Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is a game by Konami in which players have to match arrows that move on the screen to foot patterns on specially designed dance pads. While some people absolutely refuse to touch a DDR pad while they are still living and breathing, many others find the game to be a fun pastime despite its inherent dorkiness. As said by a student visiting Case during the 2002-03 school year, "DDR? This school is great already!"¹⁾.

Paul is the only member of FckInc that knew of DDR's existence before coming to Case. How about some details?

The details are murky, but at some time at the beginning of Freshman year at Case, Gerf, Vanv, Bouyack, and possibly one or two other people visited somebody living on north campus who owned DDR for the PlayStation and experienced the game for the very first time. Nobody really knows why this happened, but everybody knows that it was then that the "DDR bug" had bitten. Paul then emerged as "the guy down the hall with DDR pads," and soon everyone was playing DDR in his room by hooking a tiny TV screen up to his computer running Dance With Intensity (DWI), the only real DDR simulator at the time. Gerf and Vanv quickly purchased their own DDR pads and PlayStation-to-USB converters to play DDR in their own rooms, and thus the (in)famous DDR Parties were "officially" born.

The first parties were held in Vanv's room, where five or six people would try to cram into wherever they could fit as they watched another two people playing DDR. While waiting for his turn, Bouyack would often sit on Vanv's futon and play DDR with the keyboard on his laptop; eventually this would become a favorite pastime when pulling out the DDR pads proved to be inconvenient or impossible.

It soon became obvious that the parties had outgrown Vanv's tiny room and that they would need to move elsewhere. And what better place to move than into the main lobby of the Tyler dorm (previously home to the short-lived Final Fantasy Parties), which was equipped with a huge TV, plenty of free space, and couches and a ping pong table for people who were waiting for their turns? The parties started at 7:00 PM on Friday nights and lasted until 2:00 or 3:00 AM Saturday morning, and oftentimes would draw crowds upwards of 15 people. Putting the parties together was really a group effort: Gerf, Vanv, and Paul supplied the DDR pads (which would often need to be swapped out for repair with duct tape), Bouyack supplied his laptop to run DWI, and Paul supplied the cables necessary to connect the laptop to the television. This made parties difficult if one or more of the members were absent, but made them that much more awesome when everyone was there.

The Tyler DDR parties created some very fond memories for everyone involved. Onlookers would clap the "marching beat" to In the Navy for Vogel as he played it on Heavy difficulty, Paul would amaze people with his stamina as he plowed through the horrendously long Sandstorm, everyone would groan as Xanadu came up yet again, and the brave souls who tried the extended version of B4U would inevitably agree that trying to make it through that song even on Standard was crazy. The parties spawned several DDR videos, increased awareness of DDR across the north campus, and even spawned at least one school-sponsored outdoor session, complete with food, big-screen projectors and huge speakers, and lots of attendees. Amusingly, Bouyack's laptop was still used to power the festivities.

With all FckInc members living together in the same suite during Sophomore year, there was much less of a need to put together extravagant DDR parties in the lobby; there was more than enough space to comfortably DDR right in the suite's common area, and with a dedicated DDR setup one could jump in and start playing DDR at any time of the day, any day of the week. Nevertheless, FckInc did help sponsor the "Learn To DDR" party, which took place in the Howe lobby and drew a modest crowd.

By this time, Gerf and Bouyack were able to get an A on just about every official DDR song on Heavy difficulty, and would often compete for high scores or the coveted AA score. Gerf was the first to finally get an A on Max 300 on Heavy, but Bouyack's analysis of optimal foot patterns and zealous urge for perfection (or perhaps annihilation?) gave him huge advantages on just about every song. Gerf would often run out of steam after 45 minutes to an hour of straight DDR; Bouyack could go on for hours at a time and often would not quit until he was satisfied that he had sufficiently kicked a song's ass.

The "official" DDR club, tournaments, etc.

What did the rest of FckInc do during Junior year?

While studying in Japan for his junior year, Gerf occasionally kept up with DDR in an arcade in Takadanobaba and by playing StepMania on Apsu. A segment of him receiving a mysterious call on his cell phone while playing DDR in the Takadanobaba arcade appeared in a video he created for Japanese class during the fall semester at Waseda University. Later on in the video, Gerf gets lost in some back alleys and DDRs in place while trying to decide which direction to go; of course, it's the absolute opposite of where he should have gone.

By senior year, DDR had sort of lost steam with FckInc. While Gerf and Bouyack had purchased their own high-quality RedOctane DDR pads, they rarely used them for more than a few songs at a time.

Like during the senior year, the FckInc super-senior year saw very little DDR action. But at least the legacy can still live on in videos and this page.