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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the 1994 arcade game. For the museum at Daytona International Speedway, see
Daytona 500 Experience. For the 2001 video game, see Daytona USA 2001.

Daytona USA

An arcade cabinet with a car in front of a large screen, surrounded by words.

Daytona USA arcade flyer with the deluxe cabinet pictured

Developer(s) Sega AM2

Publisher(s) Sega

Director(s) Toshihiro Nagoshi

Producer(s) Toshihiro Nagoshi

Yu Suzuki

Designer(s) Makoto Osaki

Yukinobu Arikawa

Programmer(s) Daichi Katagiri

Koki Koiwa

Hideomi Miyauchi

Composer(s) Takenobu Mitsuyoshi

Series Daytona USA

Platform(s) Arcade, Sega Saturn, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 (PSN), Xbox 360 (XBLA), Xbox
One

Release

JP/NA: March 1994

WW: April 1994

Sega Saturn

JP: April 1, 1995

NA: May 11, 1995

EU: July 8, 1995

Windows PC

JP: September 27, 1996 (Enhanced Board version)

EU: November 14, 1996

NA: December 1996

JP: December 6, 1996

PlayStation 3

NA: October 25, 2011

JP: October 26, 2011

EU: November 23, 2011

Xbox 360

WW: October 26, 2011

Genre(s) Racing

Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Arcade system Sega Model 2

Daytona USA[a] is an arcade racing game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega in March
1994. Inspired by the popularity of the NASCAR motor racing series in the US, the game has players
race stock cars on one of three courses. It was the first game to be released on the Sega Model 2
arcade system board. Daytona USA is one of the highest-grossing arcade games of all time.

Sega partnered with GE Aerospace to develop the Model 2, which renders 3D graphics capable of
texture filtering and texture mapping. Daytona USA was developed by AM2 after a meeting of the
heads of Sega's regional offices to decide on a game to debut the Model 2 hardware. The concept
was suggested by Tom Petit, president of Sega's American arcade division, with input from AM2
director Toshihiro Nagoshi, who became the game's director and producer. Sega aimed to
outperform Namco's Ridge Racer (1993). The developers researched motorsports extensively; they
mapped Daytona International Speedway, and their experience developing Virtua Racing (1992)
helped with lighting and camera control.

Daytona USA was a critical and commercial success, praised for its graphics, soundtrack and
gameplay. A conversion was made for the Sega Saturn in 1995, and was followed by sequels and
enhancements for consoles and arcades. It has been frequently named one of the best video games
of all time.

Gameplay

A stock car on a speedway

The player driving through the beginner course (arcade version)

In Daytona USA, the player drives a stock car known as the Hornet.[1] The player's objectives are to
outrun the competing cars and complete the race before time runs out, passing checkpoints to
collect more time.[2] Players begin in last place and compete against a field of up to 39 computer-
controlled cars, dependent on the course selected.[3][4] Three courses are available for play:
Beginner, Advanced, and Expert, also known respectively as Three Seven Speedway, Dinosaur
Canyon, and Seaside Street Galaxy.[3] Adaptive difficulty is used; the first lap of each race measures
the skill of the player and adjusts the difficulty of opponents accordingly. For less skilled players,
opposing cars open lanes for the player, while higher-skilled players have to deal with opponents
that block their path.[1][5] The game's physics include realistic driving mechanics, including drifting
and power sliding.[1] The steering wheel in the arcade cabinet uses force feedback so players feel
collisions and bumps.[3] Shifting is performed with an H-type shifter.[6]

Daytona USA's arcade version on the Model 2 is capable of displaying up to 300,000 texture-mapped
polygons per second,[7] nearly double that of the previous Model 1.[8] Visually, the game uses
texture filtering, giving the visuals a smooth appearance.[1] As in Virtua Racing, the game's camera
system presents four different view perspectives from which the game can be played, and also
includes the ability to view behind the car.[9][10] The arcade version allows up to eight players to
compete with each other, depending on the number of cabinets linked together. 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.[1] In multiplayer, only the lead driver needs to
reach a checkpoint before time runs out.[11] To keep players involved in multiplayer battles, rubber-
banding is in place, ensuring all players stay involved in the race.[3]

The Sega Saturn version does not include multiplayer,[12] but includes an additional "Saturn" mode,
which turns off the game's timer and adds more cars for the player to choose from.[13] Additional
"Endurance" and "Grand Prix" modes are also included, both of which require pit stops.[14]
Sustaining damage in a race in these modes will adversely affect the car's performance.[14] The
PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions included online multiplayer with up to eight players.[15]

Development

In September 1992, Sega partnered with the engineering division GE Aerospace to create its new
arcade system board, the Model 2. They were connected via a cold call from GE's Bob Hichborn, who
met with Sega executives at the division's Daytona Beach, Florida headquarters in 1990, and later at
Sega's headquarters in Tokyo in November of the same year. At the second meeting, GE Aerospace
executives brought a tape demonstrating the hardware's 3D graphics simulating the Daytona
International Speedway. GE estimated that their sale of the Model 2’s graphics technology
accelerated Sega's arcade hardware development by 14 months.[1][16]

