IndyDDR.com

I'm curious... has anyone else in the area picked up Pop'n Music as of late? I know Ho has, but anyone besides him? I took a break from Pop'n a while back because I injured a finger on my left hand and it hurt like hell to smash it into the buttons. That and PNM10's unlock system was angering me tremendously, but I recently came across another method of unlocking things. Probably equally time consuming, but much less aggravating.

If anyone else has picked up PNM, how's your progress? I still relatively suck. The "hardest" song I can beat is Piano Rock Hyper on PNM8, which is a 28. That's kinda deceptive though... I don't think that song is really a 28 since I struggle with nearly all Hypers in the 26-28 range. I mean, Normal difficulty in the 26-27 range okay, but Hyper is totally different. Sometimes it's difficulty with forcing my hands to do seperate rhythms, sometimes it's the multiple button smashes, sometimes it's both. Getting better at both of those problems slowly, though.

Anyway, hopefully some other folks have gotten into PNM around here. That'd be a pleasant surprise. It'd be nice to compare progress and maybe get some advice on some of the 26s and 27s on Hyper.

I've got a full Pop'n setup: Ransai, Pop'n Best Hits and 7-10, although I can't currently play 10 since it doesn't work with HD Loader.

My current limit is about a 27-28 on Hyper, and I've done some of the really easy EXs (like AI Techno, Mind, and Splash on 8, as well as Motor 5 on 9 and Mukashi Banashi on 10). If you want an easy 28 (I think it's a 28) check out Mircacle Moon ~LED Light Style~ (yes, that one) on 8. I think Splash EX may also be a 28.

Current favorites:
*Daikenkai (gotta whore it, 95k though. W00T!)
*Twee Pop
*Love^2 Sugar
*Fresh Hyper
*Swish Hyper
*Candy (heart)
*Turban
*Techno Pop (321 Stars)
*Special Cooking since it's compulsory
*Mukashi Banashi

Once you get to about a 27+ on Hyper, expect to have to play multple parts at once. I just did a 28 (and I can't for the life of me remember which one it was) on Best Hits that had me doing like three parts at once. I barely passed it, but boy was it fun. I've had good luck with both playing a single part per hand and just trying to read it normally. Some songs require one method while some require others. If you want to practice at it, try some of the songs I listed above (I know for a fact Swish will make you do that). Once you've got that down, you'll start climbing up again (I've only recently been able to do 28s).

EDIT: Oh, and if you want to compare stuff, Ho and I both have Pop'n Navy accounts. I'm monmotha (BVM) and he is of course Ho (-HO-).

I know Jizzon is also majorly into the game, but he doesn't have a controller yet.

I had been playing periodically for a little while until about a one week period in January when I took it upon myself to completely fill-in my normal scorecard on pop'n navy for pop'n 8. I threw in a few hypers as well, and in the end I ended up probably playing a good 10+ hours that week. It was a lot of fun and my skill level improved quite a lot and even logged a few 100Ks. I'd say that all three of us are in relatively the same place as far as what things we can pass.

After that week I decided to give pop'n a rest for awhile and I really have only played it maybe a couple of really short times since. I figured I had whored it enough for awhile. Plus, gearing up for the relaunch here I haven't taken a lot of time to play much of anything. But in the past couple days I did playing some IIDX again.

Oh god, you're talking my language. Miss Pop'N and IIDX on real contollers *saves $$$*

Moved to the new Other Bemani forum.

where are the Pop'n'music machines located

There are none in Indianapolis or even Indiana to my knowledge. We're all playing CS mixes with arcade style controllers.

Yeah, there're none in Indiana. I think the closest Pop'n Music arcade machine is in Westland, Michigan, and it's one of the Animelo ones. A bunch of old old anime theme songs on the songlist basically... and I do mean old old.

I would love it if some place around here got like... a PNM12 machine, though. That's as likely to happen as a blind baby killing a grizzly bear with a Hello Kitty doll, though.

