Editing Pole Position (section)

==Development==
[[File:Pole Position in Computerspielemuseum, Berlin.jpg|thumb|right|A ''Pole Position'' arcade cabinet]]
''Pole Position'' was created by both Shinichiro Okamoto and ''[[Galaxian]]'' designer Kazunori Sawano.<ref name="Interview"/> Namco [[electro-mechanical game]] engineer Sho Osugi also assisted with development.<ref name="Interview"/> Based on Namco's experience with producing coin-operated electro-mechanical driving games in the 1970s, notably ''[[F-1 (arcade game)|F-1]]'' (1976) designed by Sho Osugi, Sawano showed Okamoto rough sketches of his idea, who liked it enough to begin production of a video racing game. Okamoto wanted the game to be a true driving simulation game that used a 3D perspective and allowed the player to execute real-world techniques.<ref name="TV Game">{{cite book |author1=Video Game Museum Project |title=Terebi gēmu. |date=June 1988 |publisher=You B You |isbn=978-4946432316 |url=http://shmuplations.com/earlyarcade/ |language=ja}}</ref><ref name="Interview"/> He also chose to add the [[Fuji Speedway]] into the game to make newer players recognize it when they first played.<ref name="TV Game"/> Music was jointly composed by Nobuyuki Ohnogi and Yuriko Keino.<ref name="Szczepaniak">{{cite book |last1=Szczepaniak |first1=John |title=The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers |date=11 August 2014 |isbn=978-0992926007 |pages=201 |edition=First |url=https://archive.org/details/TheUntoldHistoryOfJapaneseGameDevelopersVol.2JohnSzczepaniak/page/n361?q=cutie+q |access-date=12 August 2019}}</ref>

Development of the game lasted for three years.<ref name="Interview"/> Okamoto recalls the most challenging part of development being to produce the hardware needed to run it, as the game was too "ambitious" to run on older hardware.<ref name="TV Game"/> The development team used two [[16-bit]] processors to power the game, which Okamoto says was an unheard-of concept for arcade games at the time<ref name="TV Game"/> — for a while, it was the only video game to use a [[Zilog Z8000|Z8000]] CPU.<ref name="Interview"/> ''[[Pac-Man]]'' creator [[Toru Iwatani]] chose the name ''Pole Position'' as he thought it sounded "cool" and appealing, and he shortly after filed a trademark for it.<ref name="Iwatani">{{cite web |title=バンダイナムコ知新「第1回 ビデオゲームのはじまり 後編」岩谷徹氏インタビュー |url=https://www.bandainamcoent.co.jp/asobimotto/page/videogame2.html |publisher=[[Bandai Namco Entertainment]] |access-date=13 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190827174942/https://www.bandainamcoent.co.jp/asobimotto/page/videogame2.html |archive-date=27 August 2019 |date=6 March 2019}}</ref> The controls also proved to be a challenge, as Okamoto wanted them to feel realistic and to match up with the gameplay<ref name="TV Game"/> — Osugi remembers Namco president [[Masaya Nakamura (businessman)|Masaya Nakamura]] becoming frustrated with them, having difficulty keeping the car moving in a straight line.<ref name="Interview">{{cite web |title=バンダイナムコ知新「第2回 カーレースゲームの変遷 前編」大杉章氏、岡本進一郎氏、岡本達郎氏インタビュー |url=https://www.bandainamcoent.co.jp/asobimotto/page/carracinggames1.html |publisher=[[Bandai Namco Entertainment]] |access-date=13 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514132224/https://www.bandainamcoent.co.jp/asobimotto/page/carracinggames1.html |archive-date=14 May 2019 |date=25 April 2019}}</ref>

The game's arcade cabinet, a sit-down "environmental" machine, was chosen due to their popularity at the time.<ref name="Interview"/> The development team had long fights over how fast the gear-shift should be, until it was ultimately decided to simply be either high or low speed.<ref name="Interview"/>