I remember when this was first announced in my brother's Atari Age magazine.... it was the longest wait ever for my birthday that year, but I got this game, which I had obsessed over before and after I got it. :D My brother still has it downstairs somewhere - my cartridge is one of the correct ones with the full-size label picture (the first of the three carts you showed at the beginning).
Steve Benway made a great point that back in the day you couldn't afford every Atari game, so when this and Enduro came out every reviewer said Enduro was the better game so that's what i bought. I think for that reason PP didn't get the love it deserved. Definitely a solid game.
Unlike Activision that had challenges for you to meet to earn an "emblem" or patch, Atari only did that for the green (1979) and blue (1982) logbooks up through Yars' Revenge, and nothing in the manuals after that. I suggest the following challenges, but please tell me your bests, so I can adjust it if they're too close together. Pro: 40,000 Master: 50,000 Wizard: 55,000 and win with no crashes! My winning score in 2020 was 59,460 and 219"17, which I almost tied today, but I crashed. Pole Position is currently ranked here at 50/261 which is incredibly off. There's almost no replayability after you win the race, since there isn't a harder difficulty or another course, which I think there were for the arcade game (or at least in Pole Position II). Just this past week I tried to beat Enduro (currently ranked 47th), and found I not only made the Activision Emblem challenge of 5 days again, but made it to the 6th day, so you can keep beating your score! Night Driver he currently ranks 125.
Yesterday I watched Pole Position and Pole Position II playthroughs of the arcade game. A guy won the first without crashing in about 4 minutes. (They say arcade games were designed for 3-minute plays on average, and there's no second race after you finish.) I may have made it to the end sometimes, but mostly I remember crashing at least once and not making the time extension. I didn't have the cart when it came out, but when I got it I beat it pretty quickly, much faster than Enduro. After that, there really wasn't much replayability since it's hard to increase your score or get your time down. Zzzz. As someone said Night Driver was better, and it's essentially that in the daylight since they can't have multiple cars to pass on the screen at the same time. Also someone said there's a name for "race" games that have a bunch of slow traffic for you to pass, which aren't really a race, but I can't remember. Turbo was the game I liked in the Arcade but it wasn't for Atari, as it was released for ColecoVision with the steering wheel controller.
I've decided to call games such as this Grand Prix and those mentioned above as "passing traffic" games. Indy 500 for two players is a race game, as perhaps is Dragster. I also got the cart in the 1980s for my VIC-20, but don't know if I beat it or not.
I guess they had to do a trade-off between shifting and accelerating and braking. But since they used the 2nd (i.e. right) controller for buttons in Star Gate (1984), they could have used the second controller for shifting. Maybe if they had outsourced this game like they supposedly did for Moon Patrol and Jungle Hunt, it would have had more to it?
Thanks will do! I have a bunch of stuff already scheduled, but I will try to get to it the next time I have an opening for you. Might be a while though.
Anyone remember the saturday morning cartoon based on this game? The theme song was the (bleep)!!! (gotta watch my language on the No Swear Gamer comments!!)
I didn't get a new catalog 2nd half of 1982 through 1983, so maybe they didn't want to sell any more games? More likely they were pulling catalogs out of Pac-Man games that didn't sell and putting them in every game that came out after. Also, a couple manuals in 1983 were in B&W.
there was another version of this game for the 2600. it was much more primative so you would not have like it. you are too critical of these games. they were pure gold in their time
I remember when this was first announced in my brother's Atari Age magazine.... it was the longest wait ever for my birthday that year, but I got this game, which I had obsessed over before and after I got it. :D My brother still has it downstairs somewhere - my cartridge is one of the correct ones with the full-size label picture (the first of the three carts you showed at the beginning).
Steve Benway made a great point that back in the day you couldn't afford every Atari game, so when this and Enduro came out every reviewer said Enduro was the better game so that's what i bought. I think for that reason PP didn't get the love it deserved. Definitely a solid game.
