Cars Trucks

First Things First Dance Dance RevolutionChoose your song wisely. Look at the number of “feet”

displayed on a scale of 1 to 10 at the bottom of the screen. The higher number of

“feet” the harder the song will be.

Recognize that different songs have various BPM (beats per minute). The higher the

BPM, the faster (and thus potentially harder) the song will be. Determine what

speed you are the best at. Some songs change BPM during the course of play. All of

these factors are displayed on the screen where you select songs.

Vary your selection. If you pick the same song every time, it usually annoys other

players. Only do this if you’re brand-new to the game. To really improve once you

start playing Light (yellow) and Standard (Pink) difficulty, you should play a

larger variety of songs to learn new patterns.

Use your knees to bounce with the character on the screen, or as the lights flash

on the machine. Once you’ve gotten that down and you’ve moved to Light, you can

begin to actually dance along with the beat before you finalize your song

selection.

Don’t return to the middle! This is very important. The tutorial shows the

character standing on the middle (metal) platform, but to play any song harder than

about 3 feet, your “ready” stance should stand mainly on the Left and Right arrows.

The game does NOT penalize you for stepping on an arrow if there isn’t one on the

screen; with this posture you’ll be much more prepared for the arrow patterns. Learn to shift your weight as you step. For instance, suppose you are given the

steps “Right Right Right.” The best way to do this is to keep your weight on your

left foot, while tapping the right button three times with your right foot. This

avoids the common beginner mistake of shifting one’s weight onto the right foot

after the first step, causing one to have to hop to hit the right button again, and

often throwing one off balance. Similarly, suppose one is given the steps “Right

Left Right.” This is best done by “walking” on the arrows, shifting your weight to

each step as you hit it. This avoids the mistake of keeping your weight on the

right arrow the whole time, which would make it easy to tap the left button but

would force you to hop to hit the last right button. So if you were given “Right

Right Left Left Right” and you started with your weight on your left foot, you

should do the following: tap the right arrow, step on the right arrow (shift

weight), tap the left arrow, step on the left arrow (shift weight), and step on the

right arrow. Most of the beginner songs consist of steps that can be done by some

combination of “walking” from arrow to arrow, and tapping an arrow if that step is

repeated, and these are the techniques you need to learn before you can do harder

songs.

While other people are using the machine, if there’s space for you, try to copy the

steps they’re doing. This will let you get practice without spending any money (or

worrying about failing a song)!

Getting Warmed Up

Use speed multipliers. Hold down the main button when you select your song, and an

options screen will be displayed. If you like your songs fast, do 2X. If you like

your songs average/fast, do 1.5X. Some players frown on speed mods just as some

players frown on using the bar for support. It is important to remember that speed

mods and the bar are there for your assistance; try not to use them but don’t make

yourself suffer.

Learn the difference between the steps. 1/8 Steps are twice as fast as the “normal”

beat of the song. (Say to yourself, “one and two and three and four and…”) A

common step pattern on Standard are three notes at double speed. (Think, “one and

two,” “three and four.”) You’ll definitely need to be off the middle of the pad to

get these steps (see #5 above). Try to listen to and use the rhythm of the song,

and gradually you’ll master it.

Work on mastering 1/16th notes. These are even faster than 1/8th notes and are

usually packed tightly together on the screen. Using Speed Multipliers to spread

them out will greatly help your ability to “read” their rhythm. (A straight run of

1/16th notes is counted “ONE-ie and ah TWO-ie and ah THREE-ie and ah FOUR-ie and

ah,” although you’ll rarely see this pattern on Standard. Usually, what appears are

groups of three 1/16th notes in a row. Count this pattern as, “ONE-ie and, TWO-ie

and,” etc.

Crossovers are steps where you either have to turn your body sideways or cross one

leg over the other to successfully “walk” along the steps. For instance, if you

must hit “Left Down Right Down Left Down Right Down Left …” then you should

switch feet, using your left foot to hit the left and right arrows and your right

foot to hit the down arrow (or vice versa). This will require either crossing your

legs or turning your whole body 90 degrees to the right (making the steps analogous

to “Down Right Up Right Down Right Up Right Down…”). Crossovers are the first of

the more sophisticated stances.

