Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

[icontrolyourworld]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

icyworld: hot stuff was perfect, love is dreaminess was inauthentic (use of jumps, rainbow notes)

If you write out some guidelines on what to do and what not to do to make a nostalgic simfile, I'll use it if there is another of these packs (there better be!).

[TheNoSoMan]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

If you can announce another Nostalgia pack, I'd be happy to submit to it.

I also remember hearing from AIJ that Thaor actually stepped Hot Stuff.

[bmah]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

bmah: you ****ed up on a couple of song choices (aurora, resonate 1794), luckily you ****ed up your other files so i don't feel bad skipping those two

this doesn't make any sense

either that or you missed a word

[icontrolyourworld]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

If you can announce another Nostalgia pack, I'd be happy to submit to it.

I also remember hearing from AIJ that Thaor actually stepped Hot Stuff.

I would like to point out that Hot Stuff isn't my steps I copied it from a youtube video of thaor playing it. I said this when I re-released it here but this pack slapped my cd title on it anyways. I didn't know who made it at the time. But cool if thaor made it

[FFR4EVA_00]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

If you write out some guidelines on what to do and what not to do to make a nostalgic simfile, I'll use it if there is another of these packs (there better be!).

i'll have to look back to remember what i meant about the jumps but syncing two random notes to 32nds for no apparent reason is a no-no

this doesn't make any sense

either that or you missed a word

fixed for u

[i love you]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

When I was making this pack I just went by Patashu's definition of "Old School".

Oldschool: A file that is simple, like how files were made for stepmania several years ago. Won't use most of the theories/techniques listed today, likely sticks to simple rhythms, patterns and quantizations, doesn't use too many holds/mines, isn't very technical, etc. This is not necessarily a bad thing; think 'keep it simple, stupid'

Even though what Patashu said is true, there were some old school files that did not follow this guideline so I tried to give out examples of exceptions to the rule indirectly (probably was a mistake on my part for not making it clear but it was just hard to explain it) So lurker, I would love it if you can write out your guidelines on how to make an old school file without it sounding confusing if you will. Definitely would help a lot if I were to do something like this again.

[bmah]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

Pretty much, otherwise lurker's posts hold no water.

[Charlo]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

Good pack, lots of fun files. Thanks again i love you for putting my file in the pack.

[i love you]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

No problem Charlo. You make great files and I encourage you to continue stepping files the way you do now because they are amazingly fun.

[sakura080789]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

the pack came out great. i still haven't gotten around to playing everything but will do soon hehu

[hi19hi19]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

Oh I was going to submit something to this, but I guess I forgot. I'll download it though.
Easy to make "nostalgic" files when you don't even know how to make "new age" files olol
Let me know if you do another pack!

[hi19hi19]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

Reviews. Remember that everything here is subjectivemania, what I think is not what you will think and that's okay.

37 Dicks
Nolstalgia: 4/5 Perfect until you completely ruined it with a mine.
Fun: 5/5
Feeling like a badass right now because I FC'd it Good file minus the mine.

Aurora
Nostalgia: 3/5 Pitch relevant freezes, you couldn't resist huh? Also a little too technical feeling, you know?
Fun: 4/5
AAA'd it up to the rolls which took me by surprise. Surprisingly fun even though it's not nostlagia-y enough for me

Background Theme II
Nostalgia: 5/5 Clearly bullshit jacks, randomass patterns, 1handed trills in the streams. Felt like an old Arch0wl file.
Fun: 3/5
I only played Oni. Was just about to complain about it being too easy then the 24ths hit. Have to wait too long through easy stuff for the fun part. Somewhat annoying patterns gives high nostalgia points but lower fun.

Broadbaned (8M Remix)
Nostalgia: 3/5 Perfect until the MINES Y U PUT MINES IN FIEL!?
Fun: 4/5
Really fun jumpstreams and cool rhythms, I liked the 1H trills too. Middle section was kind of boring but eh what are you going to do. Minus points for MINES and out of place hand at the end

Doku Gra The Animation ED
Nostalgia: 5/5 Perfect in the sense that it reminds me of all the boring files from 2006 I played once then deleted
Fun: 1/5
Didn't like the song at all, chart felt really bland. A bunch of extraordinary dumpy left hand patterns, bullshit jacks, and mostly just easy and boring. First fail of the pack.

Dream Layer
Nostalgia: 5/5 "Too complicated sounding, **** it put jumpstream"
Fun: 5/5
This is how you make a file! Loved the 1handed patterns in the middle, loved the jumpstream that really doesn't go to anything. Lots of fun, just the right length too. Only gripe is that it's not 10+ difficulty, every file used to be 10+ but this isnt enough to make it lose points

Enemy Storm
Nostalgia: 6/5 Are you NVLM_ZK?
Fun: 5/5
Only played Oni. AWESOME NVLM_ZK chart. Even got the song choice right! Bullshit jacks, bullshit everything, quads go here "because it kinda sounds loud" etc etc. So much fun.

