After hearing of our report that Sega was testing Sega Racing Classic at the Gameworks in Chicago, 1up writer Andrew Hayward made his way to the location to check the game out and give everyone a preview of the game in action. In addition to that he grabbed a couple of videos of the game in action and so while this is a location test (meaning that the game seen here can change from the final release), so far it is not encouraging in case you were hoping for a major upgrade in the graphics department. In fact I am very surprised that so far this is apparently just a high-resolution upgrade of the original game minus the licenses – the model geometry appears to be the same, the trees are still 2D sprites, etc. Lets hope that the game gets more of a facelift before it is released to arcades with maybe a couple more additions to the tracks, play modes or something else. Otherwise it seems to me that all the buzz this has been generating online so far will be lost on what appears to be a relatively minor upgrade.
Kevin Williams in the comments below made a point about this being targetted towards operators who still have the old Daytona on location, and that does make sense especially if the price point on the game is well below the average charged for an arcade racer these days.
Of course since this is on location test now, it should be at IAAPA in a couple of weeks and we’ll see if it’s any different than the loctest as well as a few other promised upgrades. I would post the videos from 1up directly here but since wordpress won’t allow for that sort of thing from Gamevideos.com, you can see them at the link below.
Now a question for any operators out there – from what you have seen of Sega Racing Classic, how interested would you be in upgrading your old Daytona games to this?
[Sega Racing Classic Preview @ 1up.com] [Discuss on the Forums]
ugh! I am disseminated for sure. Hopefully the final version will have additional race modes or something.
Here is links to the videos mentioned in the blog post:
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/26947
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/26946
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/26949
http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/26950
I was hoping to wait till IAAPA to go through this, but with our friends at 1up jumping the gun, I think it had better be now we discuss the strategy.
The reasoning behind the RingWide direct re-hash of the ‘original’ game code is not as mad as it may seem. The issue was that we have in the US amusement sector operators still running the ’93 release refurbished to differing levels of quality. In order to force the operators hands a cost-effective alternative in a modern cabinet (able to be updated with additional future releases) has been created.
There are also other issue, such as some software enhancements and the inclusion of a network tournament mode – but that will be announced closer to the show. Don’t be too harsh on SEGA for not going for a ‘Daytona 3’, this is a practical business move – though you can see the reason why JP was not happy on the loss of the Daytona name!
I have figured that their goal is to get operators who are still running old Daytona units to switch over but at the same time, do they really have to be using the same models as in 93? Would it really be that hard to upgrade a few things so the game doesn’t look aged on every other level than the resolution?
I know we have to wait to find out more – which is why I say it’s only a loctest, things could change. But I also think that Sega needs to see that a lot of Daytona fans who were excited about this game are now disappointed because it’s like something we’d see on XBLA.
I guess the main question is what will be charged per game. If it’s the standard price for a racer ($7000) then I really do have to ask, how many operators will pay that to upgrade. If it’s in the neighborhood of $4000 or less then I could see ops jumping for that even if it’s pretty much the same thing minus the license. But that’s also an issue here – without the license and the famous music what will the players think, especially where the game will look very aged at this point?
The guys over at GAF say that they can hear the music and that it’s mostly unchanged. The attract screen song was turned into an instrumental piece to avoid the potential trademark infringement, but everything else is the same.
That’s good news. Sorry if I am sounding overly critical here, I just want to see them make the most of this game that they can.
its only like namco rereleasing pac man arcade cabinets e.g. “miss pac man and galaga in one cabinet” after all it is called racing classic so its bond to be the same gameplay though this will beg the question, what will be done for operators who purchased the dx moving seat models of daytona and do you think that they’ll make a dx version and model the cars you drive in based on the cars in daytona like what they did with outrun 2 spdx? that would be cool though 😀 maybe there making a remake to get people excited about the next daytona racer. thats if they make a daytona 3 with the “daytona” name trademarked :/
Yeah, you gotta listen closely, but aside from what I mentioned, the music is the same, the game over jingle is the same… retro fun for all.
I am not sure on the analogy Arcade4Ever.
The Namco PacMan game was called a re-release and classic. The cabinet was even modeled on the original.
The new Daytona is in a new cabinet and had originally hinted at being a re-presentation of the original.
I just wonder if there is something more going on?
If this can be updated with future releases, I hope to see a Sega Racing Classic 2 with the Daytona USA 2 cars and tracks. I preferred Daytona 2 to the original.
If they give the SRC treatment to Sega Super GT, that would be cool, too.
Bleh.. they should have used the Daytona USA 2001 Dreamcast code. That game had pretty nice graphics that wouldn’t look nearly as dated. I think the game handled and played better too (assuming you had a wheel) with the crazy unlockable cars giving the game some further challenge for those who’ve played the existing game to death.
The Dreamcast version wasn’t that good. The cars looked more Toontown than NASCAR, and the controls were too sensitive.
As an operator for over 15 years, I feel for us to buy the new version of Daytona, it MUST HAVE some new tracks added to the old ones. 6 tracks all up. Then we would look at it. We still have Daytonas out there earning good money. People ask for the game and the public know what it looks like. We look after our machines replace parts as needed. So why spend all that money on more of the same. We need to wait and see the finished product first. More tracks would bring players to the game. OR I would prefer to spend money on a Daytona 3 (if that ever happens).
Dear Stevie,
Totally understand your position – the game will have to come in with a little more than a new cabinet with HD and a new hardware system to survive in a crowded racer market.
That said, SEGA has a point to be concerned that some operators still run 16 year-old hardware, while complaining there are no good new games??
I am tracking one operators that has had his original Daytona USA in operation for the duration of the 16 years since its launch, and has refurbished the set-up over five times!!!! Just think of the profit that that system has generated for that site only for them to say “why should we buy new machines?”!
This is like running a car for 16 years – and then complaining you can’t get new spare parts and it is not as reliable as new cars on the market?
I’m assuming the extra tracks will be the ones from the Saturn and Dreamcast games. One of them isn’t bad but the other two are pretty dull.
The DC version had overly sensitive control with the pad, but with the wheel it was fine. The faster cars handled rather like the ones in Scud Race to be honest. It’s quite easy to spin the car if you don’t take a corner correctly.