Australian players arnt good enough

[Andrewzz]

Hey my names Andrew, im a 16 year old living in Queensland, Australia. I love my country.

I have spent the last 3 months trying to purchase a Metal DDR pad for myself, now that doesn't sound to hard right does it? [b]WRONG[b]

1) The market is ridiculously flooded with crappy look alike pads that are going to brake faster then you can say WELL I JUST WASTED $200! And trust me you can say that pretty fast
2) Every time you try and ask for help you either get ignored or afew hundred people telling you to build homebrews.

Okay now ive read homebrew designs, ive read atleast 30 of them and ive got two major issues with them, ONE im 16 and completing my final years of Highschool education at a very academic school, and TWO I simply do not have the skills required to construct and item like this, nor the tools required.

For example I managed to coax my parent into driving me around to several hardware stores (4 different ones) to ask about having the material pre cut for me, 3 simply told me no, and the 4th told me sure they would do it, however they would have to charge me $60 for it....
$60 on top of like $20 material before I even get to to start with the electronics...

AND THE ELECTRONICS, Which by the way most companies don't even SHIP to Australia!

So offcourse the only logical option, go out and buy a pre made metal ddr pad, NO ONE SELLS THEM HERE

So okay il go to Ebay, Ebay has everything right?
WRONG, no one SHIPS to Australia and Ebay australia only sells the plastic ones.

So Il email companies and contact them, i have been refused orders from the following companies because I live in Australia

RedOctane
GameAsylum
DISCOAZUL
Play - Asia, they still send here.. however they no longer sell DDR pads
Futuremax
I-Market
Videogamecentral
Dddrbox
EBGames
GameTraders

(there are at least another 4 or 5 that I cannot currently find the emails for)

THE ONLY Place I can find that will send me a DDR pad is Cobaltflux
So thats $299, and id have to get the extra warrenty for an additional $29
so thats $330, thats an expensive price for any teen
NOW chuck that $264 postage on there and we have $594...

Chuck that into my native currency and we get 720.611 AUD

YAY, Because we all know 16 year olds have $720.611 sitting around. I can get what $8 an hour flipping burgers??


Im disgusted at the response ive gotten from companies and from there lack of interest in the Australian market, were not some 3rd world nobodies.
Why is it Easier to get a pad shipped to Iraq than Australian?
Why does something that costs you $350 cost me 720.611 BEFORE all the tax?
Why are the only solutions I am given requiring parts that I can't even purchase?


My parents are so disinterested now that even mentioning DDR is enough to start an argument.


This is S$#@.

[daikenkai =[]

Wow.

I didn't read the whole thing, I just skimmed.

But still, yeah it does suck to be unsupported by all of there companies.

Perhaps you can try buying from Asia rather than America. They are certainly closer.

Also, for the electronics on the pads just go to a video game store and purchase a used PS1 or 2 controller, they are essentially the same.

EDIT: Read the whole thing, wow that seems like total crap to be treated like that.

You can try going to the Regional forum "Down Under", it talks baout Australia and you will most likely get better luck there.

Good luck!

~DAIKENKAI

[daikenkai =[]

Hmm.

http://www.ddrfreak.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=118117

This guy wants to buy some foam pads.

Ill keep you updated.

~DAIKENKAI

[Tenchi50]

daikenkai's right. Find some Japanese or other other asian companies, the shipping rate will be much better.

oh and not surre if it was a rhetorical question, but i'd say its cheaper to ship to iraq because it would a) there's a european market and b) it's not overseas if it's a european company
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Recall|Goovestats Challenges please
[quote:2aaeee914c="Xantar"]I'm not even posting my name after Guy Love. He frick won the thread I don't even know what this thread is about but he won it.[/quote]

[daikenkai =[]

Holy crap I am becoming a mini SMC...

Infact, with the exception of this post, My posts here have all been good...

(not hijacking thread)

[trob xD]

drive to an arcade and play there

[daikenkai =[]

[æ¢ é›¨]

[ChilliumBromide]

Andrew, while I haven't experienced your situation firsthand, I think I can understand. I believe you were posting more for the sake of rant than for any personal gain, but I'd like to inform you that I have been trying to find a person or group of persons in Australia willing to distribute home pads (with or without association with DTG), as your predicament has been brought up quite a few times here on DDRFreak by other home players in Australia.

I realise that, when you live on an island-continent, with no direct land-connection to any other countries, it is hard to stay equipped with uncommon gaming controllers and other gadgets of quality. That said, I urge you to discuss the idea of homebrews with friends and with yourself. If you don't have any friends in the area who play, try going to the arcade and looking for people; talk to them about how they feel about having to pay hundreds of dollars for import home pads. With any luck, you'll run across an electrician or carpenter looking to enter the work force under a system of self-employment. There are many great guides to building DDR pads, and it's not at all difficult.

I sincerely wish you luck and hope you'll keep me posted.
-Tofu

EDIT:
I just fully read your post (only skimmed it earlier), and apparently you feel like you're not competent enough to build a controller. I felt the same way prior to owning and tearing apart a couple of tx1000's. DON'T LOSE HOPE!
In another topic, you mentioned having a tx1000 that's falling apart. I'd urge you to look into doing some maintainance on it. For instance, you could take the base off and look around. Try and figure out what's wrong with it and what's right with it. Look at the metal bars going across the boards, and the wires trapped under them. That doesn't look right, does it? No! So, why not put some protective tape over them? That way, the metal bars won't strip them and cause pad-misses.
Take off one of the panels (I'd recommend the least responsive one) and do the same. Look at how the wires are connected, look at how the panels are held down, look at how the contact is made. Decide what seems effective and what doesn't. Try and fix what you can and keep playing.

Eventually, no matter how much you maintain it, the pad will die. When this happens, take it apart completely. You can do this with a screw driver and a staple remover. Look at everything, test the strength of the materials. Then, go to a home improvement store and compare what they have there. Check there lumber; what looks cleaner, what feels tougher? Look at their plastics; is it better than what you have? Thicker? Stronger? Clearer? Look at the sheet metal and metal plates. Do they seem like they might work better than what came with your pad?

Don't actually buy anything just yet. Instead, take note of the prices of everything you found, then look at the tutorials you have read, and see which ones will work with the materials you have found.

What the hell, just PM me if you're interested in solving the problem. If not, I'll save it for someone else.
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I used to be active here lol

[cofara]

Not sure what your trying to order from the companies that refused a sale but their pads aren't really any better than a tx1000. They will break just as quick. Did you try mymybox.com In my opinion they make the best pads for 10+ footers. (but they cost more than flux)

Probably your best $$$ decision would be to get something shipped from japan. Try japan ebay, japan ddr site and translate and hope for the best.
(They probably have better pads for sale than the us anyways)