- DAYTONA TIMELINE -
Daytona USA Year: 1994 System: Arcade Overall Rating: 9.0 |
The one that started it all. Running off Lockheed-Martin's Model 2 board, Daytona USA's breakneck racing action and liquid-smooth graphics suckered gamers out of countless quarters. The game has maintained its global popularity for over six years, and the legendary "Twin Daytona Cabinet" is still a popular arcade attraction ¿ especially with drunken college fraternity members.
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Daytona USA Year: 1995 System: Sega Saturn Overall Rating: 7.1 |
AM2 head honcho Yu Suzuki was never a fan of the Saturn's graphics hardware, and was extremely vocal regarding the difficulty of synchronizing the Hitachi SH-2 processors. Gamers saw the ugly results in the first home port of Daytona -- a game that couldn't hold a graphical candle to Namco's Ridge Racer on the Playstation.
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Daytona USA: CCE Year: 1996 System: Sega Saturn (US) Overall Rating: 6.0 |
After being humiliated by the suck-tacularity of Saturn Daytona's graphics, Sega decides to "remix" the game into a more appealing package. AM3 hacks the Saturn's Sega Rally engine to support a Daytona game, and tosses two new tracks into the mix. The slightly rushed product hits the USA under the name Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition in time for Christmas '96.
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Daytona USA: CE Year: 1997 System: Sega Saturn (JP) Overall Rating: 7.5 |
After a few extra months of tweaking, AM3 releases the Japanese version of CCE under the shorter title Daytona USA: Circuit Edition. Importers are surprised to discover that the game is infinitely more polished than the US version.
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Daytona USA 2001 Year: 2000 System: Sega Dreamcast Overall Rating: ??? |
Sega finally delivers the ultimate edition of Daytona, leapfrogging the arcade version with redesigned courses, super-sharp graphics, added effects and online racing
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- SCREENSHOT COMPARISONS -
These are actual screenshots pulled from three home versions of the game. The screen capture quality takes away considerably from the clarity of all versions, especially the Dreamcast version, but you can definitely see the difference in course detail.
Daytona USA | Daytona CCE | Daytona 2001 |
We'll put this latest version of Daytona to the test and be back with a review as soon as IGN reopens following the break. Be sure and take a look at the following articles in the meanwhile:
-- Colin "Smarty" Williamson, IGNDC