Pole Position/Versions

Pole Position | Table of Contents | Gameplay | Walkthrough

Table of Contents

Pole Position logo

Atari 2600[edit]

Developed by Atari in 1983. Control is rather unconventional in that the player's car accelerates automatically, and the fire button controls the brakes. Gears are selected by moving the joystick up and down. A decent conversion in spite of technical limitations.

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American box
European box

Atari 5200 & 400/800/XL/XE[edit]

Developed by Atari in 1983. The 5200 version and the home computer version are identical. There are, however, some slight color differences between the two versions, but that may only apply to the PAL version of the home computer program.

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5200 box
800 box

Commodore 64[edit]

Developed by Atarisoft in 1983. Later on, the license was taken over by Datasoft, who gave U.S. Gold the rights to release the game in Europe in 1984.

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Atarisoft box
Datasoft box

Commodore VIC-20[edit]

Developed by Atarisoft in 1983

IBM PC[edit]

Believed to have been developed by Atarisoft, but it was ultimately released by Thunder Mountain in 1986 using the red/yellow/green color scheme of CGA graphics.

Intellivision[edit]

Prototyped by Atarisoft but never completed. Eventually finished and published by INTV in 1987.

TI-99/4A[edit]

Developed by Atarisoft in 1984

Vectrex[edit]

Developed by GCE in 1983. An unusual choice of game considering the Vectrex's vector graphics oriented display, but it works surprisingly well.

In this version, switch to second gear just before reaching 135 mph. The rest of the track can be completed at full speed, with the race car being easy to control even during turns, grazing the edge of the track, or hitting water. The only need to slow down if the user thinks it's too difficult to navigate past a few other cars.