Pole Position

Music Home >> Music Genres >> Undetermined Music



< < < < < > > > > > More Info on Pole Position Similar Undetermined Music Search Artistopia

Biography

Pole Position is an Arcade game|arcade racing video game released in 1982. It was designed by Namco and manufactured worldwide by Namco, except in the United States, where it was manufactured by Atari, Inc. It was the most popular coin-op arcade game of 1983. Pole Position was released in two configurations: an upright cabinet, and an environmental/cockpit cabinet. Both versions feature a steering wheel and a gear shifter for low and high gears. The environmental/cockpit cabinet featured both an accelerator and brake pedal, while the upright cabinet had only an accelerator pedal. - Pole Position - video game by Atari

By 1983, it had become the List of highest-grossing arcade games|highest-grossing arcade game that year in North America, where it had sold over 21,000 machines for $61 million, equivalent to $140 million in 2012. It was the most successful racing game of the Golden age of arcade video games|classic era , spawning ports, sequels, and a Pole Position (TV series)|saturday morning cartoon . The game established the conventions of the racing game genre and its success inspired numerous video game clone|imitators . Pole Position is thus regarded as one of the most influential video games of all time and "arguably the most important racing game ever made."

Gameplay

In this game, the player character|player controls a Formula One race car . The player completes a time trial lap within a certain amount of time to qualify for an F1 race at the Fuji Speedway|Fuji Racetrack . After qualifying, the player races against other cars in a championship race..

Pole Position was the first racing video game to feature a track based on a real racing circuit. It was also the first game to feature a qualifying lap, requiring the player to complete a time trial before they can compete in Formula One|Grand Prix races. Once the player has qualified, they must complete the race in the time allowed, avoiding collisions with CPU-controlled opponents and objects along the sides of the track. The game's publisher Atari publicized the game for its "unbelievable driving realism" in providing a Formula 1 experience behind a racing wheel .The game's graphics featured full-colour landscapes with Sprite (computer graphics)#Move to 3D|scaling sprites , including race cars and other signs, and a perspective view of the track, with its vanishing point swaying side to side as the player approaches corners, accurately simulating forward movement into the distance.Bernard Perron & Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), Video game theory reader two , p. 157, Taylor & Francis , ISBN 0-415-96282-X

Development

For release in the United States, Namco approached Midway Games|Bally Midway with a choice of two games in 1982. Bally Midway chose Mappy while Atari was left to publish Pole Position , which turned out to be the most popular game of 1983.

Advertising

The game was an early example of product placement within a video game, with billboards around the track advertising actual companies. However, some billboards were specific to the two versions such as Pepsi and Canon (company)|Canon in the Japanese version, or 7-Eleven , Dentyne , or Centipede (video game)|Centipede in the Atari version, which replaced such billboards as that of Marlboro (cigarette)|Marlboro and Martini & Rossi , who although were prominent motorsport sponsors at the time, would be found inappropriate in the American market for a game aimed towards children. Other billboards did appear in both versions.

Reception and legacy

Ports

Pole Position was Porting|ported to a number of home computer s and Video game console|consoles by Atarisoft in the early 1980s. In the mid-1990s Pole Position made a comeback on Windows PCs when it was included as part of Microsoft Return of Arcade . It later appeared on the Sony PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast systems 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 , Nintendo GameCube|GameCube , Game Boy Advance , and Xbox . Fuji Speedway was renamed Namco Speedway in the Museum releases and a Plug and Play version except Namco Museum Virtual Arcade which renamed Blue Speedway.

A Pole Position (Puffer Version) was created—but not published— that used the exergaming#History|Puffer exercise bike controller .

A version of Pole Position was released for iPod on January 21, 2008. On September 14, 2008, a version of Pole Position was released for IOS (Apple)|iOS devices called Pole Position: Remix . The game features upgraded graphics and several different control methods, but remains similar in content to the original. The version of Pole Position also has tracks from Pole Position II and new track called Misaki Point.

Sequels

Pole Position II was released in 1983, and adding three additional courses along with the original Fuji track. 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 (company)|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 . Final Lap itself spawned a Racing video game#Racing role playing games|racing-RPG spin-off for the TurboGrafx-16 video game console called Final Lap Twin in 1989.

There is also Pole Position Remix for iPod and iPhone which has updated graphics, music, and all of the courses for Pole Position II plus a new course.

Other media

The title spawned a Pole Position (TV series)|cartoon of the same name , despite there being very little in common between the two.

Pole Position is played by the characters Daryl and Turtle in the motion picture " D.A.R.Y.L. and is one of the first times in the film where Daryl—a seemingly normal boy who is actually an android—displays some of his super-human abilities by earning an amazingly high score in the game.

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Pole Position


1. Missing Man Formation 2. Scotland 3. Jim Clark 4. Sens Unik 5. The Folk Implosion 6. Kate Nash

Undetermined Music Artists