Installments
A standard ''Pump it Up''Home versions
Andamiro released home versions of ''Pump it Up'' for personal computers, coming with a CD containing the game and a special dance mat, with arrows of the same size as the arcade's pads. On Korean versions, the mat is connected through the PS/2 port, and comes with an adapter to share it with the keyboard. On international versions, the mat uses aGameplay
Typically a game of ''Pump It Up'' starts by displaying a screen asking if the player is playing alone giving time for a second player to join in. This waiting time may be sped up by tapping the center gold arrow (used as a submit button). Players may insert a USB flash drive containing an access code or tap an A.M. pass card which you can on the game center's counter where the P.I.U. cabinet is installed. If there are no USB flash drives or A.M. pass card logged in, the game will default to Basic/Easy mode on more recent games. Games started with a PumBi drive inserted will default to Arcade mode. Players may input the "All songs" code to access this mode without a PumBi drive by tapping down left, up left, center, up right, down right, quickly with their feet. Games prior to ''Pump it up Zero'' show the player a "Station Select" screen to allow the player to select their difficulty. Station select can be accessed in all games by tapping the upper right or left arrows and allows for alternate game modes on later games. Once a player has selected their game mode they are presented a list of songs. To switch between songs the player steps on the rear right and left arrows on the pad. Various statistics such as the song speed in BPM, song artist and song difficulty will be displayed. Waiting with the cursor on the song will play a sample of the song and may display an example background video from that song. To select a song the players must press the central yellow arrow. Games after ''Pump It Up Zero'' allow the player to select difficulty at this time. To select difficulty they may tap the rear arrows. To go back to the main menu the player taps the upper corner arrows. To begin the song the player taps the yellow arrow a second time. The core gameplay involves the player moving his or her feet to a set pattern, stepping in time to the general rhythm or beat of a song. During normal gameplay arrows scroll upwards from the bottom of the screen and pass over stationary arrows near the top (referred to as the "guide arrows" or "receptors"). When the scrolling arrows overlap the stationary ones, the player must step on the corresponding arrows on the dance platform. Players receive a judgment for each step based on the accuracy of the step. Judgments include, from best to worst, Superb, Perfect, Great, Good, Bad, and Miss. The timing window of these judgments varies from version to version and can depend on the difficulty of the machine set by the machine operator. Regular arrows come on the full beat, half beat, quarter beat or sixteenth beat depending on the song's steps. Longer arrows referred to as "holds" must be held down for their entire length with them adding additional Perfects to the combo. In addition holds can be held on to before the hold passes through without penalty. Successfully hitting the arrows in time with the music fills aDifficulty
The steps for the various levels of difficulty available for a particular song are ranked using a scale, the format of which varies from version to version. Early games had difficulty ranked by "Station" with all songs on a station having the same difficulty. Stations became ways to select song types in ''Pump it Up Zero'' and then became ways to select different game modes after the New Xenesis series. Some stations are meant for more advanced players despite hosting a selection of difficulties inside of them. For example, the Music Train, World Max and Mission stations are often for advanced players while Arcade or the Easy station are for general players. Before ''Exceed'' was released, the difficulty for all game modes ranged from 1 to 10, with the exception of "Vook", a song introduced on ''The Premiere 2'', which was level 12 on Double mode. Level 1 was the easiest song available at that difficulty while level 10 was reserved for the most difficult. With ''Exceed'''s debut all levels were reworked into a unified range from 1 to 10 for most modes, up to level 15 for Crazy mode and ranging as high as 20 for Nightmare mode. Successive games have resulted in higher level ranges for all song difficulties as well as an overall higher maximum difficulty cap for Nightmare Mode. Exceed 2 added the infamous "????" rating for unusually difficult songs. This level is often referred to as "unrated". Many unrated songs are more difficult than the allowed maximum. All "another" rated songs given a level of "??" in Exceed 2. Later games have most "another" step songs show a numeric difficulty instead of question marks. Unrated songs often feature gimmicks, experimental charts, or are not made to be beaten by a single player and are not recommended for the average player. Another rating charts vary in difficulty and can be easy, however, they are typically harder than the regular chart of the song at a similar level. Early games up to Zero and including the New Xenesis series showed the levels via icons. These games use a star scale to measure the lower levels, which goes up to 8 in half increments (for a maximum level of 16). The higher levels are measure by a skull scale which goes up to 8 in whole increments. On NX2 and NX Absolute, the difficulty scale is modified with a line of circles that go up to 8 in whole increments. Higher difficulties replace these circles with stars and even higher difficulties replace the stars with skulls. Starting with Fiesta, the Normal / Hard / Crazy / Freestyle / Nightmare modes are replaced by prefixing the difficulty level before the difficulty number. Another difficulty charts are placed among the regular charts for the song and are prefixed with "Another" instead of a difficulty level, though this was removed between Fiesta and Prime.Modifiers
