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Daytona USA (arcade game) |
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Daytona USA
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 Daytona USA arcade flyer |
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| Developer(s) | Sega-AM2, Sega-AM4, Genki (Dreamcast) |
| Publisher(s) | Sega, Hasbro Interactive (US release of Dreamcast version), Infogrames (UK release of Dreamcast version) |
| Designer(s) | Toshihiro Nagoshi |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Sega Saturn, Windows, Sega Dreamcast |
| Release date(s) | 1993  (original release)1994   (Revision) |
| Genre(s) | Racing game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Input methods | Steering wheel, 4-position Shifter, 2 Pedals |
| Cabinet | Sit-Down |
| Arcade system | Sega Model 2 |
| Display | Raster 496 x 384 pixels (Horizontal), 8192 colors |
Daytona USA is a racing arcade game by Sega. It was originally released in 1993, with a revision in 1994. The game was built upon groundwork laid by the 1992 release Virtua Racing. At the time of its release, Daytona USA was the most detailed 3D racer on the market.
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The player is put behind the wheel of a stock car (known as the Hornet), with the choice of three tracks as well as an automatic or manual transmission. The player's objectives are to outrun the competing cars, and complete the race before time runs out.
Daytona USA offers multiplayer and introduced the possibility of linking four twin cabinets or eight deluxe cabinets to create an eight-player competition. Linked deluxe cabinets may also include a camera pointing towards the drivers seat, linked to a closed-circuit television to show the player on a separate screen. Even though the game was released years before the Daytona USA Museum opened in Daytona Beach, the International Speedway Corporation had already held the copyright to the name "Daytona USA." Any future game would require a license to use the name Daytona USA.citation needed
There are three race courses in the arcade version of Daytona USA.
The Three Seven Speedway is a standard tri-oval speedway track in layout, based loosely on the Daytona International Speedway and Pocono Raceway. It begins with a rolling start, with the player in 40th place. The first turn takes the player past cheering crowds on the right, with a large field fronting the pit stop area on the left. The next section of track after the second turn is a straight road through a forest setting, and is dominated by three large slot machine reels embedded into a stone arch above the track. If the player presses the Start button while playing, the first reel will stop, pressing the Start button again will stop the next reel and so on; if the 3 reels match the player is awarded with extra time (7 seconds for three sevens, 5 seconds for three bars, 3 seconds for all other matches). The third turn is the setting of a large mountainside, with the image of Sonic the Hedgehog engraved into the rock. This is the tightest turn of the track, which leads to the pit road and the finish line. There are a couple of cars to watch out for to secure first place in the track: cars 20 (MISS Tea), 46 (Bird Line), 53 (OK Bike Works), 55 (Evangeline Motor Oil), and 62 (Gladner Insurance). On 1993 machines, car 20 was normally implemented to be an unfair opponent. However, on mostly all 1994 machines, car 20's AI was toned down. The Daytona USA 2001 manual states this race takes place in a city called Las Segas.
Dinosaur Canyon is a medium-length road course. From a standing start, the player heads through tough canyon terrain with many elevation changes. Notable features include a tunnel through a mountain, power generating windmills, and the words "SEGA-AM2" in the grass on the outside section of the penultimate turn. The final turn reveals the reason behind the name of the course: a large dinosaur fossil can be seen embedded in the side of the rocky terrain. There is also a hidden message from the creators of Daytona USA, present in all versions of the game: if you turn the car around after the 'GO' signal is given, and take the road heading away to the right to a tunnel in the mountainside just before the pit entrance (meaning the final turn is to your left), there is a sign at the end: " Congratulations! You Just Lost Your Sponsors!" This course also has some cheap enemies: car number 16 (Tune Insurance), car numbers 12 and 13 (Starline Performance Cars), and car number 20 from the Three Seven Speedway (MISS Insurance). Proper steering and the correct speed will avoid any conflict with these cars.
This winding course begins with a standing start on a large suspension bridge. After crossing the water, the player is taken through several tunnels with hard turns, to emerge on a hill leading downwards alongside a residential area. The course then takes a gentle curve alongside a cliff section, where seagulls fly, horses stand in a grassed section, and sea can be seen all the way to the horizon. Next the player is directed onto the same bridge for the return stretch - after leaving the bridge, the player passes alongside a Space Shuttle readied for launch, and a galleon moored alongside a dock area - the sharpest hairpin turn in the game. After taking this turn, an onramp leads to the first section of bridge, and the finish line.
