Bio-Type Stuff
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Basic Stuff
As I said on the front page, my name is David Bernardini. I'm 29 years old, and I live in Lawn, PA (which is the middle of nowhere as far as I'm concerned). I drive an ice-blue Chevy Cavalier, if you're the type to care about cars. As for what I look like, you can reference the picture to the right. Due to my having Asperger's Syndrome (a decidedly mild form of autism), I am not and shall not be formally employed; instead, I spend my infinite free time writing and playing simfiles, as well as upkeep of this website and my newer Touhou site, the Moriya Shrine. Interests I don't just write simfiles, I play them, too. But you probably knew that. Anyway, as implied by my being creator of the Moriya Shrine, I do play Touhou games of all sorts, and I am constantly seen in the shrine's Hamachi room at nearly all times (I even have occasional Skype conversations with some of the shrine's inhabitants). There're hobbies and interests I have outside my own websites, though. For one, I'm an avid viewer of tool-assisted speedruns on TASVideos, and have actually signed up there so I can vote potential publications up or down. Secondly, I love playing visual novels. If you want to know which ones I'm playing now, or have played in the past, just ask me. Last but not least, it is a well-known fact that I love coffee. |
Oh man, it's Ace!
My "battlestation," as many people seem to fondly call one's desk and computer space in the gaming industry.
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General/Arcade FAQ
A FAQ for questions I'm often asked when I'm at the arcade, or about my playing ability in general. For the technical stuff like questions about my stepchart authoring, see the "Ace Of Hearts FAQ" below.
I've seen you play on foot; you're good! How long have you been doing this?
I'd played Dance Dance Revolution since October 2003, and started playing In The Groove in the summer of 2006, so it's been just about 8 1/2 years now in total. Time flies.
How long did it take you to memorize the steps?
I don't. There's a degree of familiarity involved, of course; after playing a song a few times, you get a general idea of how its charts flow, such as where the jumps and, on Expert, handplants are.
You must be the best!
Er...no. There are people (even locals) who are better than myself (and actually care about their score).
You have this at home, don't you?
I don't own an arcade cabinet, and I actually no longer own any of the official DDR or ITG video games. I do, however, play StepMania, which is an emulator that does the same thing, except on a computer, and it can play both official songs and simfiles written by anyone on the planet. You can get StepMania and/or some simfiles here on my website if you want.
This looks like quite a workout!
It is if you're playing Hard or Expert; Novice, Easy, and most of Medium really isn't too much of a workout.
You could probably lose weight doing this - have you?
I've always weighed the same, but I have heard of a good many people who have lost some amount of weight playing this game.
Do you take requests?
Yup! If you know the name of the song, don't be afraid to ask. If you're talking about requesting that I write a simfile for you, the answer is also yes; make your request in the Shoutbox and I guarantee at the very least that I'll look at it. I'll get back to you with an answer soon, and let you know if I will definitely do it, will consider it, or for some reason will not do it (I will always explain why).
This looks really hard; I couldn't possibly do this.
Wrong. There are five difficulties on the machine (Novice, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert), and the Novice charts are incredibly easy.
Can I play with you?
Of course you can! I don't bite; I think you'll find I'm rather friendly.
What are the best tips you can give a newbie like myself?
Some of this is in The How-To Guide, but some of it isn't, and besides, this is a great place for this question.
1. If 2 people are going to play, make sure you insert 2 credits, and make sure you hit the green buttons on both sides of the machine. (Doesn't apply at my arcade, Family Fun Center in Harrisburg Mall, as we have Joint Premium on, so it's 4 tokens regardless of 1 or 2 players.)
2. You want "Dance" mode. (Yes, as stupid as this sounds, I have to say it. You would not believe the number of people I've seen mistakenly pick "Battle," "Marathon," or "Survival" mode!!)
3. If 2 people are playing, make sure you actually choose "2 Players," not "Doubles."
4. For the love of Pete, vary your song selections. There are a few reasons for this. One, it doesn't matter what song it is, nobody wants to hear you play it three or four times in a row - you will bore people to death. Two, if you only play one song, how will you get better in general? Three, you won't learn about the game - you'll only learn about that song. The blue left and right buttons are on the machine for a reason - please use them.
5. As for what songs to pick, it really doesn't matter too much. If you're playing on Novice, most everything's a 1 anyway. Still, songs I typically see most beginners pick (and do well on) include "Bumble Bee," "Funk Factory," and "D-Code." I personally recommend "No Princess," "Birdie," "Little Kitty Mine," "Space Man," and "Sunshine."
6. If you've decided to move up to Easy difficulty, "Energizer" is NOT a good first choice for a song (again, something stupidly obvious, but I've seen it a million times, so I feel I have to say it). Energizer is a 5 on Easy, which makes it one of the most difficult songs on that difficulty level (most Easy songs are rated 2-4). If you're used to playing on Novice, there's no way you're going to pass Energizer on Easy. I'd go with "Driving Force Classical" as your first Easy song instead (as that is a 2, not a 5).
7. You don't have to return your feet to the center metal panel after every step. (You're nowhere near the point where you have to worry about dodging mines.)
What's the little thing you stuck into the machine? What does it do?
That's a USB card (also known as a "flash drive" or "thumb drive").
