Nobody other than our employee's are allowed to be fiddling with the pads at Acme.  Tony and Laura are it.  Sad that someone has undone all the work that went in to this.  Maybe it's time to haul the machine away, unless there is a promise that people will stay the #^&# away from those pads.

Hahaha Washington fucking owns

Maybe the modders will remove the "lock mod" on the back of the cabinet to credit load again.

Reminder that against good advice these people were actively given a chance by the community.

Haha, reminds me of when people say "In Before Lock" on forums! They really got in!

Can we just recap what maintaining this In The Groove machine is like.

- People yell at me all the time saying people are "leaving the scene because the machine is poorly maintained" but refuse to tell me anything specific or actionable and can't find the time to meet up with me to test things when I do go to work on the pads.

- People complain that the pads are too flush and too recessed, and don't seem to understand that the other half of the community is complaining about the opposite thing.

- People get really mad when they don't have a new, up-to-the-minute theme to play on, but when we finally caved and installed one, we got yelled at because it had an inappropriate noteskin on it that we didn't know about, because we were pressured to put it on the machine by angry players.

- We have a specific procedure for requesting packs, which involves sending a download link to a full, complete pack to me via PM - we don't update existing packs because that requires us to clear the cache. Almost nobody successfully sends us a download link to a new pack, but we still get shit for "no new packs." Also, sometimes when we do put properly requested packs in there, it turns out one of the songs has the N-word or something and then we get yelled at by ACME.

- People seem to enjoy messaging other members of the community with these problems instead of me and then wonder why I haven't heard about them yet.

- When I do finally address the problem by spending a shitload of time and Bill's money on fancy new foam modding that was going to hopefully eventually be a good medium between completely flush pads and completely concave ones, it gets ripped out a week later.

I will admit that Tony is not terribly communicative and difficult to wrangle on the content side, but I've been nothing if not communicative whenever I've had something to say. I don't check the forums very often, but my email account is rigged up so that PMs, which are the only way people are supposed to contact me about the pads, send me a notification that I receive as soon as I check my email, which is several times a day. Unless something glitches, which has only happened a couple of times, you guys can seriously expect really fast response times, although I can't guarantee an immediate service trip to ACME.

I am fed up and angry with the current community, but I'm still going to do my best to keep ITG going strong, because I know something you guys don't: It's not just about you.

That said, I plan to go back and redo all the modding on Sunday. We also have four new sensors I didn't install yesterday, and several more on the way. Getting this machine in good condition will be a LONG PROCESS, because so many people have fucked with it in so many different ways, but we plan to do it.

I ask that if anyone wants to help me with this process, they keep the fact that it's a work in progress in mind over the next few weeks and report specific problems without judgment - that is to say, if the 1p left is weak, please tell me that, but dispense with the commentary about "OMG THIS MACHINE IS SO BAD." We know it's bad. It's bad because 5 different people have tried to take it in completely different directions over the years and without weeks of repairs and new sensors it's not going to be good. Just name a specific problem so we can fix it and eventually make ACME Bowl a good ITG location again.

And if you see somebody whose hair is not pink tinkering around in the pads, please ask them to stop.

I haven't played in months and finally made a trip out of my way to come to play today. Since Laura has been put in charge of the pads, they've been GREAT, and I mean seriously Tony the Tiger style, and she's gotten on it as soon as any complaint has been registered.

Now they don't work and I've observed the reason is some asshole ruining it.



So,

Dear person who ripped out the modding without the owners permission:

FUCK YOU. You're a fucking selfish, childish prick.




That is my 2 cents after this failed visit to play a game I once loved but now can't play. Laura and Tony, as usual, thanks so much for all you do for the community, we wouldn't have any of this without you guys.

Sincerely,
Allan

I want to go back to 2004. Dance gaming was so much easier to understand back then.

Spent all morning redoing the modding and replacing a couple (not all, due to lack of parts) sensors. Some things to note:

1. The pads are not as low as stock pads, but they are not flush either. Even if we wanted to flush them, which has been a huge debate for a long time, we couldn't pull it off right now, because the new sensors are currently so overly sensitive that you would hit mines just by stepping on the center panel. Players who are used to a more stock feel will probably love these, but if overall players don't like the level of flushness, we can add another layer of foam after all new sensors have been broken in, which brings me to #2...

2. Because of the OVERsensitivity of new sensors before they're broken in, it's going to take a few weeks to get all the sensors replaced, because we're going to have to put some new ones into places where there are no sensors and leave them unconnected for awhile so that players help reduce the sensitivity because they're usable.

That said, they seem to play fine for now, at least on tech 9s/10s, which is all I could test by myself, and I'm hoping some players will be able to come and test later today and give me reports.

Please be patient. The stage was in REALLY bad condition, and it's going to take a month or so of weekly visits/tweaks to make them play really well again.

Also, please don't steal the foam this time.

Thank you so much Laura!  I just found out about both ACME and this forum not too long ago and have finally been getting back into ITG after a several-year break because I didn't know there were any machines here.  I stopped right after Konami won the lawsuit, if that gives any indication.  I wouldn't have known about this place except the very first day I showed up there was someone on the machine and they mentioned it.  Since then I've gone every weekend or every other weekend and always been alone (save for the extremely brief cross with kloc).  I just found out that doubles is 1 credit so I finally have a chance to try it, which is pretty exciting as far as 4-panel goes.

