USB Instructions

We wrote you a guide to using your memory card. We hope you like it.


 

Getting a profile

There are two ways in which you can generate a profile for saving your scores:

  1. You walk up to the machine, insert your USB device into the machine, play a credit, let the machine save a credit, and go home.
  2. You download the default profile which has all the folders set up for you.

Either profile should work immediately and start saving your scores. You will notice that your personal best will now be shown as well as the current machine record.

Device compatability

Any standard USB device which can read and write data should work fine. We would recommend that you use a device of at least 128MB in size (which is less that any memory stick you can buy now!), or 1GB if you intend to include custom songs.

Exceptions to this are:

  • Devices which require more than one USB port to function, such as power-hungry hard drives. As you only have one port per player, there goes that plan.
  • Devices, such as U3 sticks, which have require two drives mapped. There’s no way of reliably forcing these to map to the right place, and I’m not going to put the effort into doing so.
  • Encrypted devices. You won’t be able to run the software to unlock them, so you’ll never get to write data to them. Simples.

Understanding the profile

Your profile has lots of directories and files. This is what each of them do.

root folder

There are three files related to your scores: Stats.xml, which holds the raw data on your play time, and two stylesheets which format this document, Stats.xsl and Common.xsl. You can get a lot of info from Stats.xml, but the more you play the longer it will take to load!

Additionally, there are two more files. Editable.ini allows you to specify three pieces of information about yourself: “Display Name”, a nickname which appears on the bottom-left (or bottom-right, if you use player 2) while you play and also appears on your screenshots; “LastUsedHighScoreName”, which can be up to five characters long and is your default name for the high score table; and WeightPounds, which is your weight in lbs and used to (completely inaccurately) calculate the amount of calories burnt. LastUsedHighScoreName updates after every credit, so if you change your high score name it will update on your memory card. DisplayName and WeightPounds can only be updated offline. Extra.ini has two options: “AdditionalSpeedMods” is currently disabled but will in future allow you to choose your own speed modifiers for use, which “UseCatalogXML” will allow you save the machine song list to your device. But we recommend you keep that at 0, because there’s nothing of interest there and it’ll just make your game take longer to play.

LastGood

Don’t <em><em><em>EVER</em></em></em> (is that enough emphasis?) touch this folder. If for some reason your profile gets messed up, the game will use LastGood to allow you to revert to a working backup.

Screenshots

If you have a score you’re particularly proud of, why not get a picture of it? Press both menu (left and right) buttons and you’ll hear a camera shot. This is where your screenies will end up!

Songs

This is where you get to play your own songs on the machine!

Each song must be contained within its own folder, and optionally songs may be grouped within folders, nested <em>one</em> folder deep. Each song folder needs to contain just two files:

  • The music file. This must be in <em>OGG</em> format (and not mp3 or wma or aac or flac or wav or flv or swf or any other format you manage to pull from the innertets), and should be encoded at 44.1kHz or 48kHz.
  • The step file. This must be the in standard SM step chart format. If you made your file in the editor, that’s not something to worry about.

And that’s it. It will not read backgrounds and banners, nor will it read movies or movie scripts.

There are generous restrictions on both folder size and stepchart file size (as in if you’re breaking it you are most likely being an ejit) and further restrictions on song length:

  1. Any sound file which is less that 2:30 in length will take one song to play.
  2. Any sound file which is more than 2:30 in length but less than 5:00 in length will take two songs to play, and therefore must be played as first or second song.
  3. Any sound file which is more than 5:00 in length but less than 7:30 in length will take three songs to play, and must be chosen as your first and only song.
  4. Any sound file which is more than 7:30 in length will not load.
Courses

Apparently you can set your own courses up to play. Good luck getting this working, as I believe it doesn’t.

Machine Update

A fairly significant machine update was applied today. A brief summary of the update:

  • 15 new songs have been added to the machine, and 18 songs have been removed from the machine.
  • 24 other songs have had some form of modification.
  • Credit is now given for chart authors before a song starts.
  • There is an indication of a personal best for USB profiles during the evaluation screen.

The following changes were applied to the machine on July 25th:

Theme (revision 13)

The advertisement screen was re-enabled, this time with information regarding Gold Rush Devolution. This screen’s music has been changed from Gold Rush back to the default song of Who, at the request of the arcade staffs’ sanity.

“Always on My Mind” from Dance Dance Revolution X is now a candidate for the randomly-chosen first song.

Information on the author of the chart is now displayed during the pre-gameplay screen. For edits, the name of the edit is displayed instead. Unknown credit is is also displayed as unknown.

There is now a small indicator on the evaluation screen when a player using a USB stick has recorded a personal best for a song.

The end of game credits text has been updated.

Wellian tidied his scripts up.

Songs

arceast

Abyss -The Heavens Mix-: The offset has been very slightly changed.

Aerodynamic: The sound file has finally been fixed, so that it actually has a hope in hell of being on sync. It only took me four years to get a decent copy of the song in the first place…

BAMBOLEO: The volume of the audio has been (yet again) increased. Hopefully this time you’ll be able to hear it.

Foundation of our love: The offset has been changed.

MEI: The Doubles Easy chart is no longer missing the opening 12 bars of steps. It remains a 6 in difficulty.

Number One: The offset has been substantially changed.

smooooch・∀・: The volume of the audio has been increased.

Z: New difficulties on single: beginner 3, easy 7, medium 9, hard 10, expert 10.

arceast +1 (NEW FOLDER)

Chung Hwa Ban Jeom: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: beginner 1, easy 2, medium 5, hard 7, expert 10.

Go: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: beginner 1, easy 3, hard 7, expert 9.

