PixlBit

Uh oh, you're talking about a Namco game.  You know what that means.  I'll be talking your ear off about it now.

Do you remember the sit down cabinets for Pole Position?  When I was little, my dad would play those and I'd sit in his lap (I guess I was really little!).  I'm not a huge fan of Pole Position but I do have good memeries playing it with my dad at the arcades.

Did you know there was a Pole Position cartoon?  Yeah I think they just took a generic racing cartoon and slapped the name on it, but it exists and it's as dumb as you'd expect it to be.

Do you know what the sequel to Pole Position is?  Well, yeah, it's Pole Position 2.  But did you know what the sequel to that is?  The game Final Lap is actually Pole Position 3.

Well I guess that's all I have to say about Pole Position.  I could say more but instead I'll just leave you this video of the music from the Pole Position 2 room in Namco Museum vol. 3.  I just think the music is cool.

That is some cool racing music. 

I don't remember sit-in Pole Positions, but I'll bet I saw one somewhere. I remember the regular cabinets had steering wheels. 

It was one of those games that looked cool, but when you actually play it, you're disappointed. 

I remember playing Night Driver but then nothing much (although, I likely tried Pole Position at least once) until Road Rash. I was never really interested in straight racing games. If you added a destruction derby element though, I was all over it. 

I played an insane amount of Road Rash 2 on Sega Genesis with my friend when I was a kid. Great game. 

I started with the PSone version, I think it was the fourth game or something. Then I got a hold of the Genesis games. I guess I was slightly underwelmed after playing so much of Road Rash 3D. That game is one of my favorites and is still great. 

I mostly remember Pole Position II because the arcade version was the first game I recall that had in-game advertising. The billboards alongside the tracks advertised such products as Dentyne gum, Marlboro cigarettes, Champion spark plugs, Pepsi, and 7-Eleven stores. In the US, they also advertised Atari's games, since Atari was PP's US publisher.

It was probably one of the most state of the art video games in its day, yet it paradoxically aged among the worst of Namco's old arcade games.

Jeez. Cigarette ads in video games. I don't remember that. Pretty fucked up. 

I think that may have only been for the Japanese market. The US Atari version had Tang billboards as well.

PREPARE TO QUALIFY....

That game right there was my go to game in arcades. I can still hear all the noises and sounds of the arcade when playing that game. We had one in the local grocery store in our town and my friend and I would go buy candy or whatever we could get for a buck we would save a quarter and then each take turns playing the game. Good times. 

yeah this was a staple in arcades. I was never good at it. I dug the steering wheel though.