Pole Position is a 1982 racing video game created and released by Namco for arcade machines. It was licensed to Atari, Inc. for production and sale in the United States. Pole Position is regarded as one of the most significant games from the golden age of arcade video games. It was an improvement on Namco's earlier racing games, such as F-1 (1976), which was designed by Sho Osugi, who also worked on Pole Position.
The game became very popular and made a lot of money in arcades. After being the top-selling arcade game in Japan in 1982, it became the most popular coin-operated arcade video game worldwide in 1983. In North America, it was the highest-selling arcade game in both 1983 and 1984 and remained among the top five highest-selling games in 1985.
Pole Position led to versions for other platforms, a follow-up game, and a Saturday morning cartoon, although the cartoon is not similar to the game. The game set the standard for racing games, and its success encouraged many other games to copy its ideas. Pole Position is considered one of the most important video games ever made and is viewed as the most influential racing game in history. A follow-up game, Pole Position II, was released in 1983 and included four tracks instead of one.
Gameplay
The player plays the role of a Formula One race car driver competing in a race at the Fuji Speedway. The first goal is to complete a one-lap time trial within a set time limit to qualify for the race. If the player succeeds, they earn bonus points and determine their starting position among seven computer-controlled cars, based on their lap time. The race includes a set number of laps, with a specific amount of time given at the start and additional time added after each lap.
During the time trial and the race, the player may momentarily lose control of the car by driving through puddles, colliding with other cars, or taking turns too quickly. Driving off the track into the grass will slow the car. Billboards placed near the track will damage the car if hit, causing a short delay while a new car is used.
The game ends if the player runs out of time during the qualifying lap or the race, or if they complete the final lap. The player earns bonus points for passing other cars and receives extra points for any remaining time on the clock.
Pole Position was the first racing video game to include a track based on a real racing circuit. It was also the first game to require players to complete a time trial to qualify for Grand Prix races. After qualifying, players must finish the race within the allowed time, avoiding collisions with computer-controlled cars and billboards along the track. Atari, the game’s North American distributor, promoted it for its "unbelievable driving realism" in simulating a Formula 1 experience with a racing wheel. The game’s graphics included full-color landscapes with moving images of cars and signs, and a pseudo-3D, third-person, rear view of the track. The vanishing point in the view shifted side to side as the player approached corners, creating the illusion of forward movement. Unlike earlier 3D driving games that focused on avoiding crashes, Pole Position rewarded players for passing rival cars and finishing near the front.
Development
Pole Position was created by Shinichiro Okamoto and Kazunori Sawano, who also designed Galaxian. Sho Osugi, a Namco engineer who worked on mechanical driving games, helped with the development. Namco had experience making coin-operated driving games in the 1970s, including F-1 (1976), which Osugi designed. Sawano showed Okamoto rough sketches of his idea, and Okamoto liked it enough to begin making a video racing game. Okamoto wanted the game to simulate real driving, using a 3D perspective and allowing players to use real-world driving techniques. He also included the Fuji Speedway in the game so new players could recognize it. Nobuyuki Ohnogi and Yuriko Keino composed the music together.
The game took three years to develop. Okamoto said the hardest part was creating the hardware needed to run the game, as it was too advanced for older systems. The team used two 16-bit processors, a new idea for arcade games at the time. For a while, it was the only video game to use a Z8000 CPU. Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac-Man, chose the name "Pole Position" because it sounded appealing and filed a trademark for it. The controls were also a challenge, as Okamoto wanted them to feel realistic. Osugi remembered that Namco president Masaya Nakamura found them difficult to use, struggling to keep the car moving straight. The game is an early example of product placement, with billboards showing real companies like Pepsi, Marlboro, and Canon. The team had many arguments about how fast the gear shift should be, but they eventually decided it would only have two options: high or low speed.
Release
Pole Position was officially released in Japan on September 16, 1982. Atari, Inc. was allowed to release the game in North America. It first appeared at Chicago's 1982 Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) show, which took place from November 18 to 20. The game was later released widely in North America on November 30, 1982. Meanwhile, Namco released the game in Europe toward the end of 1982. After its release, Osugi said that Namco stopped making its older electro-mechanical driving games because the company believed the future of arcade racing games was in video games.
Pole Position was released in two versions: a standard upright cabinet and a special cockpit cabinet. Both versions included a steering wheel and a gear shifter for low and high gears. However, the special cockpit cabinet had both an accelerator and a brake pedal, while the standard upright cabinet only had an accelerator pedal. The special cockpit cabinet was chosen because similar machines were popular at the time.
