Pole Position.

The classic arcade game gets converted here to the C64. Take control of an F1 car and drive fast around the Fuji Speedway. There are a couple of modes available for this game (e.g. such as practise and different difficulty settings). You also have to set a qualifying time for the actual race. Your car is equipped with two gears (low and high). Unfortunately this is quite a dated racing game. Put aside the aesthetic issues for one moment, the gameplay has some quite severe flaws to it.

Crash into a car or signpost then you explode into a fireball! Very nice and realistic, but wouldn’t it have been better to just have been slowed down? Likewise with having puddles on some parts of the track (it is there to slow you down) – nice in theory, but in practise it doesn’t really work well. The controls do feel vague at times (you tend to notice this turning into the corners). Having one track is a bit boring. You don’t really race – just get to the end of the lap before the counter runs out. You get bonus points for overtaking other cars. The graphics are blocky and bland. The arcade version is a visual treat to look at, this version isn’t. The scrolling is okay, it seems to flow quickly, if feeling a little detached. Sound is okay (e.g. the start-up sequence at the beginning of a race), but the in-game effects are woeful. A bit of a below par conversion at best, there are better racing games for the C64 – just take a look at “Pitstop 2” for example. Even if you were a fan of the arcade version, you’ll have a hard time liking this.