TUNED TO PERFECTION
THE CREATION OF THE ICONIC RACER, AS REMEMBERED BY DIRECTOR TOSHIHIRO NAGOSHI
Were you familiar with stock car racing before working on Daytona USA?
“Initially I had no knowledge. When I went to the US to have a meeting about the Model 2 system board, I happened to get the tickets for a race. That was the first time I ever watched such a race, as in Japan, car racing typically meant Formula 1 for the vast majority of people. I remember it being a quite a new experience for me.”
What sort of research into racing did you do before starting development?
“Before we started the development, I consumed as many video and books about NASCAR as I could get my hands on. However, despite the extensive research, it was difficult to convey the excitement and fascination of NASCAR racing to the staff in Japan at the time.”
How did your experience on Virtua Racing help when developing Daytona USA?
“It was invaluable for me to have the experience of the basics of 3DCG video expression, such as the approach to camera and lighting. Also, being in the same race game genre, I felt that I had been able to do the things in Daytona that were left undone in Virtua Racing; in that sense my experience was well utilised.”
Daytona USA was your first game as both director and producer. How did you feel about this new role?
“It was a huge responsibility for me, but at the same time this was a game implementing the new technology for the first time, and being able to create such a game as a leader is not a chance that comes by often. I tried my best to have as much fun as I could. But of course, in reality it was not that easy, and I often found myself stuck in thought.”
Drifting wasn’t common in arcade games at the time. Why did the team decide to include it?
“Initially, the cars didn’t drift in the game. If you think about it, if you were drifting in an actual NASCAR race, you are on a clear path to death! But as soon as the decision was made in the direction that the game will not be a simulator, but a powerful and happy driving game, I thought drifting would be a necessary addition to the game. We experienced various hardships during development, but when something was not going well (which usually meant that driving the car was not fun), it would always come down to, ‘Should we change the car’s handling?’ or, ‘Should we adjust the shape of the circuit?’ There were many heated discussions within the team.”
Daytona USA’S eight-player races were very popular. What balancing was required in order to keep them fun?
“The idea was to make an eight-car brawl with lots of contact. As a driving game, the driving of the car is, of course, the basis of the game, but obstructing other players and even making them crash is something that can be done only in a game. I thought these aspects of racing would be an important characteristic of Daytona. The pleasure from smart driving is important, but this could be experienced in a time attack trial, so the emphasis on the multiplayer gameplay was on how we could maximise the feeling of engagement in a continuous battle.”