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Pole Position is a racing video game released in 1982 by Namco, the creators of Pac-Man. In Pole Position, the player has to complete a lap in a certain amount of time in order to qualify for an F1 race at the Fuji Racetrack. After qualifying, the player has to face other cars in a championship race.
For release in the United States, Namco approached Bally Midway with a choice of two games in 1982. Bally Midway chose Mappy while Atari was forced to go with Pole Position — which turned out to become the most popular game of 1983.
Sequels
Pole Position II was released in 1983, and adds to the original Fuji track three additional courses: Seaside, Test, and Suzuka. It features slightly improved graphics, as well as a different starting tune.
While many considered the three-screened racer TX-1, released in 1984 by Atari and designed by Tatsumi to be a sequel to Pole Position II, the true sequel arrived in 1987 with the release of Final Lap, which may be considered an unofficial Pole Position III.
Ports
In the late 1990s Pole Position made a comeback on the Sony PlayStation system, alongside Pac-Man and other Namco games, in a game collection named Namco Museum. Since then, Pole Position has been included in most Namco Museum releases, such as on the Playstation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and Xbox.
Legacy
Pole Position was the leading game in arcades worldwide due to its breathtakingly realistic graphics at the time. It pioneered the popular "rear-view racer format" found in many games today, and many imitators of the format appeared after its release, most notably Sega's Out Run in 1986.
Screenshot gallery
External links
- Pole Position entry on the Killer List of Videogames
- Arcade History Database entry
- Twin Galaxies' Scoreboard for Pole Position
Arcade games | Racing computer games | Namco games | Atari arcade games | 1982 arcade games | 1982 computer and video games | Atari 2600 games | Atari 5200 games | Atari 7800 games | Atari 8-bit family games | Commodore 64 games | Vectrex games | Intellivision games | ZX Spectrum games
ポールポジション (コンピューターゲーム) | Pole Position (Computerspiel) | Pole Position
"Pole Position"