Game:

Dance Dance Revolution A (2016)

Duration: 3:27:52

475 views

22

In this video, I interview Stephen, also known as "123 Kid" in the early days of New York City Dance Dance Revolution. Stephen was the best player in New York, as well as the best player on the East Coast, and one of the best players and in the world during his time playing DDR in the late 7th Mix and early to mid Extreme era.

We talk about his beginnings in Dance Dance Revolution, other players like Jimin "Vagrant Fiend", Shawn "Ironfoot" Tinling being influential in his gameplay, what it was like to play DDR 3rd Mix, 5th mix, Max 2, and DDR Extreme, moving from NYC to New England and playing DDR there, competing with other players in different regions of the country, and winning two of the biggest DDR tournaments during his time playing.

Note: This was recorded using a Macbook and an iPhone for a camera. iOS and/or MacOS has emoji animations that pop up when recording videos with Quicktime/Facetime that are based on hand gestures. I did not know this, and when I went back to watch and edit this video I noticed that they were scattered throughout the interview footage. I cut out almost all of them, but some of the conversation that was happening was too vital contextually to the interview to be cut out, so I had to leave a couple of the emoji animations in.

0:00 Introduction
2:45 - Arcades in NYC
6:30 - JDS, Techtyle, NYC DDR Teams
15:00 - From Techtyle to DDPD
18:00 - The beginnings of DDPD
23:00 - Origins of Superman and 123 Kid
26:35 - Rumors About Good DDR Players
28:00 - Playing at Broadway City Arcade, Media Attention
30:32 - Good DDR Players Around the 3rd Mix Time Period
34:40 - Playing with Shawn “Ironfoot”
36:20 - Barcode Tournament, Ironfoot, Vagrant Fiend
37:15 - Playing with Jimin “Vagrant Fiend”
39:36 - 123 Kid Challenges Ironfoot
44:30 - Talking about Andre Dre/“StealthStar”/“Afronova” Freestyling
50:40 - Nate, Nat, Dre, and Darwin as NYC Freestyle Pioneers
51:20 - Popular NYC Freestyle Routines
53:15 - 5th Mix Scoring
55:26 - Other Regions Playing DDR Near NYC
56:30 - Competing During 5th Mix
59:42 - Problems with Long Island DDR Player “Goku”
1:02:16 - Competing Against Deshaun “Perfect Asymmetry”
1:06:30 - Thoughts on Max 300
1:11:24 - Playing DDR at Mohican Sun and Moving to Connecticut
1:15:45 - Starting to Play DDR MAX2 7th Mix
1:21:28 - Not Playing with Speed in NYC
1:24:26 - Thoughts on Maxx Unlimited
1:27:02 - Perception of Sharing Scores
1:32:00 - CSA1 Tournament and Dan The Ham
1:42:20 - Shifting from Perfect Asymmetry to 123 Kid
1:44:35 - The Growth of Lazer Park for DDR
1:47:34 - Staten Island DDR
1:50:45 - Other DDR Competition outside of NYC
1:55:15 - Thoughts on DDR Extreme
1:57:00 - Champions of the Coast 2003 and Facing Qkumbr
2:01:00 - Significance of Stephen’s Higher Skill Level
2:04:15 - Training Up to Pass Legend Road
2:12:30 - Paranoia Survivor and The Legend of Max
2:15:40 - The Expansion of DDPD
2:23:10 - Nightmare Rob and New England DDR
2:27:20 - Winning the DDR Extreme Broadway City Tournament
2:46:25 - Missing CSA2 and JSB
2:53:20 - Dominating Champions of the Coast 2004
3:05:15 - 123 Kid vs. Sketch
3:11:00 - Thoughts on In The Groove
3:13:10 - Memories and Fun Times of Playing DDR
3:19:00 - Quick Thoughts on Current DDR
3:20:15 - 123 Kid’s Impact on DDR Overall
3:27:25 - Outro

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Background Thumbnail Picture Credit
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Daniel Russell
Picture: https://flic.kr/p/6vUuuA
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Music Credit
Song: Purrple Cat - Windy
License: Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
https://youtube.com/purrplecatmusic
Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com
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