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Entry posted by Nathan Strum July 9, 2019

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Yet more mini-arcade action! This time, it's all about racing games:

Pole Position actually has a tiny little steering wheel... but it's actually just a steering wheel shaped joystick. No analog controls. Although for this version, analog isn't really needed. You also don't need to shift, the buttons just accelerate and brake, but really, adding shifting to something this small would be a little ridiculous. (Get it? A little ridiculous? :roll: ) It's hard to justify being picky on something so small and so cheap, but Pole Position is one of the less-successful Tiny Arcade games. The game plays okay, but there are a few issues such as enemy cars disappearing, spotty collision detection, and the fact that you really can't lose. Even if you run off the track or crash, you get so much bonus time per lap, you'll likely still win every race. Plus, the cars kind-of look like bathtubs.

New Rally-X (not to be confused with Ye Olde Rally-X, I suppose) translates much better, and plays very well. The animation is surprisingly smooth, given the choppiness of some of the other titles. The one downside is that the dots on the radar screen are single pixels, and they're so tiny, it's nearly impossible to see where your car is. There just isn't enough contrast (at least for my tired, olde eyes).

Still, you can't have an arcade without some racing games! And my arcade is getting so big, I may have start up a second shelf!

It's also getting a lot harder (and noisier) to get a decent photograph of everything. So I just decided to be "artistic" and leave the ones in the distance out-of-focus. I'm tempted to make a little arcade diorama out of these, but that requires more creativity than I have the energy for at the moment. But maybe later... I'm thinking it would be fun to re-create arcades from some classic '80's movies: WarGames, Joysticks, Tron...

I might need some more games though. Get to it, Super Impulse! Bosconian, Scramble, Joust, Berzerk... they're calling you!

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