Planning to go here tonight around 7pm with a friend or two.

Gotta see if Technika2 is any fun or not.

GameWorks.

It's tons of fun.

Well I had nice couple of chats with the lead tech Richard, and another cool one Ely. Long story short, they worked on the X2 pads a bit, and we got the 2nd unlock code on there! They're still bad but they ordered 32 new sensors for it, so hopefully it'll be playable for a little while after they install those. It's pretty much the fate of the Betson cab for DDRX and X2 though as theyre way worse and cheaper than the old cabinets.

In other news, the headphone jack was broken for a while in T2 but a new replacement mobo is on the way, and the Pop'n buttons are working great now. I'd like to see an ITG cab there someday too since the DDR presence is way over saturated there. If any of you guys feel this way too let em know! I think they'll seriously consider it there's enough demand for it, it could easily replace their SN1 since they have a good working SN2 there already IMO

Its good to know their lead tech and a couple other guys seem to genuinely care for people like us, and they deserve some credit considering all the other machines they have to maintain and fix as well. The story I got though is that some of the other techs are more lazy though, and probably the experience most of you all got when those guys work on pads and stuff there :/

There are plenty of ITG cabs in the area already.  Fiesta EX, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found.

If someone could mention to the techs about the faulty cymbal on DM 10th Mix and also about turning up the volume up a bit on DM and GF the next time they are there, that would be great.

Final unlock code for X2 is out now...

http://www.bemanistyle.com/index.php/news/dance-dance-revolution-x2-max-unlock-code-unintentionally-released-2238

Gameworks, being a heavily corporate group, is probably not that likely to pursue a game that can only be bought used and was produced by a now-defunct company.  Regardless of the techs' opinions, usually someone higher up the chain will see that as too risky a purchase - they might have gone for a used cabinet if there was still some kind of support you could get from Roxor (they passed support onto some other company after they settled with Konami, and that company no longer exists).  Even if they got a machine despite the risks they see there, they definitely wouldn't allow nonstandard content, since hacking the machine would be seen as risky, plus most of the custom content out there is copyrighted (so USB customs would not be enabled) - being a subsidiary of a pretty large company, they're visible enough that they actually have to worry about lawsuits.

Fiesta EX would be more appealing to them, since it's legal and currently supported.  It would be more welcome to serious players, too, since even if players really wanted to see more ITG in the area, Gameworks would not be a good place for it.

Then again, even when their machines were consistently better, Gameworks was always a terrible place for serious play.  No outside drinks (not sure how much they enforce this rule for water bottles, but a bottle would last me no more than two or three sets), no drinking fountain (so even if you had a bottle, you can't refill it), and the vending machine (if they still have one) was always jammed - unless you're old enough to go up to the bar and wait for the half a dozen people in front of you, you can't get water.  Pump and ITG would be very impractical games - at least for me - under these conditions.

There's a drinking fountain by the upstairs bathrooms.
Also they check for water bottles? I guess they never cared to notice for the 2 years I played DDR there heavily.

Never tried bringing a water bottle, since one would never hold enough water to matter for me - I just know that they might (legally, they're supposed to: they serve alcohol, so they are supposed to keep you from bringing in anything, Acme's the same way).

I also knew about the drinking fountain upstairs, but I swear it's disappeared (or is behind a machine now) - I look for it each time I run to the bathroom, since it seems weird for it to just disappear (and it was right there, 2 feet from the door to the bathroom), but I haven't seen it the last several times I've looked.

Yup! behind house of the dead 4 I think

I can't find that vending machine either, not that I'd be willing to take my chances with it, and it was pretty expensive anyway.  IIRC a bottle of soda or water cost $2.00 there, which is not ridiculous compared to around $3.50 at sports stadiums and theme parks, but it only worked about 50% of the time, making the expected cost higher and the histogram of costs skewed right under the ridiculous assumption that people would keep trying until they got something.  And people at the latter kinds of places would probably at least refund you instead of telling you that "the machine does that" and doing nothing to either get the machine open or refund your money when the machine is right next to them and they probably saw you buy something.

What I usually do is run to that convenience store near the convention center, and drink what I buy there outside.

Technika2 was indeed pretty neato :]


On the note regarding water bottles.. I usually bring along a bag or my backpack to pack stuff in when I go play, like when I went this last Thursday I easily packed along a Gatorade & bottled water.
But even if you aren't able to bring along something & can't find the water fountain, I've been able to ask the guys at the bar for a couple glasses of water to bring over to the Supernova2 cab with me.

lol, when I worked downtown I would go to lunch somewhere and go play a few rounds of DDR before heading back to work. I almost ALWAYS had my drink cup from where I ate with me when I played and no one ever so much as even mentioned it to me, even when I stood there and had them put points on my card.

Now that Scott mentions it, it just seems like a common trait for (most) GW employees to be apathetic, whether they be techs or cashiers; techs being apathetic is obvious, and then there's the true story I described in my post about the cashiers doing nothing about the vending machines eating my money.  Seems like they wouldn't care about people bringing in water or even any other non-alcoholic drink.

It seems like this is one time where we like that the GW employees are apathetic.

How's the condition of the music games? Is the thursday night unlimited play worth it?

X2 is working again; they've replaced all of the sensors (for $20-something a pop, according to the tech we talked to). Supernova 2 is also fine. I've heard USA is working fine too, but I've never tried it. Extreme's monitor is broken. The others have pad issues.

Edit: Oh, and the last unlock code has been put in for X2.

sweet. maybe now i can play a new x2 song without worrying about the pad crapping out on me.

Just returned from GW.
X2 was in tip-top shape.
It was a good day.

It's just a matter of time until the inevitable again...

...but in the mean time, I'll be flocking over here more often to score on the newer songs.

I'm eager to experience some good-condition X2 tonight & get in some more Technika practice.

Don't; they're closed tonight for a private party.

Ah, weak...

Thanks for the heads up though.

Gameworks is repeating the 3-months of free time-card promotion again this year!


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Also, Gameworks recently bought 5 Jillian's locations, including the Seattle location.