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Pole Position
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Name:
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Pole Position
|
|
| Company: |
Atari |
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Model #:
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CX-5217 |
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Programmers:
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Mike Horowitz & Betty
Ryan Tylko (GCC)
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| Year: |
1983 |
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Released?
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Yes
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Notes:
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Trak-ball
compatible |
While it may not look like much by today's standards,
Pole Position was the one of the pioneers of the modern racing
game. Featuring amazing scaling effects and fast action,
Pole Position was a technological marvel featuring realistic
(for the time) sounds and graphics. In fact Pole Position
was so advanced that the hardware used in the arcade cabinet had
a bad tendency to develop faults making keeping a machine in
working order a challenge. Pole Position was one of the choices
presented to Bally/Midway from Namco for sub-licensing.
Bally/Midway chose Mappy while Atari was left with Pole
Position which then went on to become the biggest game of
1983. Even today Pole Position remains one of the most
popular racing games of all time
Even though it was made in 1982, Pole Position
really isn't all that different from modern day racing games. Sure
it may be single player and the graphics may fairly primitive in
comparison, but the basic concept of weaving your race car
in-between other cars still hasn't changed. Pressing the top
button accelerates while pressing the lower button applies the
brakes (useful for tight turns). Pressing up on the joystick
will put your car into 'HI' gear while pushing down will put it in
'LO'. You'll need to start in low gear until you get up to
about 70 MPH and then shift into high gear to keep
accelerating. Although the gear shift seems somewhat
pointless in the home version, the arcade game featured no brakes
so downshifting into LO was a quick way to reduce your speed
(don't try this on a real car kids) . Pole Position was one of the
first games to feature advertisements for other games inside the
game itself. If you look closely in the arcade version
you'll see advertisements for Centipede, Dig Dug, and other
Namco/Atari games on the road signs on the sides of the road.
Unfortunately these ads couldn't be carried over into the
home version due to system limitations.
Although the Atari 5200 was fairly advanced for the time,
it had no chance of reproducing the scaling found in the arcade
game. However the programmers at GCC managed to make a very
good attempt at bringing the arcade game home. Almost
everything found in the arcade game is in this version and the
action is as fast and furious. About the only thing missing
other than the advertisements is the voice sample at the beginning
of the game which says "Prepare to Qualify". And while Pole
Position is technically Trak-ball compatible, it isn't recommended
unless you're a masochist.
Pole Position is just another example of why the
5200 was considered the true "Home Arcade System", and proof that
non-centering analog sticks worked well for certain types of
games. This version also uses the 5200's dual buttons to
give the player a separate brake and acceleration button (the
Atari 8-Bit computer port auto accelerates) which allows for
better speed control. The programmers at GCC really knew
their stuff and were able to bring the fun of the arcades home.
| Version |
Cart Text |
Description |
| 1/5/83 |
Pole Position 005-01 |
Very early movement demo |
| 5/14/83 |
Pole Position 133 |
Final Version |
Return
to 5200 Software
|
