IN THE GROOVE (VIDEO GAME)

'''In the Groove''' (abbreviated '''ITG''') is the first game in the ''In the Groove'' franchise, published and developed by Roxor Games, and first released in video arcades around August 30, 2004.

Contents

Gameplay

Modes of Play

History

Scoring details

Judgements

Scoring

Grading

Technical Details

Songs

Song Synchronization

Song list

Lawsuit

See also

References

External links

Gameplay

''In the Groove'' is a rhythm video game in the same genre as Konami's Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and Andamiro's Pump It Up (PIU). The player stands on a large metal dance pad approximately 33 inches in width and length. The pad is divided into a three-by-three matrix, with sensors at the north, south, west, and east squares of the matrix. These squares are labeled with arrows pointing up, down, left, and right, respectively. The player must use his feet to accurately step on the arrows that correspond to the music and the scrolling arrow patterns on the main display.
Four stationary "target" arrows that correspond to the arrows at the player's feet are displayed at the top of the screen. As the song plays, moving arrows rise up from the bottom of the screen to meet the targets. When a moving arrow completely overlaps the target, the player steps on the corresponding arrow on the dance pad. This moment typically corresponds to a defineable rhythm of the song.
As the player steps on the arrows, the game displays a judgment of how accurate the player's steps are to the scrolling arrow pattern. Additionally, the game will display the player's current "combo", defined by the number of Fantastics, Excellents, and Greats the player has achieved in a row without receiving any lower judgments.
An on-screen meter, known as a "life bar," gauges the player's ability to combo a song. The meter begins at 50% and raises if the player steps on an arrow with a judgment of Fantastic, Excellent, or Great. The meter stays the same if the player steps on an arrow with a judgment of Decent, and lowers if the player gets a Way Off or Miss. The player ''fails'' the song if the meter reaches 0% at any point during the song. The player may still continue to the end of the song, but is no longer able to score points. At the end of the song, if the player has failed, the game is over.
An on-screen percentage meter at the top of the screen displays more precisely how close to the player is to achieving a judgement of all Fantastics (see Scoring below).

Modes of Play

In The Groove offers various modes of play.
'Dance Mode' is the default mode of play. In this mode, a player chooses a number of individual songs to play (the default is three). After the songs are played, the game is over.
'Marathon Mode' is an extended mode of play. In this mode, a player chooses a predefined configuration of songs that may also have a predefined script of ''modifiers'' whose purpose is to make the song more challenging. Marathon courses typically have four songs, although some have five songs.
'Battle Mode' is a specialized "versus" mode of play. Two players (or one player against the computer) play three individual songs of the same difficulty. During the song, successfully executed steps fill up a player's "power bar". When the power bar completely fills, a modifier is applied to the opposing player's side.
'Survival Mode' (new to ''In The Groove 2'') is a mode of play similar to Marathon Mode. For more information, see In The Groove 2.

History

''In The Groove'' is based on a modified version of the open source ''StepMania'' engine, which was originally designed to simulate the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' series. While the core engine of StepMania was basically a clone of DDR, the engine has evolved over time to include support for a multitude of different rhythm-based game types. ''ITG'' is produced in the United States, and the majority of the ''In The Groove'' fanbase consists of players who desire songs and step patterns of a higher difficulty than those found in ''Dance Dance Revolution''. A total of 72 songs are available in the original release of the game, ten of which are unlockable and one of which (Liquid Moon) is only available at the end of a single Marathon course.
RedOctane published a PlayStation 2 version of ''In The Groove''. This version has all the features and songs from the arcade release, in addition to four "preview songs" from the arcade version of In The Groove 2. The game reached store shelves on June 17, 2005, and introduced several new gameplay features, including the Novice difficulty, new Marathon courses, and new Fitness and Training modes.

