Pump It Up
Encyclopedia
Pump It Up, commonly abbreviated as PIU or shortened to just Pump, is a music video game
series currently developed by Nexcade and published by Andamiro
, a Korea
n arcade game producer. The game is typically played on a dance pad
with five arrow panels: up-left, up-right, bottom-left, bottom-right, and a center panel. Additional gameplay modes may utilize two five-panel pads side-by-side. These panels are pressed using the player's feet, in response to arrows that appear on the screen in front of the player. The arrows are synchronized
to the general rhythm
or beat
of a chosen song
, and success is dependent on the player's ability to time and position his or her steps accordingly.
The original version of the game was originally released in South Korea
in August 1999. The game has also been released in other markets, such as North America
and South America
and in Europe
. The current version of the game, Pump It Up Fiesta EX
, was released on March, 2011. Pump it Up has tried to cater more to Freestyle players than "technical" players with more freestyle-friendly charts, as a result the game has more of a culture in the freestyle and breakdancing disciplines. However, the game still caters well to technical players with a vast array of high difficulty songs and stepcharts.
Successfully hitting the arrows in time with the music fills a life bar, while failure to do so drains it. If the bar is fully depleted during gameplay with Stage Break mode turned on, the player fails the song, usually resulting in a game over
. If Stage Break is off, players only fail the song (and cause play to stop) by getting a combo of 51 consecutive misses. Otherwise, the player is taken to the Results Screen, which rates the player's performance with a letter grade and a numerical score, among other statistics. The player may then be given a chance to play again, depending on the settings of the particular machine. The amount of songs in a credit is 3 songs + bonus on all versions other than Extra Mix and NX2. Extra allows changing the game to 2+1 while NX2 is 2+1 by default on Arcade Station (3 songs in all other Stations). If the player gets an S or A ranking on all songs in a game, the player earns a "bonus stage".
Depending on the version of the game, dance steps are broken into varying levels of difficulty - as of the current version, these modes are known as Normal, Hard, and Crazy for single pads, and Freestyle and Nightmare for doubles. However, the all-new "Full Mode" changes that by breaking the levels into numbers that range from 1 to 27, which are also divided between Singles, Doubles and Single/Double/Triple Performance (mostly freestyle). Older versions contained modes such as Half Double, Division (which used two stepcharts that could be switched between using special arrows acting as a form of switch). Other modes on some versions include Battle modes, long versions and themed mixes, and mission modes containing different challenges with specific criteria. The steps for the various levels of difficulty available for a particular song are ranked using a scale, the format of which varies from version to version - usually using either numbers, symbols, or both. On some versions, songs with higher difficulties do not even have ratings, and are represented with a level of "??".
Before Exceed was released, the difficulty for all game modes ranged from 1 to 10, with the exception of "Vook", a song introduced on The Premiere 2, which was level 12 on Double mode. These difficulty ratings were only useful with respect to other songs in the same mode: a level 5 Crazy song will likely be easier than a Crazy song ranked 8, but is probably more difficult than a 7 on Hard. With Exceed's debut, all levels were reworked, in a unified range from 1 to 15 for Crazy mode and ranging as high as 20 for Nightmare mode.
The rating system was again slightly reworked for the upper level songs with Exceed 2's release, raising the range to 20 for Crazy and going even higher for Nightmare mode, with a high of 22. Exceed 2 also added the infamous "??" rating for the truly top-tier songs. With Zero's release, the difficulty was scaled from 1 to beyond 20, with the highest at 23. Some unrated songs were arguably more difficult than the level 23, including some of the "another step" songs, which were all given a level of "??". The release of New Xenesis saw a return to representing levels symbolically. It uses a star scale to measure the lower levels, which goes up to 8 in half increments (for a maximum level of 16). The higher levels are measure by a skull scale which goes up to 8 in whole increments. On NX2 and NX Absolute, this scale is modified with a line of circles that go up to 8 in whole increments. Higher difficulties replace these circles with stars and even higher difficulties replace the stars with skulls. This scale is also accompanied by a number. Starting with Fiesta, the Normal / Hard / Crazy / Freestyle / Nightmare modes are replaced by prefixing the difficulty level with either single or double.
