demanding, ambitious, informed and inspired

Amanda Steggell (maggies@pobox.com)
Wed, 29 Sep 1999 17:19:12 +0100

In tokyo I watched kids in a gamehall on a machine called "Dance Dance
Revolution 2"
In the simplest version, you have four sensor pads on the floor
frd> back> left> right> arrows
You have a display in front of you which shows you which pad to hit
: a continual stream of changing combinations of the four arrows
You have upbeat music and you have to hit the pads on the beat
to get the most points and to move to a higher level.

Sounds simple
sounds banal

But you should see the kids breaking and hip-hopping on this machine.
They spend hours there, watching, learning, practicing
They don't even pay all the time.
They use the demo mode to try out a new move.
Like a headspin that starts with a drop to the floor, elbow reaching the
leftpad,
knee to the rightpad,
a quick spin on the head to get a foot down on the frdpad.
Regaining balance just in time to hit the bckpad with the other foot...

and when they can do it on the demo, they pay the machine to test out the
new groove
in the real game .....

And there are versions with more pads,
And versions for couples.....

There always has to be a higher level ... .... ...... but grooviness and
creative moves gain higher credits
from the onlookers than moving higher in the game with simple steps.

x
amanda

---------------------------------------
http://www.notam.uio.no/motherboard/
Tel:+47 22563507
Oscarsgt. 49, 0258 Oslo, Norway.