Since the first release, all game modes accept modifiers which are enabled by using special codes inputted by rapidly stepping on the gamepad. The effects vary from speeding arrows up, changing the design of the arrows altogether, making them fade as they go up, or making them appear in random places instead of their pre-defined column (while still being on the same beat). Most players after a starting period get used to applying the modifiers to make arrows faster which makes them more spaced out. All songs have a default speed of 2x. It is also possible to decrease the arrow speed. Using modifiers a matter of personal preferences even though the increased speed options are very popular, especially at higher levels where there are many arrows on the screen at once. The most popular step codes for the specific version are contained on a sticker affixed to the machine. If a player has a PumBi drive inserted, their preferred modifiers are automatically saved and will be applied to every song until the player changes their modifier settings.Modes
Games before ''Pump it Up Zero'' used the Station select to choose the game's difficulty. Later games use the Station Select screen to choose the game mode. "Easy Station" or "Basic Mode" is the default mode on all games starting with ''Pump it Up Fiesta''. In this mode, song difficulties are color-coded to help identify harder songs. Blue songs are the easiest, yellow songs are normal, red songs represent hard ones, and purple for very hard ones, while green color is showing difficulty in Double mode. To leave Easy mode the player can enter the "FULL MODE" command, insert a flash drive containing user data or use an ''AM.PASS'' card (from PRIME 2). The Pro series also supports mission mode, music train and the regular arcade game once out of easy mode. "Arcade Station" or "Full Mode" is for players familiar with the game. In this mode the player may access hundreds of songs not available in ''Basic Mode''. The screen also changes to show the traditional difficulty modes and colors. If a USB flash drive containing user data is inserted or an ''AM.PASS'' card is used to login, high scores are saved for later use and the machine will display local high scores after each song. These scores are uploaded to the Andamiro website to join in the global rankings. "Special Zone" was introduced in ''Pump It Up NX.'' This mode contains original mixes for some songs, remixes of several arcade song, also alternate version of songs and charts (later known as ''Another'' difficulty) mashed together. In modern iterations starting from ''Pump It Up FIESTA,'' These are now placed into ''channels'' system such as: Full Songs, Remix, and the later introduced Shortcut which contained shorter edit of some songs. "Rank Mode" was introduced in ''Pump It Up PRIME'' is an extra hard mode for machines connected to the Internet that requires a USB flash drive with user data (for PRIME and later) or an ''AM.PASS'' card (for PRIME 2) to access. This mode allows players to test themselves in stricter conditions, with timing windows stricter than in ''Full Mode'' (VJ or Very Hard judgement) inability to use BGA Off (BGA Dark in later iteration) which dims the background animation, and inability to use mod groups such as JUDGE and ALTERNATE. Regardless of the machine settings, if the player's life bar reaches zero, it will result in a game over. Songs in this mode are starting at level 13 and lower ones can't be played in it. All points scored in this mode are recorded on the Andamiro website in the player's personal profile, saving the total score gathered along with separate scores for Single and Double charts. "Music Train" mode was introduced in ''Pump It Up Fiesta''. Music trains are pre-selected courses where multiple songs play continuously. Many music trains feature a unique theme or gimmick to them, catering to advanced players. ''Pump It Up PRIME 2'' introduced the "Random Train" mode, where tracks are randomly chosen from player-defined difficulty brackets. "Skill Up Zone", "Mission Zone" or "Quest Zone" is unlocked by inserting a USB drive into the machine. Mission Mode presents new goals for advanced players to meet which can be as simple as a different step pattern to a familiar song or as complex as modifications to the game's interface. When a player attempts or clears a mission, they are granted EXP (experience points) to advance further in the mode. The mode was expanded into the ''World Tour'' mode on ''NX'', and the RPG-styled ''WorldMax'' on ''NX2''. "Battle Mode" appeared on "Pump it Up 2nd DF". The player with the higher score would win the battle. On ''Perfect Collection'' and ''The Premiere'', a player could "attack" their opponent with modifiers by creating combos, with longer combos resulting in more damaging attacks. On ''Exceed 2'' there are extra bonus arrows containing power-ups activated by action steps that come up later which launches the attack. The battle could be decided in only 1 song in most cases. Stage Break does not affect this mode. "Division Mode", appearing on ''Premiere 2'' and ''Rebirth'', utilized special stepcharts with "switches" that could switch between a "Groove" style (for freestyling), and a "Wild" style for more advanced charts. "Half-Double", appearing on ''Premiere 2'' and ''Rebirth'' and remaining until ''Premiere 3'' and ''Prex 3'', was a mode that only used the 6 panels in the middle (both centers plus the right arrow pair on the 1p side and the left arrow pair on the 2p side). "Nonstop Remix Mode" contains longer club mixes of several songs, and sometimes even long versions of existing songs. "Training Station" was introduced in ''Pump It Up NX'', and consists of special tutorials themed on various fundamentals of play. Lessons consist of 3 songs with special stepcharts emphasizing the theme of the lesson. "Brain Shower" was introduced in ''Pump It Up'' ''NXA''. It is a new type of game that combines the traditional timing of steps and arrows with mental exercises including mathematics, observation, and memory.Channels