Secef wrote:That's as likely to happen as a blind baby killing a grizzly bear with a Hello Kitty doll, though.

I think I overheard some ad executives from Sanrio batting that around as an idea for a spot in next year's Super Bowl.

While I agree with you it would be killer to have a pop'n 12 nearby, I'd be easily satisfied by anything 7 or higher (since those are all the songs I'm most familiar with from the CS versions I have). And that seems like a slightly more realistic occurence given the continuing popularity of pop'n in Japan and its resulting extreme rarity here. Heck, I'd go visit a pop'n music 1 in Indiana at least once if for nothing more than the novelty of actually getting to play on an arcade machine.

To back Secef up, the only Pop'n machine in this region would be the one in Westland, MI, which I believe is about a four hour drive from Indianapolis.

It's an Animelo2 Mix and has a songlist of only about 30 songs, all of which range from mediocre to crap. The one time I went there the volume was almost completely drowned out by the ITG machine that's behind you and facing the Pop'n machine, so much of the time you're listening to some random In the Groove song and can't even hear the music anyway.

Despite the shortcomings of the mix and the volume issues, it's still a nice experience to finally be able to play on a Pop'n arcade machine.

Picture of Pop'n machine's buttons
Picture of the whole machine

My first experience was on a Pop'N Music 11 (I think) machine. That ¥200 went real fast. I didn't play much after that.

On a possibly related note, while I was over there I swear I saw a machine called "Pop'N Email" which had a keyboard. I had no idea what it was, so I didn't bother putting in any money to find out. The internet has not helped me find any information on it, does anyone have any idea what the heck it was?

Well, it was possible to send "email" over a DDR machine using the little overly-done memory card thing tha the playstation had (and I can't remember the name of). IIRC the machine stored it locally and informed the user they had mail when they put their memory unit in. I don't think it worked with regular memory cards.

MonMotha wrote:Well, it was possible to send "email" over a DDR machine using the little overly-done memory card thing tha the playstation had (and I can't remember the name of).

I think you're referring to the PocketStation. I don't really know anything more about it. But that's a pretty old peripheral to an old system (PSX) that probably doesn't have much (if any) support anymore. And considering that Neil's trip to Japan was relatively recent, I'm going to guess that a pop'n email may have been linked in with Konami's e-amuse initiative...which I also know next to nothing about.

My very, very basic understanding is that the newer arcade machines (pop'n, IIDX, GF/dm, etc.) are connected to some kind of a network. I believe this is also tied into the cards that you may have seen going around for the various games (somewhat similar to Initial D cards, but for a different purpose).

I think that Konami is controlling things like song unlocks and software piracy protection using this sytem. I suppose if there's a network in place that sending an e-mail out wouldn't be much of a problem for them.

But this e-amuse system is probably another reason why newer mixes of non-DDR Bemani games aren't showing up here in the states. I'm going to guess that if these machines can't connect to the network that they either don't function or function with reduced capability. If anyone has more information about e-amuse, I'd love to hear about it. My information is extremely incomplete and likely inaccurate. I hadn't given much thought until now. It's based mostly on inference from a very few times I've come across references to it in other conversations.

I asked on the GameFAQs Bemani & Rhythm Games board about Pop'n ee'mall, and much to my surprise I actually got an informative reply. That's pretty rare there. Here's what someone said...

ee'mall is a machine that you use to (among other things, though not completely sure what else) unlock new songs in the Bemani games you play. You have to have an eAmusement card for the particular game(Pop'n, GF, DM, or IIDX) and when you pass songs, you gain skill points. I'm not sure exactly how skill points are awarded, but when you have a certain amount, you can use them to "buy" new songs for that game through the ee'mall machine.

Sounds interesting, eh?

sounds interesting.... i think it would be cool to use this network and it would make it a lot cooler to play because you personally would have to unlock your own songs (thats my take on it).... but since it wont probably come out in the US... meh.. lucky japanese people...