By JASON COCKROFT

    Hello guys, how have things been going? I'll tell you things have been looking good for this dude in the last month. You see I used to have this problem: Two months ago I used to leave at 8:49 AM for the ROM office. My 67 Pontiac Strato-chief has had its oil light on for the last 2 years and its rear emergency brake has been locked on for the last 7 months. It gets 6 miles to the gallon and I've had 4 accidents in the last 3 months. Sounds bad eh?
    Well my real problem, as usual, is The Raving Reviewer. He drives a black 1984 Maseratti with one-way windows, with a built in Atari 1450 XL. He goes from 0 to 50 in 1.0042 seconds and the cops seem to love him. But worst of all, every (£?@#?!*@) morning he steals MY personal parking space in front of the ROM office. THAT MAKES ME MAD. Yet since JSD is such a cunning guy, I deviously decided to set out for work 15 minutes earlier each morning. Yet to my fustration, I would slam into the rear ends of the slow moving cars or slide off the road and crash into billboards. But my fate has now changed. The reason: Pole Postion.
    For you junior software dudes out there, Pole Position is not a game for youngsters. Its a game of precision and patience. A single game of Pole Position, in the eyes of this reviewer, will improve your driving skills by 100%. But how could such a simple piece of software change the driving skills of such a hopeless case you ask? Let me explain.
    To begin with,"Pole Position" has super graphics. Like the arcade version of Pole Position, the game is one of the best representation of 3-D graphics ever made. In the foreground we are treated to a fantastic display of the road, swerving in a most realistic manner. In the background, mountains and clouds line the horizon, that move with the corresponding road direction. On the road, the oncoming cars are displayed in good detail. Along the side of the road there are many billboards which are another great addition to this game.
    The format of the game as you may know, makes Pole Position a clear step ahead of all other car racing games. For you nerds that don't head off to an arcade ever so often, it is broken down into two sections: Time trials and the race itself. Yet just like in the so called "real world," if you don't qualify your outda there! In both the race and the time trials, the main goal is to swerve around the cars while you stay on the road. If you so happen to swerve off the road, like some maniacs do, your speed is immediately reduced and you stand a chance of smashing into one of the frequently occuring billboards. Of course the faster you complete the time trail, the better pole position you will have during the race.



    There are three different levels to Pole Position plus an additional practice run. Each level is the same track although the volume of traffic increases as the levels do. The practice run contains no cars at all.
    Your controls of Pole Position are quite simple yet completely adequate. This suits me just fine! The joystick controls the steering in the left and right position while it controls your two gears in the forward and backward position. Your gas is controlled by the fire button.



    The main punch of Pole Postion is its total convincability. If you're the type of guy who gets into your software, you will surely be convinced you are on the track of a Grand Prix. This is where the real fun begins. Since I have been driving Pole Postion, I've been able to swerve, pass and weave through all types of traffic. Me and my Pontiac Strato-Chief are now the "king of the road." But most important, I am now able to beat that Raving Reviewer to my precious little parking spot infront of the ROM office. Thankyou Atari.
P.S. Please don't tell the Raving Reviewer about Pole Position.