Dance Dance
Revolution has become quite the phenomenon here in
America, but it's never been that customizable in terms of user-chosen songs and dance routines (barring PC knockoffs).
Codemasters intends to change that with the release of Dance Factory on the PS2 in Europe and the States by
April of next year.
According to the publisher, "Dance Factory's innovative beat recognition technology, developed exclusively
for the title, ensures that for the first time a dance mat game can span across all music tastes; it works with
everything from a classic disco track, to guitar rock, R&B, to the most current dance anthem."
Of course, you could skip those filler songs on the CDs in your collection, but then you wouldn't get the double-track
bonus from dancing through the entirety of each disc. More details on the Creature mode which creates distinct
background dancers for each CD will be revealed at a later date, but recording your own dance moves for the latest from
Britney won't be a problem when spring rolls around (barring a lawsuit, of course).
[Via Next
Generation]
Reader Comments (17)
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
the ps2 has no harddrive. how the hell are you going to play the game and the CD at the same time?
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
the PS does have a harddrive. it comes with the mmorpg of final fantasy or you can use just about any HDD that is compatible with the network adpater.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
So what happens if you throw in a DDR cd soundtrack? XD
I'm guessing a DDR emulator is able to run in RAM easily. I've seen DDR on the gameboy, I'm assuming there isn't much RAM needed to keep the engine up. That should leave room for a cd reader and image generator. My big concern is that CR-R's won't work with this game.
I'm guessing a DDR emulator is able to run in RAM easily. I've seen DDR on the gameboy, I'm assuming there isn't much RAM needed to keep the engine up. That should leave room for a cd reader and image generator. My big concern is that CR-R's won't work with this game.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
So what happens if you throw in a DDR cd soundtrack? XD
I'm guessing a DDR emulator is able to run in RAM easily. I've seen DDR on the gameboy, I'm assuming there isn't much RAM needed to keep the engine up. That should leave room for a cd reader and image generator. My big concern is that CR-R's won't work with this game.
I'm guessing a DDR emulator is able to run in RAM easily. I've seen DDR on the gameboy, I'm assuming there isn't much RAM needed to keep the engine up. That should leave room for a cd reader and image generator. My big concern is that CR-R's won't work with this game.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
The PS2 does have a harddrive. It's been used for the PS2 Linux Kit, Final Fantasy XI, SOCOM 2 (sped it up, I think), and for making "backup" copies of games.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
I don't know if CD-Rs would work, or how thins thing works, but I do know that somebody did a music game on the PS1 kind of similar to this (but it wasn't a dance game). I think it was called Vib-Ribbon...but I can't remember exactly
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
Vib-Ribbon sounds right, though I really should've mentioned Monster Rancher for creature creation, now that I can remember it.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
Mmmm, "spring rolls".
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
Vib Ribbon? One of the sweetest games I've ever played. But sadly, the button layout doesn't work with a dance pad. Click my name to read my review of it. For the record, the one song that gave me the most trouble in Vib Ribbon was TROGDOR. Indeed, I got totally burninated.
As long as you keep the graphics simple, the system should be able to handle the swaps just fine.
As long as you keep the graphics simple, the system should be able to handle the swaps just fine.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
Hm, I'm fine with Ultramix 3 and Extreme 2.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
The hd attachment for the PS2 is no longer being produced, and the latest iteration of the PS2 isn't compatible with it.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
i wonder what it would be like to 'dance' along to some of my favorite metal bands?
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
There is a product out there called "HD Connect" that lets you attach a HDD to the Slim PS2s. You can find it on some modchip websites or a simple google search. I've seen it on oen site listed for $139.95 USD, and that also includes a 120GB, 160GB, or 200GB Hard Drive. Though I think the PS2 can only handle a 120GB hdd w/out any hacks/mods. I am not to sure. I'm not to big into the mod scene.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
I must admit, I'm very excited about this game. I am tired of having to buy more games just to get more music, and then still ending up with more than half the songs be horrible. I'd like to see how well it does converting songs to step charts, but this is definitely something I will try out.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
So, no one is stoked to see that Codemasters is making this game? You know, the company that made the Game Genie? Remember that? Eh? Nobody? Fuck, I'm old.
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
I don't think a HD is a requiremnt for htis to work.
Once the game has loaded into RAM you coudl eject the game and put in your CD.
The Game woudl only have to read ahead about 5 seconds into each track as you play them to analyse the soudn wave form and detect teh "beat" then assign an arrow to it and start it scroillign up the screen, ready to match the actualy beat being played 1-5 seconds later (depending on the game speed). Obviously a big buffer of *CD Quality* raw soudn could be much larger than spare RAM in the PS2 so there could be a chance that the PS2 does some on the fly compression OR just "drop" data e.g. 8 bit res from the 16bit cd data, just do mono instead of stereo, drop the sample rate from 44Khz to 22Kz) all of those together would imediatly reduce the data storage requirement to 1/8 th and do not requrie much processor overhead (you just ignore data in the stream).
Once the game has loaded into RAM you coudl eject the game and put in your CD.
The Game woudl only have to read ahead about 5 seconds into each track as you play them to analyse the soudn wave form and detect teh "beat" then assign an arrow to it and start it scroillign up the screen, ready to match the actualy beat being played 1-5 seconds later (depending on the game speed). Obviously a big buffer of *CD Quality* raw soudn could be much larger than spare RAM in the PS2 so there could be a chance that the PS2 does some on the fly compression OR just "drop" data e.g. 8 bit res from the 16bit cd data, just do mono instead of stereo, drop the sample rate from 44Khz to 22Kz) all of those together would imediatly reduce the data storage requirement to 1/8 th and do not requrie much processor overhead (you just ignore data in the stream).
Posted: Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM (Unverified) said
from codemasters website
"Dancers load up Dance Factory on PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, choose any music CD and watch as the game choreographs dance moves specifically for the track that the player has chosen - live! Then, the player can take to the dance mat stage and get their feet moving to the beats as the dance steps play out on screen."
So it looks like it analyzes the track, then lets you dance to it after it is done, no buffering necessary... It may even save the computed moves to the Sony Memory Card (8MB)
"Dancers load up Dance Factory on PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, choose any music CD and watch as the game choreographs dance moves specifically for the track that the player has chosen - live! Then, the player can take to the dance mat stage and get their feet moving to the beats as the dance steps play out on screen."
So it looks like it analyzes the track, then lets you dance to it after it is done, no buffering necessary... It may even save the computed moves to the Sony Memory Card (8MB)
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