Daytona USA is a 1994 racing game created by Sega AM2 and released for arcades by Sega. Inspired by the popularity of the NASCAR motor racing series in the United States, the game lets players race stock cars on one of three tracks. It was the first game released on the Sega Model 2 arcade system.
Sega worked with GE Aerospace to create the Model 2, which produces 3D images with special effects that make them look more detailed. Daytona USA was developed by AM2 after a meeting between leaders of Sega's regional offices to choose a game to introduce the Model 2 system. The idea came from Tom Petit, president of Sega's American arcade division, with help from AM2 director Toshihiro Nagoshi, who became the game's director and producer. Sega wanted to do better than Namco's Ridge Racer (1993). The developers studied motorsports carefully; they mapped Daytona International Speedway, and their work on Virtua Racing (1992) helped them improve lighting and camera control.
Daytona USA became one of the most successful arcade games ever, and it was both praised by critics and popular with players. Its graphics, music, and gameplay received a lot of praise. The game was moved to the Sega Saturn in 1995 and was followed by sequels and improved versions for consoles and arcades. It has often been called one of the best video games.
Gameplay
In the game Daytona USA, the player controls a stock car called the Hornet. The goal is to drive faster than other cars and finish the race before time runs out. Players collect extra time by passing checkpoints. At the start, players are in last place and race against up to 39 computer-controlled cars, depending on the chosen course. Three courses are available: Beginner, Advanced, and Expert, also known as Three Seven Speedway, Dinosaur Canyon, and Seaside Street Galaxy. The game adjusts the difficulty based on the player's skill. During the first lap, the game measures the player's ability and changes how challenging the opponents are. For players who are less skilled, other cars leave space for the player to move. For more skilled players, other cars block the player's path. The game uses realistic driving rules, such as drifting and power sliding. The steering wheel in the arcade machine vibrates to let players feel bumps and crashes. Players change gears using an H-shaped shifter.
The arcade version of Daytona USA on the Model 2 can display up to 300,000 computer-generated images each second, almost twice as many as the older Model 1. The game uses smooth visual effects to make the images look clear. Like Virtua Racing, the game lets players choose from four different camera angles to view the race, including a view from behind the car. The arcade version allows up to eight players to race together, depending on how many machines are connected. Some deluxe machines include a camera that shows the player's face on a separate screen. In multiplayer races, only the leading player needs to reach checkpoints before time runs out. A feature called "rubber-banding" keeps all players close in the race to ensure everyone stays involved.
The Sega Saturn version does not support multiplayer racing but adds a "Saturn" mode where the timer is removed and more cars are available. It also includes "Endurance" and "Grand Prix" modes, both of which require players to stop for repairs. In these modes, damage to the car slows it down. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions allow up to eight players to race online.
Development
In September 1992, Sega worked with GE Aerospace, an engineering company, to create a new arcade system called the Model 2. The partnership began when GE’s Bob Hichborn made a cold call to Sega. In 1990, Hichborn met with Sega executives at GE’s headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida. Later that year, in November, GE executives met with Sega at Sega’s headquarters in Tokyo. During this meeting, GE showed a tape that demonstrated the hardware’s ability to create 3D graphics of the Daytona International Speedway. GE estimated that selling the Model 2’s graphics technology helped Sega develop its arcade hardware 14 months faster than it otherwise would have.
Sega’s regional office leaders began discussing game ideas to show the Model 2’s abilities. Sega’s previous system, the Model 1, debuted in 1992 with Virtua Racing, a popular game in Japan and Europe. Tom Petit, president of Sega’s American arcade division, suggested using NASCAR as a brand for a Model 2 game in the U.S. Sega Europe’s Vic Leslie had concerns because Formula One was more popular in Europe, but Sega approved the idea. Petit and Masahiro Nakagawa, Sega’s finance chief, negotiated with representatives of the Daytona 500 for a license to make a game based on the race. To save money, Sega did not negotiate with NASCAR directly, so the game does not include real sponsors, drivers, or cars.
Sega required that Daytona USA be better than Namco’s 1993 racing game Ridge Racer and sell more copies. Ridge Racer had reached the top of arcade sales charts in late 1993 and early 1994 and received praise for its graphics. Development was assigned to Sega AM2, a team led by Yu Suzuki, who had created popular racing games like Hang-On, Out Run, and Virtua Racing. Toshihiro Nagoshi, AM2’s director, was in charge of the project. Nagoshi was new to directing but had experience with racing games. While in the U.S. for a meeting about the Model 2, Nagoshi attended a NASCAR race and later said it was a new experience because NASCAR racing was not common in Japan. He decided to make Daytona USA “funky entertainment,” different from the simulation style of Ridge Racer.
