> 1. End of line.
>
> No matter how good you get at the racing games, no
>matter how well you do during the qualifying heats,
>you will always, always begin the race in the last
>possible position. Just once I'd like to see a
>racing game where I start in the middle of the pack.
>Cars all around me. Or in the front of the pack.
>Can I keep my lead without letting others pass me?
>But no. I'm required to pass the seven or eleven or
>fifteen other vehicles on the course. Every time.

I actually remember an old game called "Pole Position" that, each time you played, you had to "qualify", then "race". You started off by yourself in qualifying, and I believe you just raced against the clock. I'm not sure exactly how it worked, but anyway, the point is, you actually had a chance to get a good starting position for the "race." If you crashed seven times in qualifying, you started at the back of the pack. If you did really well, you'd be rewarded with blocky, flashing graphics saying you'd qualified in the "pole position" (first position) when you finished the qualifying run.

Of course, it was all moot anyway. If you started in first you left everyone in the dust and yet, somehow, there were STILL people in front of you to act as hazards on the track. If you started dead last, the first thing you did was pull out into the open lane, hit the gas and leave everyone in the dust, and, again, STILL have cars on the track to annoy you. Ah, the good old days.

-- Dave