月雪に舞う花のように: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: easy 3, medium 5, hard 8. Difficulty on double: hard 7.

Dance Dance Revolution 3rd Mix

WONDERLAND (UKS MIX): Difficulty change on double: easy 5⇒6.

Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix

Removed 1 song: Get me in your sight (AMD CANCUN MIX).

Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME (PS2 US)

Removed 2 songs: Planet Rock (Swordfish Radio Edit), Simply Being Loved ‘Somnambulist’.

Dance Dance Revolution SUPERNOVA 2

Removed 5 songs: AM-3P(CHAOS Special), B4U(VOLTAGE Special), BRILLIANT 2U(STREAM Special), DEAD END(GROOVE RADAR Special), D2R(FREEZE Special), DYNAMITE RAVE(AIR Special).

Fixed subtitles for: Blind Justice ~Torn souls Hurt Faiths~, Bloody Tears (IIDX EDITION), CaptivAte~CHIKAI~, Every Day Every Night(NM Style), 木星~組曲『惑星』より, L’amour et la liberte(Darwin & DJ Silver remix), PARANOiA (HADES), Raspberry♥Heart (English Version), STARS★★★(Re-tuned by HΛL)-DDR EDITION-, SUNKiSS♥DROP~Alison Side~, SUNKiSS♥DROP~Jun Side~, SUNRISE(JASON NEVINS REMIX), Trust -DanceDanceRevolution mix-, Votum stellarum -forest #25 DDR RMX-.

PARANOiA (HADES): Difficulty change on double: easy 10⇒11

Dance Dance Revolution Universe

Removed 8 songs: All Up In My Face, Don’t Play Nice, Less ‘Yap Yap’, ON THE JAZZ (Smooth House Mix), Precious (Sasha’s Gargantuan Vocal Mix), PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME (Steve Porter Mix), White Hot, Wraith.

Dance Dance Revolution Universe

888: The offset has been very slightly changed. Middles of charts have been quantized to 12ths. Difficulty change on single: expert 10⇒11.

Dance Dance Revolution X (NEW FOLDER)

A Geisha’s Dream: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: beginner 1, easy 4, medium 6, hard 8. Difficulties on double: easy 4, medium 6, hard 8.

Always on My Mind: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: beginner 1, easy 2, medium 4, hard 6. Difficulties on double: easy 3, medium 4, hard 6.

Koko Soko: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: beginner 2, easy 3, medium 5, hard 7. Difficulties on double: easy 3, medium 5, hard 8.

ポリリズム: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: beginner 1, easy 3, medium 5, hard 7. Difficulties on double: easy 3, medium 6, hard 8.

U Can’t Touch This: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: beginner 1, easy 3, medium 5, hard 7. Difficulties on double: easy 3, medium 6, hard 8.

Übertreffen: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: beginner 2, easy 4, medium 6, hard 9. Difficulties on double: easy 4, medium 6, hard 9.

Xmix1 (Midnight Dawn): NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: easy 5, medium 7, hard 9. Difficulties on double: easy 5, medium 7, hard 9.

Xmix2 (Beats ‘n Bangs): NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: easy 3, medium 5, hard 7. Difficulties on double: easy 3, medium 5, hard 7.

Xmix3 (Stomp Dem Groove): NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: easy 4, medium 6, hard 8. Difficulties on double: easy 4, medium 6, hard 8.

Xmix4 (Linear Momentum): NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: easy 4, medium 6, hard 8. Difficulties on double: easy 5, medium 6, hard 8.

Xmix5 (Overcrush): NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: easy 7, medium 9, hard 10. Difficulties on double: easy 8, medium 9, hard 10.

零 – ZERO -: NEW SONG. Difficulties on single: beginner 2, easy 4, medium 6, hard 8. Difficulties on double: easy 4, medium 5, hard 8.

In The Groove

Removed 1 song: Training.

Gold Rush +1

Tournament 3: missing pens, reduced options and a very bizarre win condition. Read on…


Date: Saturday May 15th, 2010

Quick links to:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
KO Phase
Results

Tournament Synopsis

A year on from MAY-hem saw a tournament with the potential for even more drama than its predecessor. +1, with +1 rule per round, was set to bring a whole new perspective to the meaning “win condition”.

Three quarters of the field from the previous tournament returned, although Wellian was sitting it out in preference to being a geek in the corner. The top “seed” was consequently previous runner-up Kikojui. Also returning for a third attempt at victory were Kramm and Dancing_Ninja, while Flash_UK and Genesis also added to the East Anglian contingent having a second attempt at victory.

Making a return trip from the south coast was Realathlete. He and Coaster_Crazy were returning to Gold Rush after taking part in Revolution nearly two years ago. Could they repeat their performances of last time and usurp the locals?

The other two players in the pack saw a relatively new player in Rhea making her tournament debut, whilst freestyler Captain Charisma was making the transition from the five-panel game to four panels.

Aside from being different in its use of the Swiss format, none of the competitors knew what the additional rules were, which immediately disqualified Wellian as he know what they were.

Round 1

Round 1 was drawn to be the dreadfully-titled “The Square Opposite Go”, revealed to be a reference to Monopoly’s Free Parking square. No additional rules applied, which allowed people to get into the tournament sensibly given the fascinating match-ups on offer.

The big match featured the big guns immediately, with Realathlete drawing Coaster_Crazy. It also saw the battle of the girls in Rhea and Genesis and the chance for Dancing_Ninja (3rd at MAY-hem) and Kramm (4th) to get a good early win.

