The development and release of Pole Position is probably worthy of an in depth deep dive for another time, so look out for that in a future post. In the meantime, I’ve come across some more extended footage of the game being constructed on Atari’s assembly lines that I wanted to share. If memory serves me correct, we have seen some of this before, but only a relatively short clip. What I have now is much more extensive and shows a lot more of the build process of these cabinets.

Pole Position was a significant arcade release, and arguably is one of the most influential games of its time. Developed originally by Namco of Japan, it sought to digitise its coin-operated electro-mechanical driving games released in the 1970s. The game was inspired by Namco’s F-1, released in 1976. You can check out some footage of that game here.

Pole Position took three years to develop, mostly due to the limited hardware available to its creators at the time. The game ended up using two 16-bit processors to run, a setup unheard of at the time. It was the first racing game to Interesting titbit – the name Pole Position was chosen by Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani.

Shinichiro Okamoto, who worked on the game’s development had this to say:

There were three things I wanted to realize with Pole Position: first, I wanted a complete simulation that would allow a player to execute real driving techniques; second, I wanted the screen to be a 3D type view; and third, I wanted the track to be based on the actual Fuji Speedway, and for that to be recognizable to players when they played. The difficult part was configuring and engineering the hardware necessary to realize such an ambitious concept. We used dual 16-bit processors, something unheard of for video games at the time. Getting the controls to feel realistic, and at the same time match up with the gameplay, was also a very difficult challenge, but I feel we worked it into something enjoyable.

The game was released to much fanfare in Japan in September 1982, and was licenced to Atari for a North American release in November of the same year. After seeing its success, Namco took a strategic decision to discontinue all of its electro-mechanical driving games. Clearly they saw the future of arcade gaming was going to be video.

And so with the licence secured, Atari fired up the production lines and got to work. By 1983, it had built and sold 21,000 cabinets, generating $61M (over $200M in today’s money adjusted for inflation) – an astonishing number. The success of the game was reflected by the fact that it went on to become the highest grossing arcade game of that same year. This too, despite being the first game to break the $3,000 cost barrier to operators. The public loved the game.

In the footage you’re about to see below, you will witness the production process for the upright cabinet starting with component builds of the steering wheels and control panels, then some great segments of the cabinets being assembled. Listen closely you can hear the game being tested in the background.

At the 06:40 mark, witness an employee dialling in a monitor in the cockpit version of the game, using a broken mirror. Pretty hi-tech!

At 08:57 we see the final product being boxed up and loaded onto trucks ready to ship out.

An then finally some in depth footage of the cockpit version being built. The scene right at the end, is workers wiping down newly constructed sides, ready for the application of the artwork.

The video quality is excellent considering is was shot over 40 years ago.

Enjoy!

Thanks as always for checking in this week. Feel free to share this article on your socials!

See you next time.

Tony