WHAT, NO DANCE PAD?

I freely admit that I’m still a Dance Dance Revolution junkie, and anyone who knows me is probably wondering why I didn’t spend a few pages on dance pad controls. At first blush, you might say that the dance pad is programmed exactly the same way as the game controller—it has buttons that get pressed just like the controller you hold in your hand.

Now that you’ve read this chapter, you probably realize that the programming for a dance pad is quite different, simply because the player is using his feet and not his hands. You still use the same code to get button down and up messages. But think for a moment about how your feet are different from your hands. They move slower, for one thing—at least mine do. You have two feet moving on four buttons, which is different than a handheld controller where only your right thumb can press those four buttons. Tuning for timing is probably really different, too, especially since there is a vast skill difference between people like my Mom and the kids in the arcades who can move so fast you can’t even see their feet.