The opening match saw Captain Charisma get thrown in at the deep end against Kikojui. Despite putting up a good fight on Can’t Stop Fallin’ in Love (Speed Mix), Kikojui powered away with a 2-0 win on Mongolian Grill. Genesis also notched up a 2-0 with a double on Gold Rush and Let’s Get Loud.

The big guns then traded songs, winning their picks of Disconnected Mobius and The Promised Land. The random song ended up being one of Wellian’s own files, although The Beauty of Silence is a somewhat more serious file than I am the music man. Despite a sight-read of 97.01%, RealAthlete’s 98.46% gave him a 2-1 win and left Coaster_Crazy with the consolation of a good tie-breaker score.

Last match saw Dancing_Ninja lose out on Pademonium hard, and then get beaten by just 0.10% on Tough Enough for a 0-2 start, leaving Wellian to scribble a few notes before joining Flash for a bit of fun between rounds.

Round 2

Round 2 saw the machine temporarily relocate up north. “Yorkshire DDR”, complete with awful attempt at an explanation in accent, saw the enforced modifiers 1x and Overhead, and a difficulty limit of 9. Hard luck to those who don’t like low speeds!

Genesis, who generally plays at lower speeds, was up against Kikojui first. In the spirit of the game, Kikojui picked out the horrendous vivid noteskin, and consequently lost both Hot Limit and the desire to have colour vision. Following up with 5th Mix classics Matsuri Japan and Afronova Primeval, a 2-1 win put him top of the table. Joining him on top of the table was RealAthlete, who picked out a 2-0 win over Kramm in double-quick time.

Then the first controversy. Having stolen Flash’s pick of Pink Dinosaur, Coaster_Crazy was undone by a misfiring right pad on Do It All Night. With the pad fixed over lunch, he returned to bag random song I Like To Move It for a 2-1 and get his first win on the board. Rhea then saw her pick of Your Rain as Dancing_Ninja, cleverly using boost to get some extra speed, added a 2-0 to his tally.

Round 3

At this point only two people had a perfect record, yet six were on 1-1. RealAthlete, fractionally ahead of Kikojui at this point, would attempt to define a clearer leader with the restriction of the M300 mod. The round was cryptically called “Max: 300”, although in the loosest sense of the word cryptically.

With RealAthlete opening with a 98.22% on Freckles, the players then failed to register a point between them on Paranoia Respect. Kikojui then picked up a brilliant win on random song Spin Chicken to split the points, although later results would keep him in second place.

The other matches all finished 2-0, with Kramm having his third tough match of the day in losing to CoasterCrazy – featuring the bizarre yet entertaining pick of Reaf expert – Dancing_Ninja sticking two past Captain Charisma and Flash doing likewise with Genesis.

Round 4

And so to the final round, with the rule that demonstrated the tournament in its glory: “Lucky Seven”. Not content with again limiting difficulty, this time to only 7s, but the win condition for this was to get as close to 77.77% as possible.

Having already faced each other, RealAthlete and Kikojui would have to face one of the three on 6 points. The man with the long straw was Flash, who got the right to face a player on 3 points instead of the leaders.

However, having already faced Realathlete earlier in the day, CoasterCrazy had to face Kikojui in a repeat of a drawn best of 2 match from Revolution. He took the first song, Since U Been Gone, but then again got hit by pad misses in What Is Love. Radius medium would decide it, and Coaster_Crazy took himself to the top of the leaderboard with a 77.37%. Dancing_Ninja then threw a spanner in the works with a 2-0 win over Realathlete, and joined Coaster_Crazy at the top of the table.

Flash’s long straw seemed to get shorter when he picked out dangerman Kramm as his pick, but a 2-0 put him safely though. However, last match saw Captain Charisma and Rhea face off: the winner safe, the loser almost certainly out. They each won their opponent’s picks of Freeway Shuffle – where Captain Charisma produced the “best” performance of the round with 77.83 – and Cartoon Heroes, but Rhea’s win on Genie In A Bottle sent her and Genesis through and Captain Charisma out.

Knock-out Phase

Quater-finals

With just Captain Charisma and Wellian missing out on the end phase, eight people had to make their way through. Opening the quarter-finals was Dancing_Ninja, who very kindly took pity on Rhea, a player with a matter of months of experience, and promptly picked Disconnected Hyper on expert. A 97.09% on Mellow followed, one of the ladies was out.

Coaster_Crazy, meanwhile, had done all the hard work of winning the group stage and yet still had to face Kramm for a second time. He opened with a sensational 98.98% on Da Roots, but Kramm came back with his own pick of Hardcore of the North with a winning fail. This left a random song – on Hard – to decide it. It was only Chromatic Blitz, one of a handful of 11s on Hard on a machine of 1500 songs. With Coaster_Crazy having sneaked in front over the middle section, he pulled away to a 92.76%-91.08% victory.

RealAthlete by this point had already pushed out 2-stars and and three 1-stars. Not content with making it eight stars for the day on Chopstix, he then posted the first 3-star performance of the day with a 99.36% on Mouth hard and comfortably win 2-0.

This left Kikojui and the increasingly dangerous Flash_UK. Flash bagged his own pick of Candy (UFO Mix), and then shocked last year’s runner up with a 76.30% on Kikojui’s pick of Paranoia Survivor to work his way into the last four.

Semi-finals

Semi-finals time, and Dancing_Ninja and RealAthlete traded songs to their strengths (Hyper Hyper for the enduring Ninja and Hearts of Ice for the handy Athlete) to open the first semi and leave the obscure 100 Second Kitchen Battle as the random song. An unknown song for both, RealAthlete took it when he spotted the slowdown and DancingNinja didn’t. The second semi saw Coaster_Crazy comfortably beat Flash, with 97.72% on Chikara and a 98.15% on Dragostea Din Tei (English Mix), leaving Flash to prepare himself for a third-place play-off and the right to win his entry fee back.

