DrumMania
Encyclopedia
is a music video game
series produced by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., where colored notes travel down the screen which correspond with color coded parts of an electronic drum set. The player must hit the drum parts when the notes reach the bottom of the screen in order to fill in missing drum parts from a song.
Earlier versions of DrumMania, which includes those released before DrumMania 10th Mix, have been released in Asian countries under the title Percussion Freaks.
Since DrumMania V, DrumMania and GuitarFreaks had been united with a single version number as part of the 5th Anniversary of the video game. DrumMania V8 is the latest version of the DrumMania series, and it links to GuitarFreaks V8. A newer version, DrumMania XG
was released in Japanese arcades on March 10, 2010 http://www.konami.jp/products/am_dmxg/index.html, which adds another cymbal, a floor tom, and the kick pedal for the hi-hat. It was followed with a sequel, DrumMania XG2, which was released on March 9, 2011.
Konami has not mass produced an American version of DrumMania, primarily since John Devecka holds the US patent
for "drum simulation games", which Activision had purchased and utilized in Guitar Hero
series. Even with this possible obstacle in mind, Konami has tested English builds of DrumMania and Guitar Freaks V4 at the ATEI exhibition in London
and at a Brunswick Zone bowling alley in Naperville, Illinois
- though official releases have not been announced. Nonetheless, imported versions of DrumMania can be found in various locations across the United States
and Canada
.
, snare drum
, high tom
, low tom and cymbal
. There is also a foot pedal for the bass drum
near the snare and the high tom. During play, the player presses the pads and steps on the pedal.
On XG series, the configuration changes to imitate a more real drumkit. Left cymbal, double pedal and a floor tom are added to add the experience of playing.
The pads are actually a modified version of the DTXPRESS electronic drum kit
made by Yamaha Corporation which is available in almost any musical chain store.
To the right of these pads, there are three buttons, Left, Start and Right, which are used to select and decide in the selection screens. In those cases, the Left button is assigned to the snare drum pad, Right to the low tom, and Start to the cymbal.
To play the correct note, the player must hit one or two of these pads and/or step the pedal when the note bars reach the yellow line. The note scroll in DrumMania is in essence a drum tablature
timed with the music and placed vertically.
The player's accuracy is judged for each note played, and while the individual note judgments have changed throughout the series, the current system uses Perfect, Great, Good, Poor, and Miss to evaluate performance of each note. Ratings of Poor or Miss will deplete the player's "Excite Gauge", while accurate play will replenish it.
If the Excite Gauge is emptied completely, the game ends. Players will be able to play anywhere from three to five songs depending on the game's configuration, with the potential to earn one or two additional stages in certain versions of the game if performance is good enough.
At the completion of a song, players are given a letter rank for their performance which can range anywhere from E to A, as well as S and SS depending on how well the song was played, and how the particular release of the game being played computes ranks.
The difficulty names also change throughout the series. DrumMania 1st MIX to 6th MIX have the difficulty names Normal, Real, and Expert Real. 7th MIX to 10th MIX and the V series have the difficulties named Basic, Advanced and Extreme. Meanwhile, XG series the difficulties are renamed Novice, Regular, Expert and one new difficulty, Master.
. This allows up to 3 players to play together, the music will play from both games, and the players' guitar and drum sounds will be relayed between the two games as well. Linking only works with the same "version pair". A release of DrumMania was numbered one less than its corresponding version of GuitarFreaks. For example, GuitarFreaks 11thMIX can be linked with DrumMania 10thMIX. Beginning after the 11th and 10th mixes of GuitarFreaks and Drummania respectively, the numbering system was reset to start with V. All newer versions of the two games follow matching V numbering; for example, GuitarFreaks V2 links with DrumMania V2, etc. Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX & DrumMania 1st MIX to GuitarFreaks 3rd MIX & DrumMania 2nd MIX only had a few songs available, but Guitarfreaks 4th MIX & DrumMania 3rd MIX onwards have every new songs available on both GuitarFreaks and DrumMania.
