my concern is not that... my concern is that what happened when Pump it Up did this with Exceed will be replicated here on a bigger scale.

You have 500 songs in the game (or so) you must re-rate everything on a scale from 1-20 when it was 1-10... given all the DDR projects lately... what is being worked on by this same team? This is where it goes horribly wrong... inaccurate numbers! But we shall see when it releases.

No I do not like them. I prefer a nice animated background video like the one found on Xepher... I'd like to permanently disable announcers too :)

no announcer during the music... I play music games for the music... not some crap announcer.

When you buy a new car... do you expect to drive it off the lot only to have to replace parts a day later? No. There it is that simple.

You are under the assumption that operators will listen to a regular customer like you claim to do. Well I'll give you an example of stupid installation.... Soul Calibur 3 at Craig's Cruisers here. What is wrong? One side has a stick to the right of the buttons... the other has the stick to the left of the buttons. It was an upgraded cabinet... but uh when have you seen a fighter with the control stick to the right of the buttons? Kind of unbalanced and unfair. I've brought that to their attention... it would make more money if it were proper. But no... so why bother playing? 

I am hopeful that upgrade kits are in the $2,000 range.

Thats not how it works as I discovered before I became an owner of one of these dance machines... This is how it works (for them) :

1 - You complain to the op

2 - The op makes a story up that they are totally going to fix it

3 - They do not

4 - You know why.... it's still making money... if it's making oddles of money... its working! (for them)

5 - You and your buddies go somewhere else to play

6 - It's not making oddles of money any more

7 - They sell it, move it to another location, or etc etc

8 - The players there enjoy it and aren't as picky because... gasp it r Supernova 2!!!

Repeat from 1.

DDR Extreme - Celebration Cinema - Craptastic... stomp all you want!

DDR Supernova - Craig's Cruisers - Have not played on this machine in almost (or perhaps) 1 year. Last time I played they were kinda crap. I hear they still are... but not as crappy as the mentioned DDR Extreme.

Other machines : too far out... now that gas is expensive I no longer take road trips to those other places further out... (1-3 hour drives for the other places)

Pump it Up has had a ticket feature on it for awhile... haven't heard of anyone using it though. I will say this though... if the ticket dispenser is not included on a game... most times the owner isn't going to go buy one separate... and with a game like DDR where it is already making money (well could be more with the ticket dispenser!) its not entirely neccessary... thats what ticket games are for :)

People going to Pump it Up don't neccessarily come back... I know this to be true of quite a few players around here... they moved on and didn't go back. Check out the growing amount of Pump it Up NX2 and PRO videos on youtube. It's coming down to a matter of replay value as well.... and the old tactic of just dumping in new songs and charts for each mix is wearing thin there needs to be more conten. Couple that with brand spanking new falling apart machines and you have a problem. Take Supernova 1 for instance... it sold fairly well in this state.... now zoom to Supernova 2... we have ONE machine... and its an upgrade from Extreme... this while we have quite a few Pump it Up NX/NX2/PRO machines floating around in the area. I will not lie, I started with Pump it Up and still mostly stick to that.... but I do play DDR as well occasionally... but the replay value grows thin for it unfortunately... what it lacks in the arcade is the replay value of the home versions.  But thats another problem for another topic...

As far as more surface area decreasing sensitivity... hmm thats funny... I've never had the issues with a Pump it Up pad as I've had with a Betson DDR cab... older DDR machines are forgiven because they are old and ops don't take care of them like they should. 

If companies start to make open frame 4:3 LCD in the 27"/29" flavor then I'd say no... but honestly.. eventually Arcade CRT monitors are going to be off of the market completely. It's time to move on to widescreen. But for the love of god... don't go plasma!!! (SED, DLP with LED lighting or LCD will be fine)

That being said... most CRTs on the market are limited to 640x480 or 800x600... you can buy an SVGA monitor that goes higher but you'll pay quite a bit (pointlessly increasing the cost) not to mention they are stupidly heavy... having replaced one recently on my Pump it Up SX machine... its NOT fun... its amusing but its NOT fun... lifting that thing hurts.

I guess I should further  the need for someone to start making open frame 4:3 LCD or DLP monitors by stating the obvious : the problems they may eventually have can be fixed easier than a CRT... and CRT monitors cost as much as an LCD or Plasma... yep this here justifies the need to move out of CRT land

hmm PIU machines using less materials? There are 4 extra sensors need per pad.... I/O boards in each... its just about the same amount of parts +1 panel +4 extra sensors for center.

Look at the ITG2 cabinets Andamiro made for example. When new they never had the issues I've been hearing about with SN2 cabs. (Hell even after 4 years of abuse its still good to go) Of course the only offering of SN2 in this state is an upgraded cabinet... however we do have a SN1 which has some pad sensitivity issues. But since I don't own that machine I can't go see what the problem is.

As far as Konami buying Andamiro... noo!!! If they do what happened when Andamiro and Konami came together will happen again... TECHNOMOTION!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDwG6EemM9g

Ok joking aside... yeah Konami should get Andamiro to handle their cabinet design for the USA if they're not willing to do it themselves like before.... a buy out would be bad for both companies.... Sega/Sammy merger anyone? Changing the nature of the company means company in control makes bad decisions for the other company. Not a good place to be (on the customer end) I'm still waiting for Shenmue 3!!! lol

well there is scenario D... op tries another game instead of broken DDR SN2 machines because... well Pump it Up NX2 and Pump it Up PRO WORK!!!

Never forget that there is competition and that if you mess up it will hurt you! (Especially when competitor machines are less expensive and built better!)  

I think the timing windows need to be a little less picky and slightly easier. Remember that this game appeals mostly to casual players as well. So if the game rags on them for not being super accurate chances are they won't return. As for returning players offer a separate mode called Timing Challenge with separate rankings. That will solve the problem of people wanting the hard timing as well.

I'm looking into buying a new monitor so I ask them for a list of monitors (because there isn't one on their website) they have available and they give me a short list. Then I ask if they carry a specific Kortek monitor... gasp they have it... but it wasn't on the list they sent :|

So they responded and said they have it but provided no price and wanted to know how many I needed to order.... come on. I'm going to blindly order something without knowing the price? 

Ok mistake, they listed the monitor before but not as what it is... a Kortek monitor. They just gave me the monitor numbers and price. Anyhow it seems I can get a monitor of the same quality elsewhere for less.

there is another problem with Betson... have you seen their website?

http://www.betson.com

ok they carry parts, upgrade kits for games and what not... but they feel no need to list pricing or what they actually have... you instead have to bother their employees to find out whats for sale... which is generally a waste of time that could otherwise be saved by looking at the item and saying oh I want that or "thats overpriced"

I've only dealt with Betson one time and that was to order Pump it Up NX2... I got good customer service... but it would have been easier if I didn't have to call and could just place the order online like uh most other websites. 

It is also the responsibility of the operator to do research before purchasing a game. I've seen many a case of "why isn't this earning money?!" or "Why did this break?!" But I tend to notice a lot of them don't actually care to read the instruction manual for their machine or set it up properly anyway.

how about no unlock system at all... I purchased the game... I should be able to full enjoy it at my own pace. Unlock systems unless detailed with fresh content along the way often get you sick of the game by the time you unlock everything.