Finals

The first song of the play-off was a close run fail of Infection, with Dancing_Ninja taking it by just under 3% despite not making it to half-way. Flash then struck back with Max 300, leaving another obscure decider in You Leave Me Alone. A star performance from Dancing_Ninja of 96.35% was enough to beat Flash’s 94.03%, and secure third place.

This left a final of Coaster_Crazy and RealAthlete, a repeat of the big match from Round 1. As before, they traded opening picks of Feels Just Like That Night (Coaster_Crazy taking his song 97.92% to 95.67%) and Unspeakable (RealAthlete hitting back with a 98.82%-98.37% victory) to leave the final song of the final match: Quickening. Hardly the most memorable of songs, yet a fitting performance for the final: both players over 99%, but Coaster_Crazy gaining revenge with a 99.36%-99.13% victory.

Full Results

Players listed on the left picked a song first.

Round 1 (No special rules)
Captain Charisma 0-2 Kikojui (Can’t Stop Fallin’ In Love (Speed Mix) [Expert] 85.10-90.38; Mongolian Grill [Expert] 0.47-81.49)
Genesis 2-0 Rhea (Gold Rush [Hard] 73.12-63.94; Let’s Get Loud [Hard] 82.82-59.85) RealAthlete 2-1 Coaster_Crazy (Disconnected Mobius [Expert] 98.97-93.88; The Promised Land [Expert] 96.79-97.04; Beauty of Silence [Hard] 98.46-97.01)
Dancing_Ninja 0-2 Kramm (Pandemonium [Hard] 28.03-34.22; Tough Enough [Expert] 88.29-88.39)

Round 2 (1x Overhead; No modifier combinations unavailable in DDR 5th Mix; Maximum Difficulty 9)
Genesis 1-2 Kikojui (Hot Limit [Hard; DDR Universe version] 67.76-58.00; Matsuri Japan [Hard] 89.93-79.95; Afronova Primeval [Hard] 78.61-82.50)
Kramm 0-2 RealAthlete (Sexy Planet (Mono Mix) [Expert] 91.05-97.15; In The Heat Of The Night [Hard] 0.07-6.89)
Flash_UK 1-2 Coaster_Crazy (Pink Dinosaur [Hard] 76.02-92.36; Do It All Night [Hard] ?-?; I Like To Move It [Hard] 80.86-93.17)
Dancing_Ninja 2-0 Rhea (Sexy Planet (Mono Mix) [Expert] 80(ish)-4.10; Your Rain (Rage Mix) [Hard] 82.36-0.00)

Round 3 (M300)
RealAthlete 1.5-1.5 Kikojui (Freckles (Sobakasu) [Hard] 98.22-91.10; Paranoia Respect [Hard] 0.00-0.00; Spin Chicken [Expert] 83.68-82.83)
Coaster_Crazy 2-0 Kramm (Birdie [Expert] 98.32-81.72; ReaF [Expert] 3.54-0.00)
Dancing_Ninja 2-0 Captain Charisma (S.A.G.A [Hard] 21.97-21.79; Sana Morette Ne Ente [Hard] 89.65-85.51)
Flash_UK 2-0 Genesis (Butterfly [Expert] 89.96-79.69; Classic Party Triathlon [Hard] 76.37-73.68)

Round 4 (Difficulty 7; target score 77.77%)
Coaster_Crazy 2-1 Kikojui (Since U Been Gone [Hard] -0.08/+0.22; What Is Love [Hard; DDR Universe 3 version] -2.78/-13.18; Radius [Medium] -0.40/-1.59)
Dancing_Ninja 2-0 RealAthlete (Test My Best [Hard] -0.17/+1.81; Mickey [Hard] -0.09/-0.67)
Flash_UK 2-0 Kramm (My Favorite Things [Hard] -0.57/-1.45; Moving Higher [Hard] -0.69/+1.48)
Rhea 2-1 Captain Charisma (Freeway Shuffle [Hard] -5.10/+0.06; Cartoon Heroes [Medium] +3.59/-8.42; Genie In A Bottle [Hard] -20.44/-77.77)

Quarter-Finals (No special rules)
Coaster-Crazy 2-1 Kramm (Da Roots (Folk Mix) [Expert] 98.98-95.94; Hardcore of the North [Expert] 12.63-31.59; Chromatic Blitz [Hard] 92.76-91.08)
Flash_UK 2-0 Kikojui (Candy (UFO Mix) [Hard] 87.489-84.41; Paranoia Survivor [Hard] 76.30-75.05)
Dancing_Ninja 2-0 Rhea (Disconnected Hyper [Expert] 82.86-15.42; Mellow [Hard] 97.09-76.44)
RealAthlete 2-0 Genesis (Chopstix [Hard] 97.30-80.89; Mouth [Hard] 99.36-87.71)

Semi-Finals (No special rules)
Flash_UK 0-2 Coaster_Crazy (Chikara [Hard] 93.76-97.72; Dragostea Din Tei (English mix) [Expert] 83.81-98.15)
Dancing_Ninja 1-2 RealAthelte (Hyper Hyper [Expert] 53.86-48.92; Hearts of Ice [Expert] 74.05-98.14; 100 Second Kitchen Battle [Hard] 90.40-95.90)

3rd Place Play-off (No special rules)
Dancing_Ninja 2-1 Flash_UK (Infection [Expert] 29.12-26.26; Max 300 [Hard] 65.61-80.89; You Leave Me Alone [Hard] 96.35-94.03)

