gamestop dance pad?

[bust a groove]

Has anyone used the gamestop/pelican brand dance pad? How good is this pad, accuracy and durable wise or how long will it last? or should i just buy the ddr extreme bundle with the konami pad or buy the game with the 15 dollar gamestop/pelican pad?

[Stadsport]

I haven't tried it so my opinion may be slanted, but if it's $15 it's almost garanteed to be crap.
My friend got the Extreme bundle with the pad. The pad is great. It's outlasted two of my MadCatz pads (still saving for a CF )
With any softpad, though, you should mount it on some wood or something.

[stabbinspaghetti]

i own one, and for a soft pad its pretty good, its starting to ware though with a hole, but for the price i say its worth it. it does slide a little though. im on standard and i play some on heavy if that helps, right now though i want to get a cobalt flux
_________________

my name is sarah

[smallgreenguy]

I own the Gamestop dance pad. I didn't get it for $15 though, it cost $30 at the local gamestop here in California. Anyways, the Gamestop softpad is by far the best softpad i've tried, though it does have a tendancy to slip, which is the only drawback. But as far as registering the steps it does a great job considering it's a softpad. It will be fine with Beg, Light, Std, and easy Heavy mode songs. After that the only thing to get is a CF.

[CowboyBebop]

My gamestop pad stopped working after perhaps an hour of use. The down arrows refuses to fire. I'm taking it back tommorow to get another one to re-try my luck. Either that, or a Madcatz but I haven't heard a whole lot of good about the ps2/xbox madcatz (the only one my gamestop carries).

[MorningtonCrescent]

[Mr_Blasty]

Ive been lookin into one of these for myself because it looks sturdier that the madkatz.
_________________

10=footer's beaten as of 9/25/04
MAX300=B
MAXX UNLIMITED=D
BAG=A (BAG AA with 1.5 speed mod)
SAKURA=A
Paranoia Survivor=C
Paranoia Survivor MAX=D
The Legend of Max=C

[Vimes]

GameStop pads are decent for the price but be warned they wear out after 2-4 months (if you don't believe me I have pictures of my duct taped dance pad that I'm using until my new pads get shipped to me).
_________________

"Vimes you've got issues" -Black_Tactics
"That's it Vimes you banned for blowing me up with that bomb" -PrincessMiana
"Orange Hum" -SLNR2
"My clan does not suck!" -Deathlord

[wathomas777]

At $19.99 i don't expect much, but the Game Stop pad exceeded my expectations.

I did go through one in two weeks, but I think it's because my kids were not storing it properly.

I purchased two Mad Catz as replacements getting lured by the "5 year" warranty, only to take them back in less than a day.

The Mad Catz pro beat pad universal slid around WAY too much and I nearly fell on my butt twice even on some faster 'beginner' and 'light' songs on Ultramix 2.

While the "game stop" pad only has 120 days, it is still a good introductory pad for the money and at 20 bucks is a real good deal.

They really are better at not sliding than the Mad Catz, though I still would have problems performing some higher foot levels at "standard" or "heavy".

[Yokumi]

So far we've had our gamestop pads for a week, playing five hours a day (I like to assume that's a lot) and it works great. I think though that it has a little promblem registering hits that are a bit soft. Or maybe I'm just an uncoordinated klutz.

They do slide around quite a bit and our floors are carpeted, so we bought those little plastic mats for underneath your rolling computer chair and simply used the little roud double-sided adhesive pads that came with the pads. Because the computer mats have freaky little points to grab the carpeting, the mat doesn't slide around at all. And there's always a pair of fairly hefty girls on 'em.

[wathomas777]

I lost two game stop pads in a month because of it. At first I thought we were storing the pads incorrectly, but what I found was that my experience is with internal bunching.

I've got some ignition pads on order from ebay, so I may not go back to the gamestop pads, but if I ever do, I will definitely tape them down to something solid.

