NAME
pydance - a dancing simulator game
SYNOPSIS
pydance [--filename filename [ --mode mode --difficulty difficulty ] ]
OPTIONS
--help, -h
Display a brief summary of command line options.
--version, -v
Display the version of pydance (and features found, e.g. Psyco).
--filename, -f
Load and play a single file, then quit. By default, this is in
SINGLE (4 panel) mode, on BASIC difficulty.
--mode, -m
Use a particular mode (e.g. VERSUS, 6PANEL, DMX). This only has
an effect when you also use --filename.
--difficulty, -d
Use a particular difficulty (e.g. TRICK, SMANIAC). This only has
an effect when you also use --filename.
DESCRIPTION
pydance is much like the popular arcade game "Dance Dance Revolution",
in which you stand on a mat on the floor, with 4 buttons pointing
forward, backwards, left, and right. Arrows scroll across the screen,
and you must step on the arrows on the mat when they reach the top.
These steps happen in time with music in the background, causing a
rough approximation of dancing.
However, pydance also plays more than DDR - it can simulate games like
Technomotion, Pop’n’Stage, Pump It Up, Para Para Paradise, and Dance
ManiaX (also called Dance Freaks).a
pydance supports most of the features of these games, such as
background and banner images for each song, multiple difficulty levels,
freeze arrows (arrows you have to remain standing on for a length of
time), BPM changes and stops, lyric displays, and so on. pydance also
allows you to use a real DDR mat if you have a Playstation to PC
joystick adapter supported by the ddrmat kernel module for Linux (which
is a modified version of the gamecon kernel module), or a Playstation
to USB joystick adapter and the USB joystick driver, for any OS. If you
lack a mat, you can play on the keyboard, but it’s much less fun.
You can also make your own step files to new music, in pydance’s .dance
format. dance-spec.txt included with pydance documents this format.
pydance can also read the popular Windows .dwi and .sm formats.
USAGE
The first player’s arrows and settings are controlled by the I, J, ,,
and L keys, and the second player’s by the arrow keys. Enter starts a
song or activates a menu item.
pydance is documented more completely in the README.html file included
with it.
FILES
/usr/share/games/pydance/songs, /usr/local/share/games/pydance/songs, ~/.pydance/songs
By default, pydance will look in these directories for your
songs, step files, and other game data. You can configure this
with the songdir option in your pydance.cfg file.
Note that for DWI files, you will need to put everything (the
music file, lyric file, background, and banner) in its own
separate directory, and that directory inside another
subdirectory in the songs folder. This is a limitation of the
DWI format; it uses its path name and files in the same
directory, rather than specifying things in the file itself like
.dance files do.
/usr/share/games/pydance/courses, /usr/local/share/games/pydance/courses, ~/.pydance/courses
Similar to above, but for course files. You can use coursedir to
override this.
/etc/pydance.cfg, ~/.pydance/pydance.cfg
pydance configuration files. The settings in your local one
override the system-wide settings.
~/.pydance/records
Your top scores for each song. This is a pickled Python file. It
can be safely deleted to reset your scores.
~/.pydance/input.cfg
Your input settings. This is a pickled Python file. It can be
safely deleted to reset your input configuration.
/usr/share/games/pydance
Various data needed by pydance, such as background music and
Python modules.
AUTHORS
Brendan Becker <tgz@orotech.net>, Joe Wreschnig <piman@debian.org>, and
Pavel Krivitsky <pavel@krivitsky.name>, with help from many others.
Many of the other dancing games mentioned here are trademarks of their
respective owners.
SEE ALSO
findbpm(1), README included with pydance, manual.html included with
pydance, dance-spec.txt included with pydance.
June 2nd, 2003 pydance(6)