A Theory

[Jumpman1981]

Hey All, Here's just a stupid theory I came up with on Polybius

I know it's been done to death but I just wanted to throw my hat into the ring.

 

 

First off, a recap:

Polybius was a supposed arcade game that was released in 1981, The game was apparently similar to Atari's Tempest, but featured
trippy visuals designed as part of a government brainwashing scheme known as MK Ultra (no, it's not a Mortal Kombat sequel) the game
was apparently known to drive players insane, it had such symptoms as: nightmares, night terrors, suicidal thoughts, and other nasty stuff.
Also, men in black apparently visited the machines to collect data from the arcade machines, the game was wildly successful and even created queues to play it, I would say that the bezel would have been scratched to hell
with all the quarters being placed on it (a sign to let the person playing know
that you wanted to play the machine after they were done, essentially reserving a game) 2-3 months after the game appeared in arcades
it vanished without a trace, not like the game was out of order, literally vanished,
as in a gap was left in between the other games.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE GAMEPLAY:

Polybius' apparent gameplay is quite simple: your spaceship is on the left, you must
rotate the circular base in the middle and fire at the core through the base's openings
Meanwhile, attack missiles leave the base to try and hit you, you must avoid these by
rotating the turrets that create the missiles away from you, so, I bet you're wondering
"How is this hypnotic?, it just sounds like a decent early 80s shoot-em-up, the kind that were
everywhere at that time." the main thing that apparently hypnotises players is the background,
as it contained moving images such as spirals and the like, the kind used to create simple eye
tricks.

REALITY CHECK:

To be honest, the whole thing sounds complete nonsense, In 1981, hardware was not advanced enough
to create smooth spirals that could run at a reasonable speed, and the fact that apparently the game
used vector AND raster graphics is just completely ludicrus, because:

1. There are 2 types of CRT monitors used in arcade games, one that is designed only for vector graphics
and another that is designed for raster graphics, Raster monitors are the same as CRT TV screens, it creates images via pixels, where as
vector is essentially a glorified oscilloscope, it creates image via lines. it is impossible to combine the two, as that would A: be a voltage hog
and B: have the 2 electron guns collide and create a jumbled image.

2. The cost of said monitor, if it existed, would be stupendous, given that a standard CRT monitor was about 10 - 20 grand in 1981.

3. It would be insanely unreliable, the capacitors would probably blow after about a week of usage, or the yolk (the circuit board on the
end of the tube) would be fried to a crisp.

Also, to create the spiral backgrounds, it would need some form of video system, such as a VCR or Laserdisc player, as stated above.

THE RUNDOWN:

1. The game was apparently made by a company with the name Sinneslochen.

2. The game was only found in Portland, Oregon, USA

3. Players queued to play the game.

4. The game had bad effects on players, such as nightmares and suicidal thoughts

5. It also apparently had subliminal messages that would either flash on screen or be played as part of the audio.

CUBE QUEST:

In 1983, a company known as Simutrek released the LASERDISC game Cube-Quest. The gameplay? A spaceship shooting at missiles while laserdisc-generated backdrops fly past, there is even a bonus level that involves shooting at a base.

What I think happened is, Portland was a huge arcade testing ground in the early 80s, prototypes would be put in arcades to get consumer feedback on if the
game was worth finishing or not, Polybius was the early prototype of Cube Quest and had different visuals from its final version. the game was said to be too bland and was swiftly removed one month later and reworked into Cube Quest in 1983. The person who recounted Polybius must have been uncomfortable about the game and greatly exaggerated their discomfort years later and blamed it on the game.

Sinneslocchen was just them mis-remembering the creator's name, Simutrek

So, there you go. Any Thoughts?

(I know I say apparently a lot, That's just how could describe the rumoured features )

Edited December 1, 2017 by Jumpman1981

[pacman000]

I've thought Polybius might've been inspired by Cube Quest for a while now. Wouldn't go as far to say that Polybus was Cube Quest's prototype, tho. I just think the rarity and trippiness might've allowed someone to incorporate a half-remembered version of the game into the legend.