What happens is this, there is a really thin cheap piece of foam between the plastic sheets containing button contacts. This foam has a number of small "holes" cut in it to allow the two contacts to "touch" when you step.

If the pad is not secured, when you slip, this internal foam becomes stretched internally allowing a lot of slack to occur. This slack causes the foam to double up on itself, and thus causes missed steps because the internal contacts can no longer touch when you step on them.

If you tape down the pads firmly, you are much less likely to have internal stretching and bunching of the foam, and thus the pads will last longer.

I imagine this is true with all soft pads so I will be taping mine down on either a board, or some office chair matting in the future. Now that I know what's happening, I will not be using "non-modded" pads anytime in the near future.

[cranium]

Game Stop's return policy is virtually non-existant.

You have 7 days to return something that has gone bad. So if you buy a pad and it goes bad after 2 weeks, you are out of luck. You have to try to get it fixed/replaced through the manufacturer.

The return policy is one of the reasons why I would go to these stores. If there was a problem within 30 days, I could swap it out. But now that is not the case so why bother paying a premium at a store when you have to mail it in if there are problems anyhow?

I'll do my purchases online and save a few bucks.

btw....Game Stop does have a 30 day policy if you don't open the box.
_________________

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.-- Isaac Asimov

[trayball2k]

I think the Gamestop mats are hot if you do three things:

1) Save faster songs for the arcade
2) Use your crappy pads for practice if it works 75%
3) Play on the flattest surface you cand find.

Here's why:

1) There's nothing worse than doing invisible damage to your mat when the arcade panels are 100x stronger
2) The missed steps will probably be at least "greats" if you can play the song without moving your pad
3) Playing on non-flat surfaces is like stepping through the pad instead of on it.

From my experience:

1) My beat pad could have been saved if I took my own advice.
2) I use my crappy pad and still get (AA's) sometimes
3) My Gamestop pad has not yet moved on my carpet

[Zombiebanana]

I have a Gamestop pad. I got it for X-Mas and its done fairly well except for the past few weeks. The down and right arrows tend to go out every now and then, but they work occasionally. I don't know how it would fair with heavy songs, I've only been play on light and some low foot standrads.
_________________

I keep trying to make sense of that sentence, but then I feel my brain cells committing suicide.

[Ghettoman-DDR]

Try Toys R Us They have better dance pads and warranties on 2/3rds on the dancepads if something goes wrong and my pad that I got from there is about 1/2year old and is still working 100%.
_________________

Power isn't everything for a console, added Miyamoto, "Too many powerful consoles can't coexist. It's like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction."

[Libra]

Ghettoman, how often do you play and on what level are you? If you have been playing on light for the past 6 months then of course the pad is going to still be in good condition. If you've been playing on heavy then I'll be impressed.

Personally, as a beginner I love the Gamestop dance pad. On the slower songs it doesn't slip at all and the faster songs it only moves a little bit. Maybe an inch or two. Not too bad. Of course I only play up to 4 foot songs on it so I dunno how it would be on higher foot songs. I also find it to be more responsive then some of the other pads I've tried. I've tried the Mad Catz pad and the Konami pad. Maybe it's just me but I get higher scores on the Gamestop dance pad and miss the steps less than I do on the Konami pad.

My friend has had the gamestop dance pad since Xmas and he plays on Standard and some easy heavy songs. It's still going strong. If you are a beginner I think it's much better to get this than the Mad Catz pad. That one slips way too much.

[whyrph]

The gamestop pad works REALLY well when taped to something. I have it taped to the rather hard carpet in my dorm room and it works pretty well. You can't feel where the arrows are, but I'm pretty used to not feeling arrow locations anyway, so that doesn't matter.