The difficulty ratings are subjective by nature and are therefore not always deemed accurate.
The way the difficulty rating appears on screen also varies a bit, depending on the version's interface: on The Premiere, The PREX, The Premiere 2, Exceed, Exceed 2 and Zero, the difficulty is indicated by a natural number
, like "3" or "8"; on all other versions, they are indicated by a line of circles, with as many circles as the level of the song.
Most players, after a starting period, get used to applying the modifiers to make arrows faster, which makes them more spaced. This is a matter of personal preferences, but top tier players generally prefer to apply these modifiers to make the arrows scroll towards the top of the screen at a very fast pace. Some (not all) step codes for the specific version are contained on a sticker affixed to the machine.
. Two of the main members, Yahpp and Msgoon - recently became independent artists (and as of NX and Fiesta respectively, all of their songs are now branded using their aliases). Aside from the K-Pop licenses, most in-house songs on Pump it Up are of Korean influence. The diversity in genres is very great despite this, covering everything from general pop
to heavy metal
to Hip hop
as well as an assortment of uncommon genres such as jazz
, folk
, and ska
.
Some of BanYa's songs include covers
of classical pieces such as Canon in D
, mostly performed in a symphonic rock
style.
In comparison to Konami
's Bemani
line-up and other arcade rhythm games, there has been negligible emphasis on electronic music
in Pump, but the first instances of electronic music on Pump occurred on NX2
, as five crossovers from the American-made spinoff appeared, who in contrast, has a greater emphasis on electronic music.
The first internationally released version was titled Pump it Up: The Premiere, an adaptation of the Perfect Collection version containing 6 covers of American songs. The next version was called The Prex (combining Premiere with the Korean Extra version), and The Premiere 2, based on Rebirth. Another Prex title was released, Prex 2, followed by Premiere 3 and Prex 3.
The International and Korean releases would be unified on the 9th version, Prex 3, which was released in Korea and in the rest of the world. The series began catering to both Korea and the rest of the world starting with Exceed.
A standard Pump it Up arcade
machine consists of two parts, the cabinet
and the dance platform. The cabinet has a wide bottom section, which houses large floor speakers and glowing neon lamp
s. Above this sits a narrower section that contains the monitor
, and on top is a lighted marquee graphic, with two small speakers and flashing lights on it. The dance stage
is a raised metal platform divided into two sides. Each side houses a set of five acrylic glass
pads arranged like the pips on the 5 side of a die
, separated by metal squares. Each pad sits atop pressure activated switches, and a software-controlled cold cathode
lamp illuminating the translucent pad. A metal safety bar in the shape of an "R" is mounted to the dance stage behind each player. Some players make use of this safety bar to help maintain proper balance, do tricks during Freestyle routines, and to relieve weight from the legs so that arrows can be pressed with greater speed and accuracy. The community however, places more emphasis on no-bar play, as most major Pump it Up tournaments do not allow bar usage or have a separate division allowing it.
DX cabinets utilize a large Rear-projection television
as their monitor (with the lights being on the sides of the screen's enclosure instead of along the top), and FX cabinets contain a Plasma display
as the monitor, LED lights, and a pair of LED vertical VU meter
s on the sides. As of NX2, all Pump it Up machines now include USB ports on the side of the cabinet which allow the saving of statistics and unlocks to a proprietary USB drive. All FX cabinets contain them (as NX was slated to have USB functionality, which was later shifted to NX2), and the upgrade kit for NX2 includes the external USB ports so that they can be soldered
to the machine if it doesn't already have them.
, coming with a CD
containing the game and a special dance mat, with arrows of the same size as the arcade's pads. On Korean versions, the mat is connected through the PS/2
port, and comes with an adapter to share it with the keyboard
. On international versions, the mat uses a USB
plug. Exceed and Zero were also released for the PlayStation Portable
.
On November 11, 2004, Andamiro released the Korean version of Pump It Up: Exceed on the PlayStation 2
, which includes most of the songs from the arcade Exceed version. An American version of the game was released on August 31, 2005 for the Xbox
and PlayStation 2 under the title Pump It Up Exceed SE This version includes most of the songs from the Korean PS2 version, six US licensed songs as well as revivals and removals from Exceed 2. Exceed SE also uses the updated engine from Exceed 2
PIU can be simulated by the programs
Kick It Up, Direct Move and StepMania
.
