The development team designed the game to simulate the experience of a DJ performing at a real venue, and gave the cabinet a "club Visual Jockey style.
[8] Hitting the notes at the correct time increases the score and groove gauge bar, which if equal to or above 80% on Normal difficulty will allow the player to clear the stage.
Failing to hit the notes at the correct time depletes the players groove gauge until it is empty.
beatmania IIDX 23 copula introduced a variation called Hell Charge Notes, which refill the gauge when held down but rapidly deplete it when not.
Unlike regular Charge Notes, they can be pressed at any time, though missing the start or end will still break the player's combo.
In late 1999, the publisher hired artist Goli to design graphics and characters for Beatmania IIDX 2nd Style.
Foster said the updates popularized the game to the point that it overshadowed Beatmania, and IIDX earned more new songs and became known for being very difficult.
[9] In 2015, a PC release titled beatmania IIDX INFINITAS was announced, and began alpha testing in September.
[16] This new version is similar to the Lightning upgrade for arcade releases, having support for 120 Hz displays and an improved engine.
Also, unique to IIDX cabinets are the effector buttons and sliders, a bass platform transducer, marquee, and DJ simulating controller.
The effector buttons and sliders allow the player to control the volume levels within the game and manipulate the music by adding additional sound effects.
After the release of Beatmania IIDX 26 Rootage, QR code reading functionality was added to the left camera.
Some versions can customize frames, BGM in SELECT MUSIC screen, notes, etc.. e-amusement is not available outside of the primary markets for IIDX (Japan, Asia, and the United States), which has left imported machines outside of Asia without full access to hidden songs and extra stages due to the increasing functionality and integration of e-amusement in more recent styles.
Games prior to 9th style use Bemani Twinkle, which in turn is a PlayStation with a superimposer and an advanced sound board combined with a DVD player.
The cabinets also use a custom amplifier in addition to an Asus Xonar XE sound card, and run a limited version of Windows 10.
[24][25] Older versions of the cabinets running PC based hardware generally were significantly weaker as they did not have to power 2 displays.
The final revision prior to the Lightning Model use Bemani PC ADE-6291, that is powered by an AMD RX-421BD, an R7 Radeon GPU and has 4GB of RAM.
Featuring a wide selection of genres and artists, both licensed and in-house, the Beatmania IIDX series is well known for its original music.
[12] Konami produces an original soundtrack of each game, usually a few months after release, due to the appeal of the music.
Beginning with beatmania IIDX 19 Lincle, players can select Qpro characters or customize them, and some songs show Qpros as part of overlays (exc.
Beginning with beatmania IIDX 25 CANNON BALLERS, the effector system is expanded to 8 effect options, adjunt with EQ ONLY.
Beginning with Beatmania IIDX 27 HEROIC VERSE, LIGHTNING MODEL cabinets were officially sold for use in the United States due to the increase presence of Round One arcades.