Dance mats

[bohemiancoast]

OK, does anyone use a dance mat with a PC? Console? I seem to remember someone talking about it. (Max?) I played a dance machine in an arcade on holiday a couple of times and enjoyed it loads. I want one for home; I've gathered a few things from internet research (mostly that it is by no means easy to sort it out for the PC, and that if you get a cheap pad, you can make it much better by gaffer taping it to the floor).

Opinions welcome.

Comments

[adela-terrell.livejournal.com]

I want one too, looks like a fab way to do keep fit anyway

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's rather the point. I've been saying for years that the trick to getting me to exercise is to make an exercise machine that is also a thoroughly addictive video game. It's clear that there are lots of people out there who are really serious about dancing games. I want something that's as addictive as Tempest. But it all turns out to be really complicated; I just want to go into a shop and buy the kit.

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

I have a Playstation2 which plays my dance games although they are specifically for PSOne machines. You can buy a PSOne for about 70 quid. Electronics Boutique (er, actually, now they've rebranded themselves to Game) tend to have the mats in stock a lot of the time - they're about 30-40 quid although I've seen them packaged with the Jungle Book game.

I have:
Dancing Stage Euromix (£20)
Dancing Stage Disney (£20)
Dance Dance Revolution Konamix (from the US $20 - only plays in my machine because it's chipped)
and the Jungle Book game that I can't remember the name of and it was second hand so I don't know what it would cost straight.

It can be fun, but very wearing, best played in groups, really. Dancing Stage is the European name for Dance Dance Revolution (no idea why they changed it) and the music largely isn't the sort of stuff I like to listen to - even the Disney stuff has been funked up into Clubber style sounds. The Jungle book one is a different thing all together - different things on screen to react to, and while it's the traditional Disney Jungle Book tunes the game itself is a lot easier than the DDR ones and only worth playing on the higher levels.

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

I saw a PC/PSX controller adapter in Frys last week... So it's probably a simple web order.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

It's more complicated than that...

The problem is that some PC/PSX adapters map the dance mat to a joystick, ie analog x y axis. This doesn't work because some of the moves require you to tap both left/right or up/down at once. It's, you know, dancing. So you have to map to buttons, and then USB has a problem with two buttons being hit at once.

there is, inevitably, a FAQ. Anyway, there's a hongkong company that will send me all I want for only an extortionate amount, but I'm too squiffy to make the decision right now.

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Have you considered Ebay?