10 replies to this topic

[Alextendo]

Did anyone ever heard of the infamous and disturbing story of the Arcade game of the early '80: Polybius?

 

For those who are unaware, Polybius was the name of a arcade game that was produce by Atari (well, according to the little we know) or by some person who were working of the arcade game Battlezone. It was said that this machine, unleashed in some arcade store/shop appear in Oregon, and some time to time, mysterious agent come by to collect data from the machine and one day, the arcade disapear to never be seen again. What is strange about that, is not really the mysterious agent, no. What is mysterious is the effect for those who was unfortunate enough to play: Dizzyness, memory loss, unable to sleep and suicide behavior. The rumor spread as if the machine was some kind of CIA experiment in attemp to perform a ''mind control'' prototype or something and they used young citizen as laboratory rats.

 

Of course, this is just one stupid creepy pasta, right? Right?......

Well, to this day, it's impossible to know if this is all true. Does this arcade have really existed? We may never know. But let me tell you this, real or not, this story can possibly be true. I'm sure some of you will tell me: But Alex, it's impossible to make such thing with a arcade machine! Which i reply: Yes, it's possible...

 

In the 1950's, the CIA have started a top-secret operation, know as MKUltra. This operation who was running from the 50's to the mid-70's was a bunch of experiment about mind-control device. Even a Canadian psycologist was brought in this experiment. Special drugs was used, and other atrocious things was used to test many subject to see the effect and how a mind can be control and/or re-write. Some of the CIA agent decide to leave, since he wasn't able to deal with this, considering this project as immoral. One week later, he was found dead. What was said to be a suicide, was later revealed as a murder from the CIA to make sure he will never leak any information. Other retired agent on this project wanted to wrote a book about it, but end up in court, in order to censor the content. From the mid-to-late-70's, this dark story was revealed to public....kinda. Some info was leaked but the CIA, in a cover operation to hide the truth, order to destroy every record and document. The only rare document who survive so far was officialy revealed to the public in the 90's.

 

Knowing this kind of operation is possible, a arcade game based of that test could possibly be real. Some rare photo proove the existance of the arcade. But it could also be some photoshop fake too. Either way, it's a creepy story....but a very interesting one to say the least.

 

I'll end this with a ''Game Theory'' video:

 

[RedAuthar]

I think it's all exaggeration

 

I mean in ta time where video games were still new, there are probably (specifically with the the seizure warnings on a lot of modern games) that the game caused seizures or may have had other effects on the players.  The games designers would probably not want their product pulled so would have someone investigate the game and see if that is what the problem is and they would also to avoid lawsuit and or controversy not want anyone to know what these investigators were doing.  Eventually however people would catch on that the game was probably the source of the problem and it would be pulled from the arcade.  Also since games such as Mrs. Pacman were originally hacks of the original cabinet it is possible that Polybius was a homebrew or hacked arcade machine explaining it's rarity.  

 

With a bunch of weird other controversy stuff going on it would stand to reason that people would blow the whole thing to insane proportions causing us to not be able to know truth from fantasy.

 

 

Also if Alextendo happens to go missing for a while I had nothing to do with it...*tranqs*

[Alextendo]

Haven't you see the video? It explain more in detail than i do. Also, the game was said to be made by one of the creator of Battlezone, who was published by Atari. Also, the game was said to show flashing color, LSD style. The ''LSD'' was some kind of drogue used in CIA operation during the MKUltra project. The effect describe for those who had play Polybius was too similar to the LSD. Beside, it was being said that Polybius was only distributed in the state of Oregon. Why not around the country?

 

For your joke at the end, it's very funny (spoiler: it's not).

[RedAuthar]

As I said the game industry was relatively new.  It would make sense that a game would only be tested in one area rather then the whole country.

