[Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] throughout this series we've taken a look at many modern rhythm games that have made an attempt at the market only to eventually die due to mismanagement trend chasing or poor reception the deaths of these games can almost be seen as common with a lot of games coming in and out of the market in a short time span today however we're looking at something different a founding titan of rhythm games and one of the origin points of the genre rhythm games as a concept didn't exist until around the mid-1990s perhaps the rapper released in 1996 is usually credited as being the first rhythm game to start defining genre concepts in addition to there being not much before that that could be considered a rhythm game other than maybe like dance aerobics on nes or simon i don't know parabola was basically the first after that however japanese company konami would step into the uncharted waters of rhythm gaming to create a genre defining work that would inspire rhythm games for years to come this is the history of the origin of rhythm games beat mania beat mania is the first rhythm game ever created by konami it was also the start of their bomani line of games and is where said term comes from being a shortening of beat mania the gameplay style of beat mania is very simple there are five keys arranged in a three bottom two top pattern and a turntable on the right side the cabinet features two sets of control inputs and just to get this out of the way right now for all of you beat mania 2dx players both control sets have the turntable on the right eat your heart out p1 side players the gameplay simply involved hitting the scrolling notes as they reach the red line at the bottom of the screen as we'll discuss later throughout the series they expanded some complexity of the game by adding judgments and combos but for the most part hitting the buttons at the judgment line was in effect the entire game beat mania's releases can be roughly broken down into four phases so we'll be covering the versions in blocks since a lot of the early beat mania releases were a bit lacking in content another quick note in this video we're only covering the arcade releases of the game home versions of beat mania are an entirely different story and there are a lot of them so we'll save those for another day with that let's get started with the very first version of beatmania what would become to be known as first mix beatmania first mix also known at the time as just beat mania was released on december 10 1997 and later released in the us as hip-hop mania now if you're coming from any sort of modern rhythm game beat mania is nothing short of dire the original beat mania maybe as expected has the smallest amount of songs in any bomani game seven it has seven songs and there aren't different charts either you get one for each song going back this far into rhythm games you can see that so few of the standards now existed back then the game had no combo counter the song select screen doesn't show the artist or the song name just a difficulty from one to five stars and a genre it's pretty wild another weird thing about the first beat mania is that other than the lack of content the game feels rushed like very rushed maybe that was why there were so few songs but there were other indicators of rush development as well as an example not one but two of the game's seven songs have typos in the title 20 november is written as 20 november and emotion is written as e emotion this technically means that 28 of beat mania's song list has a typo another interesting thing is how scuffed some of the background videos are on screen right now is the video for jam jam reggae a classic background animation even here we can see an instance of some qa most likely just not being present because in the background of the bga we can see the word [ __ ] written right above the old konami logo for those unaware [ __ ] konami has sort of become a phrase all konami fans will use whenever konami makes an anti-consumer business decision i even have it written on the back of my e-amusement card but this means that [ __ ] konami is canon and has existed since 1997. as much as this mix was arguably an absolute train wreck it somehow did well enough to get a sequel just three months later beat mania second mix was released on march 18th 1998. from here we'll start to see some standards both of beat mania and also of rhythm games start to drift in one of the most notable things to start being added to the game is modifiers any player of modern rhythm games knows that the modifiers to change how the chart appears how it plays and what you can and can't see are very common now this game most likely laid the foundation for that by introducing the hidden modifier which makes the notes disappear about halfway down the screen before they reach the strike line at the time doubles play was also added as a modifier rather than its own mode and it would allow you to play the one player and two player charts at the same time they also raised the difficulty maximum from five to six and thankfully this time around there was a bit more qa throughout and they fixed the emotion and 20 november typos i think by most definitions this is where the series started to solidify and begin establishing conventions that would end up making it popular in japan this time with about five months between releases we head into third mix beat mania third mix was released on september 28th 1998 the same day as the first version of pop and music in this mix we got a few more features that would become series staples the game finally had a combo counter added and the rules for judgments were a bit more clearly defined though some of the mechanics were a bit weird compared to today's mechanics goods actually break your combo in this game and flashing great was added but not in the modern sense where it was a tighter judgment or worth more points just that after 10 combo your great judgment would be a flashing great instead easy mode was added with the closest comparison to modern beat mania 2dx being beginner mode where you were restricted to less songs than in normal mode this game introduced