Atari Vintage Players.'s video: Pole position Atari 5200 atari grand prix

Pole Position is a racing video game released in 1982 by Namco. In this game, the player has to complete a lap in a certain amount of time in order to qualify for an F1 race at the Fuji Racetrack. After qualifying, the player has to face other cars in a championship race. For release in the United States, Namco approached Bally Midway with a choice of two games in 1982. Bally Midway chose Mappy while Atari was forced to go with Pole Position — which turned out to be the most popular game of 1983. Pole Position was the leading game in arcades worldwide due to its relatively realistic graphics for the time. It wasn't the first game to use the "rear-view racer format" (examples include Night Driver by Atari and Turbo (released a year earlier) by Sega), but it did pioneer the format which is used in many games today, and many imitators of the format appeared after its release, most notably Sega's Out Run in 1986.