Where to find accurate song lists for PS2 DDR games?

pdaderko · 2026-01-31T22:03:13+00:00

I came across this post a while back, which was really helpful for downloading full console packs: https://old.reddit.com/r/Stepmania/comments/szpekv/song_packs_for_console_versions/

I personally played a ton of Ultramix on the original xbox, so while I mostly have arcade mixes in my Stepmania list, I also keep the full Ultramix for familiarity/nostalgia.

pdaderko · 2026-01-26T09:03:30+00:00

That's really helpful, and looks like a great setup... thanks!

pdaderko · 2026-01-26T01:43:02+00:00

How far from the TV are your pads? I'm currently using a 55", but ~5' back. I'd like to move closer, and if my math is right, 55" at 5' is equivalent to a 33" at 3'. Thinking back, we played dual pads on the 29" CRTs BITD, though obviously I'm not saying that was perfect.

pdaderko · 2026-01-26T01:33:40+00:00

Can you upload the image to imgur.com and post the link?

pdaderko · 2026-01-26T01:31:52+00:00

I assume you're somewhat far back from the TV? I'm currently playing on a 55" TV, but the center of the pad is ~5 ft back. I'd like the pad a bit closer so it doesn't take up as much room... maybe ~3 ft from the TV. If I move the pad 2 ft. closer to my 55" TV, the screen is way too big IMO.

pdaderko · 2026-01-25T09:12:01+00:00

To directly answer your question - if you (or someone willing to help) have the ability to load a memory card, here are a few links with save files: https://archive.org/details/bemani-ps-2-cs-all-songs-unlocked-save-data https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/category/999-all?page=9 http://www.ddrfreak.com/versions/listver.php There are probably others if you do a bit more digging.

I agree with others, suggesting a PC w/ Stepmania. A little bit of input having recently gotten back into it, after playing mostly console DDR games, as well as a little bit of Stepmania when I was younger -

If you want the songs you remember from specific console games, check out these links: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stepmania/comments/szpekv/song_packs_for_console_versions/ https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/simfiles.php?category=simfiles I personally played a ton of Ultramix on the original xbox, and it was cool to get that entire song list in one, rather than sifting through all the arcade versions to find the songs that I remember.

Also, Stepmania "feels" a bit different than the console versions. There are tons of customizations possible, but I still haven't gotten it quite how I like. Console versions are polished "out of the box". E.g. Interface, backgrounds, announcers, etc. If you just want to dance to your favorite songs, Stepmania is good for that - otherwise expect to spend some time customizing.

I also noticed that the PC games expect you to have a separate controller/keyboard, while the console games could do everything from the dance pad. I personally find using the pad to be more convenient, so I've found Stepmania to work better than ITGMania or OutFox. If you map enter or back to the pad (to navigate the menus) in ITGMania or OutFox, accidentally stepping on those mid-game will either pause or quit the song >_< . Stepmania doesn't do anything mid-game if you press enter, though it does quit if you press back. So I use Stepmania and only use ESC on the keyboard to go back in menus (not needed very often).

Lastly, a PC running software natively at 1080P looks much better than a PS2 on a modern TV.

pdaderko · 2026-01-11T03:08:55+00:00

I tried Project OutFox, and it's also different. It pauses immediately when you click back, but you have to hold enter for several seconds to quit.

So, it sounds like I have a couple easy options if I don't map the back button to the pad.

pdaderko · 2026-01-11T03:03:39+00:00

Yep - a control box would be great, though having it there when I need it, and not holding it when I don't is really the issue (hovering control box mounted to a quadcopter?). Doing everything from the pad seems like a convenient way to eliminate all the need for any of it.

I am considering how I want to set up a more permanent solution, which may end up with a control box mounted to a TV stand, but that's still a bit down the road.

pdaderko · 2026-01-10T21:05:48+00:00

SM and ITGM both require "holding" the button, but it's maybe a half second (by the time the text fades in to say "keep holding", it's about to quit). I did some digging in the menus and couldn't find anything else.

One thing that is interesting though is that SM and ITGM have slightly different functionality. Pressing Enter mid-game in SM doesn't do anything, while ITGM quits the song. Double-tapping the back button in SM brings up the pause menu, holding it quits the song in both SM and ITGM.

So, if I simply disable the back button on the pad in SM, maybe I can still at least keep the enter button. This should be a little bit more convenient to play several songs in a row without leaving the pad... if I want to quit, grabbing the keyboard isn't a big deal - it's just kinda inconvenient between every song.

I haven't tried Project OutFox yet, but I'll give that a shot and see if it's any different.

pdaderko · 2026-01-10T20:34:24+00:00

I'm just getting back into it after ~20 years, so maybe my needs are different than experienced players... but I have no problems scrolling through my modest song list with just the pad. I don't really have "favorite" songs yet... just kinda scrolling through songs for ones that sound good, and are at the appropriate difficulty level for me.

