Pole Position

The arcade is within your Atari STe

Pole Position is a classic arcade racer from a time when the computing world was youthful and fresh. I played it on the Atari 2600 at a friend's house but the ZX Spectrum version I mostly played. The Atari ST has a raft of great driving games but sadly, never received an official port of this old favourite. Well, until now.

Official might be the wrong term to use but don't get your knickers in a twist. A brand new version has been developed by Jonathan Thomas who reverse-engineered it from the arcade machine itself. He has also implemented many cool features and uses real-time sprite scaling, DMA sounds, and more.

The requirements are 1MB RAM, a joystick, and an appreciation of what is nothing less than a brilliant racer. It's quite surreal to have such an iconic arcade racer on the ST. Upon first booting up I got a giddy feeling at having a phantom arcade machine in the house. Hey, no need to have any 10-pence coins!

I should break for the first screenshot and I love it for obvious reasons...

I'm feeling like a kid in a Blackpool arcade, spending all my pocket money!!

Yes, put your money away!

It's not an overstatement to say this is an authentic conversion as it even features the same (ripped) visuals and sonix I fondly remember. Now, if you're looking at the screenshots and wondering why the gaming display is narrow, then blame Namco because it's all down to the arcade's vertical monitor. The Atari STe was meant for a different display and doesn't have the same spec. So it merely attempts to replicate the slim ratio.

Playing is tough and initially, I was all over the road!! Slipping and sliding into other cars and skidding off into roadside objects. In fact, it felt like I was purposely trying to hit everything - and doing a great job of it!! Ideally, I need a wheel but stick with it and put aside half an hour to master the controls. The corners are a killer!

I don't think we need a boring screenshot? So how about an animation instead? Here ya go...

The actual framerate is twice as good as you can see here in my capture.

The gory details

The latest release candidate has major improvements and delivers near arcade-busting gameplay:

1) 60fps framerate to bring the speed and difficulty correctly in line with the feel of the arcade machine.
2) You can thank the Blitter Chip for whizzing the graphics so fast & furiously. If only more used this chip!
3) Sprite scaling utilisied for ultra-smooth results. Check out that road zooming up close, so impressive.
4) Even good 'ol Mount Fuji is displayed in all its glory! Well, why not, eh?
5) The sky gradient is back along with numerous glitches fixed and it looks very nice using a good flow pattern.
6) Sound effects are taken from the arcade game using the DMA coprocessor. Doesn't get any better than that - gorgeous!
7) Code compiled with GCC 7.1 for a significant performance increase. Sounds good to me but what would I know about programming!
8) Many new optimisations, mainly around text rendering for authenticity.

If only those tyres would look like they're rotating (come on, Jon) :-)

The CryptO'pinion?

It's impressive to think that here we are today in 2017 with a version of Pole Position that's been reverse-engineered from the arcade machine. Everything looks, sounds, and feels like we remember with only a couple of missing features: the animated tyres are nothing more than a bit of a colour wobble (needs fixing)

Pole Position is very addictive, a cracking arcade port making use of the Atari STe hardware: I love its framerate, audio, and authenticity. Possibly one of the toughest racers but it certainly keeps dragging you back for more - kicking and screaming!! Pole Position is nothing less than a spectacular arcade racer.

What are you waiting for? Come on and play this outstanding game!! (Download from AtariMania).