doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (02/09/85)
Game review:
Pole Position (Atarisoft) C-64 cartridge list:$45 discount:$30
One player -- one joystick required
Overall grade: A-
Surprisingly good translation of the arcade game. For those not
familiar with it: you are driving a Formula I race car around a
"road course" race track in Japan. First you have to qualify --
this requires that you turn your qualification lap in under 73
seconds; and your lap time determines your position in the 8-car
starting grid. If you qualify, you then race in the 4-lap main
event. In the main event, there is also a time limit, requiring
an average lap time under 64 seconds.
The obstacles are the same as in the arcade game: crashing into
other cars or running off the track into a sign causes a nifty
explosion followed by having to accelerate from 0 again. Driving
off course but missing the signs will slow you down dramatically.
Driving through water puddles on the track slows you a bit.
I was surprised at how well the simple "joyswitch" functions as
a steering wheel. Sure, a steering wheel would be better, but
I found the joystick to be very acceptable. The joystick also
controls accelerator & brake (forward & backward) and the 2-speed
transmission (fire button switches Low/High).
The graphics are excellent, even on a TV set. Mt. Fuji is there, and
clouds, signposts (but the signs aren't detailed like in the arcade
game), the whole bit. The sound effects are good, too, with Doppler
shift on the engine sound as you pass cars. This cartridge really
shows off what the C-64 can do.
There are two "difficulty" options -- number of other cars in the race
(3 choices) and number of laps in the main event.
The documentation is simple, but that's all that's needed. They did
forget (as too often happens) to mention which joystick port to use.
Being a cartridge, no problems occurred with disk alignment :-)
My only real disagreement with Pole Position is that you seldom
need to decelerate. You can often run "flag-to-flag" at full bore.
For that reason, and for the inescapable "lack of originality" that
an arcade translation has, I downgraded Pole Position to an A-.
That's still a pretty dang good grade.
--
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug