beatmania IIDX substream with DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX CLUB VERSiON 2 - attract, link session

a full video of beatmania IIDX substream with DanceDanceRevolution 2ndMIX CLUB VERSiON 2's attract loop & gameplay of its link session's CLUB PLAY and EXPERT CLUB PLAY modes.

00:00 - attract loop
02:30 - link session - CLUB PLAY
09:45 - link session - EXPERT CLUB PLAY

CLUB PLAY is simply a 3-stage mode where the IIDX player picks songs, and both the IIDX and DDR player must play the songs together and cooperate. both lifebars are shared, so care must be taken on both sides to not miss too much and cause eachother to fail out!

EXPERT CLUB PLAY is similar to the above, however instead of picking songs, the IIDX player chooses EXPERT courses from their game to play instead, with both players going through a rapid 5-song course with minimal breaks in-between! this mode requires an extra coin (not credit) on the IIDX player's side to play by default, however this is changeable by the operator.

some additional notes...
the IIDX side is being auto-played using a MAME cheat, as should be obvious by the highscore name 'DJ AUTO'. i have literally no one else to play this with, and i am nowhere near experienced enough to play both sides alone LOL
for some reason DDR 2ndMIX's ending audio just...cuts out at very specific points for some reason and then cuts back in? it's not a lag issue, so i'm wondering if it's an emulation issue, or if it's just...how it is?? i don't really know
for some reason my inputs were just getting eaten a lot if i had to hit notes rapidly during EXPERT CLUB PLAY and i don't know why. like i'd hit a note and it just decides 'nah, i'm not detecting that'. oh well, i cleared it so whatever lmao

you too, can link two MAME instances together like this and play this for yourself, with some simple launch arguments and machine configurations!

make some batch files for each game with these lines:
IIDX: mame.exe bmiidxc2 -rs232_network null_modem -bitbanger1 socket.127.0.0.1:12345
DDR: mame.exe ddr2mc2 -rs232_network null_modem -bitbanger1 socket.127.0.0.1:12345

in addition, you'll need to change the Machine Configuration for BOTH GAMES in the TAB menu of MAME to have their RX/TX Bauds for the rs232 network adapter to 38400. if you are doing this with CLUB VERSiON 1, it is 19200 instead. this is absolutely necessary and if you don't change these it won't work. you might also have to reset the machine for both instances of MAME to save the configurations, idk

once you've done that, it should Just Work and you'll be able to have your own link sessions right on the comfort of your PC!...hopefully. i don't know if lower-spec systems will have trouble running this stably or lag a lot

anyways, that's about it! enjoy the gameplay footage!

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