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December 12, 2010

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by fluffy at 8:23 PM
An old addiction has come back. It's something that I spent way too much of my money and health on in the past, and while you can overcome an addiction, you never stop being an addict. All it takes is one little push over the edge.

Usually when you fall back into a habit it starts out gradual. "One little hit," you think. "Just for old time's sake." And then before you realize it, you've just spent $350 without a second thought.

Hi. My pseudonym is fluffy, and I'm addicted to Japanese rhythm games.

A couple weeks ago, Neill and I were playing Gran Turismo 5, and reveling at how... suboptimal the experience was. While screwing around with my PS3 after getting tired of it, I loaded up a weird Japanese puzzle game that I'd gotten free via Playstation Plus, and Neill mentioned being reminded of Vib-Ribbon. So of course I dusted off my modded PS1 and copy of it so we could play it, and it was so much fun.

I played it a few more times over the week, and casually kept bringing it up in conversation with friends. I linked them to all the fun Vib-Ribbon movies I could find, like the tutorial video, and even found the English version of that. I watched a few fan videos with inappropriate songs loaded, and played it with my album as well.

Today, Findra came over and we played GT5, and then we played Vib-Ribbon, and then... and then I loaded Beatmania up. And it was Fun. But we only played 6th Mix, and then I tried loading Yebisu Mix, and my mod chip had gone flaky and was having trouble booting correctly, and then it turned out that the weird video mode that the old BEMANI engine uses is incompatible with the HDMI upconverter in my new stereo. Hooking it up directly to my TV worked, but by that point the seed that had been planted in my brain so long ago had finally sprouted: I realized that what I really must do is finally import a Japanese PS2 so that I could play my games over a component connection and, oh hey, then I could also import some IIDX mixes while I was at it...

So, does anyone know where I can get a second IIDX controller for not too much? If so, there are three words that describe you: enabler, and best friend.

Comments

#13637 12/13/2010 05:53 am
I had heard about Vib Ribbon and it sounded pretty interesting but hadn't seen any playthroughs - much cuter than I had envisioned.
#13639 12/13/2010 08:15 am
It's adorable and cute yes. There are so many things to love about it, although I think my favorite is that if you get a high score, she sings you a little song about how well you did, and the higher your score, the longer the song.
#13643 12/14/2010 12:59 am
I'm glad my random "you know what would make a cool PSN download?" musing turned into a rediscovered obsession for you!
#13644 12/14/2010 09:07 am
Well, it does seem to happen on an annual cycle or thereabouts.
#13647 12/14/2010 11:00 am
Ah, as it turns out, the "used market" price for the US iidx controller is vastly overstated, by people who are trying to inflate it as a collector's item. It's easy enough to find them for $25-35 on eBay from people who don't realize it's a collector's item.