People wonder why I decided to take a crack at older PS2 titles when it came to hacking DDR titles. Others have asked me why bother with the endeavor of hacking DDR games when Stepmania already exists.
Stepmania is great - you can simulate Pump it Up, Dance Dance Revolution, In the Groove / 2 [especially easy since ITG2 is based on SM3.95], even games like Pop'n Music, TechnoMotion, and beatmaniaIIDX.
The thing is, though, it doesn't quite - for me - match the FEEL of a console or arcade mix of DDR proper.
On top of that, the fact that not a whole lot is known about how these games work is not exactly known, and there are a lot of possibilities so far as customization goes once the game is figured out and "decoded" so to speak makes me want to take on this challenge. Some of the existing information scraped from the site 'Aaron in Japan,' - particularly the old forums - is not entirely complete, and there are some holes in some of the information, and I'd like to fill in those gaps - and fix erroneous information too. Additionally, I like these challenges from a programming perspective, as a comp. sci major, and may learn a lot from this expedition.
This blog will cover my efforts as I attempt to hack, manipulate, and figure out the PS2 DDR series from DDRMAXJP to DDR EXTREME 2, including MAXJP, MAXUS, MAX2JP, MAX2US, EXTREMEJP, EXTREMEUS, EXTREME2, PARTY EDITION, ETC.
There will be screenshots, video, information, and a lot of interesting things to uncover as I venture on this path. Stick around, as the magic is just beginning.
Awesome idea. One question, though -- why don't you have interest in learning about X or X2? The presence of shock arrows in those games would make newer song stepcharts compatible if they were to be hacked, no?
ReplyDeleteI heard getting data off the console versions of X and X2 is immensely difficult compared to the older PS2 games - but I do eventually hope to try it... right now I thought I'd start on the PSX and PS2 games because of the relative simplicity compared to later games, the ease of finding utilities that can aid me in this, and the nostalgia factor since MAX2JP was the first game I played.
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