Galloping is where you well…gallop. It’s rather like skipping forward. These are

technically 1/16th notes, grouped 2 at a time. (Think, “ONE, ah TWO, ah THREE, ah

FOUR.” You only have to step on the beat and the “ah”, like “RIGHT - - Right LEFT -

- Left RIGHT …”) *** You jump in the air and once you land one foot, you land the

other on the opposite arrow immediately afterward. TSUGARU APPLE MIX is a great

song to master this. (DDR Extreme version only.)

Sometimes it’s hard to see gallops in the middle of a stream of arrows. Using speed

mods will make them easier to read, as will changing the noteskin to solo. The home

version also has an option to use different colored noteskins, called Type2. These

different colors making picking out gallops trivial.

EXPERTS OnlyProgress to even harder songs. Once you’re comfortable with a lot of

Standard-difficulty songs, start doing some 6-foot Heavy songs. As you master the

new moves that are required, you’ll be able to move your way up to 8 footers, to 9,

and then 10 eventually.

On really hard songs, using the bar behind you to balance can help a lot. However,

most DDR players frown on this as a crutch. For Beginner, Light, and Standard, this

really isn’t required.

For your final song, try a hard song that you might not normally be able to finish.

If you keep doing that, you will eventually be able to finish a new song, and

increase your repertoire!

Try to learn some of the most complicated step patterns that you can do while

“walking”, or always switching feet. The song Rhythm and Police (4th mix) is an

excellent one to learn slowly and work up - it contains most of the complicated

step patterns that require no more than crossovers. The song Afronova (3rd Mix) is

good for teaching more complicated stances, such as having to turn 90 degrees to

the left to be able to hit “Left Up Right Left Down Right Left Up Right Left Down

Right…”

Learn to use your heel as well as the ball of your foot. This technique is

sometimes called playing flat footed. For instance, have the ball of your right

foot on up, and the heel of your right foot on right. Now, assume you have the step

pattern Up-Left-Right. Hit up with the ball of your right foot, left with whatever

part of your left foot is easiest, and right with the heel of your foot. Since you

move your feet a shorter distance, you expend less energy and move more quickly.

Challenge yourself. The only way you can get better is if you consistently attempt

more challenging songs and levels. Always play songs that are hard (like 1 foot

above your normal level) so you can get better at it and eventually jump up to the

next foot.

For extra practice, buy the home version game for Xbox or PS2. This will also save

your hard-earned money- if you fail a song, you didnt just waste a buck! It’ll pay

for itself over time.

Don’t be afraid to ask other players for advice. Most DDR players are nerdy and

love helping out others to show off their amazing prowess at the game!

When Playing Dance Dance Revolution, use the arrows as a guide, and sometimes let

your own intuition tell you when to step on the arrows according to the beat of the

music. If you try to just time when the arrows reach the top, you’ll never develop

an enjoyable beat or be able to master the tricky rhythms that are in difficult

Standard and Heavy songs. Instead, lead the arrows as they move up the screen. Where the judgement (”Great”, “Perfect”, “Miss”, etc) appears is typically a good

place to look.

On faster songs, try to lead the arrows, looking about half-way between the bottom

of the screen where the arrows originate and the top where the step arrows are.

This will teach you to predict based on the BPM of the song rather than on visual

cues. This is a key concept.

If you are uncomfortable playing by yourself, bring a friend.

90 degree turns vs double steps: When there are LUR, LDR, RUL, or RDL combos, there

are two ways to do them: (1) use the relative foot (i.e. left foot for left pad and

right foot for right pad) for the first step and your other for the other two while

your weight is on your first foot. This is used when you can move your legs fast

enough to get the last two with one leg, but usually isn’t used by experts. This

turns out as L(L)-U(R)-R(R) (2) Use the opposite foot for the first step (ie left

foot to right pad or right foot to left pad) and alternate feet for the other two.

This ends up as L(R)-U(L)-R(R).

Do not fall! As stupid as it sounds, I have seen people fall before because they

couldn’t balance on a machine. It is highly embarassing.

Make sure the socks you wear for the basic home-version pads won’t cause you to

slip. Sweat can also complicate the pad’s surface. Always use common sense, and be careful not to disturb others around you!

Just like swimming, don’t play DDR for about an hour after you eat or drink, unless

it’s a light snack or hydrating liquid (see below).

When purchasing anything on eBay, not just DVDs, you must include the

shipping and handling fees into the total cost of the item. I

once purchased a set of knives for $1.00, then paid $18.00 to have them

shipped. I could have purchased the same set for $12.98 at my

local Target store. The same thing applies for DVDs.

