Polybius

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Herschie1
Posts: 202
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Polybius

Postby Herschie1 » November 9th, 2014, 1:23 am

I personally think that this game existed. Google "Polybius legend" if you have no idea what I'm talking about. But from what I'm hearing, I do believe in the legend. There's just too much out there about it for it not to be true. Here would be my hypothesis:

-It had some resemblance to the 2007 remake. It wasn't accurate though, but it had some resemblance. 

-When you first start the game, you see those subliminal messages popping up at random, then it takes you into that vortex. This could have been used to cement the messages into your head. 

-It wasn't the US Government, rather it was an advertising agency studying the effect on people. The "men in black" worked for this company. 

-The lack of evidence doesn't necessarily mean that it never existed. From what I understand, there wasn't very many of them in the first place, and it's very easy to make that stuff disappear. It was nearly 20 years before people started wondering about it, so anything could have happened. 

-The company vanished to avoid any potential lawsuits. This was all part of the plan. 

-Each Polybius could have been a vastly different game from a different genre. Since I don't believe that entertainment was the goal, consistency wasn't important. That way they could get different results from each of the different games. That also might be why the games were pulled so quickly, so that nobody caught on. In any case, it explains why there are so many different accounts of the game. 

-It was not mistaken for Tempest. 



None of those bullet points are fact, that is just my hypothesis on what I believe happened, based off the known facts. Most stories I hear about this seem to think that the game never existed, but my gut feeling says that it did in some form or another. The 2007 game is very subliminal, and could very well have been what one of the versions was like. 

Oltobaz1
Posts: 1605
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Polybius

Postby Oltobaz1 » November 9th, 2014, 8:46 am

Interesting stuff, I had never heard of Polybius before. I looked this up
on wikipedia, I can't really offer an opinion at this point. Thanks for sharing!

nesfan1
Posts: 995
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Polybius

Postby nesfan1 » November 9th, 2014, 9:34 am

I love the Polybius story. I don't know if I believe it or not. It seems unlikely but there are certainly stranger conspiracy theories out there. It is a really neat subject to talk about, though. Game Theory made a video about it a couple of years ago. It's worth watching if you're interested in Polybius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDXSr8jjpVk

Herschie1
Posts: 202
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Polybius

Postby Herschie1 » November 12th, 2014, 9:26 pm

Welp, I decided to download the 2007 remake game. Contrary to what they might say, it doesn't make you go crazy, it doesn't make you forget your name. I can still remember that my name is Ronald Reagan, but I can't seem to remember how a skunk manages to sing Elvis songs. It's scary out there though, as they end is near, and they are watching us. Oh well, at least I like cheese.  

Getting serious though, that game did make me a little woozy after playing it for awhile. Perhaps that's the same wooziness I get after playing first-person shooters like Metroid Prime, or Medal of Honor. I played it a little last night, and didn't have any nightmares, nor did I have any trouble whatsoever falling asleep. I wouldn't say the game is addicting, though it is rather fun and interesting to play. And I certainly don't have any aversion to video games now, as I intend to play MLB 14: The Show on my PS4 right after I feed the dog. 

But then again, this is a remake, and not the actual ROM of the 1981 game. If you do download it, I suggest going into the README file to find out how to mess with the higher functions. Turn on everything it offers to get the full experience. 

And definitely stay away from this if you're prone to seizures. 

DaHeckIzDat1
Posts: 194
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Polybius

Postby DaHeckIzDat1 » November 19th, 2014, 8:05 pm

It only gives you seizures if you chant "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" backwards 50 times to summon Slenderman. Or you could opt to throw 78.3 pounds of bologna at your tv screen to unlock the Zalgo bonus level.

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velcrozombie
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Joined: April 12th, 2015, 3:37 pm

Re: Polybius

Postby velcrozombie » July 13th, 2017, 11:43 pm

So this awesome video came out today for the new NIN song of a woman playing Polybius (or at least what the director conceptualized Polybius to look like) and I searched for an appropriate thread to put it (slightly NSFW for one instance of the f-bomb):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDV-dOvqKzQ

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Rookie1
Posts: 705
Joined: August 6th, 2015, 7:42 am

Re: Polybius

Postby Rookie1 » July 15th, 2017, 7:52 am

The Gaming Historian posted a video about this last month. Its a good watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gLypLPTljg

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Stalvern
Posts: 1952
Joined: June 18th, 2016, 7:15 pm

Re: Polybius

Postby Stalvern » July 15th, 2017, 3:00 pm

velcrozombie wrote:So this awesome video came out today for the new NIN song of a woman playing Polybius (or at least what the director conceptualized Polybius to look like) and I searched for an appropriate thread to put it (slightly NSFW for one instance of the f-bomb):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDV-dOvqKzQ

I don't think that this Polybius was the director's concept; it looks like he (very smartly) had Jeff Minter come up with it. It says Llamasoft on the title screen. Hopefully, Yak can release a playable version!

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pacman000
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Joined: December 30th, 2015, 9:04 am

Re: Polybius

Postby pacman000 » July 15th, 2017, 3:19 pm

https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4362

Article musing on the possible origin of the Polybus urban legend. Claims it's probably a combination of a few other real stories, of gamers having epileptic seizures, police stalking arcades looking for drug deals, etc.

I'd suggest that the Tempest-like game play might've been inspired by the rare (and trippy) Cube Quest laser disk game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvdYgfKAzxk

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Stalvern
Posts: 1952
Joined: June 18th, 2016, 7:15 pm

Re: Polybius

Postby Stalvern » July 17th, 2017, 4:21 am

pacman000 wrote:I'd suggest that the Tempest-like game play might've been inspired by the rare (and trippy) Cube Quest laser disk game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvdYgfKAzxk

That's just the background footage. Here's the actual game (albeit emulated).


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