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 currently developed by Nexcade and published by Andamiro
Andamiro
Originally founded in Korea in 1992 as Oksan Entertainment Co. Ltd, the company changed its name to Anda Miro Entertainment in 1999. The company holds its main office in Seoul, Korea....
, a Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
n arcade game producer. The game is typically played on a dance pad
Dance pad
A dance pad, also known as a dance mat, dance platform, or jiffer deck is a flat electronic game controller used for input in dance games. Most dance pads are divided into a 3×3 matrix of square panels for the player to stand on, with some or all of the panels corresponding to directions or actions...
with five arrow panels: up-left, up-right, bottom-left, bottom-right, and a center panel. Additional gameplay modes may utilize two five-panel pads side-by-side. These panels are pressed using the player's feet, in response to arrows that appear on the screen in front of the player. The arrows are synchronized
Synchronization
Synchronization is timekeeping which requires the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. The familiar conductor of an orchestra serves to keep the orchestra in time....
to the general rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
or beat
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
of a chosen song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
, and success is dependent on the player's ability to time and position his or her steps accordingly.
The original version of the game was originally released in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
in August 1999. The game has also been released in other markets, such as North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. The current version of the game, Pump It Up Fiesta EX
Pump It Up Fiesta
Pump it Up Fiesta are popular coin operated video arcade dance machines. Fiesta 2010 is the 22nd arcade game release in the Pump It Up series, released in Mexico on March 6, 2010, and in January 2011, Andamiro Entertainment released the 23rd iteration of the PIU series, "Pump It Up Fiesta EX"...
, was released on March, 2011. Pump it Up has tried to cater more to Freestyle players than "technical" players with more freestyle-friendly charts, as a result the game has more of a culture in the freestyle and breakdancing disciplines. However, the game still caters well to technical players with a vast array of high difficulty songs and stepcharts.
Gameplay
The core gameplay involves the player moving his or her feet to a set pattern, stepping in time to the general rhythm or beat of a song. During normal gameplay, arrows scroll upwards from the bottom of the screen and pass over stationary arrows near the top (referred to as the "guide arrows" or "receptors"). When the scrolling arrows overlap the stationary ones, the player must step on the corresponding arrows on the dance platform. Players receive a judgment for each step based on the accuracy of the step. Judgments include, from best to worst, Perfect, Great, Good, Bad and Miss. The size of these judgments vary from version to version, and sometimes depend on the difficulty of the machine set by the machine operator. Longer arrows referred to as "holds" must be held down for their entire length (with them adding additional Perfects to the combo, and in addition - holds can be held on to before the hold passes through without penalty).Successfully hitting the arrows in time with the music fills a life bar, while failure to do so drains it. If the bar is fully depleted during gameplay with Stage Break mode turned on, the player fails the song, usually resulting in a game over
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
. If Stage Break is off, players only fail the song (and cause play to stop) by getting a combo of 51 consecutive misses. Otherwise, the player is taken to the Results Screen, which rates the player's performance with a letter grade and a numerical score, among other statistics. The player may then be given a chance to play again, depending on the settings of the particular machine. The amount of songs in a credit is 3 songs + bonus on all versions other than Extra Mix and NX2. Extra allows changing the game to 2+1 while NX2 is 2+1 by default on Arcade Station (3 songs in all other Stations). If the player gets an S or A ranking on all songs in a game, the player earns a "bonus stage".
Depending on the version of the game, dance steps are broken into varying levels of difficulty - as of the current version, these modes are known as Normal, Hard, and Crazy for single pads, and Freestyle and Nightmare for doubles. However, the all-new "Full Mode" changes that by breaking the levels into numbers that range from 1 to 27, which are also divided between Singles, Doubles and Single/Double/Triple Performance (mostly freestyle). Older versions contained modes such as Half Double, Division (which used two stepcharts that could be switched between using special arrows acting as a form of switch). Other modes on some versions include Battle modes, long versions and themed mixes, and mission modes containing different challenges with specific criteria. The steps for the various levels of difficulty available for a particular song are ranked using a scale, the format of which varies from version to version - usually using either numbers, symbols, or both. On some versions, songs with higher difficulties do not even have ratings, and are represented with a level of "??".