There is a recent trend in the DVD sales, and that is to list the item

at an extremely low price, and then add a large shipping price.

This is a problem for both sellers and buyers. Buyers are lured

into purchasing your item because they think they are getting a great

deal. The problem for the seller is when the item is shipped and

the buyer is upset at the $10 charge for a single DVD to be shipped,

ultimately leading to a negative feedback being left for the seller.

Buyers need to be aware of this tactic and to make sure they take the

shipping and handling costs into account when looking at their total

cost of their item. Bottom line is that a $10 DVD with $5 for

shipping is no different than the same item selling for $5 with a $10

shipping price. Don’t just jump on the lower listed price because

it’s low because in the end, you agreed to pay the seller that price,

and really can’t complain. Make sure you check everyone

selling. Who knows, maybe you can find someone selling it for

$8.00 with only $3.00 shipping.

As for “fair” shipping prices. Buyers need to keep in mind that

shipping prices are *NOT* just the cost of postage alone. It

include postage, packing materials (boxes, envelopes, bubble wrap,

peanuts, etc), label, ink, etc, fuel, and most importantly…

time. Contrary to belief it does not take 5 seconds to pack a

DVD. By the time I gather the material, pack it, weigh it, enter

the address, and print the label, it may be several minutes. Then

there is the trip to the post office. If a post office is a 20

minute drive then that is 40 minutes of driving, plus loading and

unloading time, and any time spent in the line at the post

office. Lets not forget the gas for the gas guzzling SUVs people

have to drive to put everything into. With gas prices nearing

$3.00/gallon, everything adds up.

Now let’s add International into the mix. I am sorry Canadians,

but you *ARE* considered International customers for US sellers.

The postage may be cheaper than sending to Germany, but there is no

less paperwork and time involved in sending packages. Please try

to keep that in mind.

My son ALWAYS wanted to pick a theme for his birthday that nobody made party supplies for! My husband and I are both artistic and creative thinkers, so we enjoyed the challenge every year.

For his eighth birthday, Jake wanted a MARIO themed party, since he was getting Super Mario Sunshine as a present.

Party supplies: I searched the web for Mario graphics and printed labels on stickers for each plastic cup. I got red plates and transparent plates, printed Mario graphics and glued them on to the red plates and then glued the clear plastic plates over that! We used a red tablecloth, yellow napkins, and blue cups.

Decorations: My husband HAND DREW giant Mario characters on poster boards and we cut them out and put them up all over the walls. If you can’t draw, printing out some 8×10 graphics would be just as good.

In SMS there are “Poinks” - pink piggy things you fill with water and pop over enemies - does that sound like balloons to you? We got pink balloons and used construction paper and glue sticks to add eyes, curly tails and pig snouts - and viola! Poink Balloons!

In every Mario game there are eight red coins to collect on each level, so I used red plastic cake plates and hung them in a zig zag pattern on my ceiling, making sure to number them like the red coins are numbered. On the other side I printed out a small sign that said “Jake is Eight”. It looked like a Mario Level hanging above our heads!

Grab bag items: I bought all sorts of Mario candies from Gamestop - pez and little GameCubes that played music. I went to the craft store and got styrofoam eggs and hand-painted them to look like Yoshi eggs. From Avon I found Mario and Yoshi plush zipper pulls! The biggest hit were red baseball caps that my sister embroidered big M’s on for all the kids! They looked awesome!

Food: We served Pizza (of course!) and Luigi’s Real Italian Ice (instead of ice cream) and I made 3 different gallons of Kool-Aid and labeled them “Yoshi Juice” - the kids went nuts!

My best friend who is a pastry chef made the cake - she used a large round cake and several “wedge” shaped peices along with cupcakes to reproduce a SHINE SPRITE, which is sort of shaped like a sherriff’s badge, except it’s yellow with eyes.

Activities: Since SMS is a water based game, we bought water guns and let the kids have shoot outs in the back yard. If I’d had a little extra time, it would have been nice to paint some Mario enemies on wooden signs and put them all around the yard as targets!

With a little creativity, these ideas can be adapted to fit any Mario game and would make a small child’s birthday party the most memorable one yet!

This scam is designed to obtain the username and password of unsuspecting eBay members.

The scammer sends you an email that appears to come from eBay, it actually looks incredibly authentic and even eBay Customer Service Representatives have been surprised by it.