Games starting from ''Pump It Up 2010 FIESTA: 10th Anniversary Version'' uses ''Channels'' to categorize every single songs within the game. Certain ''Channels'' will have sub-categories within itself.Categories by songs
"Original Tunes" channel contains arcade edits produced by Andamiro's in-house music producers, such as: BanYa Production, Yahpp'','' DOIN, MAX, etc. "World Music" channel contains arcade edits from licensed music. "J-Music" channel contains arcade edits from licensed Japanese music. "K-Pop"channel contains arcade edits from licensed Korean Pop music. "XROSS" channel contains arcade edits from rhythm game collaboration such as: ''O2Jam, EZ2AC,'' and ''NeonFM.'' "Remix" channel features longer songs that have been remixed or mashed up tracks. (With the exception of ''Repeatorment Remix,'' which is an original track.) "Full Songs" channel features ''Original Mixes'' of some songs within the game, albeit some songs such as ''Baroque Virus'' from ''Pump It Up Infinity'', "Categories by stepcharts
Difficulty Zone Single channel contains 5-panel stepcharts that can be played by one player, sorted by difficulty with Level 1 or S1 as the lowest range. (Including Single Performance for Freestyle players) Difficulty Zone Double channel contains 10-panel stepcharts that can be played by one player, sorted by difficulty with Level 1 or D1 as the lowest range. (Including Double Performance for Freestyle players) CO-OP Play channel contains 10-panel stepcharts that can be played by two players or more. (example: CO-OP x5 means that the stepchart can be played up to by five players) User Custom Step channel contains user-submitted stepcharts downloaded from Andamiro's PIU UCS website, the content of this channel will depend on ''AM.Pass'' account. If there are no UCS downloaded within the user data, this channel will not appeared in-game.Online Matching
This mode was introduced in ''Pump It Up 2019 XX: 20th Anniversary Version'', it let players to compare their gameplay performance with other players around the world in real time. During gameplay, the opponent's combo will be shown as a small yellow combo counts below the player's combo count. Then later the result will be shown side by side.Development
''Pump It Up 1st Dance Floor'' (also ''Pump It Up: The Ultimate Remix'') is a dance simulation arcade game developed by Korean coin-operated machine developer Andamiro. It is the first of the Pump It Up series. It was released in September 1999, nearly a year after the release ofImprovements across versions
The first series title was ''Pump It Up 1st Dance Floor'', released by Korean coin-operated machine developer Andamiro in October 1999 for the arcade. This game introduced the series' first in-house musician BanYa, the South Korean band working with Andamiro to compose original songs as well as a selection of popular K-pop and dance songs. All versions between this one and ''Pump It Up Zero'' simply added new songs and new steps. If a game is not noted in this section, then that game simply introduced new songs with few noteworthy changes. Although it was developed by a different developer and only has four arrow panels, In the Groove 2 was originally marketed as a Pump it Up game. ''Pump It Up Zero'' was released in the arcade on January 2006 before releasing on the PSP in October of the following year. ''Zero'' contained a brand new interface, now featuring previews of background videos and the ability for two players to play on separate difficulties. ''Zero'' also contained the Easy Station, a mode containing a modified interface and a selection of easy songs. The Mission Station contained sets of songs played with specific conditions that must be met when they are played – such as getting a specific amount of a judgment for instance. ''Zero'' also introduced the "Another" step chart difficulty. Another Step songs are not entirely new songs. Rather, they are songs with steps which differ from their original counterparts drastically with some being very experimental in nature. Another Step songs are not given a specific category and are listed with the regular charts for each song. Generally the difficulty of Another charts range from easy to extremely hard, with some songs being impossible to complete without a second player. This has remained a standard feature in later games. ''Pump It Up New Xenesis'', or ''NX'', was released in December 2006 with new tracks and a mode with nonstop remixes. The channel arrangement on ''NX'' was altered, now featuring a default channel containing all 29 new Arcade Station songs. NX is World Tour was a new series of missions for Mission mode named after capital cities of various nations throughout the world as well as after the developers of ''NX'' at Nexcade. It consists of a group of 64 missions of three songs each, all with unique step charts containing various challenges such as passing a song, or completing a song with specific conditions or goals to accomplish. The Remix Station from Zero had been changed to the ''Special Zone'': an area containing nonstop remixes, long versions of songs, and Another mode songs. All of ''Pump it Up Zero''s Another songs have also been moved to the Special Zone. Most of the unlocks, however, depend on playing through