Final (No special rules)
Coaster_Crazy 2-1 RealAthelte (Feels Just Like That Night [Expert] 97.92 – 95.67 [Expert]; Unspeakable [Expert] 98.37-98.82; Quickening [Expert] 99.36-99.13)

Final Positions

  1. Coaster_Crazy
  2. RealAthlete
  3. Dancing_Ninja
  4. Flash_UK
  5. Kikojui
  6. Genesis
  7. Rhea
  8. Kramm
  9. Captain Charisma
  10. Wellian

Full USB support on the way

USB Devices at Gold Rush? It’s finally going to happen. Read on…


For two seasons and two cabinets, there have been one set of high scores. (Well, two actually, but I can’t get the data off Isis…) Those scores lived on the box, and nobody except me could have them, mwahahaha. But we thought that couldn’t last, and so very soon we will be finally enabling USB support on the machine. However, it will work slightly differently to that normally seen with In The Groove.

We do not use the In The Groove or In The Groove 2 folders at all. Instead, we use our own folder called “Gold Rush” that follows the standard USB save convention. However, your data is compatible. If you make a duplicate of your In The Groove or In The Groove 2 folder and call it “Gold Rush”, you’ll have already imported your data ready for Gold Rush.

As a result, we aren’t signing profile data. There are obvious disadvantages, for example people can create a profile of 100% scores for everything. However, with an unsigned profile the scores will not be transferable to a site like GrooveStats. Moreover, the ultimate arbiter of high scores on our machine will be the machine’s very own profile, and so a person parading 100%s on their profiles who cannot then achieve the scores will be vociferously mocked by all.

We did consider using the ITG data. However, there are two reasons we chose not to. Firstly, we do not want to be able to even potentially interfere with data from original saves and then be blamed for the loss of data (where are your backups people?) from using OpenITG. Secondly, there is no confirmed standard for what OpenITG cabinets are to use as their folder name. Some use OpenITG, others In The Groove 3, others random stuff. By using Gold Rush, you know that any data in that folder came from our cabinets. Unless you edited it of course, you dirty cheater you.

Custom songs will be enabled, but reasonably time-limited. If you get caught trying (and failing) to play 75-minute songs on our machine without permission, don’t expect to be welcome in the arcade in future. Additionally, we kept custom speed modifiers disabled for the time being due to ongoing problems with OpenITG being overzealous in its caching of custom modifiers. Once we know it’s stable, it will be re-enabled when possible.

For those who never had an In The Groove save to work with, one will be uploaded with instructions soon.

Posted in Machine update | Tagged | Comments Off on Full USB support on the way

Gold Rush Revolution

The first tournament, a 13-man round robin extravaganza. A machine hosting its first tournament, an organiser with no voice, and a bunch of players with a 200-mile drive home: what could go wrong?


Date: Saturday August 24th, 2008

Quick links to:
Qualification
Blue Group
Red Group
Green Group
Yellow Group
Loser Bracket
Quarter-Finals
Semi-Finals
Finals
Full Results

Tournament Synopsis

13 players descended to Great Yarmouth for Gold Rush’s first machine dance tournament. The field was led by a strong contingent from Portsmouth, but there was an equally large group from Norfolk hoping to hold up local honour.
At stake was a prize pool of £100, chocolate, ice cream tub lids and Wellian’s reputation as a tournament organiser, the latter not being helped by a bout of glandular fever and no voice.

Qualification

With Ghosts from DDR MAX being chosen as the seeding song, the seeding round opened up with Ross posting a 94.41, which would eventually see him sixth. Stardragon followed up two pairings later to head the boards with a non-arbitrated 96.10. Shortly afterwards, Wildfireskunk and Maxx Storm posted 97.66 and 97.53, but this was overtaken by MCW next pairing (98.70) and he became top seed.
For the locals, honours were led by veteran Mental_Mark, who was tenth with 84.15. This placed him just ahead of Kikojiu, who knocked up 84.15.

Blue Group

The three-man group of MCW, Chris and Dean was straightforward enough to sort out, with the top seed running through three 96+ scores and a 95.96 to waltz to the top of the group. Chris also picked up two wins to secure his place in the knockout phase.

Red Group

A four-man group featuring the European champion had drama that would have happily graced that tournament. After Maxx Storm had easily beaten Mark 2-0 with a pair of 96+ scores, Kikojiu managed to steal a point from 6th placed Ross by forcing a fail on Max 300 Super Max-Me Mix Oni. However, with Maxx Storm then taking two points off Kikojiu and Ross bagging a win against Mark, Ross would be able to secure his own destiny with a point of MaxxStorm. With an inspirational pick of Stop & Go Expert, he took the point he needed to claim a draw and reserve his place in the last eight. However, Mark claimed his first point of the tournament with a win on Xepher Oni, which would have been enough to prevent Kikojiu’s progress anyway.

Green Group

This group lumped Kaku in with Portsmouth duo Wildfireskunk and black_sun_rise, and he split the pair of them. Wildfireskunk topped the group after a quartet of 96+ scores, whilst Kaku picked up the points he needed to move through to the last 8.

Yellow Group

What the Blue Group provided in drama the Yellow Group provided in controversy. Stardragon and Realathlete took two wins out of two with high-scoring wins over Mental Mark and Dancing_Ninja. Whilst Mark was picking up two points two secure third in the group, Stardragon and and Realathlete provided the third 1-1 draw in the group phases, and by far the most critical.
With nothing to separate them, the pair were forced to a Chance song, which Realathlete took with exactly 96.00%, and thus forced Stardragon into a match with one of the group winners.

