Daytona USA (Arcade)

Prototype Info Prerelease Info

Development Text#

Present at 0xBEC in the main CPU is some development related text...

Trace Faults
Operation Faults
Arithmetic Faults
Floating-Point Faults
Constraint Faults
Protection Faults
Machine Faults
Type Faults
IP :

... as well as these strings, located at addresses 0xF4A8, 0xF558, 0x1E2C0 and 0x297F0 respectively:

SAMPLING NOW

WARNIG Out of Main Road

i960_pragma_isr

$Header$

This string is only present in the later revision of the game featuring advertising for the Sega Saturn game console, at address 0x1CA40.

SAFEGUARD

Finally, at the start of the drive board ROM, titled `epr-16488a.ic12` within the MAME set, is this delightful bit of developer credit:

****************
*DAYTONA       *
*  HANDLE      *
*    CONTROL   *
*      PROGRAM *
****************
SEGA V19940919  
by SHUN'ICHI

epr-16488.ic12 appears to be an earlier revision, with the date V19940309 instead.

Unused Models#

A strange, mostly untextured model of a driver with a texture mapped head. Seemingly used during the earlier ending sequence (similar to Virtua Racing) before being replaced by a "Victory Lane" ending, with all the cars driving around the track.

Unused Textures#

Background graphic from an unused test track.

Unused opponent car number.
While numbers 91, 100 & 208 are not used on any cars in races, they do appear on the small, bouncing cars on the 'WAITING FOR YOUR ENTRY' screen, there is also an alternate coloring of the 99 car present there which is never seen in any races either (it was recolored purple and used as the default NPC opponent car in linked races).
Number 94 is not used anywhere in the game.

Unused 'Track', 'START', 'CHECK' & 'GOAL' textures.
These signs were intended to appear over the starting line on the Beginner track but were replaced with the live leaderboard close to the end of development. They can be seen in early footage of the game.

Unused textures for the Beginner track. These are possibly early versions of the garage textures for the pit lane.

Unused road signs for the Advanced track.
These indicate that there may have been plans for falling rocks or deer.

Unused road signs for the Expert track.
The last of these was possibly not used since due to the positioning of the arrows, it presents the optical illusion that it is taller on the right side than the left.

Unused graphics for 'TIME EXTENSION'.
These are a very similar font & size to the 'GOAL' or 'GAME OVER' textures and also appear next to them in the texture atlas so it is possible that they were indented to be mapped to polygons and animated.

Unused opponent car arrows pointing diagonally left & right. Only the arrow pointing directly downwards is used in the final game.

Camera Debug#

Setting the byte at 0x1712 in RAM to a non-zero value during gameplay will enable a debug tool with which a couple of properties of the camera can be adjusted for each VR mode individually.

Once activated, it freezes the timer and prints handle mode near the bottom left corner of the screen, followed by the currently selected setting. Pressing the start button cycles through 4 settings labeled y pos, z pos, x rot and scr y in order, which do more or less what you'd expect them to. They can be adjusted by turning the steering wheel. Shifting to odd-numbered gears continuously decreases the FOV while even-numbered gears increase the FOV, with the neutral position being treated as an even-numbered gear. There does not appear to be any way of stopping the FOV adjustment.

It is worth noting that the game stores these settings in NVRAM and that this tool modifies them. The BACKUP RAM CLEAR setting in the test mode only clears bookkeeping data and course leaderboards, and as such the NVRAM must be manually completely cleared for the game to initialize it with the default values.

Error Screen#

The game checks for byte 0x8C in the polygon data roms at address 0x2850CCC after the game starts up but before attract mode displays. If 0x8C is not found, it could mean the incorrect polygon data roms are installed in the arcade board and the following error is shown:

!!!!! PYLON VERSION MISMUCH ERROR !!!!!

Revisional Differences#

Some later versions of the game (with ROM name of daytonas in MAME and the Model 2 Emulator) came with optional advertising for the Sega Saturn port in the attract mode. On those versions, the advertisement can be toggled from the Promote Saturn setting in the test menu. Interestingly enough, even if you set the region to JPN, it still uses the American Sega Saturn logo. The version itself was based on the "Special Edition" variant, that uses Deluxe cabinet as a basis with controllable mode select on a podium, a built-in camera to view the player's reaction, and a slightly different 4 or more cabinet linked up attract demo. This can be selected in the Test Menu under Special setting.

Regional Differences#

In the Test Menu, it's possible to change the region of the game, which activates some minor regional changes.

• With the JPN setting, the menus are rendered with Japanese text, the time trial mode is called "Time Attack", the radar is labeled "CONDITION", the speed is shown in km/h.
• With the USA setting, the menus are rendered in English, the time trial mode is called "Time Lap", the radar is labeled "TRAFFIC", and the speed is shown in MPH.
• With the EXPORT setting, the menus are rendered in English, the time trial mode is called "Time Lap", the radar is labeled "TRAFFIC", and the speed is shown in km/h.

Additionally, the game has a humorous easter egg when you drive through the course in reverse, which is affected by the region setting. While racing, the game does not prevent you from turning around and racing the course backwards, and only flashes a message on screen ("逆走" in Japanese, "REVERSE" in English) until the message moves to the bottom right corner of the screen while your crew chief repeats "Turn around, you're headin' the wrong way." However, the game still adds time if you go through the checkpoints backwards and will show your time at the end of the race, beating the course under a record time and enter your initials, your record time and initials will show as "R" in the ranking screen.

As an added bonus, two additional voice clips will play as you drive in reverse, and will be different depending on the region selected. In the Japanese version, you'll hear a voice shout "逆走だぁー！！" (You're driving backwaaaards!!!) after a while, and if you continue, you'll then hear "逆走してるって言ってるだろ!" (I said you're driving backwards!).

When the game is set to USA or Export, a voice instead shouts "Turn Around!", followed by "Wrong Way!" in a loud voice.

Volume warning!