Sorry you and Sara had your arrow smashing dreams tarnished when you went yesterday.  Thanks Sara for reporting the issue.  I owe you free credits, remind me when you see me.

Bill, please than your maintenance team for us   You too, of course

Was there a resolution on the broken pop'n button?  I haven't gone there since putting in that call so I was just curious

New button and several switches were put in pop N.  Hoping all good!

Played today, working like a charm! Thanks a lot Bill!

Thank you so much!  It is so wonderful to have such great technicians working on the machine.  You're our hero!  =)

No free credits necessary, I was just doing my noble job to the community.  *hands on hips*  But I am a poor college student, so woohoo!! =p

Can we get some double for one credit on the DDR? Supernova 2 has that option.

i would love that too

ITG works great. Pop'n is also pretty good. Drummania has a really weak cymbal and the bass pedal is kind of clunky. That's my status report for today.

Actually, there's one other thing that kind of bothered me. The Maximum Tune cabinet second from the right absolutely ruined my card with data accumulated over $300 worth of playing on it. Luckily it still works, but the printer in the machine just threw down a big ol' smudge of ink right over the whole space where the play data is printed on the card making it completely illegible. Additionally, the machine lagged out and was unresponsive about halfway through my race. It then recovered, upon which I found my card in that condition. I then tried it in the cabinet second on the left, which didn't freeze but still left a kind of nasty smudge all over my card. Oh well, at least it works. It's due to expire again in about 15 games so I'll just transfer my data over to a new card. Still, I can imagine people getting really pissed about that sort of thing. I noticed that over on the Wangan Expressway forums, Acme's machines are listed as "in bad conditions". It's a shame to see the nearest machines to me in this state, especially when they're at Acme! Anyway, I'm sure the only reason they're not perfect is because some stupid MaxTune players never report anything ever.

Kevin, thanks for the report.   Time to service the card readers again.

We struggle with the card readers due to cards being "duped".  If you watch when some of the groups come in to play, you will see how they insert a card with scotch tape on it, and jerk the card out, push in a blank card, and duplicate the data.  They then get sold, traded, or whatever.  Makes keeping the card readers running a real chore!

Bill,
Do you want us to be watching for that kind of abuse on the machines and report it?

Personally I'm not a fan of a lot of those groups, they abuse your other machines in the arcade through rough use or leaving the controllers out of their holders after playing.  Not surprised to hear they abuse even the machines they actually "like" to play.

P.S> I think the cymbal on Drummania V3 is wearing down but could be just me.  Can anyone confirm?

The cymbal is indeed pretty bad. I had to really hit it pretty hard to get it to register. I didn't want to damage so I held off on playing any more games. I use very light sticks, but I still don't think it was anything like it should be. Additionally, both the hihat and the cymbal seemed like they could use some tightening of the under-pad screws.

Bill, thanks for checking into the card reader issue. I'd heard about duped cards before but never knew how it was done. Sounds like the people that play WMMT are generally a bunch of assholes if they do shit like that. I don't really know that community at all as I just tend to play on my own, but maybe it's better that way.

Looks like we need to give DM a love check.

As for the card duping on WMMT3, I think it's interestingly cool in some weird way.  the kids think they are getting away with something, but in effect, are promoting the game.  Everyone gets a faster car, and hence more fun and interest.  Yes, it causes a few problems, but hey, they are having fun which is what it's all about.  :-)

OK, as long as the benefits outweigh the costs.  And you know more about that than I do!

Okay, I went to play MT3 and ITG today. I know the techs didn't get a chance to head down there yet and check it out, but I thought a more detailed report might help:

1P: Crashed in the middle of a game. Reset and ejected my card. Card reader needs some work, too.
2P: Game was stuck on a "Card Jam" screen.
3P: When I was playing on the 4P cabinet, I watched the 3P machine lag out in the middle of a game just like yesterday. It's really strange! The audio cuts out as well. This machine has the worst card reader problem.
4P: Worked perfectly while I was there. It even reprinted my messed up card perfectly.

Hope this report helps!
ITG was great as usual.

I played some ITG yesterday night (saw a few d00ds with cards leave right when I jumped on) and it's amazing.  We don't have this in Spokane.

My wallet was stolen there unfortunately.  This is a far cry from working, but if you guys can keep out for a black leather wallet (Fossil brand) with the ID Jakob Rosman in it, that would be great.  That big security guy was pretty helpful.

Oh man, that sucks.    Acme unfortunately isn't the safest location to play at.

      I ran this by a few people who liked the idea and thought I'd throw it out there and see what people think. There basically isn't a really well maintained DDR Extreme machine anywhere near where Acme is, or in Seattle or anywhere. There are a couple around but they don't tend to be in really great condition and as I gather this is basically the most desirable mix to play. That being said, I would think an Extreme machine at Acme would be very well received (certainly by the people I've talked to). I also would like to note that there is already a well maintained SN2 machine in U-district, but none down further south.


