Hi! I'm Mello Mantra, and I recently became a speedrunner of the arcade version of this game. I have some suggestions for new speedrun categories I'd like to see for the game, as I would personally enjoy them, and I would appreciate some feedback. If these ideas are ridiculous and I sound like I'm out of my mind, don't be afraid to tell me. Anyways, I have only two proposals for now:

1. Crash% I read mynameisAndy's thread, and I think that trying to crash as fast as possible is a fun idea, and I am already thinking of some strategies lol

2. Three Laps in Grand Prix I think that having a speedrun that is a little bit longer and requires a little more skill would be a solid idea. Three laps of Grand Prix would be a great manifestation of that, as more maneuvering is required, and you can carry speed into other laps. This would also make the strategies more intuitive, rather than "do the same thing the other guy did, but faster."

Again, give me feedback, and hopefully we can get some more categories for this game!

just do it and submit them!

Hey, oddly same question sort of. So I've been following the arcade Pole Position world record holder for high scores and there's many things I've realized. One is that most versions of Pole Position are inaccurate emulation compared to the original... Only the GCN version and PS1 versions have accurate emulation. That said, the times posted are only for other versions are only comparable to those versions.

Secondly, there should be a full game category which completes the entire race.

Would it be possible to add the categories and possibly split the boards for better accuracy? I'd love to become a mod for this game if possible and sort this stuff out. I would simply be adding categories for the sake of completeness and accuracy of the title.

Thanks,

• AndrewG

The way it's sorted now is tricky, but among the arcade versions they definitely differ a lot game to game. In general, the version with fastest times should take precedent, but I also think there should be runs for the original version as well.

Just to explain what I mean... 54.1 is simply not possible for the original arcade version including some of the remakes. The limit is closer to 54.6 on the original arcade version.

@AndrewG I noticed what you're saying when I was given this leaderboard. I tried contacting Daniel Yamnitz to see if he could teach me about the differences between versions, but I never got a response. It seems like the Plug-N-Play version specifically is way faster than the original cabinet. Nobody has ever brought it up before, I don't think.

This leaderboard isn't meant to be serious as far as I know. The serious arcade players submit their times to Twin Galaxies I'm pretty sure. If more people start asking to split the leaderboard, we can do that.

As for full game runs, nobody has ever submitted one so that's why there isn't one. There's no need to add another moderator right now. Not many people submit runs these days, so I am able to keep up.

I don't need to be a mod. I just suggested it since I've looked a bit into the versions and such + if it's a hassle for you.

TG is essentially obsolete these days. I feel like SRC should be the more important board for this simply because the scoring is RNG or flawed in some regard. That's to say, I basically wanna see Daniel at the top as he deserves for the full game category.

Here's the full game run I'm referring to:

Score is a seemingly random element in this game and so speed is actually the more skillful metric the way I see it.

Anyway, I was also hoping to submit a run for this myself at some point, but I just felt it would be nice to give the Pole Position champ his rightful spot on that category. Plus, the fact that there are version differences it'd be nice to see the original version tracked as well.

My suggestions:

• Add a dropdown of "Arcade Version 1" for the original version.
• Create a "Full Race"" category with the same dropdowns.
• Sort the arcade runs to the appropriate categories whether version 1 or version 2.

It's easy to tell the difference between the versions because the qualifying lap score is always 10000 (and VERY rarely 10010) on the original, whereas the other version is always much more (10200+ generally).

That is very helpful information. I didn't realize the qualifying lap always ends with 10000 points. I think that would be a good idea to separate runs based on this. Thanks for pointing that out!

Nobody has submitted any runs for full races. If people submit runs, I will add the category.

Awesome thanks! Empty categories are annoying so I get that too.

I submitted for the full game run. :) I am so bad at this game hahaha

The run probably is the slowest it possibly could be for this category (finished with 0 seconds). But hey! I completed a run. I wanna do A LOT better eventually.

Nice. If more people submit runs I'll add it.

Hey Andy, appologize for not getting back to you! I don't really know the differences in all the plug n play, and different console ports. I do know the difference between MAME and Arcade is very noticeable. The scoring is just off in MAME, as said earlier the easiest way to tell is the qualify lap score. It will be 10,000 or 10,010 with an arcade board. Mame adds more points for some reason, and also adds extra points for every lap completed. For the Arcade version when you finish the entire game before it starts counting cars passed the total should be (assuming you got pole position) 54,000 or 54,010, and I got 54,020 literally 1 time in my life. Going by time is actually a great idea, that seems to at least be the same in MAME and Arcade. Still can't speak for all the other ports. I submitted my fastest time yet, 213.65 in game time. I think I broke it down right into mintues when I submitted it. I'm happy to help or answer any questions you have if I can. Thanks for keeping this game updated on here!

@Nondrowsy Thanks for the information. That's very helpful. I added the full race category.

If you know anything about Pole Position II, I'm open to learning about that, too.

Yeah I know a little about Pole Position 2 😁 If you're sticking with qualify laps only, the only one that can have an issue is test track. If the settings are for 90 seconds to qualify, no problem, but if they are 120 to qualify, it is possible to not qualify on the first lap, and with timing get around the track a 2nd time and still "qualify" with Pole Position. And your time will be much faster since you will have a flying start. All 3 other tracks are so brutal that it doesn't matter with the settings. Just take the fastest time. (Again with the same breakdown of arcade vs. plug, vs. 2600 etc..)

@Nondrowsy Wow! That's very helpful information. Thanks again for the knowledge.

That leaderboard isn't very active so I haven't messed with it at all.