At the Amusement Showcase International 2005 in Chicago, IL, Roxor Games announced that ''In The Groove 2'' would be released with its own dedicated cabinet as well as an upgrade kit for old In The Groove conversion kits. The new cabinet was initially produced by Andamiro, the creators of ''Pump It Up'', another dance-simulation game. However, in 2006, Roxor announced that they themselves would take over cabinet production for ''In The Groove 2'' dedicated cabinets. ''In The Groove 2'' was also made available as a conversion kit for older ''Dance Dance Revolution'' machines. In The Groove 2 features 65 new songs, as well as every song and course from the original release of In The Groove.
On May 9, 2005, however, Konami filed a complaint against Roxor seeking, among other things, a preliminary injunction preventing them from selling arcade cabinet conversion kits. See Roxor Games (or "Lawsuit", below) for details.
On January 14, 2006, at the ''In The Groove North American Tournament Finals'' in Las Vegas, NV, Roxor Games announced that the arcade release of "In The Groove 3" and the home release of "In The Groove 2" would take place sometime during 2006. ITG3 was to be previewed at the Amusement & Music Operators Association Expo 2006 convention in Las Vegas, NV, though was absent from Roxor Games' presentation area, presumably due to delays in the game's production. The status of ''In The Groove 3'' remains in doubt since Konami gained the intellectual property rights to the series. Some songs that were to debut on ITG3 found their way into Pump It Up Pro.

Scoring details

Judgements

Similar to other dancing games, the player is judged for how accurately they step relative to the beat of the song. From best to worst, possible judgements are "Fantastic!," "Excellent," "Great," "Decent," "Way Off," and "Miss". During gameplay on all difficulties except Novice mode on ITG2, all judgements except "Fantastic!" and "Miss" are prefixed or suffixed with a dash; a prefix indicates an early step, a suffix indicates a late step. During ITG2's Novice mode, "Decent" becomes "Too Early/Late" and "Way Off" becomes "Way Early/Late". It is possible during Novice mode, however, to get the Too Early judgement, and then step on the same arrow again for a better rating if timed properly.
On hold steps and rolls, if the player finishes the hold or roll successfully, they receive a "Yeah!". Otherwise, the player receives a "Bad".
In the Groove's judgement windows (the amount of time relative to the beat of the song a player has to attain a certain judgment rating) are generally slightly larger than DDR's. Therefore, a "Fantastic!" is easier to get than DDR's equivalent, a "Marvelous!!" (in terms of how many milliseconds a player can be off the beat and still get that judgement), an "Excellent!" is easier to get than a "Perfect!" and so on. However, the "Fantastic!" level of judgement is available in all modes of gameplay, whereas DDR's equivalent "Marvelous!!" is only available during its nonstop or oni courses. However, the Fantastic window on ITG is smaller than the Perfect window on DDR. Additionally, the combined Fantastic+Excellent window is smaller than Pump It Up's Perfect window.
"Way Off" and "Miss" steps take away from the life bar (to the side of the player's arrows), while "Great," "Excellent" and "Fantastic" steps add to the lifebar until it reaches its maximum. "Decent" steps do not change the level of the lifebar. Too many missed steps will deplete the life bar. If the life bar empties, then the round is failed and the game ends (either immediately or at the end of the round, depending on machine settings). During two player games, if one player fails and the other passes, then the failed player can continue to play. During a one player game, most machines allow a single player to continue playing after failing the song, but will automatically end the game after 30 consecutive misses.

Scoring

For each judgement, the player receives or loses points depending on the accuracy:

★ Fantastic: 5

★ Excellent: 4

★ Great: 2

★ Decent: 0

★ Way Off: -6

★ Miss: -12
And for holds and rolls:

★ Yeah: 5

★ Bad: 0
Mines, when hit, deduct 6 points, but when avoided have no effect on score.
These points are divided by the total number of points possible for the song or course to make a percentage. The percentage is shown during play and at the results screen.

