Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Pole Position

Description

Race your Indy car around the Fuji course before the timer runs out. The first run is the qualifying lap and your starting position is determined by your completion time. Avoid road hazards and other cars as you drive, earning extra time for each completed lap.

Pole Position was produced by Atari in 1982.

Atari released 139 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1972. Atari was based in United States.

Other machines made by Atari during the time period Pole Position was produced include: Neutron Star, Tempest Tubes, Tempest, Triangle, Maze Invaders, Akka Arrh, Atari Force Liberator, Fast Freddie, Black Widow, and Gravitar

Specs

Name	Pole Position
Developer	Atari (United States)
Year	1982
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	9063
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Racing
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal
Conversion Class	unique
Game Specific	Pole Position Pinout
Dipswitch Settings	Pole Position Dipswitch Settings (user contributed)
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	1
Game Play	Single
Control Panel Layout	Single Player
Controls	Steering: Special Shifter: 2-position (low, high) Pedals: 2
Sound	Unamplified Mono (requires one-channel amp)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard Environmental/Cockpit
Bezel	Pole Position Bezel Image
Control Panel	Pole Position Control Panel Image
Side Art	Pole Position Side Art Image
PCB	Pole Position PCB Image

Video Clips

Pole Position Arcade Game Review by NAMCO and Atari - John's Arcade

Pole Postion Arcade Gameplay - WORLD RECORD HIGH-SCORE ATTEMPT! - ATARI 1982

Game Introduction

Prepare to qualify! A sophisticated game for its day, with scaleable foreground objects and speech. Keep an eye out for the billboards! Also famous for burning the power input edge connectors and finger contacts on the PCB. Several custom integrated circuits.

Pole Position KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.77 (17 votes)

Fun Factor: 4.02

Overall Like	4.38
Fun (Social)	3.69
Fun (Solo)	4.13
Collector Desire	3.38

Technical Rating: 3.70

Gameplay	3.94
Graphics	3.81
Originality	3.75
Sound/Music	3.63

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Images

Trivia

This game was one of the choices presented to BallyMidway from Namco for sublicensing. BallyMidway chose IMappyI while Atari was left with IPole PositionI. IPole PositionI went on to become the biggest game of 1983 number four on httpwww.atarihistory.com30secrets.html .

Cabinet Information

The sitdown version of the game uses separate accelerator and brake pedals while the upright only uses a single pedal.

Miscellaneous

Pole Position was created by Namco Inc. who also manufactured the game for the entire world except for the United States. Aside from the words which are in Japanese found on and in the Namco version, the graphics on the side of the cabinet are basically the same as well as the billboards that are seen throughout the game. Compared to the Atari release, the only differences are the Atari Racing decal on the simulated dashboard and the little blimp that can be seen at the beginning of a race that is marked Atari with the message Prepare To Qualify. In the Namco version, the blimp has no markings on it.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Pole Position Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 668 known instances of this machine owned by Pole Position collectors who are active members. Of these, 621 of them are original dedicated machines. 2 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 41 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 24 active VAPS members with a Pole Position machines for sale. There are 9 active VAPS members with a Pole Position circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 32 active VAPS members currently looking for Pole Position.

This game ranks a 83 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 50 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Technical

The game uses two Z8002 microprocessors, one Z80 microprocessor and a Namco 6channel stereo PSG for sounds.

Legacy

Pole Position
Pole Position II
TX-1
TX-1 V8

Manuals

Pole_Position_SP-218_8th_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_SP-218_8th_Printing**
(32 pages, 6.6 MB File)

Pole_Position_TM-218_7th_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_TM-218_7th_Printing**
(92 pages, 3.9 MB File)

Pole_Position_TM-218_5th_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_TM-218_5th_Printing**
(92 pages, 2.6 MB File)

Pole_Position_TM-218_3rd_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_TM-218_3rd_Printing**
(88 pages, 3.8 MB File)

Pole_Position_TM-218_2nd_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_TM-218_2nd_Printing**
(88 pages, 2.4 MB File)

Pole_Position_TM-218_1st_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_TM-218_1st_Printing**
(88 pages, 3.8 MB File)

Pole_Position_Tech_Update_Jan-31-1983_Complete - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_Tech_Update_Jan-31-1983_Complete**
(4 pages, 61 kB File)

Pole_Position_Tech_Update_Jan-06-1983 - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_Tech_Update_Jan-06-1983**
(2 pages, 84 kB File)

Pole_Position_ST-218-01_3rd_Printing_Backdoor_Sheet - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_ST-218-01_3rd_Printing_Backdoor_Sheet**
(1 page, 311 kB File)

Pole_Position_SP-218_5th_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_SP-218_5th_Printing**
(32 pages, 4.9 MB File)

Pole_Position_SP-218_4th_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_SP-218_4th_Printing**
(32 pages, 2.1 MB File)

Pole_Position_SP-218_3rd_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_SP-218_3rd_Printing**
(32 pages, 1.9 MB File)

Pole_Position_SP-218_2nd_Printing_Sheet_2ab - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_SP-218_2nd_Printing_Sheet_2ab**
(2 pages, 183 kB File)

Pole_Position_SP-218_1st_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_SP-218_1st_Printing**
(32 pages, 2 MB File)

Pole_Position_CO-218-09_1st_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_CO-218-09_1st_Printing**
(16 pages, 651 kB File)

Pole_Position_CO-218-04_1st_Printing - Pole Position Manual — **Pole_Position_CO-218-04_1st_Printing**
(2 pages, 775 kB File)

Operation, Maintenance, and Service Manual - Pole Position Manual — **Operation, Maintenance, and Service Manual**
(131 pages, 12.3 MB File)

Technical Update - Pole Position Manual — **Technical Update**
(2 pages, 129 kB File)

Pole Position Supplement Compact Cabinet - Pole Position Manual — **Pole Position Supplement Compact Cabinet**
(14 pages, 3.30 MB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

Arcade Treasures Kurtz (ISBN 088740619X) Page: 111; Color photo
The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 129; Color photo Price guide: No
Arcade Fever Sellers (ISBN 0762409371) Page: 104; Color photo
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 129; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): cockpit (688f6f067393bae3533276a8c0b1c862)
3D Model (External): Upright (Irish Version) (5caff19a-bf6e-4edf-8ef1-2e2f3e12d8d1)
3D Model (External): Upright (17697f85466d9f96533276a8c0b1c862)

Arcade Map - Play This Game

Our members have reported that Pole Position is playable at 3 locations:

Name	Location	State	Country	Details	Check-ins
Bit Bar	278 Derby St, Salem	Massachusetts	United States	Unknown	1
Level One Bar + Arcade	130 Hutchinson Ave, Columbus	Ohio	United States	Unknown	0
Lost Levels - Claremont	530 W First St, Claremont	California	United States	Arcade	0

eBay Listings

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