Daytona USA was a hit ‘90s arcade racing game by Sega that helped millions of kids pretend they were bad-ass NASCAR drivers, and sported a famous theme song that certain Kotaku editors still get stuck in their heads to this day. This week, it was discovered that one of the old cabinets was hiding $US400,000, ammunition, and a handgun, according to the Western Australia police who seized it.
ABC (the Australian one, not the American one) reports that police carried out a bust of a Rebels bikie gang member on July 28. After a traffic stop revealed the person was carrying $US4,000 and an extendable baton, Western Australia police raided his residence and a commercial property in Lansdale near Perth, the fourth-biggest city in the country. It was at the second property where police found a bunch of old arcade cabinets. One of them, Daytona USA, was allegedly hiding the contraband jackpot: $US400,000 in cash and a Colt.
“Whether the firearms are used to commit offences, or used to cause fear to victims who may be targeted, the risk of a person being seriously injured or killed in a confrontation increases when a firearm is present,” WA Police Commander of State Crime Gordon Fairman said in a statement. “We have seen the reckless disregard for community safety shown by outlaw motorcycle gang members, so we know the removal of these firearms from the hands of gang members has made our community safer.”
Daytona USA is one of the more recognizable arcade cabinets from right before the market died. Existing ones currently go for around $US12,000, and if you went to an arcade, movie theater, or Chuck E. Cheese’s in the ‘90s you probably sat in one. Its adaptive difficulty set the challenge to each player’s skill level based on their first-lap performance, and Sega marshalled all the technical resources at its disposal to try and make the game better than Namco’s Ridge Racer.
It was, coincidentally, the first game ever directed by Toshihiro Nagoshi, who is now synonymous with the creation of the Yakuza games, now known as the Like aDragon series. Daytona USA 2, also known as Sega Racing Classic, is actually playable inside last year’s Like A Dragon Gaiden in one of its in-universe arcades. I don’t think it has $US400,000 cash inside it, though.
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