Gregory
04-09-2004, 08:41 PM
The story behind Polybius is more sordid and bizarre than Berzerk's ever dared to be: two or three prototype machines showed up just outside of Portland, Oregon, and immediately people started having weird effects from the game. It was apparently some kind of vector game with puzzle elements, lots of flashing lights, and plenty of twisting and scrolling. I'll get into that in a minute. Anyway, people that played the game always seemed to get real disoriented during or afterwards, and usually forgot who they were or where they lived, stuff like that. One arcade owner swears that when Polybius was in his establishment, men in stereotypical black suits came and inspected the game once a week and wrote down notes from some of the game's subscreens, and never took any money from it. The kids affected usually freaked out and had terrible nightmares, stopped playing games entirely, or just plain went insane. After around 4-8 weeks, the games were pulled and never heard from again. Heavy stuff.
The reality of it is that a lot of people don't believe the game was ever real, instead just some stupid story that spawned from the similar urban legends floating around about men in suits collecting initials off of Space Invaders and Missle Command machines. But really, is it so hard to believe? I mean, Snopes did a pretty crappy job of proving it fake, and there's a lot of people claiming that the ROM is out there somewhere, most notably CoinOp.org. People have searched for years for proof of it's exsistance since hearing of the story. Some people claim that they have spotted dead Polybius cabinets, or even played the game at one point in their lives. It's a true legend, and everybody seems to have different answers.
Let's sit here and think for a minute. What if it's true? What if there was a game called Polybius? It's not that far fetched, there was a flood of games in arcades in the early 80s. But that doesn't mean that the legends are true... So let's look at the story in detail assuming that Polybius is indeed real.
THE GAME WAS RELEASED IN A COUPLE OF BACKWATER GAME ROOMS OUTSIDE OF PORTLAND OREGON: Not hard to believe at all. Arcade game developers would test their games in extremely small markets before wide releasing them almost religiously. It's said that Atari had something to do with this one, being a test machine that was running with the Atari logo and name absent in fear of word getting out about a particularly bad game from them. using a German term for "Desensing" or "Desensitizing" as the copyright holder, Atari simply tested the game and removed them from the market shortly after. Nothing really staggering or interesting to note.
THE GAME WAS MAKING KIDS SICK, TO THE POINT OF TEMPORARY AMNESIA, NAUSEA AND VOMITING, AND MORE ILL EFFECTS: Agina, this may be why the game either never left the testing phase or was released as another game. Word has it that the gameplay of Polybius was puzzle based, possibly maze oriented. Out of the many descriptions I've read of the game, I can safely assume that gameplay went a little something like this: Your job was to control a marble or ball through a maze. The ball was always affected by gravity, so it was always being pulled down. You were to rotate a maze with paddles (like Arkanoid or Pong) so that the ball would fall from beginning to end. Flashing strobe effects and colors were your strategic signals on when to make movements. Since this game apparently used plenty of flashing and rotating, not to mention vector graphics, it's easy to see where people that played it would become disoriented, maybe even sick. It could also cause seizures in many people, explaining any further ill effects one might have while playing the game. The crap this game was doing would obviously be the reason the game was pulled from testing so quickly.
THERE WERE MEN IN BLACK SUITS THAT INSPECTED THE GAME, WROTE STUFF DOWN WHILE LOOKING AT SCREENS, BUT NEVER TOOK ANY QUARTERS: Military experiment? Nah. If people were dropping like flies like the legend says they were, these men in black suits were obviously insurance adjusters. They were taking notes and inspecting the game on assignment from their employers, the big insurance companies, for use against the developers of the game. They did that same thing with the Pokemon cartoon. of course, this theory has a few holes in it. Insurance adjusters would have taken the money.
found this "urban legend", wanted to verify its truth? I know a few of you have played some pretty old games.
i found the following "ROM", but i dont really want to open it for fear of viruses:
http://modernprimitiveradio.com/files/misc/Polybius.zip
anyway... it sounds a little absurd to me, maybe the game existed, but the men in black coats...:rolleyes: ?
so what do you think?
The reality of it is that a lot of people don't believe the game was ever real, instead just some stupid story that spawned from the similar urban legends floating around about men in suits collecting initials off of Space Invaders and Missle Command machines. But really, is it so hard to believe? I mean, Snopes did a pretty crappy job of proving it fake, and there's a lot of people claiming that the ROM is out there somewhere, most notably CoinOp.org. People have searched for years for proof of it's exsistance since hearing of the story. Some people claim that they have spotted dead Polybius cabinets, or even played the game at one point in their lives. It's a true legend, and everybody seems to have different answers.
Let's sit here and think for a minute. What if it's true? What if there was a game called Polybius? It's not that far fetched, there was a flood of games in arcades in the early 80s. But that doesn't mean that the legends are true... So let's look at the story in detail assuming that Polybius is indeed real.
THE GAME WAS RELEASED IN A COUPLE OF BACKWATER GAME ROOMS OUTSIDE OF PORTLAND OREGON: Not hard to believe at all. Arcade game developers would test their games in extremely small markets before wide releasing them almost religiously. It's said that Atari had something to do with this one, being a test machine that was running with the Atari logo and name absent in fear of word getting out about a particularly bad game from them. using a German term for "Desensing" or "Desensitizing" as the copyright holder, Atari simply tested the game and removed them from the market shortly after. Nothing really staggering or interesting to note.
THE GAME WAS MAKING KIDS SICK, TO THE POINT OF TEMPORARY AMNESIA, NAUSEA AND VOMITING, AND MORE ILL EFFECTS: Agina, this may be why the game either never left the testing phase or was released as another game. Word has it that the gameplay of Polybius was puzzle based, possibly maze oriented. Out of the many descriptions I've read of the game, I can safely assume that gameplay went a little something like this: Your job was to control a marble or ball through a maze. The ball was always affected by gravity, so it was always being pulled down. You were to rotate a maze with paddles (like Arkanoid or Pong) so that the ball would fall from beginning to end. Flashing strobe effects and colors were your strategic signals on when to make movements. Since this game apparently used plenty of flashing and rotating, not to mention vector graphics, it's easy to see where people that played it would become disoriented, maybe even sick. It could also cause seizures in many people, explaining any further ill effects one might have while playing the game. The crap this game was doing would obviously be the reason the game was pulled from testing so quickly.
THERE WERE MEN IN BLACK SUITS THAT INSPECTED THE GAME, WROTE STUFF DOWN WHILE LOOKING AT SCREENS, BUT NEVER TOOK ANY QUARTERS: Military experiment? Nah. If people were dropping like flies like the legend says they were, these men in black suits were obviously insurance adjusters. They were taking notes and inspecting the game on assignment from their employers, the big insurance companies, for use against the developers of the game. They did that same thing with the Pokemon cartoon. of course, this theory has a few holes in it. Insurance adjusters would have taken the money.
found this "urban legend", wanted to verify its truth? I know a few of you have played some pretty old games.
i found the following "ROM", but i dont really want to open it for fear of viruses:
http://modernprimitiveradio.com/files/misc/Polybius.zip
anyway... it sounds a little absurd to me, maybe the game existed, but the men in black coats...:rolleyes: ?
so what do you think?