Grading

At the end of the song, the results screen displays a grade for each player based on the percentage of points that they got. These are the minimum scores required for each grade:

★ 4 Stars: 100%

★ 3 Stars: 99%

★ 2 Stars: 98%

★ 1 Star: 96%

★ S+: 94%

★ S: 92%

★ S-: 89%

★ A+: 86%

★ A: 83%

★ A-: 80%

★ B+: 76%

★ B: 72%

★ B-: 68%

★ C+: 64%

★ C: 60%

★ C-: 55%

★ D: Less than 55%, but not Life Depleted

★ F: Life Depleted - Round Failed
As of August 24, 2007, according to Groovestats, a popular website for tracking ITG scores, 95 out of 113 Expert difficulty songs currently available on In the Groove arcade machines have been "quad-starred", meaning that someone has reported a score of 100% on that particular song. Every 9 difficulty chart, 31 out of 35 10 difficulty charts, 9 out of 12 11 difficulty charts, two 12 difficulty charts, and no 13 difficulty charts have been quad-starred. Only one expert song (Vertex²) has a world record under 99%, and only five expert songs have a world record score that contains 10 or more "Excellent" step ratings.

Technical Details

In The Groove is built on a complete PC system running the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, containing a hard disk, contemporary processor, integrated graphics card, and a USB hub for transferring user statistics and edits onto a flash drive. The software used to run the game is based on the open source ''StepMania'' computer program. Anti-piracy measures are achieved through the use of a "serial dongle," which attempts to make sure that, even if the program were copied, it will only execute on a licensed machine. A custom adapter which maps the input to a joystick-like interface, along with connectors to interface the PC with the monitor, audio, switches, and lights, provides compatibility with original DDR cabinets.
As a result of the system's advanced hardware, ITG is theoretically able to store more song and movie data than previous CD-based dance game systems, and has the ability to add new effects by using already-available 3D libraries, such as OpenGL. Additionally, with the introduction of new cabinets manufactured by Andamiro and Roxor, In the Groove 2 is able to run at a higher screen resolution than previous versions of arcade dance games.
However, because ITG is based on commodity PC computer hardware and open-sourced software, enterprising users have found ways to "hack" the game and change settings and theming, add songs, etc. ^[1] The main hole exploited is in the OS boot sequence; both USB ports are used - first to attach a USB keyboard, allowing access to the BIOS and input for a Linux console, and on the second a USB drive containing bootable Linux (Popcorn Slax). As of 2006, exact knowledge of this procedure is kept limited to small groups of people out of fears of possible score-cheating or vandalization of the ITG harddrive. Existing hacks only use dedicated cabinets because of hardware differences. Upgrade machine's motherboards do not have the ability to boot off of a USB device. Similarly, the PS2 version of the game may also be hacked to add new songs.

Songs

Song Synchronization

ITG generally has good synchronization between the step charts and the background music; most charts in ITG have steps fairly close to being on beat with the song. However, this wasn't always the case. DDR tends to have an early bias in its steps, so a player would have to step a few tens of milliseconds ahead of the beat to obtain a perfect score. It was due to this that In the Groove 1's stepcharts were generally synced significantly later, often to the point where the opposite issue was presented: players generally had to step after the beat in order to obtain perfect scoring. The initial release of In the Groove 2 presented generally better synchronization between stepcharts and their songs than its predecessor, though some charts were still considerably offbeat (notable examples include the charts for the songs Agent Blatant, Amore, and Lipstick Kiss). As a result of these findings, patches (known as revisions or R for short) were gradually implemented that improved the overall syncing and fixed various bugs found in the initial release.