 

Also many modern games have seizure and flashing light warnings.  Similarly a banned episode of Pokemon caused many viewers to have seizures.  It is quite possible that the game caused players to have seizures or get motion sick, or have other problems.  Back when video games were knew I can see people panicking at a game that was that intense causing nightmares and possible depression, like a drug.  And again if that was happening someone would be sent to investigate the game.  And if they were working for the developers who didn't want to get in trouble they probably wouldn't ever say what they were doing.  The sudden disappearance would then have been because the game was pulled due to the causes of nightmares and the like.  

 

Also video games were relatively new.  The government might have just been investigating games in general.  Who knows.

 

To top that off, GameTheory is designed to be a parody of a Conspiracy Theory and has on many occasions used evidence that is questionable at best or just flat out wrong.  They provide no better proof then a wikipedia article. 

Lastly, it's just my opinion.  I believe the events are exaggerated.  We don't have really any proof one way or another. 

[Alextendo]

I'm not saying it's right, but the story behind Polybius could possibly be real. Considering how those program by the CIA had happen before, and some hint suggest how they still could happen even today. It's no surprinsing how this could be true.

 

Beside, MKUltra is not a fake. Polybius on the other hand...is a mystery.

 

http://en.wikipedia....Project_MKUltra

[RedAuthar]

I'm not saying it's right, but the story behind Polybius could possibly be real. Considering how those program by the CIA had happen before, and some hint suggest how they still could happen even today. It's no surprinsing how this could be true.

 

Beside, MKUltra is not a fake. Polybius on the other hand...is a mystery.

 

http://en.wikipedia....Project_MKUltra

Agreed there.  The CIA is very messed up and Polybius COULD be true.  I just don't think it is. 

[Jman1236]

[furrykef]

MK-ULTRA doesn't make Polybius any more plausible. Yes, the CIA experimented with mind control, but it's somewhat reasonable to expect that you can do it through drugs (at least until it was shown that the drugs do not in fact have such effects). Through a video game, not so much.

 

If a video game were capable of producing such effects, somebody else would have created a game, accidentally or intentionally, with such effects by now. Games that cause dizziness might be kinda plausible (I get dizzy playing first-person shooters and the like when I have a headache, and so stick to 2D offerings during such times), and of course video games, like any form of video, can cause epileptic seizures -- and that's about it.

 

It would also be about impossible to keep a lid on such a project for so long. There are many, many arcade games that have only had one cabinet or circuit board ever made (or at least only one that survived) that the MAME team managed to track down. There are others that haven't been found but their existence (at least at one point in time) is at least demonstrable. If the MAME team thought there was even the slightest chance Polybius was real, they would be trying to track it down. They aren't.

[Alextendo]

LSD can be represent in many form, either liquid or solid and other. CIA had used colorful imagery to produce the LSD effect in their experiment. This is exactly this kind of visual that was described for Polybius.

 

See how the CIA cover their operation and do everything they can to keep something in silence when they don't want people to know their operation, like assasination (they done it before) or else. For a game like Polybius, they can possibly cover the arcade existance and destroy all their record if needed. Sometime, it take decade to publickly know these information.

 

Trust me, thing like that can be possible. Finding out if Polybius itself was real or just a hoax is a different story, but it can be real...

[GamemasterAnthony]

I can give you guys more info on this.  There was once a game I used to play called "Poly Play" which was actually a collection of different games in a single cabinet.  Wikipedia article  My favorite was the shooting gallery style game where the ducks you could shoot could fly down and eat your ammunition if you didn't stop them.  I wish I could play that again...

 

A few people, including TheGamerFromMars in this video, believe this is where the Polybius story may have been derived from.  In fact, it explains the inconsistancy as to what kind of game Polybius was since Poly Play has multiple games as well as describes the use of German on what is believed to be Polybius's splash screen since Poly Play was developed in Germany.

[RedAuthar]

Uh...TheGamerFromMars didn't really prove it one way or another......

 

Though I do agree it sounds plausible that Polybius could have been Poly Play.  And like I said before many sequels during the early era of gaming were started by hacks of other games.  Tempest might have been hacked for a Sequel too.