Arcade Quality Dance Pads for Rhythm Games

For DDR / ITG / PPU / Stepmania

We’re building Arcade Quality “hard pads” for dance rhythm gaming at home.

Pads are currently in the design phase. If you’re interested and would like to help, consider filling out this playstyle survey.

Background

Our team has been long term fans of DDR, having played since DDR Max. We’ve gotten back into playing recently, and were disappointed by the choices for playing at home.

Stepmania, and its successor ITGmania, allow you to play at home. While the software is great, hardware options are lacking.

Soft Pads

Typically, you can buy a “soft pad” for around $40 USD. If you ever played a console version of one of these games with a bundled pad, you’re already familiar with this.

These pads typically survive a month or two of regular play. Even before they fail completely, the sensors used are very cheap and often fail to detect steps unless you slam on the pads. This makes high level play impossible. You also need to worry about the pad slipping around or curling up while playing.

Cost: ~40 USD

Lifetime: Months

Sensitivity: Suitable for Moderate play

Hard Pads

On the other end of the spectrum is the “hard pad”, which is closer to what you use in an arcade. These feature a rigid design, and more sensitive buttons.

There aren’t many companies left which make hard pads. LTEK, one of the few quality manufacturers is in Europe. Since hard pads are large, heavy pieces of equipment, it is common to spend almost as much on shipping as the device itself.

Cost: ~250 + ~150 shipping = ~400 USD

Lifetime: Years

Sensitivity: Suitable for Expert Play. Though some players still modify these for higher sensitivity to support certain playstyles.

Arcade Cabinet

This is the real deal, purchasing an arcade cabinet for use at home. Though they are large, heavy, expensive, it truly is the arcade experience at home.

Cost: ~10k used

Lifetime: Varies on quality of machine. Arcade machines typically require more maintenance than consumer hardware.

Sensitivity: It is the real arcade machine. Though as above, the “penny mod” is a common way to improve the sensitivity of the machines.

Our Pad

We’re building a hard pad. We’re based in Seattle, which should enable us to ship affordably across the United States. And we have a few tricks in mind, which we believe will allow us to further reduce final cost + shipping of our pads.

If you haven’t already, consider filling out the playstyles survey. At the end of the survey is an option to provide your email, which we will use only to notify you of updates on the product.

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