First up, I have to say I was really impressed with the pads once I got used to it again!  I've played on a lot of shitty pads in my time and these were quite the opposite.  I can't believe someone ripped out the mods; that's insane!  I went on 10/25 and the pads were still fine, but on 11/3 I found it hard to play (almost failed "pick me up and tango" o_O).  Maybe that'll help narrow down who messed with it?  I just want to say thanks for keeping up with the machine!

Oh, is it possible to update the first post of this thread? http://www.pnwbemani.net/western-wa/acme-itg-issue-tracker/  It mentions having to report an issue through that website, but if we are supposed to message Laura it won't help (I tried reporting a small issue a while ago because I didn't know I needed to message Laura).

That thread is about issues pertaining to the software on the machine, not the pad hardware. Laura's domain is primarily the hardware (well, the pads anyway), while Tony handles the software side of it, if I'm reading everything correctly. The first post in this thread contains a link to Laura's giant post about maintaining the machine itself.

Whoever ripped out the modding, I HOPE YOU GET YOUR FUCKING ASS BEAT NIGGA

Thunderbird's post is 100% accurate.

I've been hearing a lot of positive feedback about the pads since I fixed them up, so that's good to hear. I'll also be going back later this week once we get additional new sensors to prep them, so if anyone has any minor hardware tweaks they want done this week, please let me know!

And most importantly, if you play on the pads and they're suddenly terrible, please let me know, because it probably means that the machine has been vandalized again.

Thanks!

I went to ACME today from about noon to 2pm (e-Amuse maintenance time) and played eight games on the ITG machine, all on the Player One side.  Experienced no problems at all... with the understanding that I play songs in the 7-9 range, and weigh around 175-180 pounds clothed.  Didn't even have to clean up any baby powder before playing.

On the other hand, nobody else tried to play the machine while I was there, so I suppose that's bad.  But there were several families playing other things... once ACME finally refilled their change machines.  (I bring a roll of quarters because I can't trust ACME to keep the change machines stocked.)

I enjoyed playing some of the anime songs that weren't familiar several months ago, but that I've heard since then.  K-On season 1 ED theme (there were at least three versions on the machine, but no OP) plus Fuwa Fuwa Time, Sword Art Online season 1 OP, and was amused to see Kantai Collection's OP there as well.  I'll admit I looked for some Love Live songs, but with no success. 

Laura, you rock!

I hadn't checked the forums before we came tonight, so I was worried the pads were still bad. BUT THEY WERE AWESOME INSTEAD.

They're at *least* as good as they were before last month's modding/unmodding, even for doubles/couples, which is tricky to mod for if you're not used to paying doubles.

So yeah, thanks for putting up with the bullshit and doing a great job anyway. And a big eff-you to whoever ripped up the pads.

Pads have been raised slightly now that the sensors aren't too sensitive to do this. They felt great to me, but please let me know!

Hey, I played some ITG today and just wanted to let you know that the up arrow on P1 was missing about 5% of the time.  P2 pad was great though

Also my pack requests still are not on

Yeah, I was there on Wednesday night as well, and was having trouble with the 1P up arrow as well.  

Also found that the right coin slot was mostly dropping coins through to the coin return without accepting them, and the left side tended to simply eat them... unless you pushed against the coin door while inserting the coins, in which case the left side accepted them pretty reliably.

This isn't the right way to report problems, but I'm lazy and apathetic.

Please PM Laura (check for her in previous pages of this thread). That's the best way to make sure things get fixed on the machine.

Received a PM a couple of days ago and hadn't had time to respond. I'll try my best to check the up arrow in the next couple of days, as I'm going out of town for two weeks on Wednesday, but my schedule is pretty tight. I'll see what I can do.

Tony completely redid the modding again today because the foam and tape were all messed up and one of us finally had time to get down there.

He and dieKatze88 reported getting good scores on the pads, but we'd love for people who play more difficult stuff to go out and test it and report back!

Is there anything that can be done regarding the cabinet's super-wobbly P2 bar or the USB profiles at this point?

Not sure if anyone else feels similarly, but I can't really use the P2 bar and it makes so much noise while playing on the P1 side that it's distracting.

Bar welding has always been taken care of by Bill's shop (the number posted on the machines.) If you call and leave them a message, I'm sure they'll be able to do something about it!

RE: USB profiles - that's gotten extra complicated at the moment because of some changes going on in the codebase of Stepmania 5 that are gearing it up to be the industry standard. Stepmania 5 itself has no USB support yet, but the old builds are looking increasingly like they're going to be deprecated. We're trying to figure out the best solution for this.

The machine can't just stay on the current build of OpenITG for perpetuity? (asking because I don't know)

People keep asking me why I keep OpenITG running on my cabinet when I could upgrade to SM5. My old man answer = "If it ain't broke, then I'm not going to try and break it."

Regarding the bars: Is it actually the weld that is breaking!? I'm shocked if that's the case. I know this machine gets a lot of play, but if the pads are actually welded to the base, then I am amazed there's enough force being applied to actually cause the weld to break.

From what I remember reading YEARS back, the old style ITG dedicab (Acme's and mine) weren't welded, but bolted onto a plate on the stage. The newer dedicabs were welded (or so I heard).

Switching to OpenITG sure sounds preferable, as opposed to holding our breath for a SM5 update that might never come.

Any update on the status of this machine? I was thinking of checking it out sometime this week.