StepMania: Free, Open-source DDR for Computer
Note: This article was written for my other blog, The Information Bank, to continue my DDR series. I have also included it here because it deals with great freeware.
Continuing on the long-awaited sequel to the Dance Dance Revolution series, I bring you Part II! In my last article, I gave a crash course introduction to the concept of “DDR” and DDR games. As promised, I said that I would reveal how to play DDR on the computer.
Why Play DDR on the Computer?
At home, I attend the Fil-am International SDA church. About 50% of the members there are of Philippines decent. Now, for some reason, DDR seems to be prevalent with the Asian population. During one of our church parties, some of the kids busted out the DDR Extreme for PS2. That night, I was hooked! I wanted to play DDR at home and bring it to my boarding school so that my friends and I could stay up all night DDRing (which, by the way, we ended up doing many times). Problem was … I didn’t have a PS2, or a PSOne, or an Xbox, or a Gamecube. And I didn’t feel like buying one either. I only had a computer. Surely, there must be a way to play DDR on PC. But, how would I connect the controllers? Were there already controllers that hookup to USB or parallel ports? If there was a way, how did it work?
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