Notable features of Seaside Street Galaxy include a statue of Jeffry from Virtua Fighter, which can be found beside the track on the first right-hand bend between the tunnel section and the residential hill area. If the player approaches the statue, stops, and presses either X (Sega Saturn) or START (arcade), the statue will move and stand on its head. This feature was removed from Daytona USA 2001. Seaside Street Galaxy also sports some tough drones in all of Daytona USA: Cars 55 (Evangeline Motor Oil, the hardest opponent in the course), 51 (Bird Line), 62 (Gladner Insurance), and 16 (Tune Insurance from Dinosaur Canyon).
Daytona USA was ported to the Sega Saturn as a Western launch title in 1995, and to Windows in 1996. The conversion had a somewhat slow frame rate (around twenty frames per second, compared to the arcade version's sixty), and used 'clipping' to render only the scenery nearest the player. This failed to impress many critics and casual gamers of the time, who voiced preference for the Sony PlayStation's Ridge Racer port. It is also worth noting that as a consequence of the Sega Saturn's rushed launch date, Daytona USA's development was severely rushed as a result - had the launch gone to plan, it is likely that the Saturn port would be more faithful to the arcade original, as can be seen by the vastly improved clipping in the Champion circuit Edition.citation needed,
Daytona USA is compatible with the Arcade Racer steering wheel accessory. It is also compatible with the 3D analog control pad (when switched into analog mode) and the Saturn will detect it as the Arcade Racer steering wheel.
In 1996, the in-house team that oversaw the mostly arcade-perfect Saturn port of Sega Rally Championship remade the original Saturn version of Daytona USA with a new engine (a modified version of the Sega Rally Championship engine). This version, entitled Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition,drastically reduced the pop-up that was prevalent in the original Saturn version. With the increased framerate (now a solid thirty frames per second) came a new selection of cars, two new courses - Desert City and National Park Speedway - and a 2-player mode.
CCE sported a soundtrack by Richard Jacques and Jun Senoue which, while featuring remixes of the original tunes and several new ones, did not feature the original tunes themselves.
This is also the first version of Daytona USA to name the three tracks present in the original Daytona USA game (rather than simply using Beginner, Intermediate and Expert): 'Three Seven Speedway' (also known as 777 Speedway, for the Beginner track), 'Dinosaur Canyon' (for the Intermediate track), and 'Seaside Street Galaxy' (for the Expert track).
It was also separately released for the Saturn as a Netlink-compatible title, entitled Daytona USA: CCE Netlink Edition. Although commonly thought to be Panzer Dragoon Saga, this NetLink version of Daytona USA: CCE is in fact the rarest North American Sega Saturn game. It was available only through Sega's online store, and making it even more rare is its almost total indistinguishability from the regular version of Daytona USA: CCE. The only notable differences are found only when opening the case up, which features a black and white NetLink booklet underneath the standard booklet, and the disc has a small NetLink logo. It fetches up to US $600 on eBay, in the rare instances it does pop up.
Daytona USA:CCE is compatible with the Saturn's 3D analogue control pad, in addition to the Arcade Racer steering wheel and the Virtua Stick accessories.
Daytona USA: Deluxe is a PC port of Daytona CCE. It has an improved draw distance and supports more memory. The game also features an exclusive race course: Silver Ocean Causeway; a Direct3D patch for this version was also later released.
Daytona USA Deluxe was released as Daytona USA Evolution in Korea 1and Japan.2
After the release of Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition to the Western Saturn market, a further-updated version was later released in Japan as Daytona USA: Circuit Edition. This version has the soundtracks from both the original Daytona USA arcade game and the remixes from Championship Circuit Edition, in addition to an eight-minute-long medley of all three original track themes (called 'Daytona Medley'). It also retained the drifty handling of the original Daytona USA arcade game that was changed in Championship Circuit Edition, and added the ability to play at night, dusk, or morning (by holding X, Y or Z on the controller as the 'START YOUR ENGINES' screen was displayed). Aside from these differences, it is identical to Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition.
