Daytona USA was Released in 1994 by Sega AM2. When it was released, it was basically THE arcade racing game to play. Play mechanics were really pretty simple but well refined and the graphics pushed it to the next level.
Daytona USA, in terms of hardware, was based on Sega’s Model 2 arcade board. This board featured an Intel i960-KB CPU @ 25 MHz, a Fujitsu TGP BM86234 FPU as a graphics co-processor, a Motorola 68000 for sound control, 2 Zilog Z80s for communications and feedback, and more. Daytona USA was the first arcade machine to use this hardware. They weren’t cheap though at over $15K per machine when introduced.
One of the weaknesses of this game were the limited number of tracks. There were only three: Three-Seven Speedway, Dinosaur Canyon, and Seaside Street Galaxy. However, they were well designed and each provided a different level of difficulty. Likewise, the car choices were limited as well.
While the limited number of tracks and cars may have been disappointing to some, Daytona USA had a number of stand-out features that made it a blast to play. The deluxe style sit down cabinet with steering wheel, pedals and gear shift along with excellent responsiveness added a sense of realism beyond what had been seen before. Multiplayer with linked arcade cabinets was an awesome feature as well. What would initially draw people’s attention though were the outstanding graphics. Sega partnered with GE Aerospace when developing the Model 2 board which used tech from military flight sims. This board was capable of 3D graphics with texture filtering and texture mapping. Stuff that would be common in PC video hardware (and game systems) a few years later but was brand new at the time.
The sound and music were also highly praised. There’s not much to say about the sound except that it added to the realism of the game. The soundtrack was interesting in that included vocals and other music that were sampled onto a Yamaha sound chip. Once again, there wasn’t a lot of variety though with only a few songs. However, these few songs are well remembered by fans of the game.
The gameplay features many common racing mechanics that have been used both before and since. The most notable is probably the time extension mechanic though this certainly wasn’t new either. It did help to provide a sense of urgency though as you had to pass each checkpoint before time ran out in order to extend your race.
If you are a racing game fan then you should definitely play this game in an arcade if you can find one. While there have certainly been more advanced racing games since, this one set many new standards at the time it was released. Ironically, you could also argue that this game was in part responsible for the continued decline of arcades. Not because it was a bad game or anything but because when the next generation of home systems came along, like the Saturn and PlayStation, they were capable of near arcade perfect ports of games of this caliber.
Because of its popularity, there were many ports and sequels. The port that was released for the Saturn was a big deal at the time. There was also a Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition released for the Saturn in 1996, an arcade sequel called Daytona USA 2: Battle on the Edge released in 1998 using Model 3 hardware, Daytona USA 2001 which was a remake of the original game and Championship Circuit Edition for the Dreamcast, an arcade remake called Sega Rally Classic in 2010, and a Daytona Championship USA/Daytona USA 3 released in arcades in 2016.