Final Audition Episode 1
Nostalgia: 5/5 Good old stlye stream/8th jumps chart
Fun: 4/5
Really nothing wrong with this, but nothing amazingly remarkable. Kind of bland but not in a bad way. Just lacked that something special to make it 5/5

Flava For Rava
Nostalgia: 5/5 I remember some rap files like this.
Fun: 4/5
Obviously not perfectly synced but who cares. Not difficult enough for me personally but absolutely not a bad file. Just narrowly avoided being too long.

Form the Alliance
Nostalgia: 5/5 Polyrhythms usually means not nostalgic but this thankfully isn't overdone. Torn between 4/5 and 5/5 here but the extra gay CDtitle pushed me over the edge
Fun: 5/5
AWWWW look at the cute widdle baby Gigadelic

HOT STUFF
Nostalgia: 5/5 very "official DDR chart"-ish especially in the 8th note sections
Fun: 5/5
Excellent. Difficult pad chart/moderate keyboard file. I FC'd it index because only haters play spread :monkey:

HYPERION
Nostalgia: 4/5 Jumpstream chart. Jumps in jumpstream not on the downbeat is a little weird though
Fun: 4/5
Good file. Suffers from the same problem as Final Audition Episode 1. A very good chart, but just missing something that makes me want to play it over and over again

Less Than Three
Nostalgia: 2/5 Hands didn't do it for me at all. Weird holiday notes at the end.
Fun: 3/5
Only played Oni. Terrible jack and some dumpy patterns for the left hand. Dragged on too long without variation. Maybe Heavy is better but not really interested in playing again.

LOVE IS DREAMINESS
Nostalgia: 4/5 Strange holiday notes at the start. Very good streams though
Fun: 3/5
Overall not too bad, but didn't do it for me. Rolls were kind of weird (if you're going to make one part of the file harder than the rest like that, at least make it obvious what sound it's going to) Kinda doesn't follow the music enough for me either. IDK it's just weak

Macau Underground
Nostalgia: 0/5 Hands, holiday notes, techinical stepping in many places, AND ****ING MINES WHY DO YOU PUT MINES WHYYYY
Fun: 5/5
A good file but absolutely doesn't belong in this pack.

Mahoroba
Nostalgia: 1/5 Hands didn't feel proper in this file at all. Streams were odd. And to cap it off you ruined anything else that might have been right with a mine
Fun: 3/5
Song is not my favorite, rhythms were okay but not amazingly fun. I did not like the stream patterns, but I did like the freeze arrow usage. Not my cup of tea but I can see other people maybe liking this.

MASTER MAID
Nostalgia: 5/5 Felt very "old obnoxiously long Sharpnel file" Holiday notes were okay in this case
Fun: 3/5
Couldn't really decide between 3/5 and 4/5 on fun. Song choice pushed it down for me, I've never been a fan of this type of loli Sharpnel song. Not nessecarily bad, but not my favorite. Also way too long

Neckbreaker
Nostalgia: 5/5
Fun: 4/5
Not much to say. Generic fun file, but a bit too generic to be worth playing over and over.

NIGHT FLIGHT TO TOKYO
Nostalgia: 3/5 Some holiday notes.
Fun: 4/5
Beginning was weak but it got better and better. Strange rhythms near the beginning. Felt inconsistently stepped (no idea if this is actually true or not, just how it felt) Hard to judge this one but it's okay.

Papaver Rhoeas
Nostalgia: 3/5 Hands are well used but not appropriate if you're going for nostalgia.
Fun: 4/5
First off, what is up with the 5 difficulty rating on this? Overall a decent file. Good (if not slightly too technical) freeze usage. BPM tricks were cute. The long silence was weird and it kinda just went on for too long.
The middle of the file felt understepped. There was a bunch of different 16th rhythms going on in the back that could have made for more variation and/or jumpstream, just 8th patterns was too simple. Also you could probably have stepped the drum rolls

PARANOiA EViL
Nostalgia: 5/5 Felt like an ITG edit from way long ago
Fun: 2/5
1 handed trills sucked for spread. Maybe decent on pad? The music was too loud. Overall the patterns were random and the jumps in the beginning were totally off... felt like an amaeteur file. Also, stepping MAX and PARANOiA songs stopped being interesting 5 years ago. They're terrible music, step something worth listening to.

Rawest Forest
Nostalgia: 5/5 Hard to say here. It felt about right though.
Fun: 3/5
Weird song. Song choice doesn't do it for me. The steps are correct but I can't get into it because of the song. This is just too far from my style. I'm sure there will be others who can enjoy it though; don't get me wrong it is a good file.

RESONATE 1794
Nostalgia: 4/5 Nothing specific, just too technical overall. Didn't bring me back to 2007 like some of the other files do.
Fun: 4/5
As much as I want to hate this file it's really fun. I don't like it on principle because the song is way too chill and trying to make a hard file out of a chill song usually leads to bullshit technicalmanias, but this file avoids that and is quite nice.