Song list

This list covers the 75 songs available in the arcade and home versions of In the Groove. All the songs are playable in the sequel game, ''In the Groove 2''. For songs exclusive to In the Groove 2, see the ITG2 song list.
The difficulties are abbreviated to conserve table space:
:N = Novice
:E = Easy
:M = Medium
:H = Hard
:X = Expert
Note the numbers given for each difficulty level are similar to DDR's 1-10 "footers," except ITG removed the footer label and added 3 additional difficulties, far surpassing the hardest 10-footers in DDR. Thus a 10 in ITG is comparable to a 10-footer in DDR. If one actually counts the number of boxes showing the difficulty, one will notice there are only 12 boxes. The 13s go far and beyond the realm of reality for most people. Only one 13 exists in In the Groove 1, while two make their debut in the sequel.
Songs that need to be unlocked in the arcade version are highlighted in red. Songs that are from In the Groove 2 are highlighted in green. These also need to be unlocked.
The Novice steps are only available in the home version, as well as in the sequel. In addition, there is an asterisk beside the Single Expert step routines for "Why Me." These are also only available in the sequel. The Double Expert steps are not on any current release of In the Groove 1, but they are on the sequel. It is marked with a karat to emphasize this.
There is one song that is in the arcade version that cannot be played in normal mode. "Liquid Moon" exists only in the ''Energy'' Marathon course. It is fully playable in the home version and the sequel. It is highlighted as a home version song.

'Title'	'Artist'	Single					Double
		N	E	M	H	X	E	M	H	X
Anubis	Banzai	1	5	7	8	10	2	8	9	10
Bend Your Mind	Reflection Theory	1	6	7	9	10	6	8	9	10
Boogie Down	Inurvise	1	3	6	8	9	4	6	8	9
Bouff	Machinae Supremacy	1	5	7	9	10	5	7	9	10
Bubble Dancer	Crispy	1	3	5	7		3	7	9
Changes	Sandy Rivera & Haze	1	2	4	7		1	5	8
Charlene	Missing Heart	1	3	4	8	11	3	6	7	9
Crazy	DJ Doo	1	2	5	7		3	6	7
Da Roots (Folk Mix)	Mind Reflection	1	2	4	7	9	4	6	9	9
Dawn	KaW	1	3	5	8	9	4	6	8	9
Delirium	Smiley	1	2	6	8	12	6	8	9	11
Disconnected	Inspector K	1	4	6	8	9	4	6	8	9
Disconnected ~Hyper Mix~	Inspector K	1	3	6	9	10	5	7	9	10
Disconnected ~Mobius Mix~	Inspector K	1	3	5	8	9	4	6	8	9
DJ Party	BB Hayes	1	2	5	8		1	4	7
Do U Love Me	DJ Doo	1	3	4	6	10	2	4	6	9
Don't Promise Me	Reflection Theory	1	3	4	6		4	5	7	9
Don't Promise Me ~Happiness~	Reflection Theory	1	4	5	8		4	6	8	9
Dreams of Passion	Dax	1	2	4	5		1	2	5
Drifting Away	Filo Bedo	1	3	5	8	9	3	6	7	9
Driving Force Classical	Digital Explosion	1	2	5	8	9	4	7	8	9
Euphoria	Smiley feat. KaW	1	3	6	9	12	3	6	9	10
Fly Away	Missing Heart	1	2	5	7	9	3	5	7	9
Fly With Me	Nina	1	2	5	7	9	4	6	8	9
Flying High	Filo Bedo	1	2	5	8	9	3	6	8	9
Funk Factory	Money Deluxe	1	4	7	8	9	4	7	8	9
Hand of Time	Reflection Theory	1	3	4	8	10	3	6	9	10
Hardcore of the North	Digital Explosion	1	4	6	9	12	5	6	9	11
Hip Hop Jam	Indiggo	1	2	4	6	9	3	7	9	10
Hybrid	Machinae Supremacy	1	3	5	9	10	3	8	9	10
I Think I Like That Sound	Kid Whatever	1	3	5	8	9	2	6	8	9
