
- 74/100
- Players10 ratings

1983 · Namco · Arcade · Racing
Pole Position II
Just like the first game, but with improved graphics and 4 different tracks to choose.
- Released
- 1983
- Platforms
- ArcadeAtari 7800Commodore 64Commodore C64/128/MAXMS-DOSNintendo SwitchSuper Cassette Vision
- Genres
- ArcadeRacing
- Developers
- Namco
- Publishers
- Namco
- Modes
- Single-player
- Perspective
- Third person
- Themes
- ActionNon-fiction
- Country
- Japan
- Languages
- English
About
Pole Position II is a 1983 racing video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It is the sequel to the 1982 game Pole Position. Atari, Inc. released the game in North America.
Atari also released a port as the pack-in game for its Atari 7800 ProSystem in 1986. Pole Position arcade machines can be converted to Pole Position II by swapping several chips.
Keywords
- 2.5d
- high score
- race cars
- explosion
- realism
- sports cars
Media
The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Pole Position II as the second most successful upright/cockpit arcade cabinet of November 1983, before topping the charts in December 1983. It was later Japan's third highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade game of 1986 (below Sega's Hang-On and Space Harrier), and the fifth highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade game of 1987.
In the United States, Pole Position II topped the RePlay arcade chart for software conversion kits in December 1983, with the original Pole Position topping the upright cabinet chart the same month. It topped the RePlay software conversion kit charts for six months into 1984, through January, February, March and April up until May. It also topped the Play Meter conversion kit charts for street locations during July–August 1984. Pole Position II became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1984 in the United States, just above the original Pole Position, which was previously the highest-grossing arcade game of 1983. Pole Position II was later one of the top five highest-grossing arcade games of 1985, and the sixth highest-grossing arcade game of 1986.
Legacy
Pole Position II has been re-released as part of various Namco Museum compilations, but the two active permanent circuits were removed (because of licensing issues with both Toyota, which owns Fuji Speedway, and Honda, which owns Suzuka Circuit, but no licensing issues with the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach) and similar looking circuits, Namco Circuit and Wonder Circuit (after Namco's Wonder series of Japanese theme parks) were added respectively. In Namco Museum Virtual Arcade, they were renamed Blue and Orange respectively, even though neither track features the colors, although the layouts were similar.
In 2006, Namco Networks released Pole Position II for mobile phones.
Releases by platformdates and regions as published
Editions and related releases
- Included in
- Namco Museum Vol. 3Namco Museum 50th AnniversaryNamco MuseumNamco Museum Virtual Arcade
- Ported as
- Arcade Archives: Pole Position IIPole Position II
- Built on it
- Pole Position II
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Collections7 collections
Platform libraries
- Atari 7800 gamesCommercially released games (1986-1991)
- Nintendo Switch games (An–Az)List
Publishers
- Atari, Inc. games (1972–1984)Games
- Namco gamesArcade-based games › Namco proprietary arcade systems
Genres
- Racing gamesList › 1970s and 1980s
- Formula One gamesList
Reception and records
- Arcade gameHighest-grossing
Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.
