Where Are They Now? - VxJasonxV Print
Written by DarkTetsuya   
Thursday, 23 June 2011 21:23

wherearetheynow-vxjasonxv

Welp, we're wrapping up the first week of 'Where Are They Now?' with my last interview this week, VxJasonxV! Perhaps best known as our original webmaster (back when we first launched orangeloungeradio.com back in the day, he did help contribute to the redesign (alongside fellow listener Deekman, perhaps we'll hear from him in a future edition?)

So hit the jump as we catch up!

 


So tell us about yourself. What are you up to these days?

Working, and working, and working. And when I'm not working, I'm either sleeping, or perhaps attending a concert by one of my favorite local chiptune or other musicians.

I've also recently started a podcast with, ironically enough, 2 co-hosts. The Ask Different Podcast is an Apple and related technologies podcast with myself and two other members of the "Ask Different" StackExchange community..

But enough about me, let's get back to me.

Favorite BEMANI game?

Sigh, I haven't played in much too long. Speaking strictly of the game I've actually played at all in the last few years, I guess I would have to go with pop'n music.

Favorite mix from said series?

Again, considering the versions I've actually played recently, pop'n 9 still holds a special place in my heart. The unlock system was fun, the song selection was expansive and exciting. And most importantly, it still has my favorite characters, T-Bone and Boy!

Favorite song/artist? (doesn't have to be from your favorite game/series)

As I previously referenced, I've been attending a fair number of local concerts. For this reason I must give a plug to Rainbowdragoneyes. He makes music with a Gameboy, and a Yamaha synthesizer that is fairly similar to the one used in the Sega Genesis. His music is amazing, and I love it.

Artists I'm currently enjoying that you may have actually heard of?
Tiësto and deadmau5.

Favorite songs are always so hard to come by, but I'll pick one per artist I just referenced:

Rainbowdragoneyes - Heavy Weather: The Storm of the Undead
This is my current favorite primarily because I got to sing it at one of his performances. He shoved the microphone in my face and I continued to sing, probably ridiculously horribly, but it was a blast.

Tiësto - Elements of Life
Wonderful blend of chill-out and energetic dance music.

deadmau5 - I Remember (feat. Kaskade)
No words can describe how absolutely gorgeous this song is.

Oh yeah, and I still love Maximizer ( http://www.ddrfreak.com/modofthemonth/modofthemonthjason.php ), we just need a longer version.

Any tournament memories you want to share? (also, PA or Freestyle?)

The simple act of running them is enough to go off of.

My tournaments are the reason I was a DDR Freak moderator, they provided motivation for various programming projects, one of which being my Stepmania Course Creator (originally written in VB6, now defunct) which led me to discover OLR. LOKI had posted about my application, and I came across it while Google'ing for my own nickname. I believe I found it via the SacBemani forum, which led me to start talking to LOKI, and Rob, and rkdn, and very likely you as well DT, and ultimately maintain and host the orangeloungeradio.com domain, at least one of those is still true to this day.

Oh yeah, tournaments. Running them was always a blast. I participated in most of them, did terrible in all of them. Doubly so for my impromptu Stoic freestyle that was done solely to do the TaQ/Tran pose in the middle and at the end with my friend Nielle who was sitting on the edge of the stage in-between the bars.

I think I kicked her once while moving around, oops :(.

I suck at Perfect Attack and have no style to speak of. One may say I'm "free" of "style". Ha ha ha! I crack myself up. [Hey at least it wasn't Drewnami-level bad... --DT]

Proudest accomplishment?


Managing to pass MAX300 Heavy Doubles was quite a treat, but that was 9 years ago.

Any memories from OLR you'd like to share?

Thinking back to the two episodes I was on, it's ridiculous how bad I was. Terrible radio manners, interrupting people, interrupting to complement what a person was saying, talking to Rob and not answering a question he asked because he was asking me questions about things he was part of. Like our RVGL romp while LOKI's Stepmania cab was still there.

But that was 7 years ago.

Do you still play DDR/IIDX/etc. nowadays?

Yeah, we have a dedicated Stepmania setup downstairs with two Cobalt Fluxes.. It gets used more with friends than it ever is by ourselves.

I've shown IIDX and pop'n to a couple of friends not really involved with Bemani games. They got a kick out of pop'n, and more specifically my wailing on my homemade full-size controller playing Butapunch no Theme (Theme of Butapunch) Hyper.
Pop'nomicon: http://vjarmy.com/wiki/index.php/Butapunch_no_Thema
YouTube (not of me): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOd84RSPT3Y

If you've seen what DDR is like now, do you feel it's 'jumped the shark'? Share your thoughts on that.

I haven't been paying attention to DDR since after Supernova. Oddly enough I had the opportunity to play on a new DDR X2 cabinet in Arizona at Gameworks, but didn't bother. Considering that my friends were telling me that the pad design was inherently flawed, and I don't know any of the songs on it, I just watched the attract reel a couple of times, then moved onto other games like pop'n adventure, iidx gold, taiko no tatsujin, and rhythm tengoku..

Amusingly enough, Gameworks had THREE dance machines, and I never once saw the X2 cabinet being used at any point in the evening, only the Extreme and Pump NX2 machines were.

Obligatory 'your first time playing DDR' story

I discovered Bust-A-Groove in 1999, and played it a ton. I stumbled onto a site called Toys 'n Joys which offered a variety of versions of original and "modded" soft pads.

I was completely unaware of DDR at the time, and I intended to buy a dance pad to play Bust-A-Groove with. Before I saved up to do this, my dad picked up DDR USA PSX for my birthday, and I played it a ton. Drop the Bomb was my absolute favorite at the time.

For the interested, I did play Bust-A-Groove with the dance pad I eventually bought…












It sucked. Pretty much unplayable.

Final thoughts?

Flurry
--

Shortly after this interview went up, I heard back from the last person out of everyoneI originally pitched the interviews to. So drop by the site tomorrow for the real last interview, eurobeat/PPP (and Doctor Who) fanatic Jayveemon! See you then!

 

Last Updated on Friday, 24 June 2011 20:47