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1:
After repeated meetings between Roxorgames and Positive Gaming the last months, we have finally decided for a close co-operation for the European mainland-market.
Roxorgames is the company that makes In the groove, and they have released the following products ready for the European market:
- In the Groove 2.0 Upgrade kits, possible to install on all ddr-machines.
- In the Groove 2.0 dedicated arcade-machines.
I have been in Austin, Texas twice, last time a few days ago. I have personally tried both the upgrade-kits and the dedicated machine, and my opinion is that ITG has become better than ddr on basically all fronts, and they are continuing to gain on ddr as ITG 3.0 and 4.0 are already in the works with heaps of new, cool features. Music and step-charts will of course be a matter of taste, personally I prefer ITG on both of these fronts compared with ddr.
In the US, Roxorgames put full power behind their ITG-products. ITG 1.5 is recently released on PS2, and we will be distributing this game for parts of Europe as soon as it has PAL-registration. We are discussing with Roxor regarding 4 more products, namely pc-game, XBOX-game, single-player game for institutions and multiplayer-game for institutions, all with ITG-software. We are also assisting Roxor to create a set-up which can enable a person to participate in tournaments, whether playing from home, arcade or from institutions (examples of institution is fitness studios, dance studios, schools, after-school instituions, army camps etc).
It is our opinion that with ITG, all issues around machine score vs dance points should be taken care of, as on ITG one gets the same score for each perfect or similar. Our first ITG 2.0 tournament will be arranged already September 2nd until 4th in Belgrade in Serbia, and Positive Gaming will sponsor the trip for all the top 10 in the European PG Cup.
This tournament will be arranged in co-operation with IDO (International Dance Organization, the world's biggest dance organization which is an umbrella-organization for national dance organizations in 75 countries) and will take place in connection with the European championships in Showdance. The finals will be played on the same stage as the Showdance competition, and will be watched live by a few thousand spectators.
We are already making plans for World Championships in machine dance next year in co-operation with IDO, most probably in Hamburg, Germany, in connection with the world championships in soccer (football) which will be arranged in Germany with one of the stadiums in Hamburg. We hope and plan that such an event will be organized as a LAN-party, lasting for 1 week with full focus on practising and tournaments in different machine dance games.
Machinedance is namely now accepted as a new genre within the IDO, as a test project between IDO and Positive Gaming. If it in one year is taken up as a fully accepted genre, the idea is that we machine-dancers will form an international machinedance-commitee, which will decide on rules etc. The idea is that this shall benefit existing communities and players, and make it much easier to get state funding, get machine dance registered as an official dance and sport in 75 countries world-wide.
I am presently on holidays in Chile, so this is it on this topic until I'm back early in August.
Best regards,
Draconia
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2:
We are now able to offer ITG 2.0 upgrade-kits which can work on all ddr-machines. We also offer ITG 2.0 dedicated arcade machines. Those who want to have an ITG 2.0 machine in their local arcade, please write to me at
oph@positivegaming.com.
ITG 2.0 has 135 songs, including several 11-, 12- and 13- footers. The dedicated arcade-machines are incredibly cool, with wider screen, better speakers, better and more sensitive pads and basically all you can wish for in a good dance machine.
We will organize an ITG 2.0 event in Belgrade in Serbia, from 2nd until 4th of September. If you want to participate in this tournament and want to practise up front, convince your local arcade-owner to contact us and order an upgrade-kit or machine!
We will sponsor any player that has convinced an arcade-owner to purchase an upgrade-kit or machine from us to come to Belgrade and participate in the ITG 2.0 tournament there. Or we can alternatively sponsor participation in next year's European or world championships in ITG, if a person prefers that. Anyone who wants to claim such sponsorship must write an email to me at
oph@positivegaming.com BEFORE contacting the relevant arcade-hall, mentioning the name of the arcade and when you will contact them. It will NOT be sufficient to come afterwords and claim that the arcade purchased a kit or machine from us because you convinced them.
ITG will be our area of focus for the future, and will definately be spread in far greater numbers than ddr in mainland Europe within short time. Our bigger tournaments will have focus on ITG, and there will soon be constant world-wide ITG-tournaments where a player can use an usb-stick to upload scores to an internet-based tournament-system keeping track of user profiles and scores on all players.
If someone wants to be a general sales-agent of ITG-products (meaning that they want to convince more than one arcade-owner to take in kits or machines), please contact me and tell me about yourself and your plans / qualifications.
Best regards,
Draconia
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(les lumières sous les touches).Le son est plutôt faible sur la bornes de gauche 
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNN 
.... das wäre sowas von geil !!!!