quite a few more modifiers as well most notably random was added which shuffles all the notes in the chart except for scratches random went on to become a series staple modifier along with being somewhat controversial so to see such an iconic modifier added to the series over 20 years ago is pretty interesting we also got the mirror modifier which mirrors the notes in the chart except for scratches and the battle modifier which allowed two players to play the same chart against each other since at this point in the series the game actually had different charts for 1p and 2p side which is a little weird considering the control schemes in beat mania are the same on both sides as far as i can tell this was also the point where the beat mania series would introduce the idea of another charts well today another is the name of the most difficult chart for any given song when the concept was originally introduced they were secret alternative charts that can be played in certain modes or by using unlock codes for example in third mix if you had 20 november or attack the music highlighted on the menu and pressed 1 and 6 at the same time when the timer was at 11 seconds the another chart would load instead as for a bit of history about the staff working on beat mania this game was the series debut of gyo iguchi the director of background videos for the beat mania series the background animations or bga as they're known are an iconic piece of the style of beatmania and often capture the style of the era the game was created in very well this is a position that iguchi actually still holds to this day and he was also responsible for designing some of beat mania's original signature characters like tran about half a year later we would come to the end of the first phase of beat mania beat mania complete mix was released on january 19th 1999. this mix was also released outside of japan as hip-hop mania complete mix in the u.s and beat stage complete mix in korea this is the first time konami would experiment with a compilation mix as the game features all the songs from first mix second mix third mix and some new songs as well the funny thing about complete mix is that it doesn't continue feature parody with the previous version for example third mix had a combo counter but complete mix doesn't have one it however did have some other new features added the modern version of flash and grates were introduced here with a tighter timing window and bonus score excore was also introduced an alternate scoring indicator and what would become the competition standard for beat mania as a series among its community also the game finally shows the song name with complete mix the first phase of beat mania comes to an end over the course of these two years konami was able to establish beat mania as a series and continue to draw interest in the game as we head into phase 2 we take a step back for a sort of reset to the series next direction released a few months after complete mix on april 26 1999 beat mania 4th mix the beat goes on would mark a small series reset all the existing songs in the game were removed and replaced with a completely fresh new song list this mix did have some changes that the series would retain however this is the first bomani game that had licensed songs and the money crossovers both things that would become series staples the difficulty cap was raised up to seven and fourth mix is the first version where all songs have at least two charts for both single and double marking a significant increase in the amount of content the good judgment was also changed to not break your combo anymore though hilariously this was actually not a permanent change quite yet and good breaks would return later a few ui changes were implemented notably the artist is also listed on the song select now as well finally after two years we have all the song information available on the song select screen the ui art design changed as well starting to move toward that late 90s early 2000s future-esque design that would go on to become very popular and somewhat defined beat manias feel the only other real thing of note that i could find about this mix was this super wack song select code that allowed you to pick any song in any mode so if you ever wanted to figure out how to enable all songs on the song select in beat mania fourth mix here it is with the buttons left to right being one through ten on the title screen press six ten nine eight nine eight nine six seven six six ten nine eight nine eight nine six seven six six hold two four and effect and press start who the hell was gonna do that four months later we arrive at beat mania fifth mix time to get down released on september 22nd 1999. something to keep track of for the future by the way is that beat mania 2dx beat mania's sequel series had its first version released between 4th mix and fitx this was the first money game to feature dance mania licenses something that would become common in these earlier bomani releases in general nesmania is a series of remix compilation albums that started in 1996 and many of the songs from that series would make their way into the money games as crossovers we got more gameplay updates in this version as well this was finally the last version to not track combo count in all modes finally making the combo counter a permanent staple of rhythm games in the process we got more modifiers in this version as well specifically the sudden modifier which is the opposite of hidden where notes appear starting halfway down the screen rather than at the top for those familiar with bomani modifiers stealth didn't exist at this point so the game actually allowed you to pick both hidden and sudden which would make the notes entirely invisible a high speed modifier was also introduced setting the scroll speed to double this would be the first time players would be able to adjust the scroll speed of notes something that would get expanded on in the future this game also restricted flashing great again for some reason being stuck only in expert mode this is sort of similar to how in ddr for a little while the marvelous timing window was only available in courses the last interesting thing