In 1983, Atari asked for a TV commercial to be made for the Atari 2600 and 5200 versions of the game. This commercial was shown only on MTV. It was part of a group of ads for Atari's games that were made especially for MTV at that time.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine magazine reported that Pole Position was the most profitable arcade game in 1982. Later, it was listed as the second most profitable upright arcade unit in May 1983 and again became the top-grossing game in October 1983. Internationally, Pole Position was the most popular arcade game in 1983. In Europe, it was among the top-grossing arcade games in 1983.
In the United States, Pole Position sold more than 21,000 arcade cabinets by 1983, earning about $61 million (equivalent to $204 million today). Weekly coin drop earnings averaged $9.5 million (about $32 million today), or $450 per machine. On the US RePlay arcade charts, Pole Position led the upright cabinet rankings for seven months in 1983, from March through August and again in December. It also topped the US Play Meter arcade charts for six months, from March through August 1983, and led the street locations chart in November 1983. By the end of 1983, it was the highest-grossing arcade game in North America, according to RePlay and the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA). It remained the top-grossing arcade game in the United States in 1984. Several years after its release, it was still among the top five highest-grossing arcade video games in 1985.
The console version of Pole Position reached the top of UK sales charts in late 1983. Between 1986 and 1990, the Atari 2600 version sold 578,281 units for $3,642,246. The Atari 5200 version sold 12,492 units for $62,601, and the Atari 8-bit computer version sold 9,204 units for $106,014. Total sales for these versions were 599,977 units and $3,810,861 (equivalent to $11.2 million in 2025).
When Pole Position debuted in North America, Video Games magazine reviewed it and included it in the show’s top ten games. It was compared positively to Sega’s Turbo (1981), with reviewers calling it "Turbo Deluxe" in a "speedway, not a cross-country race." They described it as "the ultimate test of driving skill" for racing players. In 1983, Electronic Games reviewed the arcade game, noting it "keeps the action on track from start to finish" with "challenging play" and "reasonably faithful to real life" Formula One races. They praised the sound effects and "solid, realistic graphics," stating it had "very rich color images" and "dimensional depth to the graphics." It won the 1983 Arcade Award for Coin-Op Game of the Year for its racing gameplay, "beautiful graphics," and "breathtaking" scenery, as well as its "two-heat format" for races.
Computer and Video Games reviewed the arcade game in 1983, calling it "the most exhilarating driving simulation game on the market." They compared it favorably to Turbo, stating that while Turbo had "better landscapes," it "can't match the speed, thrills, and skill" of Pole Position. They described its graphics as "sophisticated and believable," noting how cars "turning corners are shown in every graphic detail of the maneuver." They praised the gameplay, saying that "trying to hold a screaming curve or overtake" offers "thrills to compare with the real racetrack." InfoWorld and Computer Games both named Pole Position the all-time best racing/driving game in 1983 and early 1985, respectively.
Reviewing the Atari 8-bit version, InfoWorld called it "by far the best road-race game ever thrown on a video screen" with "bright and brilliant" graphics. They repeated this praise in their Essential Guide to Atari Computers but said the Commodore 64 version "looks like a rush job" and was "far from arcade-game quality." Computer Games magazine criticized the Commodore conversions for missing features from the arcade original, giving the C64 version a mixed review and the VIC-20 version a negative review. Computer and Video Games reviewed the Atari 2600 version, calling it "the best driving game available" on the Atari VCS. Hi-Res magazine in 1984 noted that the Atari 5200 version had "limited playability" and "strongest graphics," but preferred Adventure International’s Rally Speedway over Pole Position and Epyx’s Pitstop.
In 2007, Eurogamer gave Pole Position a mixed review, calling it "a simulation down to the core" but noting that its difficulty might deter racing fans. Entertainment Weekly listed Pole Position as one of the top ten games for the Atari 2600 in 2013.
Legacy
Pole Position is considered one of the most important video games ever made and was the most successful racing game during the golden age of arcade games. Bill Loguce and Matt Barton included it in their list of the 25 most influential games of all time, describing it as "arguably the most important racing game ever made." In 1984, Electronic Games noted that Pole Position was the first first-person racing game in amusement parlors to give more points for passing other cars and finishing near the front, rather than just for staying on the road. This made driving feel like a skill. In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the game 32nd on their "Top 100 Video Games" list. In 2015, IGN placed Pole Position at the top of their list of The Top 10 Most Influential Racing Games Ever. They mentioned that the game had a more detailed third-person "chase cam view" than Turbo, was the first racing game based on a real-world track (Fuji Speedway in Japan), introduced checkpoints, and required a qualifying lap. Its success, as the highest-grossing arcade game in North America in 1983, helped establish the racing genre for many years and inspired many other racing games.
Pole Position led to versions for other platforms, follow-up games, and a Saturday morning cartoon. The game also inspired similar games, such as Top Racer from Commodore International, which caused a lawsuit between Namco and Commodore Japan, resulting in the removal of Top Racer copies. In 1983, Parker Brothers released a board game based on Pole Position.