A Dance Dance Revolution (aka DDR, a four-panel dance game) emulator game that has been ported onto several
computer platforms, including
Windows,
Linux,
Macintosh and the Apple iPod (via iPod
Linux). Gameplay is similar to DDR, where colored arros scroll up from the
bottom of the screen and the
player must press the corresponding arrow key (or number pad key) when it reaches gray, static arrows called the Step Zone.
Files for the game (called stepfiles) are user-made, and include a .
sm (StepMania's native file format) or .dwi (Dance With Intensity's native file format), a sound file (usually mp3 or ogg) and usually a set of graphics for the background and select screen banner. Some programs, including Dancing Monkeys, have been made in a attempt to make stepfile creation automatic, but files created by these programs are universally accepted as CF (or crap file, a reference to what began as a inside joke about Cobalt Flux metal pads, which are known by their high quality).
StepMania can also emulate Pump It Up (PiU, five panels arranged in a cross-shaped pattern) and ParaParaParadise (PPP, five arrows arranged in the forward, left, right, up-left and up-right positions). The StepMania codebase was used as the source for In The Groove (ITG), a four-panel dance game infamous for its competition with DDR. ITG is now
owned by Konami, the producer of DDR, due to a recent lawsuit against Roxor, the producer of ITG.