Loser’s Bracket

Quarter-Finals

With enough time to give those outside the top 8 their own tournament, a couple of eliminators were need to turn six into four. It was the two from the Yellow Group who fell by the wayside, with Red group counterparts Mark (2-1 v Mental Mark) and Kikojiu (2-0 v Dancing Ninja) moving forward.

Semi-Finals

In a battle of brothers, it took a win on Stargate Heaven to give Mark a a passage to a final against Kikojiu, who comfortably beat black_sun_rise 2-0

Finals

With black_sun_rise beating Dean 2-0 to claim 11th place, it was left for master against teacher in Kikojiu and Mark to repeat their earlier battle. Again the match went to 1-1, and faced with the awkward prospect of American Idiot as the chance song Mark handled the file better and finished as top local player in 9th.

Winner’s Bracket

Quarter-Finals

With three of the top four seeds winning their groups, it was unfortunate that the only one who didn’t had to face Maxx Storm. But this was the prospect Stardragon faced, and like Kaku, Ross and Chris before him lost 2-0 and saw Maxx Storm join MCW, Realathlete and Wildfireskunk.

Semi-Finals

With Portsmouth guaranteed a place in the final, MCW and Realathlete had local bragging rights to consider. This match saw four songs from ITG3 pop up, and both players won their picks to leave Hearts of Ice via chance to separate them. Despite a number of dropped holds in MCW’s 96.54, recalcs wouldn’t be enough to deny Realthlete after a 98.40.
In the second semi, Wildfireskunk managed to take one song off Maxx Storm with a pick on the nasty Dreams to Nightmare Hard, but a 97.02 on ! Expert was the highlight of a 3-1 win for Maxx Storm.

Minor final

As had been the case with his semi, MCW saw him and his opponent win each of their two picks on ITG songs. The curveball that followed was the Chance song: old DDR classic Tsugaru. A 97.45 was enough for the top seed to overcome Wildfireskunk and take 3rd place.

Grand final

Possibly worn out by his semi-final exertions, Realathlete lost his first pick of Dance Vibrations and then suffered during ITG2’s Destiny. After trying another ITG3 song in Virtual Emotion, again Maxx Storm was equal to the task and he wrapped up a 3-0 win, all three of his scores again in the 96+ bracket.

To the victor, Maxx Storm, the spoils and the ice cream tub lid. To the losers, the honour of competing. And to the machine, a decent attempt at a first tournament in Gold Rush.


 

Gold Rush Revolution Results

Seeding Round (Ghosts (Vincent de Moor Remix), Hard)

Results

Ross 94.41 Dancing_Ninja 75.84

Kikojui 84.15 Dean 80.25

black_sun_rise 86.68 Stardragon 96.10

Chris 90.38 Mark 82.92

Wildfireskunk 97.66 Maxx Storm 97.53

MCW 98.70 Kaku 91.75

Realathlete 96.94 Mental Mark 84.48

Rankings

(1) MCW 98.70
(2) Wildfireskunk 97.66
(3) Maxx Storm 97.53
(4) Stardragon 96.10*
(5) Realathlete 96.94
(6) Ross 94.41
(7) Kaku 91.75
(8) Chris 90.38*
(9) black_sun_rise 86.68
(10) Mental Mark 84.48
(11) Kikojui 84.15
(12) Mark 82.92
(13) Dean 80.25
(14) Dancing_Ninja 75.84

*Stardragon claimed 1 pad miss, taking his score to -41, which beat Realathlete’s -44. In any case they were both placed in the Yellow group. Chris also clamed a pad miss, but this didn’t affect the rankings in any way.

Blue Group

Rankings

MCW 6pts
Chris 4pts
Dean 2pts

Results

MCW (choosing to take first song pick) beat Chris (choosing the right pad) 2-0 (Lemmings on the Run Expert 97.42-90.68, Misirlou -Hyper Mix- Expert 97.16-84.30)

Chris (song) beat Dean (right) 2-0 (Kecak Hard 91.72-64.02, Monolith Hard 93.38-59.91)

MCW (right) beat Dean 2-0 (Sakura Hard (10) 96.51-66.08, Online Expert 95.96-73.59)

Red Group

Rankings

Maxx Storm 5pts
Ross 4pts
Kikojiu 2pts
Mark 1pt

Results

Maxx Storm (right) beat Mark 2-0 (Pandemonium Medium 97.76-84.36, Drifting Away Expert 96.78-75.43)

Ross (song) drew with Kikojui (left?) 1-1 (Un Deux Trois Hard 97.57-90.71, Max 300 Super Max-Me Mix Expert 23.74f-76.34)

Maxx Storm (right) beat Kikojui 2-0 (Vertex Hard 95.71-64.18, Lipstick Kiss Expert 94.48-81.71)

Ross (song) beat Mark (right) 2-0 (Da Roots Expert 97.80-86.??, Paranoia Survivor Hard 84-82-72.64)

Maxx Storm (?) drew with Ross 1-1 (Stop & Go Expert 88.19-91.04, Out of the Dark Expert 96.45-73.26)

Kikojui (?) drew with Mark 1-1 (Zodiac Expert 85.21-71.08, Xepher Expert (10) 77.24-82.60)

Green Group

Rankings

Wildfireskunk 6pts
Kaku 4pts
black_sun_rise 2pts

Results

Wildfireskunk (?) beat Kaku 2-0 (Stargate Heaven 98.32-94.92, Zodiac Expert 96.44-91.08)

Kaku (song) beat black_sun_rise (right) 2-0 (Freckles-Sobakasu (KCP Re-Edit) 94.66-90.85, Love is Orange Expert (8) 92.23-80.35)

Wildfireskunk (song) beat black_sun_rise (right) 2-0 (Spaceman Expert 97.78-69.62, Mouth Hard 97.93-91.10)

