Daytona USA might literally be my favorite video game of all-time. I know I wouldn't need more than one hand to count everything else that would be in contention. I think it's literally impossible to convey how much of a presence that game had on its release.
Witnessing the attract demo spanning across 8 big screen cabinets and literally claiming an entire wall of a building is a quintessential mid-90s arcade experience. In the pre-Saturn/PS1 era (and beyond, really), this was an
event.
Sweet ^
I remember when Cyber Station arcade in the Golf Mill Shopping Center in Niles, IL. just outside of Chicago got a single player Daytona USA Deluxe cab w/ 50 inch projection TV
like this one. It was spring of '94, there were crowds around the game, people watching, they were just awestruck at what they were seeing--And seeing being played. They were amazed and in disbelief at the same time.
The Ridge Racer cab nearby had been there since fall '93, and it was from then on ignored, sitting empty. Mind you, that was before that arcade got 2 twin-cabs for 4-players. That setup was there for years, constantly raking in quarters.
Daytona USA was arguably the highest profiting coin-op game of all time, not merely Sega's most successful arcade game.
No console port will ever recapture the full experience, either. Some ports have janky handling; others don't translate well to standard gamepads. Head-to-head play (and even the distinctively aggressive and threatening and at-times reckless AI in solo play) was a huge part of the appeal, and the force-feedback and sound design of the cabinet brought that to life; that just can't be replicated to the same degree at home.
So true. Nothing can re-create that experience, or the memories.
It was the main reason I saved up money for a Saturn. Even though that port was rushed, 1-player only, and poor on most technical metrics, it at least controlled well enough to serve as practice for "the real thing," so I was satisfied with it for that reason alone.
First game I played on Saturn was that port of Daytona, and that was within days of the limited and early May '95 launch.
Championship Circuit Edition fucked with the handling and neutered the AI so much that I can barely call it a Daytona game. Daytona 2001 on Dreamcast was a competent enough effort, but I was always disappointed that it was made in lieu of a proper Daytona 2 port.
I know, and I would have rather had at least the Daytona 2 courses in Daytona 2001 instead of the 3 new ones they made exclusively for the Dreamcast game.
The HD re-release is the definitive version, although finding competition for that is an unfortunate hassle, and it probably takes some time to come to grips with how it handles on an analog stick if you're not already accustomed to the game.
Finding competition is indeed a time consuming proposition, although the controls on Dual Shock 3 are very well implemented, it controls so very well. I just don't know if I should invest in the G27 for PS3 now, for one game, or wait until I have PC capable of running Supermodel for Scud Race/Sega Super GT and Daytona 2.