===================================DISCLAIMER================================== I have decided not to allow websites other than Gamefaqs (www.gamefaqs.com), IGN (faqs.ign.com) & Gamespot (www.gamespot.com) to host my FAQs from now on. Please don't ask, because I will not grant permission. It's just that too many sites don't keep their version of my FAQ up to date which makes for a lot of hassle in my mailbox. So if anyone sees this FAQ on any site other than those mentioned above, please let me know and I will take care of the situation, thanks. Just to make things crystal clear for some people, this FAQ is not to appear anywhere at the following URLs: http://www.cheatcc.com http://www.cheatindex.com This document Copyright 2004,2017 Daniel Engel =============================================================================== Beatmania: The Sound Of Tokyo FAQ November 30, 2017 Daniel (DEngel) Engel dan.engel.2017 [AT] gmail [DOT] com ############################################################################### (A) TABLE OF CONTENTS ############################################################################### Table of Contents (A) This Table of Contents (B) Introduction (C) Controls (D) Menus (E) Song Lists (F) Basics (G) Controllers/Games (H) Controller Modding (I) Thanks (J) Experimental ############################################################################### (B) INTRODUCTION ############################################################################### Beatmania is a highly-addictive music/rhythm [Bemani] game from Konami. The interface is very similar to DDR, guitar freaks, and many of their other Bemani games. In Beatmania you press a series of keys that are similar to piano keys in shape and layout as well as scratching with a turntable. You do all of this to produce the song that you are playing. If you don't press anything then you'll just hear some faint background music/beats and the song won't sound very good, but if you can keep up with the notes then the song sounds great. Beatmania has a pretty steep learning curve [compared to DDR], but it's a lot of fun and it helps to have a real controller [see section (G) Controllers/Games below.] All of the Beatmania games on the original Playstation were played with 5 keys and the turntable. Konami later upgraded Beatmania to create Beatmania IIDX, which has you playing with SEVEN keys instead of five [as well as the turntable]. It should go without saying that five key is easier than seven key, but it's also much easier to play on a Playstation controller if you don't have a proper Beatmania controller. I found that this game in particular [Sound of Tokyo] is one of the weakest Beatmania games. Although the length of the songs seems to be longer than usual, the selection is terrible with only 13 songs to pick from. The game's got a pretty epileptic and quirky intro when you start it up, but otherwise this particular Beatmania game doesn't have much going for it. ############################################################################### (C) CONTROLS ############################################################################### When you first start the game you are given the option of selecting your controller, original or normal. Original is a real Beatmania controller, and Normal is a Playstation controller. The controls for the Beatmania controller can't be changed, but the controls for the Playstation controller are as follows. Left - Left white key. Square - Middle white key. X - Right white key, cancel menu choices. L1 - Left black key. L2 - Left black key. R1 - Right black key. R2 - Right black key. Circle - Turntable/scratch, confirm menu choices. Triangle - Turntable/scratch. Select - Press while playing to change the effect [add/remove echo]. Start - Confirm menu choices [unless you see 'press start button to exit' on the screen. Hold when playing to quit that song, instead of waiting until it's over. ############################################################################### (D) MENUS ############################################################################### ========== Game Start ========== Lets you play the game in one of two modes, Open and Fixed. You also get to choose your difficulty in open mode, either Economy [Easy], Business [Normal], or First Class [Hard]. Open Mode lets you choose one song to play for up to 3 rounds. Once you pass all 3 rounds you've cleared that mode and can see how your score measures up. You have unlimited continues in this mode. In order to pass a song you need to make sure that your gauge is red instead of green, and you do this by hitting notes correctly. Fixed Mode lets you choose from some fixed groups of songs. Once you've chosen a group, you play all of the songs within it, without any breaks. Your gauge goes down if you do poorly, but it only stays the same if you do well, it DOESN'T rise higher like in Open mode. The game ends when you either pass all of the songs in your group or the gauge reaches zero. You also have NO continues in this mode. ======== Training ======== Lets you play any song and even specific sections of a song if you only want to practice that section. There are also many other options in here to make it easier for you to train, such as repeat, turning off the background music, etc. ==== Free ==== This mode lets you play any song that you've played before. You don't need to pass a song to make it available in free mode. This is also a good mode to play if you just