In Pole Position, the player had to complete a lap in a certain amount of time, in order to qualify for a Formula One race at the Fuji Racetrack. After qualifying, then the player had to face other cars in a championship race.
Pole Position was the leading game in arcades worldwide due to its breathtakingly realistic graphics at the time. It pioneered the popular "rear-view racer format" found in many games today, and many imitators of the format appeared after its release, most notably Sega's Out Run in 1986, which took driving games to the next level of realism.
For release in the United States, Namco approached Bally/Midway with a choice of two games in 1982. Bally/Midway chose Mappy while Atari was forced to go with Pole Position. It was the most popular game of 1983.
Pole Position II was released in 1983, and added to the original Fuji track with three additional courses: Seaside, Test and Suzuka.
While many considered the three-screened racer TX-1, released in 1984 by Atari and designed by Tatsumi to be a sequel to Pole Position, the true sequel arrived in 1987 with the release of "Final Lap," which can be considered as Pole Position 3.
Recently, Pole Position made a comeback on the Playstation system, alongside Pac-Man and other Namco games, in a cd named Namco Museum.