Difficulty
The steps for the various levels of difficulty available for a particular song are ranked using a scale, the format of which varies from version to version.Before Exceed was released, the difficulty for all game modes ranged from 1 to 10, with the exception of "Vook", a song introduced on The Premiere 2, which was level 12 on Double mode. These difficulty ratings were only useful with respect to other songs in the same mode: a level 5 Crazy song will likely be easier than a Crazy song ranked 8, but is probably more difficult than a 7 on Hard. With Exceed's debut, all levels were reworked, in a unified range from 1 to 15 for Crazy mode and ranging as high as 20 for Nightmare mode.
The rating system was again slightly reworked for the upper level songs with Exceed 2's release, raising the range to 20 for Crazy and going even higher for Nightmare mode, with a high of 22. Exceed 2 also added the infamous "??" rating for the truly top-tier songs. With Zero's release, the difficulty was scaled from 1 to beyond 20, with the highest at 23. Some unrated songs were arguably more difficult than the level 23, including some of the "another step" songs, which were all given a level of "??". The release of New Xenesis saw a return to representing levels symbolically. It uses a star scale to measure the lower levels, which goes up to 8 in half increments (for a maximum level of 16). The higher levels are measure by a skull scale which goes up to 8 in whole increments. On NX2 and NX Absolute, this scale is modified with a line of circles that go up to 8 in whole increments. Higher difficulties replace these circles with stars and even higher difficulties replace the stars with skulls. This scale is also accompanied by a number. Starting with Fiesta, the Normal / Hard / Crazy / Freestyle / Nightmare modes are replaced by prefixing the difficulty level with either single or double.
The difficulty ratings are subjective by nature and are therefore not always deemed accurate.
The way the difficulty rating appears on screen also varies a bit, depending on the version's interface: on The Premiere, The PREX, The Premiere 2, Exceed, Exceed 2 and Zero, the difficulty is indicated by a natural number
Natural number
In mathematics, the natural numbers are the ordinary whole numbers used for counting and ordering . These purposes are related to the linguistic notions of cardinal and ordinal numbers, respectively...
, like "3" or "8"; on all other versions, they are indicated by a line of circles, with as many circles as the level of the song.
Modifiers
Since the first release, all game modes accept modifiers which are enabled by using special codes. The effects vary from speeding arrows up, changing the design of the arrows all together, making them fade as they go up, or making them appear in random places instead of their pre-defined column (while still being on the same beat).Most players, after a starting period, get used to applying the modifiers to make arrows faster, which makes them more spaced. This is a matter of personal preferences, but top tier players generally prefer to apply these modifiers to make the arrows scroll towards the top of the screen at a very fast pace. Some (not all) step codes for the specific version are contained on a sticker affixed to the machine.
Music
The songs used in Pump It Up consist primarily of Korean-based music. Premiere 3 and Exceed were the only versions to put a greater emphasis on international Pop music due to its branching into other markets such as North America. After Exceed, the focus shifted back to K-Pop as the players worldwide generally favored the game's original Korean music. Much of the music on Pump is contributed by a in-house (and mostly anonymous) collective known as BanYaBanya
Banya may refer to:* Banya , a traditional Russian steam bath* BanYa, a South Korean musical group* Banya: The Explosive Delivery Man, a comic by Kim Young-ohIn places:* Banya, Plovdiv Province, a town in southern Bulgaria...
. Two of the main members, Yahpp and Msgoon - recently became independent artists (and as of NX and Fiesta respectively, all of their songs are now branded using their aliases). Aside from the K-Pop licenses, most in-house songs on Pump it Up are of Korean influence. The diversity in genres is very great despite this, covering everything from general pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
to heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
to Hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
as well as an assortment of uncommon genres such as jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, and ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
.
Some of BanYa's songs include covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of classical pieces such as Canon in D
Canon in D
Pachelbel's Canon is the most famous piece of music by German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. It was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue in the same key. Like most other works by Pachelbel and other pre-1700 composers, the Canon remained forgotten for...