want to hear what a song sounds like when it's played perfectly. Set the player to 'CPU only' if you want to do this. ====== Option ====== Game Level - Adjust how the game judges your timing on notes, the harder the setting the harder it is to pass a song. Controller - Change the controller type to original/normal if you need to. Auto-Turntable - A GREAT setting for people that are new to the game. With this turned on the computer automatically hits all turntable notes for you. This allows you to focus on the keys only. Judge Display Position - Sets where you want the display for your timing on the notes. For instance where you want to see GREAT, POOR, etc. Lane Color - I'm VERY glad that this option was included, because every other Beatmania game that I've played on the PS1 has had a black lane colour. This is the colour of the play area where all the notes fall down. This game has a white lane color by default, which I find makes it a lot harder to read the notes. Key Config - Change the buttons on the PS controller if you don't like the defaults. Vibration - Adjust when you want the controller to vibrate [if at all] as you play. Effect - Lets you choose which [echo] effect will be used when you play the game and to what degree [when you press select during a song]. Records - View the high scores for any of the songs or modes. Memory Card - Load or save with the memory card, or turn auto save on/off. I recommend turning it on, just MAKE SURE that you NEVER take the memory card out or turn the PS1/PS2 off until the game is done saving. Otherwise you may lose the saves on your memory card. =========== Disc Change =========== Some of the PS1 Beatmania games are known as Append Discs, which means that they won't load by themselves. Instead you need to take a Key Disc [like Beatmania: Sound Of Tokyo] and choose this option. The Disc then stops spinning and you can take it out and put in the append disc. Press start once that disc is in to load it properly. There ARE others but the key discs and append discs that I've played are as follows. [KEY DISCS] Beatmania: 2nd Mix Beatmania: 6th Mix Beatmania: Best Hits Beatmania: Sound Of Tokyo [APPEND DISCS] Beatmania: 3rd Mix Beatmania: 4th Mix Beatmania: 5th Mix Beatmania: Gottamix 2 Personally I find the idea of append discs really annoying, but some of the DDR games were also append discs. ############################################################################### (E) SONG LISTS ############################################################################### Bricklayer J. Gastronomy Here is a listing of all 13 songs that you can play in the game, as well as any stats that I can find on them. Unfortunately all artist names are in Japanese so I don't know what they are, and also four song titles are unreadable to me. For the level and # of notes I've listed three different numbers, these are for Economy, Business, and First Class difficulties. |----------------------------------------------------------------| | Song Title | Genre |BPM|Level|# of Notes | |----------------------------------------------------------------| |??? [Title Theme] |Groovy Drum Method |163|1-8-9|196-834-901| |How to Scratch Part.1 |Boogie Disco Break |119|1-6-7|194-485-548| |Mambotango no.5 |Latin Breakbeats |135|1-6-7|189-341-405| |Young Gun(Who is H&H?)|Sweet Future Jazz |124|2-5-6|202-368-433| |This Flight Tonight |Pop Art Breakbeats |185|2-3-4|315-341-364| |a monkey scratches |Joker Breakbeats |166|3-5-6|207-271-317| |GAME OF EXOTICA |Latin Hi-NRG |161|3-5-6|229-331-370| |??? |Jazzy Groove |182|3-6-7|314-424-508| |I LOVE YOU |Love Groove |127|3-4-5|303-414-487| |??? |Joker Samba House |134|4-5-6|337-533-553| |BLAST OFF! |Happy Hi-NRG |165|4-6-7|295-481-497| |A.O.R. |Brazilian House Pop|123|4-6-6|295-319-427| |??? |Organ Jazz Lounge |153|5-7-8|413-675-704| |----------------------------------------------------------------| In Fixed Mode you get to choose from one of nine groups of songs, so I've listed each group and the songs contained within it. ------------------------------------------ Darlin' Of Discotheque - Economy - Level 3 ------------------------------------------ ??? [Title Theme] - Groovy Drum Method Mambotango no.5 - Latin Breakbeats Young Gun(Who is H&H?) - Sweet Future Jazz I LOVE YOU - Love Groove A.O.R. - Brazilian House Pop ------------------------------------- Variete Japonaise - Economy - Level 3 ------------------------------------- How to Scratch Part.1 - Boogie Disco Break ??? - Jazzy Groove ??? - Joker Samba House ??? - Organ Jazz Lounge ------------------------------------ Young And Fresh! - Economy - Level 3 ------------------------------------ This Flight Tonight - Pop Art Breakbeats a monkey scratches - Joker Breakbeats GAME OF EXOTICA - Latin Hi-NRG BLAST OFF! - Happy Hi-NRG ------------------------------------------- Darlin' Of Discotheque - Business - Level 6 ------------------------------------------- I LOVE YOU - Love Groove Young Gun(Who is H&H?) - Sweet Future Jazz Mambotango no.5 - Latin Breakbeats A.O.R. - Brazilian House Pop ??? [Title Theme] - Groovy Drum Method -------------------------------------- Variete Japonaise - Business - Level 6 -------------------------------------- ??? - Joker Samba House How to Scratch Part.1 - Boogie Disco Break ??? - Jazzy Groove ??? - Organ Jazz Lounge ------------------------------------- Young And Fresh! - Business - Level 6 ------------------------------------- This Flight Tonight - Pop Art Breakbeats a monkey scratches - Joker Breakbeats GAME OF EXOTICA - Latin Hi-NRG BLAST OFF! - Happy Hi-NRG ---------------------------------------------- Darlin' Of Discotheque - First Class - Level 9 ---------------------------------------------- I LOVE YOU - Love Groove Young Gun(Who is H&H?) - Sweet Future Jazz A.O.R. - Brazilian House Pop Mambotango no.5 - Latin Breakbeats ??? [Title Theme] - Groovy Drum Method ----------------------------------------- Variete Japonaise - First Class - Level 9 ----------------------------------------- ??? - Joker Samba House ??? - Jazzy Groove How to Scratch Part.1 - Boogie Disco Break ??? - Organ Jazz Lounge ---------------------------------------- Young And Fresh! - First Class - Level 9 ---------------------------------------- This Flight Tonight - Pop Art Breakbeats a monkey scratches - Joker Breakbeats GAME OF EXOTICA - Latin Hi-NRG BLAST OFF! - Happy Hi-NRG ############################################################################### (F) BASICS ############################################################################### ======= Reading ======= Whether you're playing on a Beatmania controller or a Playstation controller the first thing you want to work on is reading the notes. Basically the notes fall from the top of the screen to the red line at the bottom, and if you can press the button for each note as it fills that red line you will do very well. When you are first starting out just focus on one button [or the turntable only] and only watch the lane for notes that are for that button. Hit the button when these notes come and continue to do this until you're more confident in your timing and reading. After a while you may want to add a second button [say two of the white buttons, or the two black buttons with the blue lines]. ======= Colours ======= Once you're pretty confident in your reading you'll want to work on colours. You can put the game on Auto-Turntable if you want, then just work on either the three white buttons or the two black buttons. Only hit these buttons as you play the song, then try the ones you didn't use. One round of white, one round of black, and so on. ========= Fingering ========= This section is mainly for people playing on a real Beatmania controller. You do NOT have to do everything like me, this is just the way I have found works best for me. From my own experience I find it works best to have your index finger on the leftmost white button, your middle finger on the middle white button and your ring finger on the rightmost white button. I call this the default position and it's a great one to just wait on when there are no notes to hit, also it's perfect to come back to if you get really messed up and you need to figure out where your fingers are. Also if you ever decide to make the jump to Beatmania IIDX you're all ready to use your pinky finger on the extra white button in that game. For the black keys I find that having my index finger on the left one and my middle finger on the right one feels most natural. However if I had to press some white keys as well as some black in a section I could just as easily use my middle finger on the left black key and my ring finger on the right key. ========== Monochrome ========== I find that once you're pretty confident in the above sections, your next problem is usually hitting a black key and a white key at the same time. If it's the black key that's beside the white key that you're pressing you can just use whatever finger is beside the one that you are using most of the time. ie: Pressing leftmost white key with index finger? Use middle finger on left black key. The trickier stuff [especially in IIDX] is hitting the keys that are NOT side by side. In these cases I would usually do the following. Pressing leftmost white key with index finger? Use ring finger on right black key. Although it is possible to use your middle finger on the right black key in this case, you will have to stretch and it really doesn't feel natural [at least not to me]. Similarly: Pressing rightmost white key with ring finger? Use index finger on left black key. It's annoying but the best way to get good at something that you're finding tough is to play a song that has a lot of it. ############################################################################### (G) CONTROLLERS/GAMES ############################################################################### This section is for anyone looking to buy Beatmania controllers or games, as both can be pretty hard to find. First of all, one of your best resources for ANYTHING to do with Beatmania or other Bemani is the website and forums at www.bemanistyle.com . =========== CONTROLLERS =========== There are four types of controllers that you can buy and I will describe them here. ---------------- 5-Key Controller ---------------- These controllers are VERY old because they were made back before IIDX even existed. The technology of these controllers isn't quite as up to date as others but you can find them for pretty cheap if you just want to play 5-key Beatmania. ------------ Rave Discman ------------ This is an UNOFFICIAL IIDX [7-key] controller. They ARE very cheap, BUT they are also complete and utter trash in every sense of the expression. I have not used one but just about everyone who has swears that they threw their money away by purchasing one. The only thing this controller has going for it is the price and the availability, because these controllers are pretty easy to find anywhere