Prerelease:Maimai

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Maimai.

Development Timeline

2009

• Sega plans to design a dancing arcade machine for the China market.

2011

• November - The game's official website launches.
• December 9 - DANCEROID member experience event.
• December 16-18/23-25 - Location test.

2012

• February - AOU 2012 Exhibition.
• July 11 - The game begins service in Japan. The China CCG Exhibition is also held.
• December - The China ranking website is launched.

2013

• June - China first update.

2014

• May - China second update, including the end-of-life patch.
• November 1 - End-of-life triggered, China server shutdown.

Cabinet Design

In late 2011, when the official maimai website was launched, one of the four images showed a pre-rendered cabinet design which was significantly different from the later location tests and the actual released version.

This picture shows the pre-rendered maimai cabinet design. The differences include: there is a decorative texture around the bottom speaker, the edge of the bottom movable rack is tilted outward and the two sides are independent (rather than the flat and connected cabinets later), and there is also a device of unknown purpose in the middle of the top.

The content displayed on the screen is also very different. The background of the upper monitor is black, the video is displayed on the left and covered by the COMBO and SCORE information, and the network connection icon in the lower-left corner is also covered above the video. On the right side are the player name and title, as well as the COMBO and SCORE information.

DANCEROID Member Experience Event

On December 9, 2011, a DANCEROID member internal experience event was held.

From the public video, we can see the UI design is basically the same as the 1.00 version, but there are looks so many differences:

• No network icon
• Neon lights in the middle area between the two top speakers
• There is only TRACK overlay on the top of the video screen, the style is the same as 1.00 but it is displayed on the left
• The default avatar is the "SEGA" micro logo, and the player name and title are on the right
• The song name is displayed below the player title, and "NOW RECORDING" flashes below the song name
• The song title always uses white font and no difficulty level information is displayed on the left.
• The connecting parts between the buttons also have lights. When the music starts playing, the blue light flashes, and when the achievement rate reaches 80% the gold light flashes.
• All PV songs use video clips on Niconico, rather than Sega's re-recorded PVs. These re-recorded PVs have been used since the Niconico Super Conference(ニコニコ超会議) test in May 2012.

Location Test

First:Club Sega Akihabara New Building Ikebukuro GiGO

Date:Dec 16-18,2011

Second:Round One Yokohama Station West Exit Store and SILK HAT Kawasaki Dais Store

Date:Dec 23-25,2011

During this period, the game is undergoing location testing and supports uploading gameplay videos to Niconico. Through these videos published on Niconico, the following facts can be learned:

• Neon lights seems gone
• Seems GUIDE SPEED can't be changed.
• FULL COMBO voice is different from 1.00.

Songs List

There were 19 songs avaliable in the Location Test version.

J-POP	Artist	Note
ヘビーローテーション	AKB48
Everyday、カチューシャ	AKB48
Chu Chu	moumoon
CAN'T GET BACK	w-inds.
LOVE & JOY	木村由姫
じょいふる	いきものがかり
Love You	Q;indivi
Future	STAR GUiTAR

ORIGINAL	Artist	Note
Sweets×Sweets	チームDEKARIS	There also some players said the artist is "SEGA Sound Team".
ネコ日和。	SEGA Sound Team
虹と太陽	SEGA Sound Team
Sun Dance	Crackin'DJ	There also some players said the artist is "Hiro".
Crush On You	Crackin'DJ	There also some players said the artist is "福山光晴".
In Chaos	Crackin'DJ	There also some players said the artist is "Hiro".

VARIETY	Artist	Note
G線上のアリア	Bach	Audio and chart different from the actual version used,EXPERT Video:https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm16461425

GAME/ANIME	Artist	Note
コネクト	ClariS
恋愛サーキュレーション	化物語

VOCALOID	Artist	Note
ハッピーシンセサイザ	EasyPop
ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー	samfree

New songs during 12.23-25

UNKNOWN GENRE	Artist	Note
JINGLE_BELLS	?	Only avaliable during christmas.There almost no any infomation.

VARIETY	Artist	Note
Pathetique	Bach	Audio and chart different from the actual version used,EXPERT Video:https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm16521779

AOU 2012 Exhibition

Feb.28,2012

See:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzn6BFOGmKg

The cabinet design and actual operation version are basically consistent.

Compared with the field test version, there are many changes now:

• Now only the button themselves are lit, the lighting at the button joints has been removed.
• The UI interface basically maintains the style of the position test, but now the song name will change color according to the difficulty, and the song level icon is included on the left.
• NOW RECORDING is now displayed in the video on the left, and the SCORE information has replaced the NOW RECORDING information.
• The networking icon is displayed in the upper-left.
• In the ENTRY screen, there are several arrows pointing to the button positions. This was removed in 1.00, but the texture files still retain these arrows.

2012 Niconico Super Conference

It is very close to 1.00, and judging by the video footage from the time, there is no difference.

May 11,2012

China CCG Exhibition

July 11,2012

Same day of Japan and Asia(Taiwan)release

Compared with the Japanese version, there are these differences:

• The game is almost completely translated into Simplified Chinese, with only some song titles retaining the romanization of Japanese kana.
• The card reader in the middle for reading Aime is replaced by a panel full of patterns.
• The ALL.Net and Niconico logos are not displayed.
• Allows offline recording of video footage, which is played back on the machine in a loop instead of being uploaded to the Internet.
• Song"マトリョシカ", "メグメグ☆ファイアーエンドレスナイト", and "メランコリック"are unlocked.
• Level 10 Unlock song"檄!帝国華撃団(改)"is unlocked.
• Level 50 Unlock song"源平大戦絵巻テーマソング"is unlocked.
• Contains 2 Chinese songs.

C-POP(中文流行乐)	Artist	Note
麻烦下一位	A-Lin	[1]
回马枪	唐禹哲

[1]In Update 2, the chinese word "烦" was incorrectly used in the traditional form "煩". This may be because SEGA JINWIN had closed down when Update 2 was updated and these contents may not prepared by the Chinese.

Compared with the China version, there are these differences:

• The middle panel is narrower, the same as the Japanese version. The Chinese version actually released has a wider panel.
• There are 3 Chinese songs missing.
• The translated text is different, and is consistent with the Chinese text found in Japanese 1.00. The actual Chinese version released has a different translation and is released later.

Note:From the Chinese text found in Japan 1.00, which contains text related to the Aime card reader, we can know that SEGA once planned to introduce Aime to China, but ultimately failed to do so and gave up at some unknown point in time.