Pole Position

• Release Date: 1982
• Genre: Racing
• Style: Formula-1/Indy Racing
• Similar Games: Le Mans (Commodore 64/128), Night Driver (Commodore 64/128), Night Driver (Atari Video Computer System), F-1 (Arcade), Le Mans (Arcade), Monte Carlo (Arcade), Night Driver (Arcade), Pole Position II (Arcade), F1 (Sega Master System), Pole Position II (Atari 7800)

Game Description

Pole Position is a racing game for one player which uses a steering wheel, a shifter to switch between low and high gears, and gas and brake pedals. Once you've completed the qualifying lap, you're placed in the group of eight cars depending on how quickly you finished; you'll have to finish in less than 58.5 seconds (the game's clock ticks off slightly faster than normal) to earn the coveted pole position. Anything more than 73 seconds won't be good enough to join race at all. As you race you earn 50 points for every car you pass. Even though you may be at the front of the pack after the initial straightaway, you'll still encounter CPU-controlled cars. If you can finish the first lap in less than 75 seconds, you'll get another 45 to keep racing. If you can complete yet another lap, you'll be given more time to keep going. Depending on how the Arcade operator set the machine, the maximum number of laps you can complete is usually three or four.

Roots & Influences

Pole Position was actually developed by Namco and licensed by Atari in the United States. Atari released several racing games during its early years, including another Formula 1 racing game called F-1. This game, however, was the most successful one, and Atari only received the rights to put it out in the U.S. because Bally passed on it, grabbing the rights to Mappy instead.

Review: Overall

Pole Position is a classic, no doubt about it. It broke new ground when it was released, from the voice use (albeit limited) to the detailed backgrounds and scaleable foregrounds. It was certainly a far cry from games such as Night Driver and it really paved the way for later racing titles, especially the ones of the late 1990s with their superb 3D graphics and hyper-realistic sound.

My biggest problem with it, though, has always been its difficulty. It's just too darn hard. Even when I played the game on my Nintendo 64 in the Namco Museum 64 compilation, I had to drop the difficulty down quite a bit just to stand a chance of qualifying and moving on to the race. I realize I was playing sans a steering wheel and without the conditions of Arcade play, but even when I recently revisited the game at a local Arcade my feelings were confirmed.

The lack of depth is also a major fault with this game. Why did Pole Position II, which came out only a year earlier, have more tracks? The jump from one track to four instantly gave the game more depth, so why didn't the developers just do so from the beginning? Perhaps the technological break-throughs were enough for them, but I always felt like Namco figured that gamers wouldn't mind racing on only one track. The situation is analogous in a way to the rise of computer-generated special effects in films of the 1990s: once moviegoers were done with the "Ooohs" and "Aaahs," there wasn't enough of a story to keep them coming back for more.

The difficulty also gets in the way when you make it to the big race. It's tough to keep hitting those checkpoints which extend your time, and so most game sessions end mid-race. I'm of the school of thought which says that checkpoints should be tough to hit only for the worst players and that the fair to good ones should be able to hit them all and finish the race, even if they don't win it. Perhaps turnover at the machine was on Namco's collective mind when this feature was developed, but if turnover on a machine is too high it can lead to turn-off because so many gamers will be frustrated with it that they'll give up.

Overall, that's why I really can't give this game a high rating despite its place in the gaming pantheon. Yes, it deserves to be called a classic because it entered new technological territory, but I don't think you'll find many gamers who love to play it repeatedly.

Review: Enjoyment

The game lags here. It's hard to enjoy a game which is so hard.

Review: Graphics

Simply superb. The way the billboards rush past you was new and exciting at the time.

Review: Sound

Also well done, although I always thought the explosion when you crash sounded too muffled.

Review: Replay Value

I've never been into playing it repeatedly.

Review: Documentation

What you need is on the console.