The history of the "Black Flag"

foyboy21 · Roxor Staff Joined: 21 Sep 2002 Location: Seattle

If you don't care, for gods sakes don't read. For those of you that find the origens of lingo intresting here is a tid bit of the origin of this phrase.

I can't belive that "black flag" has stuck and is used on many differant boards. Anyway, where did black flag come from and what the hell does it mean?

The 5 legged man (Derik Head) races cars. He told me once upon a time that if you drive in such a manner where you might kill someone that you will get a black flag. This black flag is not a warning, it is a one time single mistake that will end your race (it may even end your carrear, I'll have to ask, its been years since I discussed this with him).

The point of the black flag is that one mistke makes it impossible for you to finish the race. Just as one great makes it impossible for you get get a AAA. Just one step, and you can NEVER get a AAA for that song. Just one black flag and you can never place in that race regardless of what position you were in.

When you are playing a song and you see that great come up, it is just like the driver that saw the black flag, it spelled the end, no matter how well you drive after that you can not place. No matter how well you step after that great you can not get a AAA.

I got busy with school and time passed with me being away from the DDR scene. When I returned people had actually started using my saying of black flag, yet they had no idea where it came from or what it meant. I heard of green flag (which should mean 1 lap to go?), red flag, blue flag and so on. I was like what the heck? Racing does not have a red or blue flag. They have yellow, but no one talked about a yellow flag.

Turns out people liked the idea of the black flag, one mistake idea. They ran with this idea and created new lingo. Blue flag meant all perfects and 1 blue step (one good). Red flag meant all perfects and one red step (one miss). Anyway you can figure out the rest of the flags from this.

A green flag became what the old black flag was and now the black flag was suppoed to be all perfects and one great IF the great was on the very last step.

Why the last step? The green flag was named buy some guys up in seattle that new about an intresting event that happend during the 1st 2 days after 6th mix came out in seattle (way before it was playable as anything other than an extra stage). I had played max300 and failed it several times. On the 2nd day I made it all the way through the song and jumped on the final freeze arrows. People Cheered and I through up my hands in excitement. The weight of me throwing up my hands cause me to drop a freeze arrow and I FAILD again. No one had even seen the song beat in that region. For a time if you falid a song on your final step in the northwest people would say you "foyed" it. So back to the black flag. The same people that were around durign the days when I faild on teh final step of max300 decided that since I came up with black flag, they would say that it was only a black flag if you got the great on the final step.

I think that does it as to where this lingo came from. To those of you that read this and are from the northwest and remeber something I left out, feel free to post it and I'll edit the thread.

Hope you enjoyed the history lesson.

Lawrence · Trick Member Joined: 18 Dec 2004

so your just saying... if you stuff up, you have no second chances? its over?

(forgive me being so lost. ive never heard of the phrase

)

foyboy21 · Roxor Staff Joined: 21 Sep 2002 Location: Seattle

Dj Sway · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:22 am Post subject:

Very interesting history.
Glad you posted it.

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Pop'n Usagi! · Trick Member Joined: 17 Nov 2002 Location: Your mum

A few more flag-related DDR terms?

Blue flag = all perfects and 1 Good
White flag = all marvelous and 1 perfect (on a course)
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[quote:8b1ee61c71="rampage in oct '04"]
I'm sure if it was sold for profit, Konami would clamp down on it (I'm sure it's a matter of time before they clamp down on ITG).[/quote]

Dj Sway · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:00 am Post subject:

Gay Flag- 2 or more perfects, greats, goods, almosts, and misses.
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Pop'n Usagi! · Trick Member Joined: 17 Nov 2002 Location: Your mum

mtwieg · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:46 pm Post subject:

J. S. Mill · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:14 pm Post subject:

Foy, this is from Southern Californian perspective, we always thought it came from you Seattle guys. I know "Black Flag" did mean on the last step for a while - but then just came to mean just one great. We use "True Black Flag" now for last step. It'd be interesting to know the evolution of the term.
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Pop'n Usagi! · Trick Member Joined: 17 Nov 2002 Location: Your mum

J. S. Mill · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:21 pm Post subject:

Nobody anywhere has gotten one perfect on any oni course or has even come close.

If someone had, they would need to be at least three years ahead of the very best players in the world and they would need to somehow play in secret such that nobody who posts would have EVER seen them.

Not buyin it.
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MAAAX_himself · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:19 pm Post subject:

foyboy21 · Roxor Staff Joined: 21 Sep 2002 Location: Seattle

Kiba

josh loves macho gang · Trick Member Joined: 18 Sep 2004 Location: w00dbridge

flaget

Flameboat · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 9:00 am Post subject:

l33tg4m3r · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 12:18 pm Post subject:

Very interesting history lesson...I've heard, in the background once or twice, some people use that occasionally, saying they "black flagged" a song, but never really knew what it meant.

foyboy21 · Roxor Staff Joined: 21 Sep 2002 Location: Seattle

Glad you guys liked the info.

Not to talk about ITG in DDR chit chat, but we used this idea in ITG as well. However we only used the green flag (for 1 great, the rest steps being excellent or better), and a gold flag (for 1 excellent, the rest of the steps being fantastic).

Dj Sway · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 2:27 pm Post subject:

Phrekwenci · Administrator Joined: 27 Feb 2002 Location: New York, NY

J. S. Mill · Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 2:13 am Post subject:

Oh I'm well aware of Pop4 Normal and also Love Heart normal, but it sounded like he was talking about Oni Courses.
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