Your first pad...

[Travelsonic]

1. Played DDR for the first time on RO foam pads
2. Got 2 Intec soft (crap) pads with DDR ULTRAMIX for the Xbox.
3. Those began dying, got 2 RO Ignition knockoffs for the Xbox
4. Those pads ripped - sensors worked, but I had to duct tape them (writing the song that did the rip - TSUGARU did the first tear)
5. Went back to very first softpad - killed it w/Stepmania adapter and Bloodrush Expert (ITG2 )
6. Liberated myself from Xbox - got PS2, 2 Intec softpads modded on Ignition dense foam
7. Turned them in for Intec hardfoam pads
8. Pads died, got 2 more
9. Lasted until mid-January, then died, got 2 more
8. When these died, got Intec metal pad
9. First Intec pad had right arrow death on second day of use.
10. Went back and got the last one the local ToysRus had/ever will have. Worked well for a few weeks, then I was playing Remember December Expert on In the Groove when I discovered a large crack extending from the left side of the right arrow down, and across the bottom of the same arrow
11. After going through a big fit at ToysRus over returning the pad, got it exchanged for Jeffery Dollars, used to buy Pump it Up: Exceed w/official pad that I temporary use for DDR EXTREME 2.
12. Ordered MyMyBox SOLOMODE 2200 pad - waiting for it to be delivered. 14th pad on its way.

Extensive enough? All this over less than a year.
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I'll believe that when me **** turns purple, and smells like rainbow sherbet.

[Flazh]

1:Play DDR in the arcade
2:Buy TX-series metal mats for use with Stepmania
3:TX-Series mats die. Get exiled to back of garage forever.
4:Go back to the arcade where DDR belongs.

and they all lived happily ever after
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[jpoppyz]

1. Gets Ultramix 1 and 2 crap soft pads on ebay
2. Pads last about a year, but crapped out after about 6 months
3. Orders an ignition pad off ebay but xbox hookup on it came broken
4. Got a poopy mad catz pad, hated it so...
5. Traded xbox for PS2 to friend, ignition pad works great on PS2
6. gets a gamestop deluxe pad for a second pad
7. ignition pad breaks after a year but maybe 6 months of use, gamestop deluxe works fine
8. Gamestop pad breaks, goes a while without DDR
9. Almost goes insane so tries the normal gamestop pad
10. Normal gamestop pad suck and i know after returning it 5 times in 3 weeks, so gives up.
11. Gets some datel foam pad, which sucks.
12. Returns datel pad and gets the konami official pad with extreme 2
13. Is currently happy, but wants something more permanent.

I plan on saving for a CF this summer, but if the konami pad starts sucking and i return it multiple times i might have to budge for a TX 4000 or TX 1501.

[RTP!]

1. get crap pad
2. break crap pad
3. get wireless pad
4. break wireless pad
5. break ps2
6. get new ps2
7. get more crap pads (ignition imitations)
8. break crap pads
9. get ignition 3

Thats about it.
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[ceraf]

so far, my Futime soft pad hasn't quit on me...got it used a year ago, and still kicking. gotta love the extra clear plastic layers it came with on both sides; less ripping.

however, the topway soft mat i bought lasted for about 3 months and had rips everywhere, and then finally ended up with a fried circuit board. Boy, I love things made in china.



then i made my own pad...much better than the soft pads.

[Arcangel2479]

1. Played ddr extreme 2 at the beginning of the month at my wife's cousins house.. tried it, and after a couple of songs on light, I was out of breath and realized I needed to work out...

2. Searched the net, found this forum, and investigated which pad to get.....

3. Ordered up ddr extreme 2 with konami pad combo as it seemed to be the best soft pad to have..

4. Saw the post on making your own pad, and just had to make one ( I love projects like these)

5. 5/20 purchased all the merchandise needed for the pad, 5/25 finished construction on the new pad, seen here http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=117851

6. So far so good (need to make another metal pad, since my wife keeps making me use the soft pad, so she can use the metal one...

all this transpired within this month

[XTTX]

1. Friend showed me DDR 3rd Mix (BOOYA)
2. Played. Owned.
3. Ebay Soft Pads (only place to get em in America at the time) Yes I've been playin DDR for a while $50
4. Tore and malfunctioned
5. Bought hard plastic
6. Hole in both pads arrows caved in
7. Bought MyMyBox Solomodes for $250
8. Lasted a good yearish, then my arrows cracked in half. start & select stopped working.
9. stopped playing ddr for about 3/4 of a year.
10. Just bought some TX6000s for $460
11. Gunna start playin again ^^
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-XTTX

[marcan]