3rdMIX as well. In addition to having three players control the guitars and drums, two more could be added playing along on keyboards.
However, when linked with Keyboardmania, only about a dozen songs are available to play. Keyboardmania 3rd Mix can be linked with GuitarFreaks 5thMIX and DrumMania 4thMIX, or GuitarFreaks 6thMIX and DrumMania 5thMIX.
, which was also implemented on GuitarFreaks on its 3rd Mix, allowing the implementation of link functionality between the two games. On V, both games were switched to a PlayStation 2
based system, now using a hard drive instead of CD-ROM discs to store game data. As of V4, the DrumMania now runs on Windows XP Embedded based hardware (which has also been adopted by other Konami arcade games).
to represent themselves.
Players can select NORMAL, PERFECT or COMBO modes upon selection of the song to determine the final calculation. Upon winning or losing, they will be entitled to promote or demote to another higher BATTLE CLASS rated from D3 to SS, where players are sorted according how well they have successfully defeated opponents.
However, without the use of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, if there are additional Drummania machines in the arcade, an additional Battle Mode (Local) option is created, just like in a LAN
. They have the same functionaility as the Battle Mode (Worldwide); otherwise do not have Battle Classes to sort the players.
Other than Battle Mode (Local), alternatively players can select the Battle Mode (CPU) which is also available only Drummania machines without e-AMUSEMENT access. This mode allows players to complete with the CPU, rather than a player.
However, an online registration must be submitted via the BEMANI TOP RANKER website and the player must play the complusory songs to determine the players who will be representing for their country.
As of Drummania V4, Skill Points are dependent on the first 14 songs released for the particular mix, next 36 songs from previous mixes and last 3 long songs from any mix played throughout the song list.
The previous mixes uses a different calculation of Skill Points since NON-STOP Mode is abolished in Drummania V4. The old skill point calculation is dependent on the first 13 songs released for the particular mix, next 35 songs from previous mixes, 2 long songs from any mix and the last 3 non-stop courses played throughout the song list.
Skill Points are awarded upon successful completion of a song, and depending on how well the Skill Percentage earned for the particular song, the player earns the amount of Skill Points reflected at the end of the game.
and J-rock. Some mixes also contain covers of popular North American songs.
A handful of DrumMania simulators have been created for use on PCs, the most popular of which is recently open-sourced called DTXMania (automated English translation), which also supports GuitarFreaks. It can be controlled using the computer keyboard, any USB device that can act as a joystick, or any MIDI instrument such as a MIDI keyboard or professional quality electronic drum kit. While DTXMania is compatible with Rock Band
and Guitar Hero
series drum sets, they do not have enough drum pads to play many of the DrumMania songs correctly, unless the optional cymbals are added (in conjunction with the free program GlovePIE, using a special script, in the case of the Rock Band set). DTXMania supports up to 8 drum pads and makes a distinction between open and closed Hi-Hat, though it does offer the option to consolidate inputs. Using DTXCreator from the web page it is possible to create playable songs from any mp3/ogg files by charting the song, note by note, on a grid (similar to MIDI file creation). DTXMania can also automatically generate playable drum charts from standard MIDI files, while the surrounding accompaniment is played back using the sound card's General MIDI
instruments.
Music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...
series produced by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., where colored notes travel down the screen which correspond with color coded parts of an electronic drum set. The player must hit the drum parts when the notes reach the bottom of the screen in order to fill in missing drum parts from a song.
Earlier versions of DrumMania, which includes those released before DrumMania 10th Mix, have been released in Asian countries under the title Percussion Freaks.
Since DrumMania V, DrumMania and GuitarFreaks had been united with a single version number as part of the 5th Anniversary of the video game. DrumMania V8 is the latest version of the DrumMania series, and it links to GuitarFreaks V8. A newer version, DrumMania XG
DrumMania XG
is a music video game series produced by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., where colored notes travel down the screen which correspond with color coded parts of an electronic drum set...
was released in Japanese arcades on March 10, 2010 http://www.konami.jp/products/am_dmxg/index.html, which adds another cymbal, a floor tom, and the kick pedal for the hi-hat. It was followed with a sequel, DrumMania XG2, which was released on March 9, 2011.