online. ------------------------ Official IIDX Controller ------------------------ This is the controller that I bought when I got started with Beatmania, it's also the most highly recommended among all players for beginners to start with. The controller is made by Konami [who makes the Beatmania games] and usually goes for around $100 US [but definitely get it if you can find it for less with good shipping], though shipping varies depending where you order it from. The controller is VERY responsive and incredibly easy to clean when your keys get dirty. Even better still, the tray that holds the keys can snap out with an eject button under the controller so that you can turn it around for left or right-handed players in a matter of seconds. At the time of this writing [January '05] these controllers can be hard to find brand new, in-stock at any website for a good price. I went through a lot to get mine, but I'll talk about that below where I mention where you can order these controllers. Konami is FINALLY bringing Beatmania to North America, and they will be shipping it out on March 1st for about $50 US. The game is also bundled with a new version of the official controller [it has a rounded bottom by the turntable rather than a square one, other than that I don't know if they've made improvements.] If you have the chance I highly recommend ordering this new game to get your controller. ---------------------------------- Arcade Style Controller - aka: ASC ---------------------------------- This is the most expensive controller, but I am told it is definitely worth it if you have the money. These controllers are as close as you can get to the arcade controllers, without actually playing on an arcade machine [hence the name]. Much like the official controllers above, there is an official version of the ASC, if you want one made by Konami. However there are also a couple of alternatives, two different regulars on the bemanistyle.com forums are making their OWN ASC's to sell to people. The difference being that you can get custom paint jobs on these controllers and other interesting little extras that you couldn't get with an official ASC. Also it's nice to support the little guy if you can, but ultimately it's your choice. I'm certainly keeping my eye on these two homemade ASCs for when I'm in the market for an ASC. One of the ASC-makers is here: http://desktoparcade.com/ The other is here (for now): http://www.bemanistyle.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4980 ===== GAMES ===== There are 12 PS1 Beatmania games and 8 PS2 Beatmania games available, but ALL are Japanese and REQUIRE a PS1/PS2 that's capable of playing Japanese games. This means that you either need to buy a Japanese PS1/PS2, or get yours modded so that it can play Japanese games. PS1 Beatmania Beatmania: 2nd Mix Beatmania: 3rd Mix Beatmania: 4th Mix Beatmania: 5th Mix Beatmania: 6th Mix Beatmania: Best Hits Beatmania: Club Mix Beatmania: GottaMix Beatmania: GottaMix 2 Beatmania: Featuring Dreams Come True Beatmania: Sound Of Tokyo PS2 Beatmania IIDX: 3rd Style Beatmania IIDX: 4th Style Beatmania IIDX: 5th Style Beatmania IIDX: 6th Style Beatmania IIDX: 7th Style Beatmania IIDX: 8th Style Beatmania IIDX: 9th Style Beatmania IIDX: 10th Style Unfortunately some of these games can be pretty hard to find, but most of them are available at the stores listed in the section below. ============ WHERE TO BUY ============ There are a number of places online where you can order games and controllers, here I have reviews by Enforce1 along with my OWN review of Toys N Joys, Redoctane and Yesasia. ------------------------------------ Playasia - http://www.play-asia.com/ ------------------------------------ At playasia, you can get IIDX controllers, and Rave Discmans. Decent prices, and they ship quickly from the US. Also, a wide selection of games, including pre-orders, and pretty decent prices. Rating: 5 out of 5 --------------------------- Ebay - http://www.ebay.com/ --------------------------- You all know the story of ebay. They rarely have what you want, but check it out and you might find something cool. IIDX Controllers are usually on there, but check the feedback and all that, and if you think its safe, have at it. Shipping varies, check before you bid whether they are in the US or Japan. That could kill ya... Rating: 3 out of 5 ------------------------------------- Redoctane - http://www.redoctane.com/ ------------------------------------- Redoctane carries games and controllers and has good shipping. I've personally used them in the past for a DDR pad and had no problems. The only IIDX controller they carry is the Rave Discman though, and that's not worth getting at all. Rating: 3 out of 5 ------------------------------- Rinkya - http://www.rinkya.com/ ------------------------------- Japanese Yahoo Auctions Translation site. I know that many of you have seen it, and tried to figure it out. Basically, if you win, you go through them and pay outrageous fees to get things that you want, but only if you win the auction. Only use this site if you can't find what you want elsewhere... Rating: 2.5 out of 5 ----------------------------------- Himeya - http://www.himeyashop.com/ ----------------------------------- This place is strange. There are a lot of people that are completely satisfied with himeya... They ship from Japan, and shipping is horrendous with tracking. They are taking preorders (currently) for IIDX and Pop'n ASC's. Also, they are selling