Claire's Random Thoughts

This is post 7/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

My favorite open source game is Stepmania Advanced Rhythm Game. Since all my other posts in this week’s free software series were utilities, I decided to post about Stepmania instead of my original plan to post about GIMP, the open source Photoshop alternative, mainly because I’m trying to create variety instead of posting about all utilities and no games.

Stepmania is a game similar to the popular arcade game, Dance Dance Revolution. There are four arrows, up, down, left, and right. Arrows gradually scroll up the screen and are to be pressed when they reach the “target” arrows area to simulate dance moves. Of course, real dancing is still quite different (I know from experience that I can play this very well but can definitely not perform real dance moves), but I still think the overall concept is a neat idea. Users can also create their own “simfiles” to customize arrows to audio files of their choice. More commonly, however, songs can be downloaded. For song downloads, I recommend Stepmania Download Source. Even though their site is no longer being updated, the downloads are still all available.

If you like rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Stepmania is definitely for you. However, it’s most likely that if you do, you have probably already heard of it.

For really hard-core players, you can even connect a dance pad to your computer and use that to play instead of keys on the keyboard, so it feels like real DDR. I recommend connecting real pads to the computer for maximum enjoyment as well as an added benefit of exercise. Chances are, once you get into the game, you will want to try playing it the way it was originally intended, by stepping on arrows with your feet to simulate “dance” moves. If you already own pads for a Playstation 2, I recommend the PS2 Game Controller to PC USB Adapter from Dealextreme for only $5.63 to convert them to USB game controllers. There is an option in Stepmania to map keys, including buttons from external controllers, so PS2 controllers connected via my suggested connector will be compatible with Stepmania.

This post concludes my weekly series of my Top Free Applications. I hope you enjoyed reading about my favorite free software and will try using some of them! Check back in the future for more weekly “series” in closely related blog posts.

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