I'll Get There Anyway	Sammi Morelli	1	3	6	7		1	5	7
Incognito	Inspector K	1	3	5	8	9	3	6	9	10
Infection	Inspector K	1	3	6	8	11	3	6	9	10
July	Smiley	1	3	5	9	11	5	7	9	10
Kagami	KaW	1	3	5	8	10	5	8	9	11
Kiss Me Red	Crispy	1	2	5	7	9	3	5	6	9
Land of the Rising Sun	Spacekats	1	3	5	7		4	6	8	9
Lemmings on the Run	E-Rotic	1	3	5	7	9	4	6	8	9
Let Me Be The One	Sammi Morelli	1	3	4	6		2	5	7
Let My Love Go Blind	Nina	1	4	6	7	9	3	6	8	9
Liquid Moon	Inspector K	1	2	6	8	9	2	6	9	10
Mellow	Spacekats	1	3	5	8		4	6	8	9
Mouth	Rochelle	1	3	4	8		3	6	8	9
My Favourite Game	Natalie Browne	1	3	5	6	10	2	5	7	9
Mythology	Digital Explosion	1	3	7	9	11	4	8	9	10
No1 Nation	Anet	1	4	7	8	9	5	7	9	10
Normal	Anet	1	3	5	7		1	6	8
Not Worth The Paper	Dax	1	2	4	6		2	5	7
Oasis	KaW	1	3	4	9	10	5	7	9	9
On A Day Like Today	Obsession	1	3	5	7	9	2	5	7	9
PA Theme	MC Frontalot	1	2	4	6		2	3	5
Pandemonium	ZiGZaG	1	5	9	11	13	6	9	10	12
Perfect	Sammi Morelli	1	3	5	8		3	6	8	9
Queen of Light	Missing Heart	1	3	4	7	10	3	6	8	9
Remember December	Mind Reflection	1	3	6	9	10	5	7	9	9
ROM-eo & Juli8	Nina	1	2	6	7	9	3	5	7	9
Solina	Evolution	1	2	4	7	9	4	7	9	9
Tell	Symphonius w/Rossini	1	3	6	9	12	4	6	9	11
Tension	Inspector K	1	5	6	9	10	5	6	9	10
The Beginning	DJ Doo	1	4	6	8	11	3	6	9	10
The Game	Crispy	1	2	5	8	9	3	5	8	9
Torn	Natalie Browne	1	3	5	7		3	6	7	9
Touch Me	E-Rotic	1	3	5	8	9	3	5	8	9
Tough Enough	Vanilla Ninja	1	2	4	7	9	1	2	5	9
Tribal Style	KaW	1	3	6	9	10	3	5	9	11
Turn It On	Georgetown	1	3	5	7	9	2	5	8	9
Utopia	Smiley	1	3	5	8	11	4	6	9	11
VerTex	ZiGZaG	1	6	7	10	12	6	9	10	12
Walking on Fire	Evolution	1	3	5	8	10	3	6	9	9
Which MC Was That?	MC Frontalot	1	3	5	7		2	3	5
While Tha Rekkid Spinz	DJ Zombie	1	2	5	7	9	2	5	8	9
Why Me	Desire	1	2	4	6	9 ★	1	3	6	9^
Xuxa	Smiley	1	3	5	9	11	4	6	9	9
Zodiac	Banzai	1	2	5	7	9	2	7	9	10

Lawsuit

Konami filed a lawsuit against Roxor Games on an infringement of various rights on May 9, 2005. Additionally, they amended their complaint on July 1, 2005, to include the dance game "MC GROOVZ danceCRAZE" (a game produced by Mad Catz to accompany their 3rd party dance mat). Konami primarily claims that Roxor has infringed their dancing game patent rights, but also goes on to accuse Roxor of trademark infringement, false advertising and unfair competition. ITG fans were quick to criticise the lawsuit, pointing out that Konami's Japanese arcade games are illegal in the United States.
On October 18, 2006, Roxor announced that Konami has acquired the intellectual property rights to the In the Groove series as part of the settlement to this litigation.^[2]

See also

★ Dance pad

★ List of dance video games

★ Comparison of panel-based music video games

★ Roxor Games

★ In the Groove 2

References

1. In the Groove Exploits
2. Konami acquires In the Groove

External links

★ Official ''In the Groove'' website

★ ITG Freak

★ r21freak - a custom songs community

★

★ Groovestats - ITG score-tracking website

★ IT2 - ITG score-tracking website

★ One analysis of the lawsuit

★ Official announcement regarding the lawsuit from Konami

★ Review of ''In The Groove'' for PS2 at Netjak