Game Module: para

This mode was added from the very beginning of the history of the StepMania project, having several different tweaks and fixes done throughout the years.

First Seen:

• StepMania v3.0 beta 6 - (Para Single) (7th September 2002)
• StepMania v3.0.2 - (para-versus) (10th July 2004)
• Project OutFox alpha 4.9.7.3 - (double) (April 4 2021)

Replaced by:

• StepMania v3.0 beta 6 - (single) (15 September 2002)

First Seen:

• Project OutFox alpha 4.9.9HF - (single-eight) (April 30 2021)

The game is played with sensors on the floor representing a half circle. The genre for the content was predominantly EuroBeat and featured moves from the scene that were to be replicated from dances or arrows placed on the screen. The player then has to wave their arms over the sensors to complete the movements matching the routine in time to the music. Project OutFox fully supports the PS2/Dreamcast Para controller on a cross platform environment as of 4.12.0, allowing anyone able to play our game access to the controller for the complete experience.

The sensors used primarily PIR tech and were bright pink (PS2) or green (DC) in colour, and had adjustments for length and height of the player for better accuracy.

The game received several quality of life updates in the beginnings of the project, and the hold system was fixed to be more accurate to how the actual game played on both the console and arcade versions.

para holds

The official games allowed a player to wave a hand over the sensor before the hold begins to allow them to catch the hold and not be penalised for the ‘wave’ effect which would happen on a dance based game. The head triggers if the sensor detects a hand in place.

pump holds

There is a special system for how pump holds are judged, which is different to dance or smx. These holds can be picked up and regained on a loss.

tick holds

These hold types are active on this mode, completely holding a long note will increase score per tick.

free-style

A lot of the charts made for this mode do not make use of the sensors, or encourage full body movement to complement a workout style way of playing the game.

mines

These notes should be avoided, as they will damage your life gauge. They are supported, but extremely rare to see in para mode.

sensors

This mode uses PIR or photo sensors to measure a movement passing by them or for checking a movement has been met.

what combo?

The original para games worked more on the replication of the dance moves and the enjoyment of playing rather than displaying a combo or ‘accuracy’ score at the end of the song. Project OutFox supports either methodology, as the console builds did have some combo/hit accuracy included in the evaluation, and it is purely up to the themer/creator to add this or just have the score for optional enjoyment.

The old official Konami controller used to have a bug on non Windows based systems until alpha 4.12.0 which prevented the device waking up correctly on those systems.

Written and Maintained with ♡ by Squirrel