Balloon Fever
/DJ Tepples
For DDR OSC 3+ (2004)

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== Making a long story short ==

A long time ago, I saw an episode of Garfield and Friends titled
"The Fairy Dogmother". It inspired me to plan an Apple II game
called Fairydust, a horizontal shooter where the player could turn
around and go the other way (much like Fantasy Zone for NES or,
to a lesser extent, SCAT for NES). Then various events led me to
discover a PC game called XEvil and an NES game called Joust; some
ideas from those fed into Fairydust, and I started to rework the
concept as a PC title. Various things interfered with production
of this game over the years, and after I discovered Balloon Fight
(for NES) and Hello Kitty World (for Famicom) in 2002 along with
the two games mentioned earlier, I scrapped the project as
somewhat redundant; now I just play a lot of Balloon Fight.

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== The song ==

"Balloon Fever" is a remix of a song by Hip Tanaka from Nintendo's
Balloon Fight.

"Maximizer" from DDR Extreme (US PS2) sounded more like a cross
between "321 Stars" and "Holic" than like many people's conception
of what a Max song should sound like.  And some people didn't agree
with how Konami chose to step the song either:

    "MAXIMIZER's official steps aren't offbeat, they're just
    balloon fever."
    -- k//eternal,
    http://forums.ddrei.com/viewtopic.php?p=21817#21817

During DDREI.com's Tournamix 4, users on the forums had come up
with names for common "syndromes", or errors in step authoring,
such as blue arrow syndrome, EOTC syndrome, Beatmania syndrome, or
karaoke steps.  When I first heard "balloon fever", I thought it
was such a term, perhaps involving arrows going up like balloons,
and I imagined connections to Balloon Fight.  It turned out to
be the result of a then new phpBB word censor changing 'gay' to
'balloon fever', resulting in some mild embarrassment.

So I set out to save face by ReMixing a song from Balloon Fight
to sound like "Maximizer".  The first two-thirds of the result
are from Balloon Fight, and the ending is from Dr. Mario, another
NES game with Hip Tanaka's music.  Only problem is that I am not
sure it's the kind of song ocremix.org wants, given that it still
sounds like a chiptune, albeit a heavily enhanced chiptune.

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== The background ==

At the time when I made the song and the heavy steps, I was
planning to enter this in Tournamix 6, thinking that the filter
would last until June 2005, but "gay" -> "balloon fever" was
turned off sometime around Thanksgiving 2004, and the rest of the
filters soon afterward.  So after I heard about the remix-focused
DDR OSC 3+, I realized that I had a perfectly good entry on
my hands and repurposed the simfile, eliminating a DDREI inside
joke by changing the background to one based on a picture of the
Balloon Fighter trophy from Super Smash Bros. Melee.

-- Video --

OSC3+ version is just a video of me playing Balloon Fight for NES.
Yes, I did test it in both DWI and StepMania.

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== Steps ==

All step charts by Damian Yerrick
  mailto:ddrosc (a) pineight.com
  Bemanistyle.com PM: tepples
  AIM: PinocchioPoppins

Each chart kicks up the difficulty a notch at the end, so don't get
complacent.

#SINGLE:BASIC:5:
These are tricky but not too hard for a fellow who knows what he
is doing, with lots of opportunities for freestyle moves.  It's
got a few easy runs and jumps in it, and it's a good one to try
before you tackle any of the Paranoias or Afronovas on light.

#SINGLE:ANOTHER:8:
Pad steps for advanced pad players. There is a Run From Heck at the
end, but anybody who has beaten A (heavy) should have no problem.

#SINGLE:MANIAC:10:
Steps are designed to maximize fun for the best pad players.
Inspiration from Maximizer (of course), Max 300, A (heavy and oni),
Rhythm and Police, Luv 2 Me, and even a bit of Afronova.  Anybody
who has beaten any of the Maxes on heavy should have no problem.

#SINGLE:SMANIAC:12:
My first set of true keyboard steps. These are index friendly, as
that's how I play after having learned on pads.  There is a Run From
Heck at the end, reminiscent of the end of Drop Out on speed, crack,
and every other upper you can think of, but overall, the steps are
harder than PSM (oni) and BMR's V but easier than BMR's A.

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Have fun!  And don't forget to float, erm, vote!