to note about fifth mix was that it actually had a region exclusive mode the korean version of the game had an extra feature called perfect play with this mode on any judgment lower than a good was an instant fail as far as i know this is the only time a feature like this has existed in the series and from what i know wouldn't return to bomani in general until sound voltex got its goal system where you were allowed to set it to a specific score otherwise you'd fail but even then it was never based on judgments unless you go for a puc i'd be curious to know if they released this only in korea to test reception to a mode like that finally we arrive at the end of the second phase of beat mania beat mania complete mix 2 released on january 27 2000 and also in the us as hip hop mania complete mix 2 in june of 2000 though that version had all the licensed music removed this was the second compilation mix comprised mostly of content from the second phase of beat mania it had all the songs from fourth and fifth mix but also a selection of songs from the older mixes as well since 4th mix at the time had removed all previous songs the game added a lot of on other charts as well with some older songs getting new in other charts and with some of the old hard charts being repurposed to another as well in addition to all another charts having their own ratings now which they didn't before i'd guess around this time konami was interested in starting to standardize the idea of songs having certain amounts of charts the maximum difficulty was changed to 9 which was the highest the original beat mania would ever see and you can now change chart difficulties by pressing a key rather than entering a code a change that would remain present through the rest of the entire series as we've seen during phase 2 of b mania they were adding a lot of modifiers to the game to increase variety for the game and that was no different in completeness too with even more modifiers added they added a mod called center play which allowed you to play with the one player side turntable and the two player side keys putting the turntable on the left side instead of the right this was most likely added due to beat mania 2dx having the one player turntable on the left side they also added a few more high speed modifiers allowing for 3x and 4x scrolling speed complete mix 2 marked the end of the second phase of beat mania but before we move on to the third and final phase we have to take a short detour into the weirder side of beat mania so let's take a look at some beat mania spin-offs that came out between the end of the second phase and the start of the third phase first up is beat mania club mix which from what i can tell was a pretty bog standard mix in terms of features not really adding or changing much at all the only songs kept from complete mix 2 where the konami originals and the rest were specific to this mix another weird thing is the strange lack of feature parody from earlier in the series kind of showed up again here in complete mix 2 which came out before this all the another charts had their difficulties rated in club mix anothers don't have their difficulties rated which makes no sense there's not much else of note in club mix for the sake of history purposes so let's move on the next game in the list of spin-offs is beat mania core remix this version is a bit more interesting as its song list consists mostly of remixes from beat mania first mix and second mix and has some originals as well it also added a feature that would be retained throughout the entirety of the beat mania franchise from here on even to this day which is the pop-up start menu that allows for changing of modifiers rather than having to use codes in terms of staff this would be the last game that ryo nagamo worked on as an employee of konami he was one of the co-creators of beat mania and is better known as dj nagareo the creator of classic beat mania tracks like jam jam reggae and 20 november well it was the last game he worked on as official konami staff konami would continue to commission him for songs for the beat mania series for quite a while after that additionally core remix's opening theme is written by osama miguel terra and was his first contribution to the beat mania series mikiterra is more well known by his alias des roh who made this song that i'm sure a lot of you are familiar with [Music] the last stop on our spin-off investigation comes to beat mania featuring dreams come true this is a weird mix basically it's a beat mania game with a song list comprised entirely of songs by the j-pop band dreams come true and a few remixes of songs from said band none of the new songs added have on other charts and there's this very strange mode called monkey live mode which is just expert chorus mode except between songs there's a little segment where you get to scratch to gain meter back that's all i really have to say about this one i'm not really sure why this was made but konami was sure hell bent on chasing trends with their music games back in the early 2000s with our short detour taken care of we returned to mainline beat mania for what would be the final phase of beat mania's life first up in the final phase is beatmania's sixth mix the uk underground music released on july 13 2001 this would release nearly two years after complete mix 2 and took a similar approach that 4th mix did by scrapping all existing songs and starting completely fresh instead the game had 27 songs with a majority commissioned from uk artists making this a sort of themed mix popular artist pink pong would also make their view mania debut in this mix for some reason in this version on other charts were called maniac now no idea on that one at this point they've officially implemented free choice between normal hard and maniac or another rather than restricting them in certain modes and they added free mode a mode in which you're guaranteed your full set of songs even if you fail but you get one less song than in normal mode they made a few stylistic choices as well in this mix including the ability to select between a few different menu color themes they also added a mode called expert plus which was just