Daytona USA in Pyongyang!?

[xdaniel]

Yes indeed, apparently there's an official Sega Daytona USA twin cabinet in Pyongyang, North Korea!

 

It must've been customized by the Great Leader... wait, or was it "Dear Leader"? Whatever. Anyway, it must've been customized by him, as there's no longer any hint of the capitalist so-called United States! The game's called "Daytona White-Piece-Of-Plastic-Sheet" now, and if you look closely, that horrible sight of the American flag is gone from the back of the seats! The Dear Leader should've spent more time on maintenance, tho... Those screens look like they're going out. And shouldn't there be some semblance of blue in the sky on the right hand machine?

 

But sarcasm and such aside, I pity that machine. A venerable Sega Model 2, on one hand still working and on duty after almost 20 years, but on the other without much of a chance to ever get the maintenance it deserves, because it resides in North Korea of all places. The screens are horribly discolored and need degaussing I believe (if that even helps at this point), and if the sky is not just missing the blue because of the damaged screen, then the machine has dead ROMs or a dead/dying video chip...

 

It's almost heartbreaking to think what'll happen once it breaks... I really don't see the administration or whatever there caring much about those machines. If it breaks, they'll strip out whatever parts might still be useful, and then trash the rest or sell it for scrap to China or something.

[Airikita]

I'm not sure this has anything to do with removing the USA from being seen in a game because of capitalists, but more of a unbiased way of selling a game. Perhaps people in Canada got offended? People DO complain here about how much attention USA gets, and shoves it in their faces. Seriously, it's not always about one country, but then again, this depends on how far they've taken it...

 

Sorry, but USA is world-wide known, and it does get a bit tiring. Some people in the USA are horridly uneducated about other countries, and this is probably a small way to attempt to push other countries out there than to make USA the center of the globe.

 

Don't mean that to sound rude, but this has been an issue for generations... Korea and England are now stepping up to the plate lately from a political and media standpoint (music and politics).

 

Also, Sweden had some time in the light while Caramelldansen was increasingly popular.

 

I doubt USA will be "swept under the rug", but issues with economy and politics in USA are getting ugly, and in our stressful lives, we just don't have time to listen to all of USA's problems when issues in other countries don't hang on that.

 

Um... but not to get TOO off-topic from what you're discussing: yeah, it's a shame... but there are SOOO many racing games that this arcade game is probably not going to make it through perhaps? Depends on who buys it and cares for it. There are lots of games with the American flag in them.

[xdaniel]

A reply to the off-topic-ness in the spoiler:

 

 

First of all, with the following I'm not trying to defend the US here or anything - on the contrary, I'm rather wary of their influence on the world (SOPA and Co. come to mind, and that's comparatively minor) - however...

 

The thing about this particular case is, that this is a cabinet of an arcade game that's been called "Daytona USA" in every incarnation, in every port, since it first released in 1994, and to my knowledge no one has ever complained about that. Also, considering that this machine is situated in North Korea, and everyone knows their rhetoric against the capitalistic west, against South Korea, Japan, etc., it's really not much of a stretch to think that that those modifications - which apparently consisted chiefly of plastic sheet to cover the "offending" elements of the cabinet - are a direct response to the prominence of the US in the game's artwork and NK's ideology.

 

Again, the less the US is in the limelight internationally, the less influence they have internationally, the better, but I believe this case is a bit different.

 

 

Now, back on-topic: I guess I'm less concerned about this specific game or cabinet breaking down and dying, but more about the hardware that powers it. As mentioned, the game's running on Sega's old Model 2 board, which was the base for a number of classic arcade games in the mid-90s, like this, like Virtual-On, The House of the Dead, Virtua Fighter 2, Sega Rally, Virtua Cop 1 & 2, Dead or Alive and more. There's still machines and boards of those around - I've actually played on a real Daytona cabinet before, in this very arcade-devoid country - but they will break down someday if not maintained correctly. There's only going to be fewer and fewer of them, and in my opinion, it'll be a sad day when/if you can't find any of those anywhere anymore.

 

EDIT: Come to think of it, as an example of an arcade machine that did break, in an amusement park I've been to they had (I believe) a Wave Runner machine - also on Model 2; 2C CRX - that showed an error message about the driver board not responding or somesuch. I didn't actually try to play it because of the error, as it made me believe the game would be unplayable.

Edited October 24, 2012 by xdaniel

[Airikita]

Oh I see, thought you were concerned about the flag moreover. Um, the hardware on arcade games is definitely something, however, even if the hardware seems better doesn't make it better quality... the processor may just handle things better in it's algorithms contrary to the new ones.