World Tour mode. In addition, a new cabinet style has been added to the lineup featuring a futuristic design and a 42' plasma display. Yahpp, who split from the BanYa team, became the project lead leading to a style similar to the early games. Unlike in earlier games, the difficulty level of a song in ''NX'' is not visually represented by a number. Levels 1 through 14 are shown as star icons, each level corresponding to a half icon, while levels 15 to 22 are shown as skull icons, with each level corresponding to a whole icon. ''Pump It Up NX2'' displays both the stars/skulls and a digital level indicator. The Extra and the Prex series of games also use this graphical style. A "????????" rating is given to songs that are "beyond the charts", gimmick charts that are meant to be impossible for one player, or charts that are meant for two players at the same time. The "????????" rating was kept for extreme songs in later games outside of this series. ''NX2'' released in December 2007, added support for Andamiro's proprietaryThe Pro/Infinity series
''Pump It Up Pro'' was released by Fun in Motion and Andamiro in 2007. The product is a spin-off of ''Pump It Up'', and was developed separately from the main series with the intent of getting players who normally play 4-panel dance games to try 5-panel dancing.Ward, KyleMobile version
From the official teaser screenshot, the mobile version or known as ''Pump It Up M'' introduces some new features that is only exclusive for this version such as ''training mode'', ''scout'', and in-game ''shop'' menu. The leaked screenshot also reveals some ''Prime'' songs on the game that maybe refer to the default songlist of the game.Music
The songs used in ''Pump It Up'' are mostly Korean-based. ''Premiere 3'' and ''Exceed'' were the only versions to put a greater emphasis on international pop music due to its branching into other markets such as North and Latin America. After ''Exceed'', the focus shifted back to K-pop as the players worldwide generally favored the game's original Korean music. Much of the music on ''Pump'' is contributed by an in-house (and mostly anonymous) collective known asList of Pump it Up games
* ''Pump It Up: The 1st Dance Floor'' (20 September 1999, Arcade, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up: The 2nd Dance Floor'' (27 December 1999, Arcade, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up THE FUSION: The 1st N' 2nd Dance Floor'' (1999, PC, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up The O.B.G: The 3rd Dance Floor'' (7 May 2000, Arcade, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up THE FUSION: The 3rd Dance Floor'' (2000, PC, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up The O.B.G: The Season Evolution Dance Floor'' (3 September 2000, Arcade, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up: The Collection'' (14 November 2000, Arcade, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up: The Perfect Collection'' (7 December 2000, Arcade/PC, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up Extra'' (20 January 2001, Arcade, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up The Premiere: The International Dance Floor'' (June 2001, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up: The Evolutionary Dance Floor'' (2001, PC, exclusive to North America) * ''Pump It Up The PREX: The International Dance Floor'' (November 2001, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up The Rebirth: The 8th Dance Floor'' (10 January 2002, Arcade, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up The Premiere 2: The International 2nd Dance Floor'' (9 March 2002, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up The PREX 2'' (November 2002, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up The Premiere 3: The International 3rd Dance Floor'' (May 2003, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up The PREX 3: The International 4th Dance Floor'' (4 October 2003, Arcade/PC, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up Exceed: The International 5th Dance Floor'' (2 April 2004, Arcade/PS2/Xbox, exclusive to North America/PSP, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up Exceed 2: The International 6th Dance Floor'' (30 November 2004, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up Zero: International 7th Dance Floor'' (28 January 2006, Arcade/PSP, exclusive to Korea) * ''Pump It Up NX: New Xenesis'' (15 December 2006, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up Pro'' (August 2007, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up NX2: Next Xenesis'' (14 December 2007, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up NX Absolute: International 10th Dance Floor'' (25 November 2008, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up Pro 2'' (February 2010, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up 2010 Fiesta'' (6 March 2010, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up Jump!'' (2010, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up 2011 Fiesta EX'' (22 January 2011, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up 2013 Fiesta 2'' (24 November 2012, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up Infinity'' (January 2013, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up 2015 Prime'' (December 2014, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up 2017 Prime 2'' (November 2016, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up H5: 20th Anniversary HTML5 Edition'' (6 December 2018, Facebook Instant Games) * ''Pump It Up XX 20th Anniversary Edition'' (7 January 2019, Arcade) * ''Pump It Up M 20th Anniversary Mobile Edition'' (17 October 2019, Mobile) * ''Upcoming Pump It Up Game'' (TBA, Arcade)See also
* Comparison of dance pad video games * List of ''Pump It Up'' songs *References
External links