I think it was quite an accomplishment graphically for the 2600. I think I slightly prefer Enduro gameplay wise.
I like how you race fences.
Unlike Activision that had challenges for you to meet to earn an "emblem" or patch, Atari only did that for the green (1979) and blue (1982) logbooks up through Yars' Revenge, and nothing in the manuals after that. I suggest the following challenges, but please tell me your bests, so I can adjust it if they're too close together.
Pro: 40,000
Master: 50,000
Wizard: 55,000 and win with no crashes!
My winning score in 2020 was 59,460 and 219"17, which I almost tied today, but I crashed. Pole Position is currently ranked here at 50/261 which is incredibly off. There's almost no replayability after you win the race, since there isn't a harder difficulty or another course, which I think there were for the arcade game (or at least in Pole Position II). Just this past week I tried to beat Enduro (currently ranked 47th), and found I not only made the Activision Emblem challenge of 5 days again, but made it to the 6th day, so you can keep beating your score! Night Driver he currently ranks 125.
this game is more graphically appealing than all Action 52 games
Yesterday I watched Pole Position and Pole Position II playthroughs of the arcade game. A guy won the first without crashing in about 4 minutes. (They say arcade games were designed for 3-minute plays on average, and there's no second race after you finish.) I may have made it to the end sometimes, but mostly I remember crashing at least once and not making the time extension. I didn't have the cart when it came out, but when I got it I beat it pretty quickly, much faster than Enduro. After that, there really wasn't much replayability since it's hard to increase your score or get your time down. Zzzz. As someone said Night Driver was better, and it's essentially that in the daylight since they can't have multiple cars to pass on the screen at the same time.
Also someone said there's a name for "race" games that have a bunch of slow traffic for you to pass, which aren't really a race, but I can't remember. Turbo was the game I liked in the Arcade but it wasn't for Atari, as it was released for ColecoVision with the steering wheel controller.
I've decided to call games such as this Grand Prix and those mentioned above as "passing traffic" games. Indy 500 for two players is a race game, as perhaps is Dragster.
I also got the cart in the 1980s for my VIC-20, but don't know if I beat it or not.
The auto acceleration feels unnatural to me, which is why I prefer enduro
I guess they had to do a trade-off between shifting and accelerating and braking. But since they used the 2nd (i.e. right) controller for buttons in Star Gate (1984), they could have used the second controller for shifting. Maybe if they had outsourced this game like they supposedly did for Moon Patrol and Jungle Hunt, it would have had more to it?
great review dude...i cant wait for cosmic ark....
One of these days....
hopefully soon..keep up the great videos..
Thanks will do! I have a bunch of stuff already scheduled, but I will try to get to it the next time I have an opening for you. Might be a while though.
Good call! That's one of my favorites.
Nm, he already did it.
Anyone remember the saturday morning cartoon based on this game? The theme song was the (bleep)!!! (gotta watch my language on the No Swear Gamer comments!!)
deathcrustpunk I do
Graphically indeed appealing, gameplay wise I prefer Night Driver and of course Galaxian ;)
I felt it was a daylight version of Night Driver since you only pass one car at a time.
I have one of the typo labels :)
I've enjoyed what it so far, despite not finishing the race yet. But Enduro is definitely the better racer imo
Maybe they couldn't afford the missing letters on that label because of the video game crash
I didn't get a new catalog 2nd half of 1982 through 1983, so maybe they didn't want to sell any more games? More likely they were pulling catalogs out of Pac-Man games that didn't sell and putting them in every game that came out after. Also, a couple manuals in 1983 were in B&W.
I love the arcade version but this is a decent port 🙂
Like Pole Position over Joust, although Joust is interesting.
I DONALD MARKOVITZ HAD THIS GAME ON MY ATRI 2600 I LOVED IT IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE GAMES
Atari.io rules.
there was another version of this game for the 2600. it was much more primative so you would not have like it. you are too critical of these games. they were pure gold in their time
Sure. That's why people stopped paying full price for console games.