in the game in the groove, an open-source alternative to ddr that allows fanmade songs to be played, there’s a sub-community of people who play “stamina” songs. in ddr and often in itg, the songs are between 1.5 and 2.5 minutes long, and an itg stamina song is usually about 7-10 minutes long, but people make really horribly long songs like this 7 hour one too. usually the stepcharts for these songs consist of very uniform and simple steps, just at high bpms and with few breaks, that you can perform without having to move your feet or body much. it’s kind of the polar opposite of when people play “freestyle” ddr and actually dance on the pad rather than just hitting the arrows in that it encourages you to plant yourself firmly in the center of the pad and sort of vibrate in place in a flow state for as long as you possibly can.
i don’t play itg often and never touch this stuff myself to be able to explain the appeal, but while looking for an example song for this post, i found this recent video that shares an interesting perspective on it that seems relevant to this thread.
oh yeah @dylan mentioned 1cc when i pitched this thread to him and it for sure fits in the super-high focus requirement category (well beyond my capacity).
this and the ddr post have made me realise my huge (and, retrospectively, obvious) blind spot for musical games, which have such clear potential for lengthy single sessions.
i drove my younger brother, who is a budding car-head, two towns over so he could buy a second-hand logitech driving sim setup (wheel, pedals, stick) and we’re playing gt sport. we did a lap of the nürburgring (just nordschleife) and while neither of us managed a qualifying lap, we both remarked on how physically exhausting it was, especially with the force-feedback steering wheel, which really makes you fight to keep control of the car. shit bangs. maybe i should buy a wheel
It takes me like half an hour to beat the standard course with over 10 deaths, keeping this level of focus for the expert course takes some serious levels of focus
I might just be tricked by the graphics but I think Banana Mania is slightly harder?
i’ve always liked weird FPS obstacle course servers. when i was younger i got into UT servers like this for a while. “shootmania”, which was an FPS made by the trackmania team also had them.
ty for posting that kookiyu. i really love surf and appreciate other surfheads.
for the uninitiated: surfmaps are basically like trackmania courses in that they can be short little bursts of intense focus (most single-course maps have best times of 40s-90s) or long endurance tests (usually the “stage” courses that combine multiple 10-40s long stages, with checkpoints for you to learn the course). courses rated at a higher difficulty (rated by the community, that is) usually require either very technical play or the endurance to keep it together for longer and longer periods.
longest surfmap i ever played was SIXTEEN MINUTES LONG for the main course and i usually dodge it if it comes up in the map rotation on my favorite servers. for reference, most maps have a main course length of 1-3 minutes, and when i’m sight-reading a surfmap at that level, it can take 20-30 minutes before i get my first clear. for staged maps it’s even longer, because your first “real” clear is when you manage to do every stage without triggering a checkpoint. imagine doing this for a map that has a 16 minute world best
surfing definitely belongs in this thread, prime example of tantric gaming. man i should play again it has been a few months
can someone explain the walking along a narrow ledge section? i understand the obvious skill and precision required for the surfing pirtion, but what exactly is happening for the rest of it? i’ve never seen anything like it.
surf is one of three types of movement-centric maps in source-engine mods. the others are:
bunnyhop maps: accumulate speed via bunnyhopping, often on “lilypads” where falling off resets you, and reach the end as fast as possible
climb maps: often known as kz maps because of their prefix. using precise jumping and speed techniques like surfing and bunnyhopping, reach the end of a technically-intricate course.
in this case, the narrow ledge part is a bonus course (so, designed for people who are bored with the main course and looking for more to do before the map switch) that includes a climb section, probably as a bit of a prank
