Beatmania III is a rhythm video game

Rhythm game

Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press buttons in a sequence dictated on the screen...

 created by Konami

Konami

is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...

. Gameplay is essentially the same as in the Beatmania

Beatmania

is a rhythm video game developed and distributed by Japanese game developer Konami and first released in 1997. It contributed largely to the boom of music games in 1998, and the series expanded not only with arcade sequels, but also moved to home consoles and other portable devices, achieving a...

series, with a few enhancements to the hardware.

The Beatmania III series was relatively short-lived, spanning only 2 years. It had five releases, the last one being Beatmania III The Final in 2002.

Audio system

The Beatmania III cabinet features a total of 10 speakers

Loudspeaker

A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...

. There are four mid-range speakers stacked vertically on either side of the screen, and two subwoofer

Subwoofer

A subwoofer is a woofer, or a complete loudspeaker, which is dedicated to the reproduction of low-pitched audio frequencies known as the "bass". The typical frequency range for a subwoofer is about 20–200 Hz for consumer products, below 100 Hz for professional live sound, and below...

s located on the front of the machine. The cabinet also features a pair of headphone jacks, so that both players may use their own headphones to enjoy the game's audio. Using headphones does not disable the external speakers.

Effector system

Whereas the original Beatmania features simply an "Effector" button, Beatmania III has an extensive panel for using a number of different effectors. Available effectors vary widely, including Echo, Low Pass, High Pass, Flanger, Phaser, Volume Bass, Lo-Fi, and several others. The chosen effector can be applied to just the background track, just the sounds created by the player, or both, and the intensity of the effect can be adjusted with two parameter knobs. Enabling the effector is achieved by simply pressing the foot pedal.

Foot pedal

While the original 5-keys-and-turntable layout remains unchanged, Beatmania III adds a foot pedal for each player. In normal play, this enables or disables different sound-altering effectors. Some songs have a "foot" version that adds a seventh column with green note bars played using the foot pedal. The game also allows players to set the foot pedal so that it functions as any one of the game's 5 keys.

Floppy drive

Beatmania III has a feature unique to the Bemani

Bemani

is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division, or simply G.M.D., it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, Beatmania, and expanded into other music-based games.-Bemani video games:...

 series: a 3.5 inch floppy disk

Floppy disk

A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...

 drive. By inserting any blank Windows-formatted disk before starting, the player can have the game create files on the disk used to record personal best scores. After playing, the disk is then removed from the drive for later repeated use in beatmania III, or for looking at scores using one's personal computer

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

. The floppy disk was also required to unlock secret songs or game modes on some versions of the game.

Releases

The Beatmania III series was only released as an arcade game. No console releases were ever produced even though both Japanese and North American controllers have output ports for a bass pedal. Each release added songs from the Beatmania

Beatmania

is a rhythm video game developed and distributed by Japanese game developer Konami and first released in 1997. It contributed largely to the boom of music games in 1998, and the series expanded not only with arcade sequels, but also moved to home consoles and other portable devices, achieving a...

 games their titles refer to, including most previous arcade releases.

External links

• beatmania III GATEWAY – Konami's official website in Japanese
  Japanese language
  is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...