Konami has not mass produced an American version of DrumMania, primarily since John Devecka holds the US patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
for "drum simulation games", which Activision had purchased and utilized in Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in...
series. Even with this possible obstacle in mind, Konami has tested English builds of DrumMania and Guitar Freaks V4 at the ATEI exhibition in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and at a Brunswick Zone bowling alley in Naperville, Illinois
Naperville, Illinois
Naperville is a city in DuPage and Will Counties in Illinois in the United States, voted the second best place to live in the United States by Money Magazine in 2006. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 141,853. It is the fifth largest city in the state, behind Chicago,...
- though official releases have not been announced. Nonetheless, imported versions of DrumMania can be found in various locations across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Controller
DrumMania is played using a controller designed to imitate a drum set. Five pads are arrayed from left to right for the hi-hatHi-hat
A hi-hat, or hihat, is a type of cymbal and stand used as a typical part of a drum kit by percussionists in R&B, hip-hop, disco, jazz, rock and roll, house, reggae and other forms of contemporary popular music.- Operation :...
, snare drum
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
, high tom
Tom-tom drum
A tom-tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snare.Although "tom-tom" is the British term for a child's toy drum, the name came originally from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala; the tom-tom itself comes from Asian or Native American cultures...
, low tom and cymbal
Cymbal
Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
. There is also a foot pedal for the bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
near the snare and the high tom. During play, the player presses the pads and steps on the pedal.
On XG series, the configuration changes to imitate a more real drumkit. Left cymbal, double pedal and a floor tom are added to add the experience of playing.
The pads are actually a modified version of the DTXPRESS electronic drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
made by Yamaha Corporation which is available in almost any musical chain store.
To the right of these pads, there are three buttons, Left, Start and Right, which are used to select and decide in the selection screens. In those cases, the Left button is assigned to the snare drum pad, Right to the low tom, and Start to the cymbal.
Gameplay
The screen setup is simple. On the left side, notes scroll vertically downwards and a short video clip for each song is displayed in the right side of the screen. Individual notes are represented by small colored bars that scroll downward in the columns.To play the correct note, the player must hit one or two of these pads and/or step the pedal when the note bars reach the yellow line. The note scroll in DrumMania is in essence a drum tablature
Drum tablature
Drum tablature, commonly known as a drum tab, is a form of simplified percussion notation, or tablature for percussion instrument. Instead of the durational notes normally seen on a piece of sheet music, drum tab uses proportional horizontal placement to indicate rhythm and vertical placement on a...
timed with the music and placed vertically.
The player's accuracy is judged for each note played, and while the individual note judgments have changed throughout the series, the current system uses Perfect, Great, Good, Poor, and Miss to evaluate performance of each note. Ratings of Poor or Miss will deplete the player's "Excite Gauge", while accurate play will replenish it.
If the Excite Gauge is emptied completely, the game ends. Players will be able to play anywhere from three to five songs depending on the game's configuration, with the potential to earn one or two additional stages in certain versions of the game if performance is good enough.
At the completion of a song, players are given a letter rank for their performance which can range anywhere from E to A, as well as S and SS depending on how well the song was played, and how the particular release of the game being played computes ranks.
Rating System and Difficulty
All of the songs on DrumMania have their own rating numbers corresponding to the difficulty. Some of the songs have only a few difficulties available to play. DrumMania 1st MIX to 3rd MIX have the rating number ranging from 1 to 10, but this has been widely changed to a scale ranging from 10 to 99. In XG series, the rating is change into a more complex and specific scale, ranging from 1.00 to 9.99, although the highest rating number available is 9.85.The difficulty names also change throughout the series. DrumMania 1st MIX to 6th MIX have the difficulty names Normal, Real, and Expert Real. 7th MIX to 10th MIX and the V series have the difficulties named Basic, Advanced and Extreme. Meanwhile, XG series the difficulties are renamed Novice, Regular, Expert and one new difficulty, Master.
