Daytona USA 2001 - 777 Speedway (Flycast)

People have been telling me for years I ought to try out a new Dreamcast emulator other than DEMUL. I've been reluctant to change, because if I've got an emulator that works fine, I can't always be arsed to figure out how to set a new one up. But, DEMUL is definitely a bit 'heavy' on the system settings for my PC, if I try to upscale or enhance the graphics on Daytona USA 2001 in anyway, I start getting slowdown.
Well, I've finally been talked into changing my ways, and have given Flycast a try, and man oh man, I'm so glad I did. Daytona USA 2001 looks SO much better now. I've got the emulator resolution set to X4 upscaling and the cars have never looked so beautifully super smoothly, shiny and anti-aliased. I'm still getting a smidge of slowdown in a few areas, but not super noticeable (and possibly made worse by video capture). The widescreen mode seems to work like a treat with it to. I've noticed there's a slight graphical bug, where the Hornets rear 'hornet' decal looks like it's got a piece missing sometimes, but honestly, I think this isn't a bad trade off for all the other graphical improvements.
Playing the DC version upscaled like this, and seeing just HOW good it looks, it makes me wonder why Sega have never re-released this version of the game for modern systems. Using my PC racing wheel, apart from a lack of FFB, it plays identically to the arcade when I'm using the Hornet on the original tracks, plus you've got all that extra content, like the new cars and tracks (and, fortunately, I was able to transfer my save file across from my virtual DEMUL VMU to the Flycast one).
Oh and with regards to the handling of Daytona USA 2001 on the Dreamcast, whilst using my racing wheel makes the handling so much better, I found it really super sensitive and next to impossible to play in the old days on my actual DC using a pad. In these Flycast videos though, I was just using an Xbox 360 pad on the game's default sensitivity option, whilst I was just having a play around with it - I hadn't originally planned on doing some video capture too. But, just playing with a 360 pad it didn't handle too badly at all, nowhere near as bad as I remember it playing with an actual DC pad, so I thought let's have a crack at doing some of the tracks. It was still very super twitchy and required a very delicate touch, but I wasn't getting all the problems of fishtailing and oversteer I can remember back on the actual console. I think maybe the DC thumbstick just isn't all the great when it comes to this game, as I think it's got quite a small amount of movement on it's X axis comparatively.
With regards to the tracks I played using Flycast for these captures, after the obligatory go on 77 Speedway, I decided to tackle the 3 exclusive DC tracks in Mirror Reverse mode. Now, something I've only fairly recently discovered about the reverse mirrored mode, is that by default it activates the game's sunset mode (and you also get a remix version of that tracks music, which is a really cool touch). Both Mermaid Lake and Circuit Pixie already take place at Sunset, so what happens when you race them in Mirror Reverse? Blue Sky mode is activated! Playing Mermaid Lake in particular in Mirrored Reverse with a Blue Sky, really does make it feel a bit like a brand new course.
#DaytonaUSA #DaytonaUSA2001 #Sega