[RossModzelewski]

I have two brand new soft pads that have never been used. I got my cobalt flux in about a half a month ago, and still had two under warrenty that needed to be replaced.. so I got them replaced and they have just sat here. I'd let them go for a negotiable price. Both of them are madcatz, and one of them is the more expensive one.. it's compatable with xbox, and ps2 and comes in a shiny vinyl case. That one is still under warrenty for a whole year, and if it ever breaks, just bring it back to EB in the mall, and have the recipt to get another pad. You can also renew the warrenty for 6 bucks. So, pretty much, you pay 6 bucks a pad as they wear out. It worked good for me, but I finally got a cobalt flux which is hands down.. the best pad ever. If ya ever want to try it out, just let me know.[/list][/code]

[Lobster Jesus]

I own a pelican dance pad (which I haven't used since I got my Metal pad). Don't get it. The first day, it worked fine and didn't slip (even without the stickies). 2nd day, it fell apart. The pad slipped everywhere and the stickies lost the sticky. About a week later, sometimes the right arrow wouldn't respond at all and your feet will get sore from this pad.

Edit: Oh crap super bump.
_________________

[Dog_E]

Hmm! Good time for a bump I say!

I bought this pad 2 days ago at a Gamestop for $20. I have a RO Afterburner on preorder, but I really just needed somthing to play on for the next month while I wait for my good pad to show up.

(The pad was just sitting around in the box for 2 days because I didnt have a PS2 yet. It was only today that I went out and bought a PS2 and had a fliptop swap magic kit installed while I was at it. Picked up DDR MAX too.)

Because I live in an apartment with thick carpeting I decided to go to Home Depot and have two 3/4" thick peices of partical board cut to 38" X 48". This way I paid $14 and had one sheet of partical board to put the Gamestop pad on and one for the soon to arrive RO Afterburner.

So the first thing I did when I took the Gamestop pad out of the box was stick it down to the partical board with the 4 adhesive pads included in the box. After that I duct taped it down all around the edges to make sure it was secured to the board.


I've only played on the pad for about 5 hours but I must say I'm really impressed with it considering it was only $20. Since I completely secured it to the board before ever playing on it I cant say if it would slide much without the board, but with the way I have it set up it didnt move an inch during the entire 5 hours I played on it.
I was playing pretty much all 4 to 6 footers on Light and Standard and only did one song on Heavy so I'd say its pretty secure.

Another thing I really liked about it was how responsive the buttons were. I barely had to touch my foot to them and they registered right on time. Infact I got my first AA while using this pad... Exotic Ethnic on Light, but hey, I'm still happy with it.
I think the contacts are pretty big as well. You don't have to step right in the middle of the arrow to get it to register either. You can lightly tap any of the arrow's corners and it will register just as well as pressing right in the middle. So thats pretty cool I think.


But despite all the really nice things about it, this pad isnt perfect. My main problem with it was two things.

1. The pad is a completely flat softpad, so I can't feel where the buttons are under my feet. This has caused me to fail a couple songs due to the fact that I started stepping in the wrong places. Although I havnt had this problem a whole lot because the size of the pad is very similar to that of the arcade. Not exactly the same size, but close enough that my feet rarely get lost on the pad.


2. Playing in socks with nothing but a softpad seperating your feet from 3/4" thick peice of wood hurts like hell!! Seriously, before this pad I had only played in the arcade with shoes on. Playing in socks on this pad can seriously kill your feet after a while...especially on jumps. After a few hours of play I was terrified to even try Rythm And Police.



But so far those are the only complaints I could possibly have about this softpad. For $20 I think it was a great investment to tide me over until my RO Afterburner arrives. And if it only lasts for a month then its no big deal, cause I really dont need it to last longer than that. And if it does, well then I have a spare pad to use if anything ever goes wrong with my Afterburner.

If the pad ever breaks down on me or starts malfunctioning I'll be sure to post in this thread about it, but I don't think I'll have too much trouble with it. I'm keeping it stored flat on the floor taped down to the partical board so it won't be getting folded or moved around much.

Anyway, I hope this excessively long review helped anyone who is considering buying this pad. I think it will make a great short term pad, but in the long run your probably going to want some nice metal under your feet.
_________________

That which does not kill us, only makes us stranger.