Blue, Blue Skies

Greetings, racing fans! If you haven’t listened to the S2E2 ‘Rolling Start’ Shiro Podcast (and you should do, it’s GREAT!), it focused on racing games. In keeping with this theme, let’s have a few quick laps with the racing game that started it all on the Sega Saturn: the one and only (well, not really… more on that later) Daytona USA!

Daytona USA (AM2/Sega, 1995) The original Saturn Daytona had gentlemen starting their engines in Japan in April 1995, and offering a rolling start in time for both western launches that same year. Initial reaction? Bad!!! The game was maligned in most of the gaming press back in the day because at a glance, it just doesn’t look very good… especially when compared to the PlayStation’s Ridge Racer, which launched at around the same time and provided a comparison for consumers. Ah, but us Saturn fans are not as merciless with graphical frivolities as most gamers. Graphics maketh not a great game. And Daytona USA is indeed a great game.

To be fair, there is a tank-full of criticisms that can be levelled against the title. Critique of graphical fidelity in Saturn Daytona is justified, unfortunately. As was common with the early arcade-to-Saturn conversions, it does appear that the conversion team attempted to fit all of the arcade version’s detail into the Saturn game instead of optimizing the game for what the Saturn was good at doing. The result is geometry and detail that is quite faithful to the arcade game, but the choke-hold this places on the frame rate is crippling. Supremely important to a racing game, the framerate here chugs along at a sedate 20 FPS, which is very visibly lower than the arcade version’s smooth-as-oil 60 FPS. Not only that, but in order to preserve processing power, Daytona USA features slight upper and lower borders across the screen to cut down how much polygons the Saturn must calculate for display. Scenery pops into view in large chunks across a fairly short draw distance, and the high-resolution textures of the arcade game – all brought over to Saturn – come off very pixelated with most of the detail lost. A good example of this is the t-rex excavation wall in Dinosaur Canyon, or the TV Cave in Sea Side Street Galaxy. These look spectacular in the arcade but are a

pixelly mess of a flat tire in the conversion. Part of this is surely the programmers just getting to grips with Saturn technology with no graphics libraries to assist, but prioritizing cramming in as much detail as possible at the expense of performance was a design choice, and a poor one, in retrospect. As such, Daytona ends up looking very first-generation.

Other minuses include the myriad of missing modes and options that you’d expect as standard fare in a racing title. Daytona USA is a 1-player only experience, which is a shame, as 2 player split screen or even local Saturn-to-Saturn gameplay would have been welcome and served as a great reason for Sega to release the Link Cable stateside. Alas, Daytona USA is a solitary experience. Other items include simple details like the ability to switch between miles-per-hour and kilometers-per-hour displays. The JPN and EU releases default to KMH whilst the NA version does MPH… This setting can be changed, but only by inputting a secret code on the 2P controller – ironic, considering this is a 1P game. This is something that should be included in the options menu! The presentation screens are very basic (that lowly intern was tasked with the menu screens again) and the loading screens were obviously inserted without taking the Saturn’s color palette into consideration.

All that said, Daytona USA is a very compelling Saturn experience nonetheless, primarily because it plays great. The car physics are great, the control is spot-on, and support is included for the analogue Arcade Racer (or, by way of the Saturn detecting an analogue signal, the 3D Control Pad). Views can be selected on the fly and include bumper, driver, chase, and distant. The game employs a very satisfying power sliding / drifting mechanic to negotiate corners and turns, and a really good sensation of speed on the straightaways. The drone cars will also attempt to cut you off and slow you down, which adds to the challenge. Course design is classic Sega – these are some of the most well-known tracks in racing game history. Aside from actual track design, the Sonic Wall, the statue of Jeffry of Virtua Fighter fame, and the space shuttle launch pad all stand out as well. The iconic music, composed and performed by legendary Sega music man Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, is upbeat, crazy, and happy, and is now synonymous with Daytona. The music really does complement the experience, and, for your listening pleasure, doesn’t stop playing when you pause the game! Lastly, in the longer game modes where dozens upon dozens of laps are to be completed (and yes, this journalist has completed the grueling 80-lap race around the 777 Speedway), your tire condition matters. Not only that, but you can take battle damage and deform your car’s body, which also affects performance… besides, crashing like that all the time? That’s gotta hurt!* You must select a strategic time to enter the pit stop for a tire change and tune-up to restore performance. This all adds up to a thrilling racing experience that is captivating and engrossing.

There is an Arcade Mode and a Saturn Mode to choose from. The Arcade Mode is just what you’d expect: a straight conversion of the arcade experience. Select manual or automatic transmission for your Hornet, select your track, and away you go. The Saturn Mode offers the ability to choose from different cars with unique attributes and paint jobs, and the ability to unlock more cars and other equine modes of transportation. Common to both modes is the ability to set difficulty and number of laps.

The 2^nd aspect of this title that helps accelerate it to excellence is the sheer volume of extras and goodies included. Did you know that the slot reels in the 777 Speedway are actually operable? There are plenty of little touches like this in the game. The statue of Jeffry can be turned on its’ head, the horses along the coast in Sea Side Street Galaxy can almost be struck if you decide to aim for them, and you can even activate a Karaoke Mode and fulfill your dream of singing Daytona, just like our man Mitsuyoshi! There is a mirror mode to be found as well, further extending the challenge on offer. Another neat touch involves the initials input, should you earn a spot on the leaderboards. There are roughly 40 3-letter combinations that call up jingles from other Sega games for your listening pleasure! For example, entering S.H gives you music from Space Harrier, while entering P.D gives you Power Drift. Awesome. These sorts of Easter Eggs is what gives this game that pure Sega charm.

There are, of course, two other versions of Daytona to be had on the Saturn. Championship Circuit Edition, released exclusively in the western markets, and the Japanese Circuit Edition (renamed CCE NetLink Edition in NA). The former was a re-conversion of the arcade game by a different team and uses the Sega Rally engine and features 2-player split screen action and 2 new tracks, with the latter being based on that reconversion but featuring handling closer to the original, a return of the original music, and most significantly, online and local head to head (in Japan) play. However, these versions of Daytona will be the subject of future articles.

At the end of the day, Daytona USA on the Saturn was a really strong indicator of what the Saturn would end up offering gamers in the West. Most were turned away by the fact that other systems offered superior visuals, but those that saw past the first-generation graphics found themselves a deep and fun gameplay experience that just screamed Sega – an experience that was not to be found on other contemporary systems. Daytona USA was ultimately included in Sega’s ‘3 Free’ promotion and therefore had a broad print run, both in the original longbox edition as well as the paper sleeve as part of the promo. This means the game is easy to get a hold of and not at all expensive, making this an easy pickup for most gamers. Go on – it’s a legendary racing game that you’ll have a lot of fun with!

As always, let’s close out with some Shiro Challenges for the most hardcode of Saturn gamers out there:

• There are 40 different initials that can be entered for the various game jingles to be heard. Enter and experience them all!
• Think you’re a master Daytona driver? Enter the code for Maniac Mode for an insane difficulty level, and win.
• Find the grassy shortcut in Sea Side Street Galaxy and figure out which cars are not impacted by the grassy terrain in order to really improve your time!
• Daytona USA features many roads that are either blocked off or otherwise not part of the race track. But are they all inaccessible? Find the secret ‘congratulatory’ message in the Dinosaur Canyon.
• Win in the Endurance Mode on each track.

 

… but most of all, enjoy yourself with Saturn Daytona USA!

 

Peter Malek

Sega Saturn, Shiro!

 

*That’s gotta hurt! is a reference to Bug!