, mostly performed in a symphonic rock
Symphonic rock
Symphonic rock is a sub-genre of progressive rock. Since early in progressive rock's history, the term has been used sometimes to distinguish more classically influenced progressive rock from the more psychedelic and experimental forms of progressive rock....
style.
In comparison to Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
's Bemani
Bemani
is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division, or simply G.M.D., it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, Beatmania, and expanded into other music-based games.-Bemani video games:...
line-up and other arcade rhythm games, there has been negligible emphasis on electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
in Pump, but the first instances of electronic music on Pump occurred on NX2
Pump It Up NX2
Pump it Up Next Xenesis is the 20th arcade game release in the Pump It Up series. It was released worldwide on January 21, 2008 after being made available in Mexico and Korea a couple months prior....
, as five crossovers from the American-made spinoff appeared, who in contrast, has a greater emphasis on electronic music.
Modes & other features
Several other gameplay modes have appeared throughout the series.- Battle Mode, appearing on "Pump it Up 2nd DF", player with higher score would win the battle. On Perfect Collection and The Premiere, a player could "attack" their opponent with modifiers by creating combos, with longer combos results in more damaging attacks. On Exceed 2 there are extra bonus arrows containing power ups activated by action steps that come up later which launches the attack. The battle could be decided in only 1 song in most cases. Stage Break does not affect this mode.
- Division Mode, appearing on Premiere 2 and Rebirth, utilized special stepcharts with "switches" that could switch between a "Groove" style (for freestyling), and a "Wild" style for more advanced charts.
- Half-Double, appearing on Premiere 2 and Rebirth and remaining until Premiere 3 and Prex 3, was a mode which only used the 6 panels in the middle (both centers plus the right arrow pair on the 1p side and the left arrow pair on the 2p side).
- Zero included an Easy Mode, with a selection of easy songs and a modified interface.
- Many PIU games include modes featuring Nonstop Remixes, longer club mixes of several songs, and sometimes even long versions of existing songs.
- Mission Mode was introduced in Zero, and involves playing songs with specific conditions that must be met. On Zero, each mission is divided into three songs, or stages, and are ranked in difficulty by the number of stars shown. If a song is failed, the player is also given an option to continue the mission and attempt the stage again. The mode was expanded into the World Tour mode on NX, and the RPG-styled WorldMax on NX2.
- Some versions include Another Step versions of songs, containing tougher alternate stepcharts than in the usual game modes - sometime containing charts that are experimental with unique (and often weird or extremely difficult) elements inside unlike any other stepcharts found in the game.
- Training Mode was introduced in NX, and consists of special tutorials themed on various fundamentals of play. Lessons consist of 3 songs with special stepcharts emphasizing the theme of the lesson.
- Brain Shower was introduced in NXA. It is a new type of game that combines traditional timing of steps and arrows with mental exercises including mathematics, observation, and memory.
Installments and mixes
The first game in the series was simply titled Pump it Up, followed by 2nd Dance Floor, 3rd: O.B.G (Oldies but Goodies), 3rd: SE (Season Evolution), The Collection, Perfect Collection, Extra, and Rebirth.The first internationally released version was titled Pump it Up: The Premiere, an adaptation of the Perfect Collection version containing 6 covers of American songs. The next version was called The Prex (combining Premiere with the Korean Extra version), and The Premiere 2, based on Rebirth. Another Prex title was released, Prex 2, followed by Premiere 3 and Prex 3.
The International and Korean releases would be unified on the 9th version, Prex 3, which was released in Korea and in the rest of the world. The series began catering to both Korea and the rest of the world starting with Exceed.
A standard Pump it Up arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
machine consists of two parts, the cabinet
Arcade cabinet
A video game arcade cabinet, also known as a video arcade machine or video coin-op, is the housing within which a video arcade game's hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the JAMMA wiring standard...
and the dance platform. The cabinet has a wide bottom section, which houses large floor speakers and glowing neon lamp
Neon lamp
A neon lamp is a miniature gas discharge lamp that typically contains neon gas at a low pressure in a glass capsule. Only a thin region adjacent to the electrodes glows in these lamps, which distinguishes them from the much longer and brighter neon tubes used for signage...
s. Above this sits a narrower section that contains the monitor
Computer display
A monitor or display is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure...
