dance dance revolution

Those who prefer the comfort and proximity of their own living rooms to the gym have good news today: so-called exergames can indeed result in elevated energy expenditures, often above that achieved walking 3 miles an hour on a treadmill.

Bruce W. Bailey, a researcher at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and Kyle McInnis of the University of Massachusetts in Boston studied the effects of six forms of exergaming--interactive "gaming activities that feature player movement"--on 39 middle school boys and girls. They assessed energy expenditure throughout 10 minutes of play followed by 5 minutes of … Read more

Video games have been around long enough now that we can see a new trend developing--gamer parents. These parents have been playing games themselves for years, and look forward to playing games with their kids as a way to spend time together as a family.

The new "Ask GamerDad" column on the video game guide side What They Play brings this perspective to video game reviews and advice. Whether or not you are a gamer parent yourself, this point of view can be another useful resource when considering games for your kids.

In this week's column, "… Read more

One of my former neighbors, the Captain, recently informed his sons that he intends to spend their inheritance. His eldest son, who's about my age, helped him with this task by installing a state of the art multiroom digital music system in the Captain's house.

This weekend, I went to the Captain's annual block party, and while I've seen the Sonos system demonstrated at the last couple Consumer Electronics Shows, this was the first time I've seen it in action. My friend kept the set-up fairly simple, with only two zones: Upstairs encompasses the living … Read more

Those schools that are using Dance Dance Revolution to get their kids into shape aren't the only ones who've found a great use for the game, but it's doubtful Dance Dance Immolation will ever make it to a gymnasium near you.

Created by Interpretive Arson, a fire-art group from Oakland, Calif., Dance Dance Immolation uses a freeware version of DDR melded to pilot lights, gallons of propane, and heat-resistant proximity suits. Instead of losing points, though, a single misstep gets you shot in the face with fire.

Originally developed by three friends--Jonathan Shekter, Ian Baker, and Matt Blackwell--Crispix is the name for their hacked version of open-source StepMania (download for Windows or Mac), a freeware adaptation of Dance Dance Revolution that forms the brain of Dance Dance Immolation. StepMania is not only open source, it's also multiplatform. So why was it built on a Windows XP machine?

… Read more

The theme for today is flames. We've got pictures of a creative adaptation of Dance Dance Revolution, combining its complicated steps with the added punishment of an inferno in your face. It looks hard and scary! We also have photos of the Nokia N76, a sleek and shiny red phone. Plus, there's the HTC Touch, a phone that could fan the flames of the red-hot discussion surrounding the iPhone's June 29 release. Burn, baby, burn.

Photos: Dance Dance Immolation

At a warehouse in Oakland, Calif., Saturday night, video gamers get shot in the face with fire--but it … Read more

Saturday night in Oakland. What's a team of highly trained, well-funded engineers to do? They like dorky video games and they like blowing things up for fun. "Hey, I know!" one says to the other, "We'll make a game where you blow stuff up!" "Naw," replies the other, "Let's make the game blow up the player!"

And three years later... the result, which must be seen to believed, is Dance Dance Immolation, based on a popular arcade game with a similar name. Click on the image of the lady … Read more

Even though our resident "DDR" expert has the day off, Crave remains dedicated to giving you all the news about Dance Dance Revolution whenever we can. (Especially if we don't have to exert ourselves physically to try it out.)

That's why the "USB Finger Dance Mat" is our kind of DDR product, as it doesn't require us to leave the chair to participate. In fact, we must stay in the chair, or at least close enough to a USB port, because "instead of using your feet to follow the lights you use your fingers … Read more

Okay, I might like Dance Dance Revolution, but I'm not this hardcore about it by any means. Nevertheless, apparently some people are. JustDDR.com is selling a souped-up DDR deck called the "Metal Pad DDR Platinum Pro." The foot pads on this luxe dance machine are made of stainless steel, so that you can bring your home arcade a major notch above the norm. The pricing information is in Japanese, so I'm not positive how much it costs, but I'm sure it ain't cheap.

Now that's heavy metal.

(Via Red Ferret)

I have some friends who like to make fun of me because I totally dig Dance Dance Revolution. Okay, I have a lot of friends who make fun of me for it. But considering I have never played World of Warcraft, I don't know any kind of programming languages, and I have never seen an episode of Star Trek, I need to have some other way to express my inner geek. Hence, DDR. Which is why I was totally pumped to read on Gizmodo that somebody has put up an extensive tutorial for how to make your own DDR deck, … Read more