a single course of the 10 hardest songs in the entire game now keep in mind at this point there are three different versions of beat mania concurrently running each with different cabinets and control schemes something i am sure was putting pressure on konami's production nevertheless beat mania continued on next up is beatmania's seventh mix keep in evolution released on january 31st 2002 in terms of feature changes and additions this one was pretty lacking compared to previous mixes but they did try out a new note type one turn scratches the idea of this note was when the long turntable note hit you had to fully spin the turntable once before the note ended this note type wouldn't end up being retained in the long run of beat mania but it was interesting to see it added maniac was renamed permanently back to another and singles and doubles charts are now separately rated in this version rather than always sharing the same rating something that would carry forward to all future beat mania titles in terms of new features however that was about it the feature changes and additions during third phase b mania were starting to get sparse and i wonder with other versions of beat mania existing at the time if people could see the writing on the wall with the series coming to an end soon whether or not people predicted it the end of beat mania was soon to follow released on july 26 2002 was beat mania the final the last version of the original beat mania the series wasn't content without going out with a bang however and had the biggest song list of any of the beat mania series it revives songs from every version of beat mania and they brought some of the old bomani crossovers back a lot of the old revive songs even got new charts too they were so intent on jamming the final full songs and content that they actually did things like removing song unique background animations in favor of generic ones to save memory they even removed the miss animation for the same reason the final would make one more contribution to bomani history in the way of the stealth mod basically they took the behavior of hidden plus sudden from the earlier mixes and changed it so that with those two mods you could actually still see the notes briefly in the middle due to this they added a new mod stealth which was the functional replacement for making the notes fully invisible by most definitions the final was the most complete and definitive version of the mania and would mark the end of the beat mania series now normally this is the part of the video where i sit back and talk about why the game died however i think this time around i want to take a different approach as some of you are no doubt aware beat mania had two sister series beat mania 2dx which is still around today 20 years later and beat mania 3 which had its final version just a month after beat manias it would be a bit incomplete to talk about the ending of beat mania without discussing beat mania 3 and as some of you may have guessed the next dead rhythm games after this will indeed be beat mania 3. so in terms of talking about why the game died we're going to hold on to that for next time what i want to do instead is this during my research i stumbled upon a web archive of the beat mania the final website that konami used to host on it i found a page which was a listing of user comments submitted to konami about the game while obviously not super well translated to english using google translate there's a huge page here of comments submitted from users to konami staff about how beat mania affected their life i'm no veteran of rhythm games hell i was five years old when beat mania the final came out however beat mania's existence is the reason that i've been involved in this hobby for seven years where i've met some of my best friends and had some great life experiences like travel and competitions so to pay my respects for the series that started it all both for me and for rhythm games i'd like to take a second to read a few of the messages that stood out to me i'll leave a link to the web archive page in the description there's a couple pages of these comments if you'd like to go through and read any of them thanks for watching and i'll see you all in the next one nice to meet you konami when i went to japan last summer i tried the beat mania game for the first time it was fun to start once and i ran out of thousands of yen in a day when i returned to canada at the end of the summer i searched around for 2dx and 5 key controllers i was lucky enough to find a 5k controller but i can't find 2dx if i have time i'll do 2dx in the arcade instead of doing my homework why is the curtain closed for such a popular game thank you for everything from us bomani fans for 5 years beatmania lives forever in my heart please continue to make interesting games i am grateful to everyone at konami konami life i was greatly influenced by beat mania in my life the games i play are all about music games and the music i listen to has changed i used to never go to the techno corner the last such beat mania is big news for me i look forward to the last beat mania it's been a long relationship after all the times are advancing and they are constantly changing to new ones is beat mania finally over i'm lonely i thought it would be replaced by 2dx someday but it's so fast i wanted it to continue until at least the number of mixes reached two digits though 2dx would continue after all i don't want beat mania to disappear because beat mania has made ddr guitar freaks drummania keyboard mania 2dx and poppin music popular so i think it's very lonely that beatmania which is the origin of it disappears don't forget your original intention after all i think we should not forget the origin well you can't go against the waves of times i'm lonely ah goodbye five key i hope it will come back someday because it's like beat mania remix thank you to all the production members of konami [Music] thanks for watching check out my twitter and my twitch links are in the description below you can also check out my patreon if you want to support my content if you like this video don't forget to like and subscribe and i'll see you guys next time you