Hey guys, love the site. With regards to the Blue Skies Campaign, we may be on the cusp of a major triumph. It seems like EA is no longer interested in the NASCAR license.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/25/eas-nascar-exclusivity-in-question-sim-series-on-hold/

What does this mean? Well, the International Speedway Corporation, owned by NASCAR's France family, owns the Daytona USA trademark. They used it for a tourist attraction at the Daytona International Speedway, but the name was changed recently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Speedway_Corporation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytona_500_Experience

My theory here is that if SEGA grabs the NASCAR license, they can FINALLY have the means to make a new Daytona USA game, and they can probably team up with Image Space Incorporated to make a PC NASCAR simulator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_Space_Incorporated

Everybody wins!

Here's what we do. We go on Sega America's twitter and nag them to get the license.

http://twitter.com/SegaAmerica

I did my part, and they said, to quote, "sorry, can't say one way or the other." They didn't deny it outright, so this is the time to strike! Help me out and soon enough, we could have the greatest moment in the Blue Skies Campaign! LET'S DO IT!

The Model 2 emulator is awesome. Very nice. It runs perfect, even on the cheap mass-produced computer that powers UKR.




The latest-generation UKR "Con" is powered by a Core 2 Duo E8200. There are three "gigs" of RAM in it, plus whatever Dell's default cheapest graphics card was six months ago.




Adam Doree can't get it to work though!




ADAM DOREE: "My PC is really precarious at the moment - I can't afford any crashes or reboots as sometimes it decides to take FIVE CUNTING HOURS to successfully boot, so I have to wait till that's sorted before revisiting the M2 emu which crashed me last time. Er, does this sound right though? The Daytona ROM I have is only 14.5MB? That can't be right surely?"




Yes, Adam, it's right.




It also runs SEGA Rally perfectly and anything else you can find the ROMs of.




There's a bundle of Model 2 ROMs on the torrent sites.




We'll probably have to explain to Adam Doree how to find those as well, if he ever gets a PC good enough to run it.




We never dreamed we'd be able to (a) play Daytona USA all day for free or (b) take screenshots and examine its glorious textures.




We only selected "Manual" for the purposes of taking this screenshot. In actual play, it was automatic all the way.




Offramp! What does that even mean? We've spent all morning reading the textures of the cars. Screenshot #5 up there shows a car sponsored by a record company called just "Records."





That car is sponsored by SG8. AM2 was too busy making the world's best-ever driving game to have meetings where it spent all morning thinking up clever names for things.




Driving up to Jeff is also a good way to spend an afternoon.




We're not doing very well. It's hard setting up the controller to work satisfactorily. That's the only complaint.




Sliding, probably by accident.




Angular seagull!




Crash ahead!




Horses! When you're playing for free, wasting a go by driving off the track to examine the surroundings is an OK thing to do.




SEGA was pioneering environmental power generation even in the early 1990s. That sky texture would make a lovely background for a blog about games, wouldn't it?




Get it. Press F12 to take a screen grab. It dumps them in a folder automatically. Away you go.