We've gotten reports of pydance running on GNU/Linux, NT, XP, 9x, BSD, MacOS X, and BeOS boxen! We even got it to run on a Playstation 2! Please contact us with any system you might be running pydance on and tell us how it runs. If you can, include the versions of the libraries you're running, your OS, processor type, ram, video hardware, etc.

The Requirements

• Brain.
• Python 2.3 or higher. Windows users want this file; GNU/Linux users want their distribution's Python packages; users who want source can browse around the Python site.
• Pygame 1.5.6 or higher. Windows users want this file; GNU/Linux users again want their distribution's packages. Otherwise, you can get source and some other prepackaged binaries from the Pygame site.
• All of the Pygame dependencies, except Numeric. These come with the above-linked file for Windows. Otherwise, look in your OS distribution, the LibSDL site, and Xiph.org (for Ogg Vorbis).

Sometimes we release a full package of pydance for your OS. Check the download page to see if we have one. If there's no package for your OS, or you're installing from source anyway, the INSTALL file included with the source gives more detailed instructions.

You don't need a mat to play pydance. If you don't have a mat and still want to feed your DDR fetish, you can play with the keyboard. The key bindings are uiojklm,. and the numeric pad by default, but can be changed (read the pydance README included with the downloads).

Using Mats

When you have a mat and you start pydance, using gamecon.o is dog slow. This is not an SDL, Python, or Pygame problem, it's that the PSX controller interface needs to use the CPU for timing. So, to try to remedy this problem, Brendan made some modifications to it and it's now included a DDR mat kernel module. The options are the same as gamecon.o. Don't expect this to work with anything but pydance. You can get it at the download page.

Don't use gamecon.o. We don't support it at all anymore. If you're insane and need to use it, you may need to edit input.py included with the pydance source, and also rotate your mat 45° counter-clockwise.

Vojtech, who maintains the Linux joystick driver says these modifications won't burn up your joysticks or anything, it just might cause them not to work. However, neither he nor Brendan are responsible if you melt a wire or something (anything) goes wrong. It WorkedForMe™, but YourMileageMayVary™.

This module is actually a pretty nasty hack. If you're getting a new adapter, get a USB one instead (and not the one from Radio Shack).