Session Linking
One of the major selling points of DrumMania is its ability to be linked to another of Konami's Bemani games, GuitarFreaksGuitarFreaks
is a music video game series produced by Konami. The player uses a controller to simulate the playing of an electric guitar. The game consists of music predominantly from rock and roll and J-Pop genres, and is now in its 19th version, GuitarFreaks V8, which was released in March 28, 2011...
. This allows up to 3 players to play together, the music will play from both games, and the players' guitar and drum sounds will be relayed between the two games as well. Linking only works with the same "version pair". A release of DrumMania was numbered one less than its corresponding version of GuitarFreaks. For example, GuitarFreaks 11thMIX can be linked with DrumMania 10thMIX. Beginning after the 11th and 10th mixes of GuitarFreaks and Drummania respectively, the numbering system was reset to start with V. All newer versions of the two games follow matching V numbering; for example, GuitarFreaks V2 links with DrumMania V2, etc. Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX & DrumMania 1st MIX to GuitarFreaks 3rd MIX & DrumMania 2nd MIX only had a few songs available, but Guitarfreaks 4th MIX & DrumMania 3rd MIX onwards have every new songs available on both GuitarFreaks and DrumMania.
Super Session
Seen only in two releases each of GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, Super Session (or Multi Session) allowed the games to be linked up with KeyboardmaniaKeyboardmania
Keyboardmania is a rhythm video game created by the Bemani division of Konami. In this game up to two players use 24-key keyboards to play the piano or keyboard part of a selected song. Notes are represented on-screen by small bars that scroll downward above an image of the keyboard itself...
3rdMIX as well. In addition to having three players control the guitars and drums, two more could be added playing along on keyboards.
However, when linked with Keyboardmania, only about a dozen songs are available to play. Keyboardmania 3rd Mix can be linked with GuitarFreaks 5thMIX and DrumMania 4thMIX, or GuitarFreaks 6thMIX and DrumMania 5thMIX.
Hardware
Until V, DrumMania used Konami's System 573 Digital hardwareArcade system board
An arcade system board is a dedicated computer system created for the purpose of running video arcade games. Arcade system boards typically consist of a main system board with any number of supporting boards...
, which was also implemented on GuitarFreaks on its 3rd Mix, allowing the implementation of link functionality between the two games. On V, both games were switched to a PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
based system, now using a hard drive instead of CD-ROM discs to store game data. As of V4, the DrumMania now runs on Windows XP Embedded based hardware (which has also been adopted by other Konami arcade games).
e-Amusement
Since 8th Mix, the series has taken advantage of Konami's e-Amusement system, which adds several online capabilities to the game:Avatar
With the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players are allowed to select an avatarAvatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
to represent themselves.
Battle
As of Drummania V3 with the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players are allowed to select an additional mode: Battle (Worldwide). With Battle mode, players can compete and pit their skills with another player available on the e-AMUSEMENT server; otherwise not available without the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass.Players can select NORMAL, PERFECT or COMBO modes upon selection of the song to determine the final calculation. Upon winning or losing, they will be entitled to promote or demote to another higher BATTLE CLASS rated from D3 to SS, where players are sorted according how well they have successfully defeated opponents.
However, without the use of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, if there are additional Drummania machines in the arcade, an additional Battle Mode (Local) option is created, just like in a LAN
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
. They have the same functionaility as the Battle Mode (Worldwide); otherwise do not have Battle Classes to sort the players.
Other than Battle Mode (Local), alternatively players can select the Battle Mode (CPU) which is also available only Drummania machines without e-AMUSEMENT access. This mode allows players to complete with the CPU, rather than a player.