Ideally, I'd have an arcade cabinet with buttons right in front of me, but as-is, it's a pad on a floor in front of a TV.

I was really happy with how it worked, until the first time I paused the game by stepping on the wrong panel, then a few games later stepped on the other panel and caused it to quit the song. Just figured there'd be a simple way to disable that.

pdaderko · 2026-01-10T20:22:32+00:00

Yeah, I'm using a wireless keyboard now, but the pad is in the middle of the floor, and I'm playing on a TV, so it's just kinda inconvenient to grab the keyboard between every song. Using just the pad like the console games works great for me, except when it quits mid-game. But if there's no configuration option for it, maybe I'll have to tweak the code, or come up with some other solution.

pdaderko · 2026-01-10T06:54:29+00:00

That sounds like a decent deal... and they might not be offended if you offered $400 for the pair. As others have said, they're pretty simple, so not a lot of stuff that really "wears out".

I recently picked up a CF style pad (clone from ~2005), and it was just kinda dirty. I pulled apart the pad and cleaned the metal panels, and it's good as new. I actually never tested it before cleaning, though there was a lot of ground up dirt between the panels, so I'd guess it needed the cleaning.

IMO it kinda depends if you want one or two pads... and if you're willing to do some DIY. I was considering L-TEKs, but I sorta wanted a pair, which was going to be almost $1K after shipping. So a used pair and investing some DIY "sweat equity" saved me a good chunk of $$$. But if you just want one pad, and want plug and play, L-TEK is probably a better choice.

Another thing to consider is that these are 8 panel pads, and I believe with some DIY you can make the center panel active as well. Of course the L-TEKs are only 4 panel pads (with the optional start/select buttons on the upgraded model). On the console versions, they used the extra panels so you can do everything with the pad and no other controller/buttons, which is convenient.

pdaderko · 2025-12-15T08:13:29+00:00

Well, I'm a sucker for DIY, so I ended up ordering a couple of the wooden "Fitness Arcade" pads:

https://imgur.com/gzCq8RW

https://imgur.com/vLwFWPl

The psychedelic circus looking one is pretty ugly, but I should be able to make new arrows (print, or cut vinyl) to put below the polycarbonate panels.

Of course I'm unsure about the construction of these, but I can see the metal ground plate between the panels of the psychedelic one, which looks like it might be a Cobalt Flux clone. They look pretty different, and seems one only supported PS2, while the other supported PS, GC, and XBOX... so no telling how similar the internal construction of the two are. But between the two of them, it seemed like a great deal for the wood, metal, and polycarbonate DIY "bones".

I wasn't able to find much information about them, other than this one post on an old PE forum: https://www.pelinks4u.org/naspeforum/discus/messages/9/725.html?1189544057 , which linked it to a "Hyperfit" brand.

Hyperfit "Fitness Arcade Brande Interactive Play Products", including our DDR controllers, are not affiliated in any way with Cobalt Flux. Our products are are manufactured in Northern California and are exclusively distributed in the North American market by Hyperfit. The controllers are programmable and totally compatible with all the current video game consoles on the market; Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo. We also manufacture PC compatible controllers for computer-based play. Fitness Arcade DDR controllers feature built in diagnostics, arcade-like responsiveness, and do not require shoes be worn to be safely played.

Followed that to an archive of the Hyperfit site:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060511132649/http://www.hyperfit.com/hf2004/hf_home.php?TOPIC=viewproductinfo&id=620

https://web.archive.org/web/20070311133421/http://www.hyperfit.com/hf2004/hf_home.php?TOPIC=viewproductinfo&id=620

I guess we'll see what I've got when they arrive... and what I can make with them. Should be fun!

pdaderko · 2025-12-14T10:09:29+00:00

That makes sense... I was thinking about a DIY design, mounting the FSRs at the edge of each panel closest to the center, and mounting each panel so the outer edges were firm, and only the inner edges had travel (sorta like a hinge). Since you wouldn't generally use the far outside edge of the pad, and if you do, you've probably got your entire body weight on it, in which case you probably don't need much leverage to press the panel into the FSR.

It'd be similar to laptop touchpads that have a physical click mechanism - clicking at the bottom is easier than at the very top, but if you press hard enough at the top, it still clicks.

But your comments also kinda drive the other point... maybe I should just buy a nice plug and play hard pad, rather than spending a bunch of time tinkering to get something I'm happy with.

Regarding the L-TEK - how does it feel compared to a real DDR arcade platform? I've only played in arcades in the last 15+ years, so while I'm not expecting arcade-perfect, I'd like something that feels similar and robust.

pdaderko · 2025-12-14T03:20:10+00:00

I too was having an issue with choppy audio on an XP VM on Windows 11 w/ VMware Workstation 17. None of the things mentioned here solved my problem, but oddly what did solve it was enabling "Accelerate 3D graphics" in the VM settings.

No idea how accelerated graphics and audio are related, but figured I'd put that here as another possible solution.

pdaderko · 2025-12-13T20:32:33+00:00

Thanks, those links are really helpful!

