Merk vs. IndyDDR: Waiting for a Merk-acle

[Ho]

• Do You RememberMe
  love it!
• True: Trance Sunrise Mix
  don't remember this one
• Speed Over Beethoven
  my recollection was this was really hard
• Synchronized Love
  re-found love
• Bye Bye Baby Balloon
  Was this chart as much like Dam Dariram as the song is? If so, I probably like it.
• Flash In The Night (but your right leg well hate you)
  "FUCK FLASH IN THE NIGHT" (if you get this reference, explain it to me because I've forgotten it)
• Moonlight Shadow (if you can figure it out)
  love it!
• Rose (3rd Ver.Korea2)
  love it!
• Paranoia Rebirth (but it's hard)
  don't remember this

Some others that come to my mind are:

• AA
• Can't Stop Falling In Love (speed mix)
• Bu Dam
• Make Your Move

[MonMotha]

Can't Stop Falling In Love (speed mix)

OK, I definitely forgot that one.

AA is also good of course, but I was sticking to stuff in the "old era".

Bye Bye Baby Balloon is IIRC a somewhat radically different chart from the old Dam Dariam chart (despite being basically the same song). They were both good, as I recall.

True Trance Sunrise Mix is really good. It should be on MAX through Extreme so easily played. It starts off pretty sparse, but the entire second half is a big pad-crossing stream with a few 16ths thrown in here and there.

Flash In the Night is a surprisingly streamy chart, but it has a bunch of double taps intermixed in the streams, and they're ALWAYS on the same foot (right, IIRC).

Speed Over Beethoven isn't that hard. It's also not the greatest chart, but it's up there, I think.

Paranoia Rebirth is hard as nails (for its era, at least) but really fun if you can do it.

I don't remember Bu Dam or Make Your Move.

[Merk]

Gonna jump in and give a +1 for Make Your Move being an awesome chart. I have no idea why they gave it a difficulty of 9 but it's a wonderfully streamy and turny chart.

[Ho]

I've been party to some discussions about the rating of Make Your Move. My favorite theory was that someone wrote the rating 7 down on a piece of paper and the programmer read it and typed it in as 9. They kind of look similar if your handwriting is shitty.

That being said, I really enjoy that chart and think it's a great "learn to turn" exercise since it has many skills in it at a tempo that's relatively easy to follow.

[Merk]

I can totally see that happening! Afterall didn't Burning The Floor have a 9 rating on heavy in Max2? I think the theory for that is that the developers fucked up and copy / pasted the difficulty ratings for Burning The Floor with the difficulty ratings for Burning Heat which, as you can guess, is a song that alphabetically sits right next to Burning The Floor.

[MonMotha]

IIRC, there's also a couple of 7s on MAX2 that are widely regarded as deserving a rating of 9, though I don't remember which ones.

[Ho]

Moral of this story:
Konami needs to send its developers to handwriting classes.



Or maybe they should use Japanese numerals?



Or maybe they should QUIT WRITING SHIT ON PAPER!

[Merk]

While were on the subject, what's everyone's take on the most egregious example of a mislabeled difficulty in DDR?

For singles I'm going to say Witch Doctor. That chart is definitely a 9, there's no reason for it to be an 8.

For doubles I'm going to say Dead End. I haven't played the whole gamut of doubles charts but I want to say that Dead End has notoriously been one of the hardest charts despite it being labeled an 8 since it's debut in 3rd mix.

[MonMotha]

Dead End double SSR was a hard 8, but it was not as hard as many of the 9s. I'd say it was rated reasonably for its era, though it could have also been an easier 9. The scale slid a little bit (PIU has done the same), and it would definitely be a 9 by MAX2 - SN2 era difficulty. Compare it to Paranoia Rebirth, End of the Century, Captain Jack, etc.

[Fluffyumpkins]

Mind Parasite is the worst by far. SuperNova had it rated as a 6. SuperNova2 changed to to be an 8, but it walks the 8-9 line pretty closely.

Fantasy (7th mix) was a 6 too I think, but played more like an 8.

[Merk]

Yeah all the 3rd mix stuff that lasted to Extreme were all really hard doubles charts, thankfully things were tuned down a bit for 4th mix and beyond

[Merk]

I'll see if I can get some rounds in tonight! I'm taking my CCNA on Saturday so it's pretty much just study time for a good 2+ hours each night for me.

Brian: how would you feel about doing a IIDX 14-key weekly challenge thing? I am God awful at 14-key but I think it could be a fun extra thing to do while you're working on this thread and the Pump thread. Plus it'll give you a reason to dust off the Beet cabinet!

[Ho]

Brian: how would you feel about doing a IIDX 14-key weekly challenge thing? I am God awful at 14-key but I think it could be a fun extra thing to do while you're working on this thread and the Pump thread. Plus it'll give you a reason to dust off the Beet cabinet!

Umm. I guess I'd probably do it. I can't say that I'm super excited about it as I'm not really itching to play IIDX. But maybe that will change once we get into it.

What game would you want to play on? I didn't even know you had a doubles setup available. Is this just incentive for you to finally build a BemaniPC?

Back to this activity...I think it's my turn to pick a song. Are you ready for other mixes yet or should I pick from Extreme?

[Merk]

I'd play on the ol' console versions, Red through Empress! We have two USKOCs laying around and I'd play on those. I've dabbled a bit in 14-key but it's basically like playing a whole new game and it's extremely frustrating to go from "Not that bad" at the game to "Downright awful I can't even pass 4s" and I figured a little bit of competition will get me motivated. If I get the ol' CCNA this Saturday then I'll be ordering parts for a Beet PC to celebrate. We'll talk more about that this weekend if you're down, mainly I'd like to know about the TV you're using and any of the weird little nuances I should know about when setting this thing up. Chad wants to get in on some SDVX but that's something he's probably already talked to you about.

Let's do one more Extreme song and then we can move on to another mix. I still have to burn CDs and get ISOs and whatnot.

[Fluffyumpkins]

SDVX is something I'd like to do, but it's going to be a bit before I start that project.