Hey all;
I think that it's Daytona USA's 9th anniversary this year...that would mean that I saw my first drift 9 years ago. At the arcade, I'd see people do smooth powerslides round the 3 tracks, beginner, advanced and expert.
I was in 4th grade that year, I think...and I didn't have too much money to spend playing arcade games, so I would stand behind the Daytona booths for hours, enviously watching others...
The thing that caught my eye most was, as stated above, the smooth powerslides and drifts. The cars were usually at 90 degrees or greater; they were sideways YET moving forward at high speed. In fact, the only way to get good lap times was to drift all the turns and hairpins; grip drivers (usually rookies who did not know how to do a 4-1-4-2-3-4 or 4-2-3, like me!) just did not manage to even complete the race.
That was 9 years ago; I didn't know what 'drifting' was. Well, today, I still can't get the drifts right
Maybe it's because of the left-hand drive (no, I' m not talking about the engine position), and I cannot really control well with my left hand. Which is probably ok, since my country uses right-hand drive cars.
What suddenly made me write this? Well, there's been alot of intense debate about grip driving vs drifting and which is faster or better, and I think that Daytona had probably been the 'culprit' (no, I'm not dissing Daytona, it's a great game, just hear me out) of this debate. Why do I say this?
All the turns, except the gentle ones, have to be drifted in order to get good lap times. Let's take the right hander after the tunnel in the advanced track.
If I drift, I can go through the corner with a minimum speed of 180 mph, 190 if I'm feeling reckless. However, if I try to grip through it, that is, slowing down, aiming for the apex, and accelerating out of the corner without loosing traction, I'd have to slow down to 160 or less. Probably I'm not gripping the correct way, but hey, if grip was the fastest way through the corner, everyone would be gripping, not drifting or powersliding all of them.
And of course, how can I forget the Mt. Sonic Turn in Beginner. If you drift thorough that turn, your speed can be bout 280-300 km/h (depending on skill level), but if you try to grip through it, you'd have to slow down to 240-260 (probably my inferior grip skill agin
)
The obvious, thorugh not necessarily right conclusion: Drifting is faster.
I believe that most players of videogames are kids below 10 to adults in their early 30s...with exceptions, of course. I'm 20 this year, and I believe that nearly everyone who has played videogames has played, or watched Daytona to a certain extent (the Daytona Generation )
Thus, most of us who may have the misconception that drifting is faster than gripping may be subconsciously influenced by Daytona...you seriously need to drift BEEG time in Daytona in order to get sizzling times.
I'd have to say that the Daytona (and now Daytona 2, as well) game and physics engine is rather fun, but inaccurate. It encourages drifting, sometimes at extreme angles, in order to go fast through corners. But as gamers, we sometimes forget that a game is a game, not the real world, which is probably why we play games in the first place
Maybe I'm wrong, but it's akin to immersing yourslef in some good fiction or movie or anime(initial D *cough cough* Anyway, it came out much later than daytona...maybe the guy who created it "can't remember his name), got influenced by daytona and hence had inspiration for his manga series 
).
My personal stand about gripping and drifting is this: Gripping is definitely faster on a straight than chukodori-ing (pardon me for this japlish ). On the corners, depending on your personal preference, a 4 wheel drift with no countersteer, or gripping and taking the racing line will do. With rival cars on track, however, one may need to use different cornering strategies to win.
Winning doesn't mean you have to set really blazing laps, it merely means that your lap times have to be faster than the competition. Sometimes when the racing line is taken, the alternative may (or may not) be to drift, or to take a different 'grip' line in order to overtake (taking the racing line doesn't necessarily mean the fastest laps, proper throttle, steering, shifting and brakin and so on are essential too). Again, that depends on circumstances.
Hopefully this article will serve to be an eye-opener for us (it was for me, when I was writing it), and also to relieve abit of gaming history.
*cheers*
I think that it's Daytona USA's 9th anniversary this year...that would mean that I saw my first drift 9 years ago. At the arcade, I'd see people do smooth powerslides round the 3 tracks, beginner, advanced and expert.
I was in 4th grade that year, I think...and I didn't have too much money to spend playing arcade games, so I would stand behind the Daytona booths for hours, enviously watching others...
The thing that caught my eye most was, as stated above, the smooth powerslides and drifts. The cars were usually at 90 degrees or greater; they were sideways YET moving forward at high speed. In fact, the only way to get good lap times was to drift all the turns and hairpins; grip drivers (usually rookies who did not know how to do a 4-1-4-2-3-4 or 4-2-3, like me!) just did not manage to even complete the race.
That was 9 years ago; I didn't know what 'drifting' was. Well, today, I still can't get the drifts right
Maybe it's because of the left-hand drive (no, I' m not talking about the engine position), and I cannot really control well with my left hand. Which is probably ok, since my country uses right-hand drive cars.What suddenly made me write this? Well, there's been alot of intense debate about grip driving vs drifting and which is faster or better, and I think that Daytona had probably been the 'culprit' (no, I'm not dissing Daytona, it's a great game, just hear me out) of this debate. Why do I say this?
All the turns, except the gentle ones, have to be drifted in order to get good lap times. Let's take the right hander after the tunnel in the advanced track.
If I drift, I can go through the corner with a minimum speed of 180 mph, 190 if I'm feeling reckless. However, if I try to grip through it, that is, slowing down, aiming for the apex, and accelerating out of the corner without loosing traction, I'd have to slow down to 160 or less. Probably I'm not gripping the correct way, but hey, if grip was the fastest way through the corner, everyone would be gripping, not drifting or powersliding all of them.
And of course, how can I forget the Mt. Sonic Turn in Beginner. If you drift thorough that turn, your speed can be bout 280-300 km/h (depending on skill level), but if you try to grip through it, you'd have to slow down to 240-260 (probably my inferior grip skill agin
) The obvious, thorugh not necessarily right conclusion: Drifting is faster.
I believe that most players of videogames are kids below 10 to adults in their early 30s...with exceptions, of course. I'm 20 this year, and I believe that nearly everyone who has played videogames has played, or watched Daytona to a certain extent (the Daytona Generation
)Thus, most of us who may have the misconception that drifting is faster than gripping may be subconsciously influenced by Daytona...you seriously need to drift BEEG time in Daytona in order to get sizzling times.
I'd have to say that the Daytona (and now Daytona 2, as well) game and physics engine is rather fun, but inaccurate. It encourages drifting, sometimes at extreme angles, in order to go fast through corners. But as gamers, we sometimes forget that a game is a game, not the real world, which is probably why we play games in the first place
Maybe I'm wrong, but it's akin to immersing yourslef in some good fiction or movie or anime(initial D *cough cough* Anyway, it came out much later than daytona...maybe the guy who created it "can't remember his name), got influenced by daytona and hence had inspiration for his manga series ).My personal stand about gripping and drifting is this: Gripping is definitely faster on a straight than chukodori-ing (pardon me for this japlish
). On the corners, depending on your personal preference, a 4 wheel drift with no countersteer, or gripping and taking the racing line will do. With rival cars on track, however, one may need to use different cornering strategies to win. Winning doesn't mean you have to set really blazing laps, it merely means that your lap times have to be faster than the competition. Sometimes when the racing line is taken, the alternative may (or may not) be to drift, or to take a different 'grip' line in order to overtake (taking the racing line doesn't necessarily mean the fastest laps, proper throttle, steering, shifting and brakin and so on are essential too). Again, that depends on circumstances.
Hopefully this article will serve to be an eye-opener for us (it was for me, when I was writing it), and also to relieve abit of gaming history.
*cheers*