      My suggestion is this: consider moving the SN2 machine at Acme to Narrows. Move Narrows' SuperNova machine to Daffodil Bowl, and Daffodil Bowl's perfect condition Extreme machine to Acme, assuming Daffodil's machine is still there (I haven't been there in a number of months. I also am only mostly sure this machine belongs to Bill. This swap would work fine with another Extreme machine's location as well obviously). This would effectively just change the Acme machine from SN2-> Extreme and upgrade the other 2 locations' cabinets.

What do you guys think? Want to see an Extreme machine at Acme? Bill, too much effort/otherwise infeasible to do so?

Maybe it's not a desirable or feasible change but thought I'd throw it out there Try to get us some So Deep and Rhythm and Police and the long list of other good songs Extreme has that SN2 doesn't.

So what say you guys? As I've surveyed, most people prefer Extreme over SN2; please chime in if this is or is specifically not the case.

I miss those songs...

Supernova has been getting a little repetitive lately for me, and I haven't played on an excellent quality extreme machine ever since they tore down Sunset Bowl near my place.

A big YES from me

I think it's a great idea. I'd really love to play Extreme at Acme.

It'd be nice to have. I miss Max2

Just an update though. Gameworks Extreme machine works just fine. Chris goes there like every other night. They also have a Supernova 2 machine now. Like a whole cabinet rather than upgrading the current supernova machine.
So I wouldn't call this place out for bad machines.

But other than that yes, if Extreme was at acme I would play it. A lot.

gameworks in seattle, evergreen in everett, tower lanes in tacoma all have great extremes

I'd argue that after a month it'll be as little-used as the other DDR's @ Acme. Every time I went, I was the only one from these forums who regularly seemed to use the DDR machines. Most of you guys would take turns playing ITG2 while I piddled away on Max2. Sure, noobs and random people love DDR, but they don't give a frick what mix it is.

My thoughts: Bill got rid of Max 2 for some reason, my guess is it wasn't earning it's keep. So far, many of you want Extreme here for songs that, as far as I can tell, are all found on Max 2. The old Max 2 machine worked just fine (I had multiple AAA's on it before it left), and aside from a bit of noise pollution, I was pleased. Between the Max2 and SuperNova, I don't think there weren't very many songs missed between the mixes. Yes, I'm sure there's a few, but not too many.

I'm not Bill, but if I were, I'd be rubbing my temples trying to understand you guys right now. You had Max2 and SN, which gave you a great mixture of old + new stuff. We later request SN2, which we get, and it seems to barely get played (I'm not there often because of how far away I live, but when I am, I'm the only one using it) and now you want Extreme. How long will it be until the Extreme just sits there unused? Two months? Three months? One year? If you guys seriously think you'll support it, that's one thing, but I think the majority of you go to Acme for ITG2. I don't want to see Bill go to so much trouble moving machines around just to make us happy, and we don't even keep interested a month later.

Btw, as people have noted, there are plenty of playable Extreme machines around, just not at Acme. I'm not trying to be a nay-saying dick. I just want those who're saying "yes plz" to really make sure they'll have the attention span to continue playing Extreme months from now, not just for 3 weeks.

As I recall it was because there were 3 dance games at Acme; he removed it because it wasnt earning its keep as a third machine, it probably would have earned its keep just fine if the SuperNova had been removed instead.
Indeed, there weren't, and it was great when both machines were here but essentially the *best* (in the general opinion of people) selection of songs for a single DDR machine was on Extreme and I would think Bill would want to keep it at the ITG and 1 other machine.
We requested SN2 because it's basically SN1 plus more songs plus marvelous timing (i.e. overall better I would think); max2 again was taken out because 3 machines wasnt cost effective. I wouldn't go thinking SN2 is unused at Acme though, there are a large number of players, especially those just getting comfortable with Heavy, who exclusively or primarily use the DDR machine. Also, especially when there is a line for ITG, we ITGers do indeed use the DDR machine (I myself play a set or two of DDR almost every time I go on top of my ITG, and would certainly play more if it were an Extreme) if nothing else than between sets.

This is the biggest concern of mine as well and certainly if in Bills experience it would be a waste then obviously it's not worth it, but I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't notice people wanted it at Acme.

Everett and Tacoma aren't near Acme and Gameworks has lots of issues that make it less desirable to play at (no parking, need game cards, no ITG machine only lots of DDR ones). I agree if it weren't going to be used for long than it wouldn't be worth it, but I really think this wouldn't be the case. Also, there are locations with good machines but only have that 1 machine. Extreme + ITG at one location would be the shit if it's feasible to do, better than any other combination of machines that I can think of.

Sorry don't mean to Gerrakspam this Again it's just a suggestion for consideration

If none of this works out the other quick solution to all of this is to bring DDR Extreme songs on your USB and play them on the ITG machine.

Interesting topic, keep it up and I will keep an eye on it.  DDR was removed as SN was beating it's pants off, but that was awhile back.

If an Extreme in the area of Acme is what people want, it's already there!  Not even 1 mile away, and only 3 minutes drive from Acme is our old Extreme at the Starfire Sports complex. 
Or if bikini's are also on your menu, hit up Wild Waves this summer.  Also an Extreme at the Browns Point Pizza, in Browns Point of course.  These are most Northward Extreme placements.  Many more around Tacoma and the Bremerton area, but sounds like you want to stay to the North.