official Keyboardmania, Drummania, and IIDX controllers. Prices are pretty high... Especially for the IIDX controller (90 elsewhere). This place, however has "cool things" like pop'n keychains and tumblers, and card games, and lots of other cool little collectibles. Also, they have some really cool PS1 and PS2 games, and the games to go with the controllers, of course. Rating: 2 out of 5 --------------------------------------------- Yesasia - http://us.yesasia.com/en/index.aspx --------------------------------------------- Yesasia is very similar to playasia, with similar pricing and stock. Unfortunately I had an annoying experience with them, much like Toys N' Joys. Initially when I placed my order with them I used paypal since I thought it would be easiest. Unfortunately they didn't forward me to paypal's site at the checkout, when EVERY other site I've been to that uses paypal has done that. So I had to go to paypal myself and send a payment for the proper amount to their address. This meant more time to wait as they processed my payment, then I waited for a few weeks before they finally told me they didn't have any controllers in stock. [SO UPDATE YOUR ****ING SITE TO SAY THAT!] I later cancelled my order with them [which was pretty quick and easy to do] and moved on to a new nightmare with Toys N' Joys. Rating: 2 out of 5 ---------------------------------------- Toys N' Joys - http://www.toysnjoys.com/ ---------------------------------------- TNJ carries a number of Beatmania games and I'm sure ordering them is no problem, but they are based in Hong Kong so shipping times and rates might be larger than you're used to. However MY experience with TNJ was terrible, and I want to warn as many people as possible about them. Basically I had tried unsuccessfully to order a controller through yesasia before I noticed TNJ's web site. Since I was already weary I emailed them to MAKE SURE that they had the controllers in stock before ordering one. I was told that they had them in stock and that they get new stock in every week. So I placed my order with them and waited a week, then another, and another... and another. About this time I found the bemanistyle forums and learned that TNJ recently got a large shipment of used controllers, which was bittersweet news. I was glad that they had a large group of controllers, but I was worried that I might get a used one since I paid for a new one. A day later my fears grew as TNJ changed their website so the controllers were labeled with 'PREOWNED', but the price remained the same. Eventually when my controller arrived I discovered it was missing the original box and the manual, plus it was packed with a couple sheets of newspaper in the box. Other than the pathetic packing job I later found the keys on the controller were caked with dirt/sweat, but I managed to fix that with the mod described above. I think after all was said and done it took over a month from the time I ordered my controller to when it arrived at my house. So if at all possible I would steer clear from them if ordering controllers, unless they are your only option. Rating: 1 out of 5 ############################################################################### (H) CONTROLLER MODDING ############################################################################### When you get your controller [if it's a new one] it should work great right out of the box, but I'm sure you want it to 'play like new' for as long as entirely possible. This is where modding comes in, basically with a few small adjustments you can stop problems with your controller before they happen, or often correct them if they've already happened. For instance when I ordered my controller I ordered [and paid for] a new one, but ended up receiving a used one with very obvious sweat and dirt collecting on the edges of the keys. >:O This caused some of the keys to stick [stay down] when pressing them, which is unacceptable in this kind of game. Fortunately though the mod I performed fixed this problem and it has not happened ONCE since I did it. Even if you're not doing any of the mods it is still highly recommended that you clean your controller whenever you notice any buildup of dirt around the keys or any keys sticking. ============= CARDBOARD MOD ============= This mod is for the keys only [it doesn't affect the turntable] and is used to help make them more responsive, or to prevent/cure sticky keys like I had with my controller. I took pictures of the modding process when I did it, so I'll put links to those pics here. -------- Cleaning -------- First you eject the tray of keys by holding the EJECT button on the bottom of the controller. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/01.jpg The tray then slides outwards a little. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/02.jpg And you lift it right out from there. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/03.jpg Take off the 6 black screws on the bottom of the tray, then store them in the little grooves for now if you want. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/04.jpg Take the bottom of the tray off [on the left in the pic] and now you can use the little circular areas to store the screws if you wish. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/05.jpg Take out the two gold screws and place them with the other screws on the bottom half of the tray. