Question(s) about dance machines

[BMHouze]

I have a guy I am doing a bit of work for.
His kids are putting the bug in his ear for a dance machine. Like dance dance revolution or similar.
I was at an arbitration in London yesterday and the hotel had one of these machines.
I tried to lift/move the 'dance floor' and it was either attached to the floor or heavy as sin.
I noticed the cabinet had side handles.
I also noted there were 2 usb ports on the machine.
Just wondering if the usb ports let you add your own music to keep the machine up to whatever is 'current' or 'popular'?
I would guess that you could add your own music to personalize the experience.
Though I would double check to be sure though.
Also if anyone out there has one (or more) of these machines. What should I be looking out for? and what obvious red flags (other than the monitor picture) should I advise this guy to look out for? Are some titles better (or easier to diagnose, fix, etc.) than others?

Thanks for the input
Brad

 

[Vengeance]

I have a DDR Extreme, my Wife bought it, we overpaid but at the time knew very little about where to find these things.

They are HEAVY! The pads are on wheels, and you just have to raise the casters off the floor to engage them, they should break apart into two separate pads with just a few screws and disconnecting a few connectors. But each pad weighs 250lbs and the cabinet/monitor weighs in at another whopping 500lbs. Dance machines are a beast to move so if you are going to try it yourself, you're going to need a few friends.

As for the software, the DDR Extreme I have can not be customized. These things are locked down pretty good from a software perspective, requiring an actual unlock card for the software to work. I'm not sure if there are versions of dance machines that you can use your own music, but the DDR series you cannot.

As for things to look for, these things are pretty beefy and are meant to take a beating, replacement parts are also readily available, but really outside of the sound/monitor you want to make sure the senors on the pads are in good shape and responsive. It should pickup the pressing of your foot on each of the sensors with very little force.

Hopefully this is helpful.

 

[cdnpinballer]

Adam do you use this thing as a workout machine like a treadmill? I ask because recently I went to the local cineplex not long ago and really got a good laugh when I saw these DDR 'people'.

These people (women and men) were in the cineplex arcade in full workout gear with water and sweat towels. They used the thing as a workout machine

I could not believe it.

 

[Vengeance]

Yea, you can build up quite a sweat pretty easy.

But no I don't use it for that, but I should

 

[REVOLUTION]

Honestly man, just tell them to buy an Xbox and one of these:

http://www.ddrgame.com/ddmuplsuseen.html

 

[TwilightZone]

Adam do you use this thing as a workout machine like a treadmill? I ask because recently I went to the local cineplex not long ago and really got a good laugh when I saw these DDR 'people'.

These people (women and men) were in the cineplex arcade in full workout gear with water and sweat towels. They used the thing as a workout machine

I could not believe it.

Serioulsy? What theatre? Next time take pics. LOL!

 

[cdnpinballer]

South Keys Cineplex.

I've been twice recently (in the last year) and both times same thing. I was laughing histerically with my wife.