Hi, there!
This small page is dedicated to the Samba de Amigo games from SEGA, more specifically, the Dreamcast versions (i.e., both "Samba de Amigo" and "Samba de Amigo ver. 2000").
As there are hundreds of thousands of pages about these games out there, I won't duplicate any content here. I'll just tell you how you can solve the dreadful maracas detection problem!
Just like a lot of other players, I bought (from an importer) a set of 3rd party maracas (named "Cha Cha de Amigo") to play Samba de Amigo as it was meant to be played. It's a blast! But sometimes, when you have to shake the maracas a lot, the cables are over the ultrasound sensors or you simply get out of the detection area, the maracas position is lost, the game "resets" itself and say "Now recognizing the Maracas Controller. Please wait...". This can really ruin your party when nobody can finish a song because of that! But I just found out a simple way to solve this problem: plug the maracas on port 1!
During my tests, if I start the game (both versions) with a standard Dreamcast controller on port 1 and a VMU (in slot 1 or 2), and the maracas on port 2, I can force this error to happen by unplugging the ultrasound sensors or just moving the maracas far away from them. But if I just play with the maracas on port 1 and the standard controller (plus VMU) on port 2, I can't make the error appear, even by disconnecting the ultrasound sensors!
Another way to avoid this problem is to start the game without a VMU! This will do even if the maracas are on port 2, but then, without the VMU, you can't keep your score, challenge levels or load extra songs, so it's obviously not the best solution...
This worked for me, and I hope it will work for you too. I already read about situations when this didn't help. Another suggestion I can give you is to stick the maracas cable to the floor (with tape or something else), to avoid it from standing over the ultrasound sensor. This always helps me to get a slightly better score.
In any case, drop me a line if you have any question, suggestion or report of success or failure.
Ricardo Mendonça Ferreira - ricspam@mpc.com.br
Page created on: February 24, 2006.
Last update: March 02, 2006.
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