1. Heard about DDR. Didn't understand the concept, didn't see any screenshots, thought it was stupid
2. Couple years after, on July 23rd or so last year, actually played DDR on a hard pad (don't remember what brand) at a big LANparty (also played some arcade PIU, but sucked at it). Managed to pass some standard songs. Liked it.
3. D/Led stepmania that same day, and got a bunch of songs. Started playing on the keyboard and on autoplay with no pad.
4. August, bought a $15 soft pad, and hacked it up to play on the PC (via a really weird system to use an actual PS2 as a converter through Ethernet, I'm all for being cheap and not buying a USB converter and I had the programming skills). Played and got good enough to pass most 8-footers, some 9-footers eventually.
5. Months later decided I was going to build a hard pad (no way I'm spending all that money on a commercial metal pad). Started building ddrhomepad style, and didn't like how it was going. Project scrapped. Redesign which slowly became the prototype for my current pad design.
6. Got my first prototype working sometime after christmas. Played, noticed its shortcomings Meanwhile I can now do most 9-footers. Soft pad starting to deteriorate. Got my first 10-footer.
7. Paused the hard pad project for a while due to timing issues. Soft pad now has a hole on one side, although it still works, but not as good as new. In the meantime a friend's hard-insert pad is dying, so he uses his insert on my pad. Stopped playing DDR for a couple of weeks.
8. Friend passes legend of max on my soft pad. I'm still trying to get MAX300. I swear I'll have it by the end of summer vacation. I can do a couple other 10-footers. He's got an advantage though, he weighs half as much as I do.
9. Past weeks: rebuilt parts of the hard pad, and made it final (i.e. actually put the electronics into a box and made something that is actually going to last for a while). Fixed design issues. Work in progress. Designed lighting system.
10. next couple of weeks - finish physical pad. Test and fix issues.
11. after that - develop firmware into a full-featured one. Hopefully get closer to passing MAX300.
12. Will take finished pad to LANParty this year (July 21-25). Will get MAX300 by then. I swear. Own my friends who started playing DDR at the same party last year and who, I'm told, can only do 7-footers for now.

[Dubble Oh Kevin]

1. Played it at an arcade, loved it.
2. Did some research, modded a softpad.
3. Bought CF double pack (mostly with my own money from friggin' delivering papers. 14th birthday present much?), along with modded PS2 and all the J mixes at that time (up to party collection)
4. Sold both pads this year (now I'm 16, math time) cuz I rarely played.
5. Played in gym because my school got a kit.
6. Both control boxes are now broken so I'm getting the pads back and buying a new control box, and one of the arrows is broken. I hope it's an easy fix, I'd love to start playing again.

[.broken.glass.]

For me it is:
1) Pelican wireless softpad(used most) and the konami softpad from the extreme bundle.
2) Pelican dies, Konami softpad gets used lots and dies.
3) Parents buy crappy softpad from Fry's that moved so much on standard that it recieved the nickname 'Ice skating rink".
4) After relentless complaining on my part, my parents refuse to let me get some wood to mod the pad or let me get a metal pad.
5) Parents buy me another softpad that moves much less and has lasted for about 3 months. The pad is ripping lots, though.

I have decided to start saving for a Cobalt Flux.

[Jayden Hakrodan]

My first pad.. well, after about a month and a half of playing DDR at the arcades, I decided I really wanted to play this at home. I read up quite a bit on DDR pads, and tried to avoid the cheap $20 pads that die quickly because at the time I knew I'd be at least getting on heavy in a few months and wanted it to last a while(got on it a week later, go figure). I read about the Cobalt Flux, but I thought it was way too much money for a pad that I might not even use a few months later. So I scouted my nearby Bestbuy and saw a Redoctane Ignition 3.0 pad, a pad I've read was very top-notch in the soft-pad genre. Worked great since I started off with the PC and moved on to play on the Xbox along with the PS2.

Unfortunately, almost three months later(about a week ago) it started tearing up all over the place. Half of the bottom arrow is gone. With my trusty duck-tape, I semi-carelessly repaired my pad. It's now known as my ghetto pad(though the ghetto pad of floor arrows still overrule it).

I can't say it didn't last a while. I assault it 5-7 hours every day on heavy/expert mode, sometimes doing all-day marathons on it. It's a wonder it has lasted this long. That's pretty much the only pad I've purchased so far. I plan on getting a Cobalt Flux, though including shipping and the arcade mod it's a bit of an expensive sucker and will probably take me a month or two to round up the money. Hard to make money when you're sixteen and live in the country.

[eaglefan101]

About 3 or 4 years ago, I played DDR for the first time on my friend's official Konami dance pad. I loved it, but I never got the actual game for a while. I started on a plug-n-play dance mat. After that broke, I got DDR Konomix and my friend's old and crappy official Konami mat. It broke of course. After I started getting good and really serious (and going through about 7-9 soft mats) I finally got a metal dance pad. It was one of Red Octane's older metal pads. 6 months later, it broke. So after 2 more soft pads, I finally bought a Cobalt flux.

8-10 months later, it's still going strong.
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Formerly known as "piemaster"



Yeah this is the end of my sig. You can stop reading it now.