If you have a female’s voice that sounds like it’s coming out of a blown speaker that’s underwater and covered with that filler they put in stuffed animals saying, “PREPARE TO QUALIFY!” then you know you’re playing Pole Position.
Pole Position is technically a racing game, even though you’re only really racing against the clock and the score counter. You pick your track from one of the three difficulties, (more difficult = more curves, natch), and race around until you run out of time. You have a super high performance car with super simple controls: gas, brake, steering wheel, low gear and high gear. You get more time by finishing laps, and you lose time by touching anything that’s not ground. You lose time by touching another car or a billboard and having your car explode into a giant fireball. You’ll respawn without a scratch, but you lose your momentum and precious Time Units tick away. I’m never sure where these other cars came from. You’re alone at the starting line, but as you motor along the track, you’ll come across other drone racers that putter along right in your path at about 25 km/h (yes, it’s in metric).
It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s before I was good enough to actually finish more than zero laps around the course, and I still can’t manage to get the high score on the machine. I suppose it might be time to give this game up. Mostly because I can’t find it in an arcade anywhere.