This is what the message looks like I have removed names and item numbers for obvious reasons but a proper username is usually given. Of course there is also no link in my image.

Sorry this image is disjointed, I had to break it into parts in order to be able to post it here.

IGNORE THE MESSAGE DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IT WILL TAKE YOU TO A FALSE EBAY WEBSITE

Forward the offending email to eBay and just forget all about it. The scammer does not know you, these are always random.

If you have found this guide useful please help others to see it by clicking the YES button below. Your vote is for this guide alone and not for all of the guides I have written.

I have both the XBOX 360 and the Playstation 3 and this is my review of them.

PS3

Pros

Sixaxis Controller( The sixaxis has the ability too sense Pulls, Trusts and Tilts allowing the player to get more into the game, You also dont need to waste your time or money on other batteries because the sixaxis controler just plugs into the ps3 system to recharge)

Hard Drive ( There is a hard drive in every system made making it able to install parts of some games onto the hard drive, making some games load much faster)

Blue-Ray ( Blue-Ray disks can hold up to 50 gb and possibily in the future 200gb allowing massive amounts of data onto the disks, compared to the 9gbs that a regular dvd can hold)

HDMI ( All PS3 systems have a HDMI output allowing you to plug it into your 720i, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p televisions. Note: If you are playing on a standard TV(470i) you are not getting 70% of the graphics you would get on a 1080p.)

It has only a 0.2% failure rate

You can get the PS3 in a sleek and shiny black or white.

Network ( The Playstation Network is completly free and will soon have a trophy system along with a virtual world called Home)

The Power on and eject buttons are touch like the ipod scroll wheel.

You can put the LINUX operating system on it and make it look like a computer

Games ( There are many great exclusive games out already or coming out for the ps3. I will name a few) Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, Uncharted Drakes Fortune, Haze, Unreal Tounament III, Heavenly Sword, God of War 3, Resitance: Fall of Man, Resistance 2 and more.

You can run it for a extremly long time without any problems( go to google and type in “how to kill a ps3″, the guys over at ps3vault did a test on it)

Cons

Its pretty expensive ( It is the most expensive system to buy, but the price keeps on dropping)

It only has 256mb of memory ( This is not how much hard drive space is on the ps3)

It can scratch really easy.

It somtimes get junky ports from the xbox 360.

The 40gb version cant play PS2 games, but thats why its cheaper

The controller is too light but will probably be a little heavier when “dualshock 3″ comes out

It has a quite a bit of heat coming out of it.

XBOX 360

Pros

It has great exclusive games that are coming out or already out like Gears of War, Halo 3, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Fable2 and more.

It has 512mb of memory(double of what is on the PS3)

Bill Gates has alot of money and can easily pick up developers to make games exclusive for his system.

The controllers are pretty cool looking and feels good in your hands.

Xbox Live

The over all look of the 360 is pretty nice.

You can change the faceplates.

Its been out a year longer than any other next gen systems

Cons

It has a 16% failure rate

Not every system has a hard drive. Limiting developers possibilities.

The 360’s game disks can only hold up to 9gb

The power supply is almost the size of a brick and you will need to find a place to hide this, but not in a tight space because it could overheat

You have to buy the HD-DVD player seperate if you want to watch HD-DVD’s, but now that HD-DVD is cancelled its kind of usless.

It has the old kind of disk drive unlike the PS3 and Wii

The controller is pretty heavy.

It is very loud when you run it over about 20 minutes, but it doesnt matter if you have your sound cranked.

It could probably heat your room when its cold.

The “360 elite” is a bit expensive for pretty much just a bigger harddrive, a new cord, and a different color.

Xbox Live costs money. About $59.99 a year. They also try to get money out of you by making you pay for some game add ons.

Nintendo Wii

Pros

Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and can detect acceleration ( connected wirelessly via bluetooth)

Smallest system ever

Backwards compatible with gamecube ( though you need to use a game cube controller for a gamecube game)

New slot disk drive like PS3

The system makes no sound

Good exclusive games like The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Smash Brothers

Downloadable games

Cheapest system

Cons

Wii is roughly 1.5 to 2 times as powerful as its predecessor meaning that the graphics are not even close to as good as the 360 and PS3. It has PS2 like graphics

Cant play dvds

Cant store music or movies on it

Not very many good 3rd party games

Has more childish games than anything else