AM2 split into two teams: one worked on Daytona USA, and the other developed Virtua Fighter. To research the game, Nagoshi read books and watched videos about NASCAR but found it hard to explain the sport’s emotions to his Japanese staff. Game planner Makoto Osaki bought a sports car and watched the movie Days of Thunder more than 100 times. Programmer Daichi Katagiri used his experience with arcade racing games. The team used satellite images and sent staff to photograph Daytona International Speedway. Nagoshi walked a full lap of the track to understand the banking in the corners. The team considered using Daytona International Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway for the beginner course. Nagoshi decided against oval and tri-oval designs because they were too repetitive. The beginner circuit, called Three Seven Speedway, used a tri-oval layout but had a sharper final turn that required strong braking.
The Model 2 could display surface details on 3D graphics with texture mapping, a new feature for the developers. They used trial and error to find the best way to use this technology. Yu Suzuki asked Sega designer Jeffery Buchanan for ideas, who suggested adding unique features like a dinosaur fossil and a clipper ship in the game. Katagiri said the Model 2 hardware handled rendering, so no extra software was needed. For camera control and lighting, the team used its experience with Virtua Racing. Daytona USA shared some features with Ridge Racer, like drifting. Nagoshi originally planned to avoid drifting because NASCAR cars do not drift, but the team changed its mind when they decided not to focus on simulation. He chose the number 41 for the Hornet player car because someone close to him said it would be lucky.
The soundtrack was composed by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, who had no experience with stock car racing. He added vocals after hearing Ridge Racer’s techno music and decided to try a different style. He recorded his own vocals to speed up the process. Each course had a matching song. The Daytona theme, “Let’s Go Away,” mixed rock and funk, while “Sky High” used Mitsuyoshi’s background in jazz fusion. A hidden track, “Pounding Pavement,” was inspired by the Eagles’ song “Hotel California” and could be accessed by holding a specific button in the arcade version. For the arcade version, the music was sampled onto a Yamaha sound chip, with drums and Mitsuyoshi’s voice included. The tracks were reconstructed by varying when they played and looped. This was the only way to include vocals due to the Model 2’s technical limits. For the Saturn version, the music was remixed.
Release
Before it was released, Sega showed a prototype of Daytona USA at the Amusement Machine Show in Tokyo in August 1993. It was also tested in some Japanese arcades that same month. Petit said this was done to see how the public would react to the game. The full version of Daytona USA was released in Japan in March 1994 and made its first appearance in North America the same month at Chicago's American Coin Machine Exposition (ACME). It was later released worldwide in April 1994. According to Petit, Sega waited to launch the game globally to check how well it was received before expanding to other regions. The standard version of the game came in a twin-seat cabinet and a deluxe cabinet with detailed seats placed above subwoofers. Sega originally planned to use real car seats, but management decided they were too hard to get in and out of. Daytona USA appeared at number two on RePlay magazine's "Player's Choice" chart and remained on the list for five years, spending 16 months at number one. In 1996, Daytona USA was released again in arcades as Daytona USA: Special Edition, which was designed to be smaller and more affordable.
Around the time of its global release, Sega announced plans for its Saturn and 32X consoles. A year later, Sega said it would focus only on the Saturn. In early 1995, Sega AM2's Saturn division was divided into three groups, each responsible for converting a different arcade game to the Saturn: Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop, and Daytona USA. Because progress on the Daytona USA conversion was slow, some members of the Virtua Fighter 2 team were moved to work on Daytona USA. AM2 finished the conversion in April 1995. The game was a key release for the Saturn in Western markets and was also released for Windows through SegaSoft. In Japan, two separate Windows versions were released in September and December 1996. The first version supported specific graphics cards, such as Leadtek's WinFast GD400. A Windows version was released in Europe on November 14, 1996, and in North America in December of the same year.
Remakes and sequels
Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition, a changed and expanded version of Daytona USA, was released in 1996 for the Saturn. It was created by Sega's consumer software team and uses a different version of the game system from Sega Rally Championship. An improved arcade version, called Sega Racing Classic, was released in 2010. This version is the first in the series not to use the Daytona name, as Sega no longer had the rights at that time. It runs on Sega's RingWide arcade system and includes high-definition graphics and an arranged instrumental soundtrack.
Another improved version was released digitally for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in October 2011, titled Daytona USA. It includes both the original arcade soundtrack and the arranged soundtrack from Sega Racing Classic, along with vocals by Mitsuyoshi. Additional features include eight-player online multiplayer, challenge, and karaoke modes. The Xbox 360 version became backward compatible on the Xbox One in March 2017, and this feature was later extended to the Xbox Series X/S. The game was removed from all Xbox stores in February 2023.