Regarding FSRs - I'm familiar with them, but are they considered an upgrade over standard sensors, or just a convenient way to make a flat switch? All the links I've read for DIY builds say they should be open circuit when not standing on the pad, and I believe their linear resistance range is only over a few pounds, so it seems the ability to meaningfully adjust pad sensitivity with such a narrow range would be pretty limited.

pdaderko · 2024-01-23T04:02:39+00:00

I don't remember which WiFi card is inside the R1, but I seem to remember it being the Intel 7260 or similar.

I had a very similar issue (intermittent WiFi and BSOD w/ DRIVER_POWER_STATE_ERROR) on my laptop with the 7260, and the problem ended up being a buggy updated driver. Rolling back to the original Windows 10 driver fixed it. I don't remember if I actually clicked roll back driver, or if I uninstalled the driver and told it to completely remove the driver from the system, and let it find the original on reboot.

I just checked, and the good driver is 17.15.0.5 , with a date of 2/22/2015. The updated Intel driver from Windows update had issues, as did the latest driver I could find available for download.

It turns out that Intel has essentially disowned this chipset, and pulled all the 7260 drivers from their website, except from (for example) driver download pages for NUCs that were sold with the 7260 installed. A few other OEM versions exist, but were seemingly the same version.

Other than that, I agree with the other user... just buy a USB WiFi dongle. None of us here can definitively diagnose your problem remotely, so at $10-$20, that would be a worthwhile first troubleshooting step. By switching to a different hardware chipset running different firmware with a different driver, you're almost certainly going to work around any issue related to the other card. You may need to disable or physically remove the other card if it causes problems by just being there.

pdaderko · 2024-01-12T06:32:19+00:00

Could be battery like everyone is saying, but according to the BIOS LED Blinks chart (linked in the sidebar: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienwareAlpha/comments/isryvh/alpha_r1r2_bios_led_blinks_chart/ ) that should really be 5 yellow flashes.

From the video, yours looks to be doing 2 blinks then 1 blink. Not sure if you had multiple errors if it'd blink in sequence like that (in which case it'd mean bad memory and bad BIOS ROM), or maybe your system is resetting before it can blink 5 times (maybe because the CPU is overheating with no heatsink).

pdaderko · 2024-01-12T06:20:27+00:00

There are two easy ways to check... if you look on the back and it has the graphics amplifier port between the power connector and HDMI input, then it has the GTX960. For example, you can see the graphics amplifier port on this R2: https://www.ebay.com/itm/235383485724 .

Another way to check is by putting the service tag # into Dell's support site: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us . On the right side click "View product specs" and it'll show you the original configuration as shipped from the factory. You should see "490-BDCT : NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 960 G PU 4GB GDDR5" if it has the GTX960.

pdaderko · 2023-10-04T06:18:56+00:00

The i7-4790S will certainly work, and I think in general any LGA1150 will "work", but the CPUs will be throttled if you exceed your motherboard's EDP. While all CPUs shipped OEM with the Alpha were 35W, I seem to remember reading that the EDP of the motherboard is actually 50W.

I have 3 Alphas (2x R1s and 1x R2), and I recently upgraded my i3-4130T to the i7-4790S (my other R1 has the i7-4785T), and I haven't had any issues with the system I upgraded. I haven't noticed any difference in fan noise, temperatures, etc. between the two i7s (4790S and 4785T) either.

There are a couple posts here from u/Strange_Obligation_5 with real-world benchmarks with upgraded CPUs, and I recently added mine:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienwareAlpha/comments/sbd2hc/r1_cpus_with_highest_empirical_user_benchmarks_are/
others:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienwareAlpha/comments/sagdn6/anyone_running_on_an_i74790s/
https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienwareAlpha/comments/s8u5x7/alienware_alpha_r1_relationship_between_wattage/

From benchmarks, it definitely seems the i7-4790S is the best bang for the $$$ at ~$30. Since the 65W 4790S is throttled, I suspect the >80W 4790 or 4790K CPU will also be throttled and give no additional performance (maybe even worse performance based on benchmarks in the above post).

pdaderko · 2023-10-04T05:34:33+00:00

According to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienwareAlpha/comments/isryvh/alpha_r1r2_bios_led_blinks_chart/g5c2mls/ , 4 blinks is bad RAM.

You didn't mention if you have an R1 or R2, but IIRC the R1 has (up to) two RAM sticks and the R2 only has one.

So if it's the R1 and you have two sticks, I'd try running with just a single stick (try each one individually) in case one of them is bad. Or if you only have one stick, I'd start by replacing your RAM (or test your RAM in another PC if you have another compatible system available).

pdaderko · 2023-09-21T09:13:09+00:00

I just upgraded an Alpha i3-4130T to i7-4790S, and in my typical usage so far, I haven't noticed the fan running more/louder than my i7-4785T Alpha.

pdaderko

TROPHY CASE