Hidden songs
With the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players are allowed access to hidden songs not playable without the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass. These songs are highlighted in green prior to selecting a songs.Internet ranking
With the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players are allowed to have their results posted via the Internet. These results include their own personal ranking and have results of their songs stored into the e-AMUSEMENT Pass.Regional competition
With the usage of the e-AMUSEMENT Pass, players can compete against other players locally before being selected as the top 8 players to represent for their country. According the BEMANI TOP RANKER 2008 Competition, these players will be invited to Hong Kong for the semi-finals and Japan for the finals respectively.However, an online registration must be submitted via the BEMANI TOP RANKER website and the player must play the complusory songs to determine the players who will be representing for their country.
Skill Points
Songs played are then converted to Skill Points, which is determined by the percentage of Perfects, Greats and the number of notes hit correctly in succession, known as "Combo." The higher the combo count and percentage of Perfects, Greats, the higher the percentage of skill obtained for that particular song, up to 100% or simply MAX.As of Drummania V4, Skill Points are dependent on the first 14 songs released for the particular mix, next 36 songs from previous mixes and last 3 long songs from any mix played throughout the song list.
The previous mixes uses a different calculation of Skill Points since NON-STOP Mode is abolished in Drummania V4. The old skill point calculation is dependent on the first 13 songs released for the particular mix, next 35 songs from previous mixes, 2 long songs from any mix and the last 3 non-stop courses played throughout the song list.
Skill Points are awarded upon successful completion of a song, and depending on how well the Skill Percentage earned for the particular song, the player earns the amount of Skill Points reflected at the end of the game.
Titles
Players are allowed to select titles earned from Drummania to represent them. These titles require special condition(s) to be met before earning the particular title.Soundtrack
As of DrumMania V5, the arcade versions of DrumMania have contained over 500 songs in total. Most songs are either crossovers from other Bemani games, J-popJ-pop
, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
and J-rock. Some mixes also contain covers of popular North American songs.
Drummania simulators
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
and Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in...
series drum sets, they do not have enough drum pads to play many of the DrumMania songs correctly, unless the optional cymbals are added (in conjunction with the free program GlovePIE, using a special script, in the case of the Rock Band set). DTXMania supports up to 8 drum pads and makes a distinction between open and closed Hi-Hat, though it does offer the option to consolidate inputs. Using DTXCreator from the web page it is possible to create playable songs from any mp3/ogg files by charting the song, note by note, on a grid (similar to MIDI file creation). DTXMania can also automatically generate playable drum charts from standard MIDI files, while the surrounding accompaniment is played back using the sound card's General MIDI
General MIDI
General MIDI or GM is a standardized specification for music synthesizers that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the MIDI Manufacturers Association and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee and first published in 1991...
instruments.
See also
- KonamiKonamiis a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
- List of Bemani musicians
- Rock RevolutionRock RevolutionRock Revolution is a music video game developed by Zoë Mode and HB Studios and published by Konami. It was first revealed on May 15, 2008, and released on October 15, 2008 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360...
- Yamaha Corporation
- List of GuitarFreaks & DrumMania songs
External links
- Konami Digital Entertainment Limited (Hong Kong)
- GuitarFreaks & DrumMania OFFICIAL SITE MAIN TERMINAL GATEWAY
- e-AMUSEMENT PASS
Simulators
- DTXMania, a popular simulator for DM/GF.
- DigiBand, another simulator for DM/GF, currently the only one available for Linux.
- Drum Trainer, a simulator that works with MIDI files.
Community
- GDAmania, a Drummania/Guitarfreaks community website.
- Drummania Unofficial Homepage, a resource for DrumMania song information, including drum charts, artists, and difficulties.
Hardware information
- System 16's Bemani System 573 Analog Page, a listing of games that run on the same arcade platform as the first-generation DrumMania games.
- System 16's Bemani System 573 Digital Page, a listing of games that run on the same arcade platform as the second-generation DrumMania games.
- System 16's Bemani PlayStation 2 Hardware Page, a listing of games that run on the same arcade platform as the third-generation of DrumMania games.
- System 16's Bemani PC Based Hardware Page, a listing of games that run on the same arcade platform as the most recent forth-generation of DrumMania games.