On March 14, 2001, Daytona USA was given a complete revamp for release on the Sega Dreamcast platform. This version (known as Daytona USA 2001 in Japan, Australia, and Europe, and simply Daytona USA in the USA) features every single course from the original Daytona USA game and the Championship Circuit Edition. Three new tracks were also specially designed for this game ('Rin Rin Rink', 'Circuit Pixie' and 'Mermaid Lake'), and all of the tracks are playable normally, in reverse, mirrored, or in reverse-mirrored mode.
The game's graphics were significantly updated. It was also playable online, allowing for competition between up to four players and uploading/downloading of best times and ghost car information, although the online options were removed from the PAL version. Another addition to this version of Daytona USA was the Championship mode, where the player must place above a certain point in the overall rankings to progress, culminating in the King of Daytona Cup.
This version tends to be criticized for poor controls. The analog stick's default setting is extremely sensitive, but that can be corrected in the options screen (except in the Japanese version). However, the game still does not handle exactly like the original arcade version of Daytona USA even when using a racing wheel. The physics / handling / control are different from the arcade version. Though it is likely that the game was designed with analog controls in mind and therefore doesn't play as easily on a joypad as the Saturn version which used a standard d-pad.
The racing team featured in the Daytona USA arcade game and Saturn port is called Team Hornet. Although the team is never explicitly mentioned in the games, their car features an easily-recognisable hornet logo stamped on the front of the car. From Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition and onwards, however, Team Hornet's available garage was reduced to one playable car alongside other racing teams' cars.
In the arcade and Sega Saturn versions of Daytona USA, the Hornet car is numbered 41. However, on linked arcade machines, players 1-8 will have cars numbered similarly in multi-player mode for easy identification mid-race.
Team Hornet and their car do not appear in the game. Instead, there are a number of individual cars selectable, each named after their respective racing team:
There is 9th car called Daytona which can be unlocked either by finishing in first place on all five tracks, or via a cheat code. The Daytona car uses the body style, paint scheme and car number of the featured car in the original Daytona USA game. It is rated 5/5 in the grip, acceleration and top speed categories, however, meaning it will not handle the same as the classic car.
There are also two horses that are unlockable and playable, named Uma and Uma 2.
All of the cars have sponsor stickerers on the side that read "Sega Rally Championship" as the game was made from the same department.
Daytona USA: Circuit Edition also featured fictional specifications for the Hornet car as part of the CD case artwork. The car is 4903mm long, 1273mm high, and 1730mm wide. It weighs 1600kg, and is capable of speeds up to 329km/h. Its engine's power output is 812ps/5800rpm.
There are four cars available from the beginning of the game. Unlike in the previous games, three of the first five cars resemble high performance supercars. All four are numbered 41, despite being from different racing teams:
There are also six unlockable cars:
Daytona USA's soundtrack was composed by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and is as follows:3
These names come from the Daytona USA B-Univ original soundtrack CD - in the Saturn port of Daytona USA, the Sound Test screen also displays names for the various themes.
If you remain on the track beyond the length of the CD soundtrack (for the Saturn port) - for example, whilst in Endurance mode - the next track on the CD plays.
Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition's main soundtrack is as follows:
It should be noted that any of the course themes can be mapped to another course through the Options menu - The King of Speed can be mapped to Dinosaur Canyon, for example. Daytona USA: Circuit Edition also featured the original Daytona USA arcade themes, which could be mapped to courses.
The Daytona USA 2001 soundtrack is a mix of remixed and original music:
The courses taken from Daytona USA: (Championship) Circuit Edition do not have their original themes; instead, new songs are used in place of Funk Fair, The Noisy Roars of Wilderness and (strangely enough) Pounding Pavement. Race to the Bass, and the Daytona USA Medley do not appear either. The new songs are not given names ingame, and with the lack of an official soundtrack CD it is assumed they are named after their respective courses.
In addition to the above themes, Daytona USA 2001 also features different remixed music for the mirror and mirror-reversed versions of the courses. Theme music from the original Daytona USA arcade machine is selected at random and used as title screen music - these songs can be found in the Sound Test from track 48 onwards.
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2007) |
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