Yellow Group

Rankings

Realathlete 5pts*
Stardragon 5pts
Mental Mark 2pts
Dancing_Ninja 0pts

*Stardragon won coin toss (heads) and chose left pad for chance song. Stardragon lost to Realathlete 0-1 (The Last Kiss Expert 84.64-96.00)

Results

Stardragon (song) beat Mental Mark 2-0 (Himawari Hard 98.49-92.36, AA Hard 97.43-77.89)

Realathlete (left) beat Dancing_Ninja 2-0 (B4U Hard 97.90-85.10, Birdie expert 97.68-78.43)

Stardragon (left) beat Dancing_Ninja 2-0 (Kind Lady Hard 97.13-84.55, Crash Hard 97.91-85.97)

Realathlete (song) beat Mental Mark (left) 2-0 (Hand of Time Expert 88.37-75.44, Freckles-Sobakasu (KCP Re-edit) Hard 98.46-93.74)

Stardragon (song) drew with Realathlete (left) 1-1 (Tribal Style Expert 96.08-94.84, Hearts of Ice Expert 91.79-94.63)

Mental Mark (left) beat Dancing_Ninja 2-0 (Doll Hard (8) 90.37-87.68, Paranoia -Respect- Hard 50.19f-5.86f)

Loser’s Bracket

Quarter-Finals

Mental Mark (song) lost to Mark (left) 1-2 (Hasse Mich Hard 67.64-61.11, Pandemonium Hard 24.10f-30.58f, Exotica (ITG3 OG version) Expert 19.27f-74.31)

Kikojui (left) beat Dancing_Ninja 2-0 (Dead End Hard 75.95-62.29, Paranoia Survivor Max Expert 54.91-6.63f)

Semi-Finals

Dean (right) lost to Mark 1-2 (Paranoia Evolution Hard 86.34-84.36, Monolith Hard 64.75-68.36, Stargate Heaven Hard 80.69-88.24)

black_sun_rise (right) lost to Kikojui 0-2 (Vertex Expert 7.29f-16.67f, Tsugaru Hard 68.48-80.53)

11-12th place play-off

black_sun_rise (right) beat Dean 2-0 (A Hard (8) 82.65-7?.??, We Know What To Do Expert 83.9?-73.91)

9-10th place play-off

Kikojui (right) lost to Mark 1-2 (Can’t Stop Fallin’ In Love Speed Mix 81.85-81.95, Robotix Hard 84.44-80.22, American Idiot Expert 72.00-69.76)

Winner’s Bracket

Quarter-Finals

MCW (song) beat Kaku (right) 2-0 (Disconnected Disco Expert 98.05-87.53, Bag Hard 95.81-90.99)

Realathlete (right) beat Ross 2-0 (My Favourite Game (ITG1) Expert 94.19-92.34, Queen of Light Expert 98.07-63.17f)

Wildfireskunk (song) beat Chris (left) 2-0 (Soapy Bubble Expert 96.20-58.02f, Do What U Wanna Do Expert 94.38-90.50)

Maxx Storm (left) beat Stardragon 2-0 (Dawn Perpetual Mix Expert 97.49-94.50, Utopia Expert 97.72-87.78)

Semi-Finals

MCW (right) lost to Realathlete 2-3 (Dawn Expert 94.89-96.31, Dreams to Nightmare Hard 93.95-74.71, Riders Unite Expert 97.72-98.23, Stop & Go Expert 94.76-88.45, Hearts of Ice Expert 96.54-98.40)

Wildfireskunk (right) lost to Maxx Storm 1-3 (Vertex Expert 94.32-95.52, Dreams to Nightmare 93.65-84.98, ! Expert 89.93-97.02, Sun Son Sunday (Orange Mix) Expert 91.68-93.40)

3rd-4th place play-off

MCW (left) beat Wildfireskunk 3-2 (Hardcore Symphony 14.88f-92.21, Smells Like A Chocolate Hard 96.30-95.67, Summer Speedy Mix Expert 29.39f-51.63f, Dawn Perpetual Mix 98.89-97.09, Tsugaru Hard 97.45-96.71)

Final

Realathlete (song) lost to Maxx Storm (left) 0-3 (Dance Vibrations Expert 97.44-94.54, Destiny (ITG2) Expert 0.00f-97.56, Virtual Emotion Hard 92.92-96.28)

Final Rankings

1st Maxx Storm (£50, GRR Chocolate Trophy, 1st Place Ice Cream Tub Lid)
2nd Realathlete (£25)
3rd MCW (£15)
4th Wildfireskunk (£10)

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Gold Rush MAY-hem

For some reason, we thought we’d do it all again. A switch in tournament format, a switch in sync, and a switch in the position of the cabinet. Oh, and Welly got to join in this time…


Date: Saturday May 9th, 2009

Quick links to:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Full Results

Tournament Synopsis

Eight players descended on Gold Rush for the second tournament on at the arcade. A new computer, new tournament structure, a new set of competitors and a new special prize for the winner. But who were these eight protagonists?

Wellian and Toraneko were looking to maintain local honour. Although both were present at Revolution, neither took part in the tournament. With “home advantage” in their favour, could they use the song list to their advantage to win the trophy?

Returning for a second crack at victory were the double-act of Kikojui and Kramm, who finished 10th and 9th at Revolution. But with both playing better and Kramm fast improving, could they be taking the trophy to North Norfolk?

Alongside them were two new faces, Aaron and Tar-Q, both also making their competitive débuts, who were also representing the North of Norfolk. Maybe these unknown quantities could provide the winner.

