Background

Bemanistyle is a website that deals with rhythm video games, especially those in Konami's Bemani series. It covers the games Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania, Pop'n Music, Guitar Freaks, DrumMania, Karaoke Revolution, In the Groove, Neon FM: Dance Radio, Pump It Up, Guitar Hero, O2Jam, and others. It also covers simulations for some of the games, such as hosting user-created simfiles (songs and steps) for StepMania, a computer simulation of Dance Dance Revolution.

Bemanistyle has been credited with many news articles related to the rhythm video game genre, such as the partial songlist for the then soon-to-be-released DDR SuperNOVA <ref> "DDR Supernova Tracks Partially Revealed news from 1UP.com"</ref>.

The current version of Bemanistyle is version 7.0, also referred to as sevenpointzero. The 7.0 site had been in development stages for well over a year, but went live on June 17 2006. Much of the website is custom coded from scratch, and the forum is a customized version of Jelsoft's vBulletin 3.6, which has been modified extensively to work hand-in-hand with other site features, including the simfile database, Tatsujin database, and other parts of the site.

The rest of the forum has basic discussion of other games, TV and movies, and a market place for selling peripherals and other merchandise related to the many game series of bemani. It also has a board to discuss many topics that would be more mature for the rest of the board. These places are very popular to forum regulars.

There is a section that that is about discussion for the small Bemani community round the world. There is a section for North America and then sub sections for California, Canada, Mid Atlantic, Midwest, New England, Pacific Northwest, South, Southeast, and the Southwest. There is also boards for Asia, Japan, Europe, mid and South America, and Oceania.

The site also hosts an IRC network, located at [irc://irc.bemanistyle.com irc.bemanistyle.com] (If you have an IRC program installed, clicking on the previous link may automatically connect you to the server). The primary channels are [irc://irc.bemanistyle.com/bemanistyle #bemanistyle], [irc://irc.bemanistyle.com/forumboredom #forumboredom], and [irc://irc.bemanistyle.com/idlerpg #idlerpg]. (Clicking those links will connect you to the server and auto-join you to the channels.) The Bemanistyle IRC network merged with the Pop'n IRC network, hosted at [irc://irc.popn.cjb.net irc.popn.cjb.net], in September of 2006 for mutual benefit. All channels from both networks are available whether you connect to the Bemanistyle IRC server or a Pop'n IRC server.

Business Ventures

Bounce Connected

:In August 2003, Bemanistyle owner Eddie Lehecka announced that through contact with popular Bemani artist TaQ, Bemanistyle would be selling copies of TaQ's first independent album, bounce connected. However, after payment was sent to the supplier Diverse, communication dropped off and the albums were never delivered. Attempts to find another distributer has been very difficult, and refunds were mentioned publically in August 2006, despite none being issued to date.

Beyond the Dead Future

:Over a year after the incident involving bounce connected, Eddie announced that Bemanistyle would once again be offering an album from a popular Bemani artist. In November 2004 it was announced that Bemanistyle would be the exclusive distributer for Slake's first album, Beyond the Dead Future. Eddie Lehecka handled production of the album, alleviating fears that this venture would be a repeat of the bounce connected fiasco. Additionally, the cover was designed by Bemanistyle member DJ YUZ.

:Despite setbacks reportedly due to production difficulties and personal matters, Beyond the Dead Future shipped in July 2006.

Trivia

On April 1st, 2004, there was information that Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 was anticipated for an arcade release, although this was only an April Fool's Day joke. The real Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 (a US console release, completely unrelated to the joke) was released a year later.

Site Administration

Eddie Lehecka - Project and development leader, general management, public relations.

Malcolm Cuffie - Project management, public relations.

Keith Slater - Server administration, project management and development.

June Ha Kim - Forum management, public relations.

Nick Randall - Merchandise operations.

Development Administration

Anthony - PHP/feature development and management.

Doug Kelly - PHP/feature development, server management, IRC operations.

Panda - General web development and management.

Chris - PHP/feature development and management, forum management.

See also

Bemani

Imageboard

External links

Bemanistyle.com

Bemanistyle Image Board

Forum Boredom

References

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