The heads of Sega's regional offices began discussing ideas for games to demonstrate the Model 2's
capabilities. Sega's previous board, the Model 1, had debuted in 1992 with Virtua Racing, which was
popular in Japan and Europe. Tom Petit, president of Sega's American arcade division Sega
Enterprises USA, suggested that NASCAR would be an attractive brand to use for a Model 2 game in
the US. Though Sega Europe's Vic Leslie had reservations due to the greater popularity of Formula
One in Europe, Sega executives approved the concept. Petit and Sega Enterprises USA chief of
finance Masahiro Nakagawa began negotiations with representatives of the Daytona 500 at Daytona
International Speedway for a license to develop a game based on the race. To lower costs, Sega
decided not to negotiate with NASCAR for a license, and so the game does not contain real sponsors,
drivers, or cars.[1]

Toshihiro Nagoshi, seated, giving an interview.

Director and co-producer Toshihiro Nagoshi

Sega mandated that Daytona USA had to be better than Namco's 1993 racing game Ridge Racer and
it had to achieve higher sales.[1][17] Ridge Racer had reached the top of arcade sales charts at the
end of 1993 and beginning of 1994,[18][19][20] and it had received highly favorable reviews of its
graphics, especially in comparison to Virtua Racing.[20][21][22] Development was handed to Sega
AM2, a development division headed by Yu Suzuki, who had led development on popular racing
games including Hang-On, Out Run, and Virtua Racing.[1] AM2 director Toshihiro Nagoshi was given
direct responsibility for the project, with Nagoshi and Suzuki serving as producers.[1][3] The game
was Nagoshi's first project as a director. Nagoshi was aware of the racing arcade games already on
the market and decided he wanted to take his game in a different direction.[1][5] While in the US for
a meeting on the Model 2, Nagoshi was given tickets to a NASCAR race, and later recalled that it was
a new experience for him because it was not a known style of racing in Japan.[3][5] He chose to
design his game to be "funky entertainment", in contrast to the simulation-based style of Ridge
Racer.[3]

AM2 split into two teams: one focused on Daytona USA while the other developed Virtua Fighter.
[23] As research for the project, Nagoshi read books and watched videos on NASCAR, although he
found it difficult to convey the emotions of the sport to his staff in Japan. Game planner Makoto
Osaki said he purchased a sports car and watched the NASCAR film Days of Thunder more than 100
times. Programmer Daichi Katagiri was an avid player of arcade racing games at the time and leaned
on that experience.[3] The developers used satellite imagery and sent staff to photograph Daytona
International Speedway;[1][7] Nagoshi walked a full lap to get a feel for the banking in the corners.
[1] The team considered both Daytona International Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway for the
game's beginner course. According to Nagoshi, because Daytona USA was not intended to be a
simulation game, and because it would be sold in Japan and Europe in addition to North America,
the oval and tri-oval designs were rejected as too repetitive. The final design for the beginner circuit,
Three Seven Speedway, uses the tri-oval layout with a sharper final turn that requires strong braking.
[3]

Unlike Virtua Racing's Model 1 hardware, the Model 2 is capable of displaying surface detail on its
3D graphics with texture mapping.[16] As this was new for the developers, trial and error was used
to find the most effective approach.[3] Suzuki also reached out to Sega designer Jeffery Buchanan,
who suggested placing interesting features, such as a dinosaur fossil and a clipper ship, at various
locations within the game.[16] Katagiri said there was no need to develop software for rendering
because the Model 2 hardware handled this. For camera control and lighting effects, the team drew
on its experience developing Virtua Racing. Daytona USA shares some features with Ridge Racer,
including a drifting mechanic. Nagoshi initially planned not to include drifting as NASCAR stock cars
do not drift, but changed his mind when the team decided not to focus on simulation.[3] He did not
believe in fortune telling, but chose the number 41 for the Hornet player car because he was told by
someone close to him that the number would be lucky.[1][5]

The soundtrack was composed by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, who had no familiarity with stock car
racing. He chose to include vocals after hearing Ridge Racer's techno soundtrack and deciding to try
a different approach; he recorded his own vocals as the fastest way to get the music into the game.
[3] Each course has a corresponding song.[17] "Let's Go Away", the Daytona theme, uses a mixture
of rock and funk instrumentals,[24] while "Sky High" leaned on Mitsuyoshi's background in jazz
fusion. A hidden track, "Pounding Pavement", was inspired by "Hotel California" by the Eagles and is
accessible by holding the fourth view perspective button while selecting the beginner track in the
arcade version.[17] For the arcade version, the songs were sampled onto a Yamaha sound chip,
including the drums and Mitsuyoshi's voice, then reconstructed by varying when the tracks would
play and loop.[3] This was the only way to include vocals, due to technical limitations of the Model 2.
[1] For the Saturn version, the music was remixed.[25]
Release