By Mirai Trunks 2000

April 19, 2002

 

Well sophmore year was over those 2 years ago and I immediatly went to the Philippines. The first thing I wanted to do the next morning was defenitley play DDR 3rd Mix. That was among my top reasons why I came to the Philippines that summer. I was so excited. It was outside the arcade at SM Mall and it was loud and in great condition. I got my tokens and go to play my game. As usual I tried some basic. I was really nervous for some strange reasons. Then I decided to do some freestyling. Just use some moves I got from my A-Team videos. I failed big time.

 

The next second I see many people behind me. I was so frightened to death. Some of the hardcore SSR experts were somewhat laughing at me and just said. Hey, you're ok just keep trying. They were kind of show offs though when they were playing. Man DDR was really big in the Philippines. Back at Gameworks crowds could get at a maximum of 20 people. But in the Philippines. I would see hundreds and hundreds. It's that big in the Philippines. There is even a little game show there. Man I felt so shocked.

 

My cousin gave me some freestyling tips. He said I rely too much on skips and jumps. He taught me more on using my body such as my hands, knees, and gave me tips on doing some head stands. He was one of the top DDR players in Manila despite the fact he is a major dork sometimes. But it did help my confidence and skills in freestyling. I also wanted to improve my Maniac/SSR skills when I came home because that simple trip inspired me to strive harder than before.

 

When I came back home, I was a new player. Practiced all day long at home and every weekend go to the arcade and show my stuff. A few weeks after my return from the Philippines, more hardcore people showed up. Like my old buddy PhxClawus(neil), and OtherBill. Then at the end of the year, we finally got the crapped up USgAy Mix. Despite how many people hate it always, it still didn't effect the growing community at the time. Lots of people still were playing and making new friends. That was one of the cool parts.

 

Then after that things got getting better and better. Same people were showing up to play and make new friends. Then Golfland got their import mixes. Gameworks were losing customers, people were happy. Then the final days came. It first started out last summer a couple of weeks before I went to Japan. I decided to call everyone out from Tucson and all over at time to come hang out at Mesa Golfland before I leave and say what's up and goodbye. Lots of people showed. We all played Para Para Paradise, 5th Mix, Hip Hop Mania. Just about anything. Then during my trips in Japan, Golfland had tournys on PPP, 4th and 5th Mix. I wanted to see them but sucked I couldn't.

 

Then after I came back, things started dying down. And later on that year, things still continued to go down. Not many people posted on the message boards or hung out at the arcades. I still believe the Bemani Community in AZ can still grow. We haven't really had any big tourny's like the AI ones. I feel if we can do some shit like that, then we can slowly rest the community.

 

Hell as long as we have our games, let's keep it alive.

 

By Mirai Trunks 2000

April 6, 2002

 

December 1999, just another day of doing to Arizona Mills mall to relax and then go to Gameworks and own everyone at Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. On my way upstairs to have some fun. I saw some people crowding around and I wanted to see what was going on. I then saw a game with two big speakers, a screen, and a stage with arrows and there was some Asian guy (aznddrguy) actually doing some dancing to the game and full comboing the songs. My first exposure to DDR. I read about it in a magazine a few weeks ago. I thought the game looked cool but thought that game would never come to America. But I was wrong.

 

I was familiar with games like Busta Move and thought it would probably function the same way. I then got a chance to play it and put in my credit. I thought it would be fun. But then aznddrguy asks if he wanted to play and I thought it was ok so I let him. Then it had the How To Play screen and he skipped it. I was mad at him about it (I forgive you though). But I decided to not let it bother me. Then I looked at the song list and the first song that came to my mind was the 1 foot song Have You Never Been Mellow. Then for some reasons aznddrguy is stepping on the arrows and somehow it became 4 green arrows. Then I chose the song and that's when things started to go crazy.

 

Here I am playing for the first time and some guy puts some code on me. I'm standing there opening my  mouth and surprise and the guy next to me is doing some cool looking freestyling and everyone is laughing at me. I then decided to leave during the middle of the song. To me, having someone put maniac on me is like some cheap guy in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 just repeatldey doing an infinity. I cooled off a bit by beating up some dude in Street Fighter Alpha 3 thinking he's all bad ass. Then I thought it over and said hey it's just a game.

 

I then passed by the machine again and no one was around so I had my chance to play again and know what to do. I then got a chance to look at the directions this time and thought, hey this could be kind of easier than i thought. I passed mellow and boom boom dollar with a C and failed Butterfly. I then thought about probably buying the import for PSX or DC. Then a few weeks later, I got the 2nd Mix Dreamcast version and the officail Konami pad which is a damn good pad. I then practiced mostly basic and a little trick. I then go back to the arcades and I'm playing a lot better on my scoring ability.

 

 I then look up on the internet for DDR sites and all I found at the time for an American DDR site was only DDR Maniac and it had a html board and I was the non cali person posting there. It felt a little funny. But at least I go a chance to talk with other DDR players within the nation as I even do to this day.

 

Then a few weeks later I got to meet aznddrguy again at AZ Mills gameworks, and hope to talk to him. He was a really cool guy. I asked him stuff like if he really was a dancer and how he got so good at DDR. He said that he's not a real dancer and he said he just played the game a lot. The only freestyling I knew was mostly these Japanese routines. But Steve was the only true freestyler with his own original style. He could full combo really well and knew a lot of the steps. And he was the only player that could do maniac and freestyle to it. It really amazed me how he passed Paranoia Maniac with a C when I couldn't even know how to do it on basic yet. After that I didn't see him for a year until my gathering last summer before I hit Japan.

 

I then decided to go home and practice A LOT more. Look at more videos, and practice on maniac. I was really getting frustrated. It took me a few hours of passing paranoia on trick with a B but it was worth it to move on to Maniac. Within a few weeks I was able to get Cs or Bs on any 6 or 7 footer songs. And I started to feel good. Then around a couple of months before I hit going to the Philippines in late Spring/early summer 2000, I called my cousin to see what's up and remind him that me and my family are coming to the Philippines. He thought it was cool and then within our conversation of anime and video games, he brought up DDR. He said it was super popular in the Philippines and asked if it was in America yet. I said yeah, it just barley hit Arizona. He said his arcades had 3rd Mix machines and I was excited to go check them out. I then practiced more and more on freestyling on basic and trick for the Philippines and in the mean time just wait.