 

Person 1: "You remember that weird game back in, when was it,? '81" (Misremembers date.)

Person 2: "No."

Person 1: "It was like Tempest, but really weird, with lots of colored lights and stuff?" (Thinking of Cube Quest.)

Person 2: "No, wait. Yeah, I think I might remember it. What was it's name again?"

Person 3: "Weren't there some adults hanging around the arcade right around that time, kinda observing what was going on?" (There were police observing arcades at the time, looking for drug dealers.)

Person 2: "Yeah, I think so. Didn't some kid have a seizure or commit suicide or something?" (Misremembering more actual events; like that kid who had an heart attack after an intense game of Brezerk.)

[BigO]

To be honest, the whole thing sounds complete nonsense, In 1981, hardware was not advanced enough

to create smooth spirals that could run at a reasonable speed, and the fact that apparently the game

used vector AND raster graphics is just completely ludicrus

 

 

Perhaps. But...if you happen to be a top secret government/MIB organization perfecting brainwashing techniques...

[Keatah]

2. The cost of said monitor, if it existed, would be stupendous, given that a standard CRT monitor was about 10 - 20 grand in 1981.

 

Surely you mean 1-2 grand. Because most arcade cabs were around $3000 IIRC.

[Cynicaster]

IMO, to even try to figure out what game could have been "mistaken" for Polybius is a waste of time, because the whole thing is made up.

 

I think the legend is a conflation of disparate tales and accounts, some real and some completely fabricated by hoaxers. I believe the extent of the verifiably "real" info comes from documented cases of kids suffering headaches and other sudden problems while playing arcade games in the 80s. That sounds intriguing, but we should be cautious to not confuse correlation with causation. Not only that, but since the known cases of these effects happened while kids played games like Asteroids, Berzerk, and Tempest, we do not even require the mysterious Polybius to exist in order to account for them.

 

Lots of people have researched this, and it seems nobody can find a single reference to an arcade game called "Polybius" until one day in the late 90s somebody created an entry for the game on coinop.org. Following the wave of attention generated by the mysterious entry, GamePro magazine did a story on it in which they stopped short of declaring the story a hoax, opting instead to call the evidence "inconclusive" (I think they knew it was a hoax but didn't want to spoil the fun).

 

There have been supposed screenshots and photos of the cabinet, but as far as evidence goes, they're about as credible as a grainy photo of a glowing ball would be to prove the existence of aliens in our skies.

 

Then there were the infamous online ramblings from some guy named "Steve Roach," in which the guy claimed to have been involved in the development of the game. His tale is even less convincing than the crappy photos and screenshots--in other words, a total nothingburger that should be dismissed out-of-hand.

 

And that's really about it for evidence.

 

I enjoy arcade games, and I am also entertained by "urban legend" type stuff, so naturally I'm intrigued by the whole Polybius story. But if I'm being honest, you really don't need to look into it for very long to realize just how razor-thin the foundation is upon which the whole legend is built. It's kind of surprising that such a well-known and enduring story was able to grow from such a dearth of evidence. I guess if you get enough nerds together on the internet who "want to believe" in something like this, it can quickly take on a life of its own.

[VectorGamer]

I enjoy arcade games, and I am also entertained by "urban legend" type stuff, so naturally I'm intrigued by the whole Polybius story.

It was intriguing a few years ago. Now it's just time for it to be put to rest IMHO.

[Keatah]

Every field/hobby, every human pursuit, needs a larger-than-life mystery.

[Jumpman1981]

I know that the whole thing has been disproven, I just wanted to create some stupid theory for the hell of it.

[keitaro]

Completely agree about Cube Quest influence in Polybius myth, I cited this game in a entry I wrote years ago talking about Polybius (spanish):

http://retrolaser.es/desmontando-polybius-leyenda-maquinas-recreativas/

and how the myth has grow tending to describe the 'game' as vector graphics while the (mock-up) title screen (the image originally published in coinop.org's polybius entry back an 1996) are raster-like type. I also referenced in the blog what fonts were used to do that title screen, ripped from other games