Links

The main websites about Dance Dance Revolution. I made some cleanup in 2023.

Buying hardware

This is where you start... I am always grateful for good info about merchant websites. It's complicated in 2023.
https://www.maty-taneczne.pl/: It's the way to go if you are in Europe.
Dance Pad Mania is an US website offering two different soft mats.
Precision Dance Pads is another US shop, with this time very high rated solid mats.

Finding tracks

Your quest for DDR title will be time consuming, but exciting as you discover the HUGE variety of available songs. Begin with the Dance school section of this website. You will find a few downloadable titles. This will not take you anywhere far though... There is two category of DDR files :
Official packs are the PCs counterparts of the Dance Dance Revolution games released in arcade or console(also spin offs like Dancing Stage). All of them have been converted to Stepmania and Dance With Intensity, this represents a huge pile of ddr files.
Then you have the originals files. Made by fans, they cover an incredible variety of musics. Dozens are released everyday! This is what you sould look at if you want "hits" songs.

http://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/index.php features both officials and originals simfiles. No need to register to download at a more than satisfying speed. Great! Go to Games, DDR & DS, simfiles.
http://www.stepmaniaonline.eu/: in addition to host Stepmania's multiplayer games, Stepmania Online offers you most official packs and a lot of unofficials, direct download.
http://www.bemanistyle.com/ is the website gathering the most simfiles, unofficials tracks produced by the DDR communauty. Head to Simulation then search simfiles, if you are lucky you will find a dwi of your favorite song! The database is impressive, think about a dozen thousands of titles. Fallout of this, it takes days to go through the entire list looking for attractive songs.
Be also warned that the quality of the files ranges from wonderful to unplayable : there is a good deal of heavy only files, sometimes the folders are a mess, and often the synchro is spoiled... you are gonna dig to find the simfiles you dream of! Luckily there is a rating system which will let you make a first sort. You can also read this website: it offers every week a selection of the best bemanistyle simfiles.
For the records, bemani is the name of the division "musical games" of Konami. http://www.dwiextreme.com/: website of a group of DDR fans involved in the creation of quality DDR tracks. They release packs of songs regularly. Techno is their style of music, the likes of David Morales and Moto Blanco.
http://www.stepmania.com/: the official website includes a section Songs/User Submitted with at least a thousand titles, same spirit as Bemanistyle.
Stepmania Directory/Downloads gathers a lot of original simfiles packs, very convenient!
http://www.latelier240.fr/ddr.php: Hey, a french website! :p It gathers 11 collections of a score songs. What I appreciate most is that each pack's content is fully detailed with the difficulty levels available. The songs adapted in these packs are incredible but a lot are fun outdated french songs, like introduction songs from old animation series. Non french people won't understand these :D There remains a good deal of well made international hits.

Communauty websites

Once you gathered the necessary equipment you maybe will want to know more about DDR and to keep in touch with the latest news. zenius-i-vanisher and bemanistyle are great for that, but you should also check these websites:

http://www.stepmania.com: all you need about the reference DDR simulation software.
http://www.ddrfreak.com/: ddrfreak is a big american website about Dance Dance Revolution. It covers all the news, and you will find in Tips and tricks materials to rise your level of play. Also a complete list of DDR versions along with the songlist for each, and stepcharts : you can print the arrow succession on official songs !
http://stepmaniathings.com/: gathers tons of themes, noteskins, and announcers for Stepmania.
http://www.ddronlinecommunity.com/: Official Konami website about DDR, obviously you won't find a word on Stepmania there but rather news about the official releases (Dance Dance Revolution and Dancing Stage), score tables, videos and forum.
PumpHaven : a forum about Pump it up, a musical game very close to DDR except there are five arrows: a center arrow and four diagonals.