I got a Playstation3 a week or so ago, along with DDR and a dance mat… and it turned out that the dance mat doesn’t work with PS3 directly. (The game itself works fine, if you count “works fine” as “you can play the dancing game with the hand controller if you want”… feh). Earlier readers may remember that I tried a normal “PS2 to USB” converter and this didn’t work… my “controller” lacks either a “PS” button or “Analog” button. (Problem is now resolved. Read on…)

I’m happy to report I got the right adapter and was actually able to play DDR as God intended. When the game starts, as with other PS2 games, the controller turns off and you have to press the “PS” button to get it to be detected again. So, I pushed the “PS” button on the adapter and the mat started working. (This is a wireless mat, called “React”, but I’m sure it would work with other PS2-compatible mats too.

The only place I could find the adapter was Frys.com (and two places in Canada, one being bestbuy.ca, but neither would ship outside of Canada, so no go). Frys.com took the order, sent me confirmation, then sent another mail saying “That’s not in stock but we’ll ship it as soon as we can”. Then in a couple days, another email said it had shipped and should arrive on the 27th by DHL. They actually delivered it today (24th). So, I’m impressed. The web site now lists the item as “Call for availability” – I think last week it said something like “Available for preoder”. So, order away, DDR fans!

One other thing to note… after about 20-25 minutes of play in various modes, the sound got “stuck” on a specific note. The arrows marched on, and so did I, but the music had been replaced by the typical “stuck CD” buzz sound. Sound effects were normal, but anytime it was supposed to play music after that I got the buzz/stutter sound, which continued up until quitting. So maybe it’s not 100% glitch-free, but we’ll see.