How's the overall arcade scene doing down there?

I can't speak for all of Oregon, only Portland-Metro (the important part ).  There's an okay amount of players around here.  On half-price Wednesdays I go to Big Al's, Beaverton and there are usually 5-6 different people playing Pump It Up (and some of them play DDR).  I have a handful of friends that are sorta flakey with going and playing and get caught up with school, work, etc but there are still always at least 5-6 players at Al's on Wednesdays. 

Recently I started driving up to Big Al's, Vancouver every Saturday and playing with the crowd up there. Last Saturday there were 8-9 different people playing from 6pm-midnight.  Since I have to drive from Beaverton to Vancouver, I'm willing to carpool/give rides to people that live around Beaverton/Portland...mainly because I don't want the dance game community to get any smaller.

One other new development is that people have started playing ITG at the Lloyd Center TILT! on Fridays.  The screen is no longer purple and the pads are in decent-enough condition. Last week players from Vancouver actually came and met up for ITG.

One other thing that I forgot to mention. I now own an DDR 3rdmix+ > ITG2 upgradicab, it's in a carpeted part of my garage.  I'm in the process of fixing/cleaning it up (and will probably make a separate thread about it later) but my intent is to eventually hold meet ups 1 or 2 sundays a month for players to free-play/compete/etc.

Pics of the boxor are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150167164962314.297768.500922313&l=114f6459c7&type=1

It should probably be ready for play within a month.

Also, if anyone is interested in carpooling to Vancouver Big Al's on the weekends, or wants to know when people are playing...feel freee to add me on facebook http://facebook.com/marxu

I haven't touched Springfield's ITG2 machine in a year basically. I haven't had time, especially with moving, graduation, job searching, weight lifting and a renewed interest in Street Fighter.

I went the other day and the machine's gone.

I have been practicing a LOT at home and have become a very good DDR player, singles and doubles, and I have been looking for an arcade for new songs to play. So I went to Lazer Planet in Gresham some time ago, but the condition of the pads therewas horrible. I think this and the fact that people can play DDR at home is the reason why there aren't many DDR players in arcades nowadays. I want to go to Lazer Planet again, but I'm so disappointed so far.

@marx! I live too far away to go to Big Al's or TILT, and with school and everything, I will not be able to play on a regular basis. 

That being said, I propose that everyone should petition to bring new and improved DDR machines to our arcades or at least contact the managers about this situation we have right now. I think it is reasonable for us to have a voice in the matter.  BRING DDR BACK!

Yes, last time I went to Lazer Planet in Gresham was about a year ago, they had a Supernova II machine.  The condition of the pads was deplorable and the machine was positioned right underneath fluorescent lights (making the screen near-impossible to see).  Dance games around Oregon seem to be disappearing more and more, which makes me sad, but also happy to live at least near the Portland area.

This makes me sad.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050405181504/http://ddrinfinity.homelinux.com/archive/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=7b0322057354ba855c5892651b3cf5ec

I think the decline in activity has happened everywhere across America. I don't care if people think I'm pessimistic, 2003-2005 were definitely golden years for us dance gamers.

I'd say it was more like 2000-2002 for the PNW community.

Yay, this is becoming just like the thread that eventually started PNWBemani

And let's face it; there's more to life than dancey foot games.

I was introduced to DDR when I was a small kid (around 2001?), but did not become dedicated to it as part of my exercise routine until a year or two ago. Before then, I only played sporadically, but I slowly improved over time and slowly realized how much fun a workout can be. That may be, but to me, they are still the best arcade games around and still the best form of exercise. I am glad to have DDR in my life, but without a decent arcade and friends to play with yet, I am sad that I did not get actively involved in the community sooner.

Word. The community is definitely the driving force behind most of our participation. That's why, even though I have a machine in my garage, it's still not as awesome as getting out and playing with people at your favorite arcade.

Except this thread isn't on a crappy sub-forum of a poor forum system.

im still here... alone... in klamath falls :C

Oregon is just a symptom of the entire nation as a whole. Get ready for the end! We're all gonna fade away into nothingness!

What is DDR? That game sounds lame

I'm DDR lol. Have you ever seen the initals to my name??? Pretty awesome stuff

southern oregon is completely dead

Portland now has an active ITG community of about 15 people that meet up every Friday. Thank god for home owned machines.

Pfffft i wish people here cared about popn or pump :/

I can barely get people to play ddr

I wish I knew the people who bought the Springfield Machine. I'm kind of surprised they are not on these boards.

I'm surprised, too. This board is where all the cool kids hang out.