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/06.jpg This pic has the board sitting on the bottom half of the tray [with the screws in it] on the left and the top of the tray with all the keys and their plungers on the right. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/07.jpg Take all the plungers off [including the 2 for start and select] and put them somewhere, I put them with the rest of the controller. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/08.jpg Now you can lift [or dump] all the keys out of the tray, and leave the start and select buttons with the plungers unless they need some serious cleaning. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/09.jpg Here's a couple of pics that show [not very well] how much dirt was on my keys and controller before cleaning. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/10.jpg http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/11.jpg Although you can use Q-tips for cleaning, I just used a few wet folded paper towels. They don't need to be dripping wet, I just ran a low stream out the tap and quickly rushed the towels under it to get them slightly damp. The edges of the keys are most important but there are also small grooves in these edges that can sometimes get dirty too. Just keep your eyes open for dirt and you should be fine. You can go over the keys once more with a dry paper towel if you want, it depends how wet they are and how long you want to wait for them to dry. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/12.jpg http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/13.jpg It's very important to clean the edges of the tray where the keys would sit, I also used damp paper towels for this. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/14.jpg ------- The Mod ------- The modding process starts at this point, and I've still got some pics of it like the cleaning process above. You'll notice in this pic that the inside of a CD is in fact very close to the size of cardboard that you need to cut. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/15.jpg Trace the inside of the CD seven times on your cardboard of choice. I used one layer of cereal box, but I may later add a second layer. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/16.jpg Cut out each circle but cut just inside the line instead of along it, since the inside of the CD is slightly bigger than the middle of the keys. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/17.jpg Place each cardboard circle on the middle of the keys and let the rubber plunger rest over it. It will rest a little higher than usual but as long as it's completely over the cardboard it's no problem. http://mywebpage.netscape.com/beatmaniamods/18.jpg The circles are pressed between the plungers and the plastic once everything is closed up again, so there's really nowhere for them to go. Plus having them loose means that you can easily swap them out for newer cardboard or some other material later on. Now you can just put everything back together in reverse order. ============= TURNTABLE MOD ============= This mod helps your turntable turn freely and is best performed as soon as possible, before the material inside the turntable gets scratched up too badly. Basically it involves tracing a couple of donut-shaped discs out of wax paper. Then you put these discs between the pair that are already inside the turntable. I didn't take pics as I did this mod because there were already great pics and instructions at AzN_sTyLeS' website. http://users.adelphia.net/~kiltz/ One thing you should keep in mind when doing this mod is to make sure that you cut the inside circle a little bigger than it was traced. Also cut the outside circle a little smaller than it was traced. This way your rings fit in the turntable nicely and don't bunch up against the sides. =========== KEY SHAVING =========== It's also worth mentioning that you can shave your keys to help cure a sticky key problem. This is usually a last resort, since it can't be un-done like the cardboard mod [simply put in new cardboard or some other material when it gets worse]. With key shaving you take a metal file and shave/file the corners of the keys so that they're more rounded. This helps them stick less, but you should only do it a little bit at a time, and only if nothing else solves your problem. ############################################################################### (I) THANKS ############################################################################### Huge thanks go out to the following contributors. AzN_sTyLeS Enforce1 Sub ############################################################################### (J) EXPERIMENTAL ############################################################################### For a little while now I've had a paypal link in all my FAQs at the very bottom here. Mainly as a small experiment since a few other FAQ authors have also had the same idea. I had a few people email me before I put this link in because they wanted to send money, so it's here for those people. For the record I've received about $87 (which works out to a bit more in Canadian lol) last I checked, so I've been getting cases of pop and making some excellent progress on a few FAQs. If you don't want to send money or can't then send me an email, it's nice to hear what people thought about my work and there's always room for improvement. My email address and paypal address for those that want to contribute are both dan.engel.2017 (AT) gmail (DOT) com Many thanks, and I hope you continue to use my work! ~Dan