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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 29th, 2023

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  • There are two 4k capable scalers announced for retro games:

    • Retrotink 4k
      • Made by the same guy who made the Retrotink 5x Pro among other scaling devices such as the Retrotink 2x, RGB2COMP and COMP2RGB devices. The 5x is a scaler that works better than the OSSC and can go to higher resolutions along with more effects to help emulate the CRT look and feel.
    • Morph 4k by PixelFx
      • Made by the same team behind the DCDigital (aka. DCHDMI), PS1Digital and now the Retro G.E.M. which is the recently announced console agnostic HDMI modification.

    There is also the OSSC Pro, but the details are sparse and we haven’t had too many updates about it.


    PixelFX has lost any and all respect that I had for them and almost made me want to sell my PS1Digital modded system just to be rid of owning anything they’ve touched. Their announcement video for the Retro GEM took the piss on Digital Foundry by doing a cringe-inducing “parody” called “Digital Infidelity” and was wildly inappropriate. Couple that with the news that the GEM would have DRM on the extra features for an additional $80 once you bought the device and it left a very sour taste in my mouth.

    Prior to their terrible announcement, I was determined on buying what ended up being GEM as I could get HDMI out right from a PS2 I bought specifically for that mod and now I won’t bother.














  • The easiest way to get started with DDR at home is to download Stepmania on your computer, then plug in a dance pad to your computer. Here are some simplified instructions on how to get started:

    Step 1. Get Stepmania

    Stepmania is a free DDR simulator.

    There are two main forks of Stepmania:

    • ITGMania
      • Is the recommended one from me as it comes with the Simply Love theme right out of the box along with some other nice features such as the ability to upload scores to GrooveStats
    • Project Outfox
      • Does a lot more than just DDR-esque charts

    After that, you have to download the songs for it. You can do that from a site called zenius-i-vanisher:

    Once you’ve downloaded the songs you want, here are brief instructions on how to add the songs to Stepmania. For other Stepmania-related questions, visit the Stepmania subreddit. (There isn’t a good/active Fediverse community yet.)

    Step 2. Buy a dance pad

    Comprehensive pad buying guide

    The above link is a detailed guide which reviews the most popular options for buying a home pad.

    The summary is:

    • If your budget is < $100 or you’re just starting out - Buy a soft pad and consider upgrading it (video tutorial) once you reach an intermediate level of play.

    • If your budget is between $100 to $300 - Keep an eye out for a used Cobalt Flux pad or L-Tek pad on eBay, your local Craigslist, or on the Facebook BEMANI buy/sell/trade group. Deals within this price range are rare, but possible. Or if you’re handy, you can try to build your own.

    • If your budget is > $300 - Same as above, but you’ll be able to buy a new pad immediately rather than waiting for a deal to pop up.

    And that’s it! If you have any further questions, feel free to ask me as well.


    NOTE: The above portion was mainly copied from this comment on the DanceDanceRevolution subreddit. I made some edits and additions here and there to add more information and links to things.

    That said, I am getting back into DDR myself. Personally own and fairly like my L-Tek pad, but I am about to sell it here in the next week or two. I ended up buying a Compact Machine setup from StepmaniaX which is an entirely different game from the non-X version. (Basically a modern version of In The Groove from the same guys but with 5 panels (U/D/L/R/Center) and they not only sell the machines to arcades but to private owners too.) Their stage/pads are the end-game ones to get these days, but are not cheap.