Its foremost function is that it keeps track of your high scores, and your display name and high score initials so you don't have to keep punching them in after every game. It also remembers the last modifiers you used and the last difficulty you played on, and if you know how, you can put Custom Songs on your card for play at the arcade! See my "USB Card Guide" for more info on exactly how a card works with the machine and how to put songs on it.
Ace Of Hearts FAQ
Presently, for both writing and charting, I primarily use 3.95 CVS, the first version I offer on the StepMania Stuff page. I am also known to occasionally use the latest SM5 build to get on SMO.
Are you stuck on 3.95?
Well...yes and no. 3.95 is the build ITG cabinets use, so it's the build I write in to assure compatibility. The latest version of StepMania 5 supports two new arrow types called Lifts and Fakes, but although I know of the existence of both (and I actually know what Lifts are, in case I ever see one in an SM4/SM5 chart), I don't use them in my charts, for two reasons. One, because they would be incompatible with placement on an arcade cabinet, and two, I honestly haven't found anywhere I would use them. (Every one of the few times I've considered placing a Lift, I didn't see how placing a Mine couldn't handle it just as well.) I'm very much pro-modernization (why I have SM5), but I just don't see the point to all these new note types when, with ITG1's addition of Mines and ITG2's addition of Rolls, we pretty much had every type of note or avoidance cue we really needed.
What theme do you use? Do you have a favorite noteskin?
I use my own PrismRhythm theme, which is currently version 5.2. As for noteskin, I use EyeCandy, which I slapped together using several SM5 noteskins (though it was quite a bit of work to get it compatible with 3.95).
Your pack has a mascot, according to your banners. Can I have more information on who that is exactly, and why you chose her?
Sure. My pack's mascot is currently Lia Berlioz, from the 2010 visual novel game "PrismRhythm;" she is one of four of the main girls in that game (alongside Elisa Marigold, Kasumi Tokitou, and Gin Mizune). I chose her for her confident personality, good sense of humor, adorability, and last but certainly not least, her heart-shaped barrette.
Conversely, I chose to abandon my previous mascot, Lisa Sakakino because one, I had no other good pictures of her, and two, my personality no longer meshes with hers; I no longer constantly complain of my singleness. I replaced her with Lia because of newfound confidence in my stepcharting ability and my desire to continue pursuing said hobby as something that pleases both myself and others.
Yeah, it's kinda corny. Get over it - you asked for more explanation and you got it. :p
What are your favorite stepcharts you've written?
I've written so many stepcharts, I'm going to have to say it's really impossible to even pick a top 10 list. I love so many of them so much that you couldn't ask me to pick and choose anymore. I have to say, though, that my singles pack is really underrated; there are a lot of really good charts in there (one of my personal favorites being "Negai no Hana").
If you can't really name favorites to follow arrows with, how about favorites to listen to outside the game?
That's a much different question. Though I like everything I chart to some degree, I certainly have preferences (and tolerance levels) for what I'll listen to outside StepMania. When it comes to regular listening, I'm a huge fan of Rita ("Hajimari no Toki," "Negai no Hana"), Girls Dead Monster and the two girls who play the main characters' voices, Marina and LisA ("Alchemy," "Crow Song," "Oath Sign"), and when I want a dose of adorable, my top picks are Chata ("Koi wo Shiyouyo," "Winter Bells"), ave;new ("Pure My Voices," "Lovable") and Kotoko ("Bumpy-Jumpy," "Blaze").
Not only do I love music with lyrics, I also surprise lots of people by saying I listen to a lot of metal mixes of Touhou music, my favorite artist in that category being Demetori. I have a tendency to love listening to stuff that'd be really difficult to play if charted.
Speaking of which, is your StepMania skill level different from your arcade on-foot skill level?
By worlds. On foot at the arcade I can do up to 13s, but in StepMania, I can currently play up to 16s. Thanks to the Tachyon Gamma and Delta packs, I have plenty of simfiles 17+ feet to attempt when I feel like.
Do you play keyboard charts?
Back when I used to be affiliated with Otaku's Dream, I'd at least try everything they came out with. But after one look at "Silly-Go-Round," I determined that keyboard charts were not going to be my forte, ever.
You know, though, the line between "keyboard chart" and what is "paddable" has gotten pretty blurry lately.
Oh, I know. I know very well. My own Expert chart for "Dangerous" contains bracketing, several of my simfiles have footswitch, and more and more of them are seeing triple- and quad-stomps. Who knows, within a year or two, perhaps there isn't going to be anything truly possible only on keyboard; players are finding more and more ingenious ways to play stuff previously thought to be only keyboard-playable all the time.
They're also passing harder songs.
Oh yeah. Back when DDR Max first came out, "Max 300" (10 feet) was considered really hard. Then ITG came out and "Pandemonium" (13 feet) was considered ridiculous. Then stuff like the Dragonforce pack (mostly 14s and 15s) came out, people started trying to push their limits to see what they were truly capable of, and now people are passing 17s and 18s. The Tachyon Delta pack even has four 19s and a 20. My brain doesn't yet even read that fast, and both my fingers and feet as yet refuse to move that fast. I will still try once in a while though, and will hopefully continue to improve.