, and on top is a lighted marquee graphic, with two small speakers and flashing lights on it. The dance stage
Dance pad
A dance pad, also known as a dance mat, dance platform, or jiffer deck is a flat electronic game controller used for input in dance games. Most dance pads are divided into a 3×3 matrix of square panels for the player to stand on, with some or all of the panels corresponding to directions or actions...
is a raised metal platform divided into two sides. Each side houses a set of five acrylic glass
Acrylic glass
Poly is a transparent thermoplastic, often used as a light or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It is sometimes called acrylic glass. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate...
pads arranged like the pips on the 5 side of a die
Dice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
, separated by metal squares. Each pad sits atop pressure activated switches, and a software-controlled cold cathode
Cold cathode
A cold cathode is a cathode used within nixie tubes, gas discharge lamps, discharge tubes, and some types of vacuum tube which is not electrically heated by the circuit to which it is connected...
lamp illuminating the translucent pad. A metal safety bar in the shape of an "R" is mounted to the dance stage behind each player. Some players make use of this safety bar to help maintain proper balance, do tricks during Freestyle routines, and to relieve weight from the legs so that arrows can be pressed with greater speed and accuracy. The community however, places more emphasis on no-bar play, as most major Pump it Up tournaments do not allow bar usage or have a separate division allowing it.
DX cabinets utilize a large Rear-projection television
Rear-projection television
Rear-projection television or RPTV is a type of large-screen television display technology. Up until the mid-2000s, most of the relatively affordable consumer large screen TVs up to used rear-projection technology...
as their monitor (with the lights being on the sides of the screen's enclosure instead of along the top), and FX cabinets contain a Plasma display
Plasma display
A plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...
as the monitor, LED lights, and a pair of LED vertical VU meter
VU meter
A VU meter is often included in audio equipment to display a signal level in Volume Units; the device is sometimes also called volume indicator ....
s on the sides. As of NX2, all Pump it Up machines now include USB ports on the side of the cabinet which allow the saving of statistics and unlocks to a proprietary USB drive. All FX cabinets contain them (as NX was slated to have USB functionality, which was later shifted to NX2), and the upgrade kit for NX2 includes the external USB ports so that they can be soldered
Soldering
Soldering is a process in which two or more metal items are joined together by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, the filler metal having a lower melting point than the workpiece...
to the machine if it doesn't already have them.
Home versions
Andamiro eventually released home versions of Pump it Up for PCsPersonal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, coming with a CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
containing the game and a special dance mat, with arrows of the same size as the arcade's pads. On Korean versions, the mat is connected through the PS/2
PS/2 connector
The PS/2 connector is a 6-pin Mini-DIN connector used for connecting some keyboards and mice to a PC compatible computer system. Its name comes from the IBM Personal System/2 series of personal computers, with which it was introduced in 1987...
port, and comes with an adapter to share it with the keyboard
Computer keyboard
In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...
. On international versions, the mat uses a USB
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
plug. Exceed and Zero were also released for the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
.
On November 11, 2004, Andamiro released the Korean version of Pump It Up: Exceed on the 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...
, which includes most of the songs from the arcade Exceed version. An American version of the game was released on August 31, 2005 for the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and PlayStation 2 under the title Pump It Up Exceed SE This version includes most of the songs from the Korean PS2 version, six US licensed songs as well as revivals and removals from Exceed 2. Exceed SE also uses the updated engine from Exceed 2
PIU can be simulated by the programs
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
Kick It Up, Direct Move and StepMania
StepMania
StepMania is an open source and cross-platform rhythm video game and engine. It was originally developed as a simulator of Konami's arcade game series Dance Dance Revolution, and has since evolved into an extensible rhythm game engine capable of supporting a wide variety of rhythm-based game types...
.
External links
- Andamiro Entertainment Website - Makers Of PIU (In Korean and English)
- PIU Official Website
- Pump Haven – Fan site featuring an international Pump community, simfiles, game music and videos, and various other PIU media.
- PH's PIU Master Song List 1, 2, 3, & 4 - Statistics on all released Pump It Up songs from all games, mix appearances, levels, artists, etc.