Daytona USA

"Picture yourself watching a sci-fi movie, set in a futuristic arcade, that involves a dizzying car race. 'Wow!' you can imagine saying to yourself, 'How did they do those special effects?' You'll have the same reaction while enjoying Daytona USA"

- Bob Strauss

Daytona USA is an arcade racing video game developed by Sega AM2 in 1993 and released by Sega in 1994. Players race on stock cars in a course of choice. The first game was released on the Sega Model 2 three-dimensional arcade system board, a prototype debuted at Tokyo's Amusement Machine Show in August 1993 and was location tested in Japan the same month, before the complete game was released in March 1994.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The gameplay is simple to understand yet still a challenge. All you got to do is that you are on a stock car and you have to outrun other cars as well as competing for the race before time runs out.
 * 2) Checkpoints are present in the game. They are useful because, during the race, you can use these checkpoints to increase the time limit you have.
 * 3) Each course is designed for a different difficulty of play. You got The Seven Speedway for beginners, Dinosaur Canyon for advanced players, and Seaside Street Galaxy for experts. The tracks not only are well designed just to fit well with a typical race like something you expect with NASCAR, but they do help out with the difficulty.
 * 4) Adaptive difficulty. To put it this way, this mechanic measures the skill of the player and will adjust the difficulty of opponents accordingly. If you are not skilled enough, opposing cars open lanes for the players but higher skilled players will need to deal with those who block their path.
 * 5) The car physics are so real that it's almost like you are in a race. When you control your car, you will find out how you will use drifting and power sliding as a nice touch.
 * 6) The steering wheel in the arcade versions has force feedback. This serves as a nice gimmick to let players feel collisions and bumps during races.
 * 7) You can adjust your camera which has different view perspectives. From having a first-person view to a third-person view. Depending on how you feel, you are free to change the camera at the press of your fingertips.
 * 8) The arcade version has a multiplayer mode and up to a whopping eight can play together depending on the number of cabinets linked together.
 * 9) *Not only that, but if you were to play on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, you get to play multiplayer online.
 * 10) *For every player involved in the race, dynamic game difficulty is used to stay involved in the gameplay.
 * 11) The graphics. While not as advanced as more modern-day games due to the time period, they still look lively. The landscapes on the tracks look lovely and bright for their time while also maintaining the realism the game is aiming for. The visuals are also a major step up to Virtua Racing.
 * 12) Jam-packed soundtrack that contains some awesome tunes to listen too including the main theme Let's Go Away. Other is good like most notably The King of Speed and Sky High.
 * 13) Voice quality believes it or not is crisp to listen to. From the singing of "Let's Go Away" to the brief commentary during the race. You know when the voices are great to listen to when they come off as top-notch.
 * 14) Before when you are about to race, you have the option to pick between Manual or Automatic. If you were to choose, what you would pick? Leave that up to you and see which one feels the best for you!
 * 15) Pit stops exist in this game.
 * 16) This is the first game that uses a four-speed stick clutchless manual transmission. That right there is a simulated version of the manual gearbox found in real-life stock cars.
 * 17) Had both a reworked version and a remake. The first is Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition which is an expansion to the original as well as an improvement over the Sega Saturn port including increased framerate, new cars, two new courses, and a 2-player mode. The latter is called Daytona USA 2001 which is a remake that takes elements from both the original and Championship Circuit Edition and added graphical upgrades, new tracks designed for 2001, and online multiplayer.
 * 18) Overall, it's considered to be one of the most influential racing games due to how it' defines the genre. This would most likely be how it combines the action of Virtua Racing with the realism of Ridge Racer.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The Sega Saturn version of the original has a low frame rate, bad collision detection, unresponsive controls, and bad rendering distance due to being rushed.
 * 2) Don't try to powerslide too much. If you do, your tires can wear out and the car handling can be lousier the next time you face a tight corner.
 * 3) Manual is a lot harder to drive on compared to automatic because you have to use the gear shift.
 * 4) Automatic has handling that isn't as competent compared to Manual
 * 5) Driving through grass can cause you to decrease your speed rapidly. Especially since that, you have a set amount of time to complete the race.
 * 6) *Another hazard that is too devastating is walls. Walls can reduce your speed down, wear out your tires, and damage your car's body that is facing the direction where you hit the wall.
 * 7) *However, the worst hazard would be the other cars that are controlled by CPUs. The grass and the walls can still be easily avoided.
 * 8) It's almost impossible to keep up with the competition at harsh corners without having to slide at high speeds.
 * 9) Daytona USA 2001 has a PAL version that had all online options being removed back when the Dreamcast was in its lifespan.

Reception
Daytona USA is popular in arcades that it's considered to be one of the highest grossing arcade games. The twin cabinet version receives a Diamond Award from the American Amusement Machine Association as well as another Diamond Award for being one of America's top three best-selling arcade games.

Daytona USA is considered one of the best games of all time by sources including Yahoo! in 2005 and Guinness World Records in 2008.

Trivia

 * At one point the Dreamcast's online servers for both Alien Front Online as well as Daytona USA 2001'' were taken down permanently by mistake as a result of developers hard-coding the IP-address to the servers in the game and Sega giving away a network block that belonged to AT&T.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog can be seen making a cameo in the game.
 * Jeffry McWild from Virtua Fighter makes a cameo in the game as a statue.
 * Was going to be a NASCAR game but was scrapped because Sega wanted to lower costs.
 * Game planner Makoto Osaki said he purchased a sports car and watched the NASCAR film Days of Thunder more than 100 times.
 * Satellite imagery was used as a way to send the staff photographs of the Daytona International Speedway. Toshihiro Nagoshi walked a full lap to get a feel for the banking in the corners.
 * The team had difficulty with texture mapping; trial and error was used to find the most effective approach
 * For the camera control and lighting, the team used the experience they have gotten from Virtua Racing.
 * Nagoshi thought that the drifting in the game would be impossible because NASCAR stock cars do not drift. He changed his mind, however.
 * A hidden track, "Pounding Pavement", was inspired by "Hotel California" by the Eagles
 * In the arcade version, the songs were sampled onto a Yamaha sound chip. The Saturn version was recorded with real instruments.
 * There is an easter egg where you are in the high score screen and giving specific initials will result in jingle tacks from previous Sega titles. These include:
 * 1) *Y.R — Virtua Racing
 * 2) *A.B — After Burner
 * 3) *O.R — OutRun

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