Daytona USA 2: Battle on the Edge, an arcade-only sequel using Sega Model 3 hardware, was released in 1998. It is the only Daytona game that does not use any tracks or music from the original. Daytona USA 2001, a remake of Daytona USA and Championship Circuit Edition, was released in 2001 for the Dreamcast. It includes improved graphics, online multiplayer, and new tracks. Daytona Championship USA, also known as Daytona USA 3, was released in late 2016 as an arcade-exclusive game. It was the first Daytona-branded arcade game in 18 years.
Reception and legacy
Daytona USA was very popular in arcades. In Japan, it was the ninth most successful arcade game in 1994 and the most successful dedicated arcade game in 1995. In North America, it was listed by the arcade industry magazine Play Meter as one of the top two highest-grossing arcade video games in 1994. The twin cabinet received a Diamond Award from the American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA) that year and again received a Diamond Award in 1995 for being one of America’s top three best-selling arcade games. In the United Kingdom, it was the top-selling dedicated arcade game for six months in 1994, from May to October. Retro Gamer’s Nick Thorpe noted that Daytona USA is often considered one of the most successful arcade games due to its multiplayer features and long-lasting popularity, but exact sales numbers are hard to find. In 2015, IGN’s Luke Reilly said the game is "perhaps the most recognizable arcade racing game of all time" and highlighted that many Daytona USA cabinets are still found in arcades and bowling alleys today.
The original arcade game was highly praised by video game and arcade industry publications. When it first appeared in North America at ACME 1994, it received strong approval from Play Meter and RePlay, both of which called it the best game at the event. They praised its graphics and gameplay, though Play Meter criticized the high cost of the cabinet. Rik Skews of Computer and Video Games called Daytona USA the best arcade game he had played in years, praising its "state-of-the-art" graphics, sound, and damage physics. Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) said the game raised the standards in arcade racing, and GamePro’s Manny LaMancha compared it to a mix of Virtua Racing’s action and Ridge Racer’s realism. In contrast, Bob Strauss of Entertainment Weekly compared the game to watching a futuristic sci-fi movie and said it would leave players amazed by its special effects.
The Saturn version of the game sold over 500,000 copies in Japan and more than 500,000 bundled copies in the USA by December 1996, totaling 1 million units sold in both regions. Critics generally gave it positive reviews, though some noted issues with the graphics. Maximum praised the game’s challenging course design and realistic mechanics, especially the effect of wind resistance, but criticized its low-resolution graphics, clipping, and lack of multiplayer. EGM reviewers found improvements in the North American version compared to the Japanese one but noted problems with the frame rate and animation. A reviewer for Sega Saturn Magazine said the game had strong arcade-style gameplay despite some graphical issues, and a reviewer from Next Generation argued that while the Saturn version had weaknesses, it was still a great racing game. The Windows version, based on the Saturn version, was not as well-received because it inherited the Saturn version’s graphical problems.
Several reviewers compared the Saturn version to Ridge Racer’s PlayStation conversion. Computer and Video Games said the Saturn version of Daytona USA was better than the PlayStation version of Ridge Racer, with Mark Patterson noting that while it was not as polished, it played better because players could ram other cars off the track. Air Hendrix of GamePro said Daytona USA’s "intense gameplay and breathtaking graphics" would excite racing fans and praised the addition of Saturn mode and mirror mode, though he said it was not as good as the PlayStation version of Ridge Racer in terms of features, gameplay, and graphics.
Daytona USA was named one of the best games of all time by Next Generation in 1996, GamesMaster in 1996, Computer and Video Games in 2000, EGM in 1997 and 2001, Yahoo! in 2005, and Empire in 2009. It was also called one of the best coin-op games by EGM in 1997 and by Killer List of Videogames, and one of the best retro games by NowGamer in 2010 and EGM in 2006. Edge named it the 70th "best game to play today" in 2009. In 2015, IGN named it the sixth-most influential racing game, saying it "remains a shining example of arcade racing done oh so right." Nick Thorpe wrote that Daytona USA "doesn’t just stand alongside the likes of Turbo, Out Run, Super Monaco GP, and Sega Rally as part of a proud arcade racing heritage, but perhaps defines it."
According to Metacritic, the Xbox 360 version of Daytona USA received "generally favorable reviews," and the PlayStation 3 version received "mixed" reviews. Justin Towell of GamesRadar+ called Daytona USA "a joyous, jubilant celebration of everything that made arcade games so exciting" and praised the new survival mode as "a brilliant test of memory, logic, and dexterity." Ray Barnholt of 1Up.com praised the version but said he was disappointed there were no new features. In contrast, Martin Robinson of Eurogamer said "age doesn’t seem to have ravaged Daytona USA’s core" and wrote that the game serves as "a fitting tribute to one of arcade racing’s enduring icons."