Does Dancing_Ninja count as yokel? maxxx_unlimited certainly doesn’t, but they had both made the journey to Great Yarmouth – maxxx from Essex – to try and break up the Norfolk party.

Round 1

The most significant thing about Swiss tournaments is the completely random first round. Unfortunately Wellian had lost his marbles (or to be more precise his pool balls) so out came the pieces of paper.

Pick of the first round matches was top of the bill Kramm v Kikojui, a repeat of the loser’s final from Revolution. Opening the billing was Kramm’s pick of Dawn Perpetual Mix, but it was Kikojui who took first blood with an 88.48%. Kramm recovered to take the reverse pick with a 96.49% on Sexy Planet Momo Mix – the highest score of the day – leaving the music wheel to pick the deciding song.

Cue Wellian’s intervention, firstly to trigger the Chance and secondly to apologise profusely for “choosing” his own file “I am the music man”. Kikojui won the match, but it was a sideshow to everyone else dancing around like embarrassing dads at a wedding.

Elsewhere in round 1 Aaron pipped Toraneko 2-1 with a random pick of Yozora no Muko, whilst Dancing_Ninja beat maxxx by the same scoreline thanks to a win on Snake Charmer. It would be Wellian who finished round 1 top of the tree however, with a 2-0 win over Tar-Q.

Round 2

The winners kicked off round 2, with Kikojui safely navigating his way past Aaron 2-0 to book his place in the final. Wellian opened up his match with a 90.48% on Xuxa expert, but Dancing_Ninja struck back with a sightread 96.36% on Whoomph!. The final match was the thoroughly awkward Can’t Help Falling In Love, which Wellian sneaked through 92.78%-92.32% to book his place in the top match at round 3.

The losers matches saw Toraneko chalk up a 2-1 win over Tar-Q and Kramm pick off maxxx 2-0 to take their records to 1-1. Kikojui led the standings from Wellian at this point.

Round 3

The winner of the Kikojui-Wellian match would win the tournament, but With four players on 1-1 records and two of those ready to move to 2-1, the loser wasn’t yet guaranteed second place.

Wellian again picked his own file – a theme for the tournament – but popped out Chronologie VIII (a One False Move clone) and led 1-0. Having seen Kramm take Wellian’s machine record for Baby Seal earlier in the day, Kikojui picked it but both players forgot to change their scroll mods. Wellian coped the better of the two, stumbling to an 88.24% and the victory.

Despite Kikojui dropping 2-1, his tiebreakers meant that he would finish in 2nd place. This was despite Dancing_Ninja and Kramm recording 2-0 wins over Toraneko and Aaron. They finished 3rd and 4th, with Aaron finishing 5th. Toraneko, however, dropped to 7th due to maxxx’s 2-0 win over Tar-Q.


Gold Rush MAY-Hem Results

Round 1

Kramm (choosing song) 1-2 Kikojui (choosing left pad)

Dawn Perpetual Mix SH(9) 87.17-88.41
Sexy Planet Momo Mix SX(7) 96.49-94.08
I am the music man SH(8) 19.40-60.39

Toraneko (left) 1-2 Aaron

Dead End SH(9) 80.92-82.97
Days SX(8) 85.78-80.04
Yozora no muko SH(8) 76.10-87.91

maxxx_unlimited (left) 1-2 Dancing_Ninja

Feels Just Like That Night SX(11) 17.06-75.01
Pluto SH(9) 78.22-9.66
Snake Charmer SH(8) 87.81-92.68

Wellian (right) 2-0 Tar-Q

Misirlou Hyper Mix SH(9) 93.40-78.11
Max 300 SH(10) 73.09-19.92

Round 2

Aaron (left) 0-2 Kikojui

Cartoon Heroes Speedy Mix SH(9) 27.57-88.42
Fly Away (ITG3) SX(9) 81.78-89.86

Dancing_Ninja (song) 1-2 Wellian (left)

Xuxa SX(11) 70.28-90.48
Whoomph! (there it is) SH(7) 96.36-93.42
Can’t Help Falling In Love SH(7) 92.32-92.78

Tar-Q (left) 1-2 Toraneko

Hogism SH(7) 82.28-82.81
Paranoia Survivor SH(10) 13.30-13.22
Night In Motion SH(8) 83.45-92.48

maxxx_unlimited (left) 0-2 Kramm

Hand of Time SX(10) 29.31-85.36
Sakura SH(10) 66.97-80.53

Round 3

Kikojui (left) 0-2 Wellian

Chronologie VIII SX(10) 76.36-86.04
Baby Seal SX(9) 84.74-88.24

Kramm (left) 2-0 Aaron

Drifting Away (ITG1) SX(9) ?-?
Lemmings on the Run SX(9) 80.93-17.03

Toraneko (left) 0-2 Dancing_Ninja

Hands Up SX(11) 28.13-76.35
Flying High SH(8) 93.24-88.83

maxxx_unlimited (left) 2-0 Tar-Q

Saints Go Marching SH(9) ?-?
Healing Vision Angelic Mix SH(9) 89.89-5.46

Final Rankings

1st Wellian (Prizes: Milk Bottle of Intrinsic Awesomeness, baby seal, Toraneko)
2nd Kikojui (£50, one metric pint of cherry Onken)
3rd Dancing_Ninja (£30, bag of Cadbury’s Buttons)
4th Kramm (£20, gashapon of Boo I bought at Sainsbury’s at the last minute) 5th Aaron (one litre of Lucozade Energy Original)
6th maxxx_unlimited (230g bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk)
7th Toraneko (Wellian)
8th Tar-Q (Wooden Spoon of Last Place Consolation, bag of Haribo)

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