while ago, I bought DDR X (it was cheap). I finally tried it today.
Since I wanted to play for a while, with minimal interruptions, I put it into exercise mode (after noting that it doesn't appear to have any equivalent Endless mode). Aside from the one Pet Shop Boys song, the music was pretty lame (I did only look at 25 or so songs, though). And the difficulty? After the first two songs, I put it in its hardest difficulty setting.
On the ten-point scale on which every song is rated (and which on previous versions seemed to be comparable), this was nines, tens, and elevens(!). And yet it was easier than the eights and nines from Extreme2. None of the songs would have killed me if I'd not been in exercise mode; only two would have even been close.
Overall, I'd rate it as LAME. Not sure if I'll play it again in the future.
But a while ago, I bought DDR X (it was cheap). I finally tried it today.
Since I wanted to play for a while, with minimal interruptions, I put it into exercise mode (after noting that it doesn't appear to have any equivalent Endless mode). Aside from the one Pet Shop Boys song, the music was pretty lame (I did only look at 25 or so songs, though). And the difficulty? After the first two songs, I put it in its hardest difficulty setting.
On the ten-point scale on which every song is rated (and which on previous versions seemed to be comparable), this was nines, tens, and elevens(!). And yet it was easier than the eights and nines from Extreme2. None of the songs would have killed me if I'd not been in exercise mode; only two would have even been close.
Overall, I'd rate it as LAME. Not sure if I'll play it again in the future.
20090504
video games
I used to play a lot of video games; through college and for quite a few years after. Bomberman and Bomberman '93 were my favorites for a long time (it went rather downhill from there, though; the punch took a lot of the skill out of multiplayer). I was the first player I know of (and I was on a turbo duo mailing list at the time) to find the 10M point "power-up" in the original bomberman (it took getting through the first 63 levels of the game without dying).
But anyway... since a job I had a decade ago, where we had daily quake2 deathmatches in our group, I haven't hardly played them. Lately, the only game I bought expecting to play quite a bit was Civ IV. That was quite good, but I largely lost interest after several very long games. I guess part of it was that it was very, very tough to take over anything via cultural superiority; much tougher than it should have been. Putting an enormous percentage of my resources into that, I was only able to take over one city over the entire course of a very long game (and that one was very small). Overall, I think I liked Alpha Centauri (man, it's sad to notice that it'd been ten years since I updated that page) a lot better. The only game I still play regularly on my computer is a computer bridge game.
I do still play console games on occasion, though. DDR is my main form of exercise (I also play ultimate frisbee, but usually only once a week). And Karaoke Revolution is a lot of fun, also. My pitch is still far from perfect, but at least I can sometimes hear when it's off, now.
Be that as it may, the main reason I was writing this was to talk about DDR. I've been playing it for a long time; I only play it on Hard difficulty, unless I'm playing a new version. And when that happens, I get back to Hard as quickly as I can; not much exercise in the easier levels. I've been asked if I memorize the levels, but, as far as I can tell, I don't. It's hard to be sure, really. If I have memorized it, it's only at the subconscious level, except for a couple of particular sequences in a couple of songs, where my instinctive action would leave me wrong-footed. The only thing I really consciously remember is the beat sequence (when is there an extra syncopation, when does the tempo change, that sort of thing).
I've tried telling people that DDR is a good training for ultimate, but no one seems to believe me; what it does particularly well is train you for defense. Getting wrong-footed on D in ultimate (as in most sports) means you lose the match-up immediately; by the time you can play DDR on Hard level, you're almost never wrong-footed. And you're rarely off-balance, as well. Plus, it's very good aerobic exercise, so it helps with your wind. Win-win-win. :)
But anyway... since a job I had a decade ago, where we had daily quake2 deathmatches in our group, I haven't hardly played them. Lately, the only game I bought expecting to play quite a bit was Civ IV. That was quite good, but I largely lost interest after several very long games. I guess part of it was that it was very, very tough to take over anything via cultural superiority; much tougher than it should have been. Putting an enormous percentage of my resources into that, I was only able to take over one city over the entire course of a very long game (and that one was very small). Overall, I think I liked Alpha Centauri (man, it's sad to notice that it'd been ten years since I updated that page) a lot better. The only game I still play regularly on my computer is a computer bridge game.
I do still play console games on occasion, though. DDR is my main form of exercise (I also play ultimate frisbee, but usually only once a week). And Karaoke Revolution is a lot of fun, also. My pitch is still far from perfect, but at least I can sometimes hear when it's off, now.
Be that as it may, the main reason I was writing this was to talk about DDR. I've been playing it for a long time; I only play it on Hard difficulty, unless I'm playing a new version. And when that happens, I get back to Hard as quickly as I can; not much exercise in the easier levels. I've been asked if I memorize the levels, but, as far as I can tell, I don't. It's hard to be sure, really. If I have memorized it, it's only at the subconscious level, except for a couple of particular sequences in a couple of songs, where my instinctive action would leave me wrong-footed. The only thing I really consciously remember is the beat sequence (when is there an extra syncopation, when does the tempo change, that sort of thing).
I've tried telling people that DDR is a good training for ultimate, but no one seems to believe me; what it does particularly well is train you for defense. Getting wrong-footed on D in ultimate (as in most sports) means you lose the match-up immediately; by the time you can play DDR on Hard level, you're almost never wrong-footed. And you're rarely off-balance, as well. Plus, it's very good aerobic exercise, so it helps with your wind. Win-win-win. :)
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