Reunion
Nostalgia: 3/5 Hands were used well but didn't feel right in this file as far as nostalgia goes. MINES FUUUUUUUUUU. Bad points offset by really oldschool stream patterns and great jumpstream.
Fun: 5/5
Barring the mines I loved this file. The 1handed trills were iffy but okay. Hands were used well, and I can't stress how fun the jumpstream patterns were. Good stuff.

Slider
Nostalgia: 5/5 The hands felt right for the difficulty. Holiday notes are appropriate here. It just worked.
Fun: 5/5
Only played Edit. Great jumpstream file. THIS is my style, I loved it. Extra love for being a nice length song.

Snowfall
Nostalgia: 4/5 A little technical with the minifreezes and stuff but it's okay.
Fun: 5/5
No complaints about the file. Song is a little weak but acceptable. The jumpstream alongside the long freezes was fun.

So Fabulous!!
Nostalgia: 4/5 Not quite there. Too much rhythmic variation. Stop trying so hard and just put jumpstream
Fun: 3/5
Only played Oni. Not hard enough for me personally but an okay file. Some of the rhythms were hard to follow/didn't make much sense to me based on the music but nothing glaringly WRONG, merely not what I expected

Solar Eclipse
Nostalgia: 5/5 Yep
Fun: 4/5
Another one too easy for me personally, but I still enjoyed it. Cute BPM tricks. Minijacks were 100% appropriate and well used. Fun patterns. My only complaint is that the ending was the weakest part, it just kind of fizzled out. Which is a shame because the rest of the file was soooo good.

Super Lovely
Nostalgia: 4/5 Not sure about the hands in this one. Didn't quite feel it
Fun: 5/5
Another great one. Jumpstream parts and the ending were excellent. The nonjumpstream parts were pretty weak but at least short.

Tinkerbot Boss Battle
Nostalgia: 2/5 It was perfect at the start but the first section of holiday notes really took me out of the moment. Then the mines at the end killed the moment entirely and proceeded beat its lifeless corpse with their mine-y-ness
Fun: 4/5
OMG SHANTAE! Great song. Very fun file aside from the mines and the light blue colored section. Minijacks were a nicely used touch. It did feel like it was a little sparse in places compared to the energy of the song, maybe more jumps?

Unpredictable
Nostalgia: 2/5 Didn't bring me back mostly because this type of song was considered nearly impossible to sync back then.
Fun: 5/5
Probably the most technically impressive song in here IMO. The varied rhythms were loads of fun. Plus I like the song. One gripe I have is that the difficulty is too varied- the 24ths are crazy hard compared to the rest, and the 16th jumpstream is markedly harder than just 16th stream that makes up the rest of the file.

Wi-Ex-Doc-Va
Nostalgia: 3/5 Really? You just HAD to put mines in didn't you. It was straight up 5/5 until then too, but talk about killing the moment
Fun: 5/5
Only played Oni. First of all, what the hell kind of name is that for a song? 0_o The patterns were a ton of fun in this song. Great jumpstream at the end. Cure BPM tricks, maybe a bit overused though. Nothing too major to complain about.

~Ending 2~
Nostalgia: 2/5 Too technical. Minifreeze abuse, way too much pitch relevance and copypasta going on. The quad was merely icing upon the cake of non-sentimentality
Fun: 4/5
lol 1 difficulty. Forgot to change that? Ending was totally unnessecary and boring. Everything else was a 5/5 fun, but the ending... why.

Closing remarks:
Firstly, whoever made the graphics for most of these files is really good, props. (some obvious exceptions to this, looking at you MASTER MAID)
In general, this pack is a good reminder that the SM community should stop jacking off to files with mines and hands. It's possible to make great files without them.
Out of all of these files I really felt ONE file used mines correctly. Every other file with mines would have been better without them.
Specific things that stood out to me were that Kommisar is too good at stepping for a "Nostalgia" pack. And whoever Hawke is, you have a new fan. Keep making jumpstream files, you're really good at it!


I'm off to go play Enemy Storm a dozen more times <3


p.s. mines suck

[LongGone]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

What are holiday notes lol

[hi19hi19]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

Anything that's crazy colored arrows i.e. 24ths, 32nds or faster

Usually meant when you are using these notes to get specific sync on something that doesn't fall on the beat- using 24ths because the song has an obvious 24th drum roll there isn't as much of a problem, using 24th notes to sync to vocals or some crap like that is holiday colored notes :P

[i love you]

Re: Stepmania Nostalgia Pack Released!

Oh my god, thank you so much hi19 for taking the time to review the pack. You really gave me some thoughts of what I should do differently for my next pack. It is a honor for a old school player like yourself review this pack!

PS: Some people called me crazy when I said that Enemy Storm was the best file in the pack just because of the fact that it was a bit "dumpy". I am glad that someone like you was able to see that hehe!

EDIT: Oh and another thing, you think you (hi19) could give me some type of guideline to follow if I were to make a pack like this again or things that I should add/change up in my current guidelines? It would definitely help me out big time lol