The Myth Informative

Volume I: Polybius

by exterminat

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

Thanks for stopping by, stranger. I saw you coming through that dark alley and thought you should pass through here on your way.

Hold on! Don’t leave me just yet. How about a story? We all love a good story right … moreso when it sends chills up and down your spine.

There are a ton of myths in the gaming world; some true, some as real as Bigfoot. However, right now, I intend to tell you the best of them, in new feature, ‘The Myth Informative’.

In ‘Volume I’ will chronicle a somewhat famous myth that may be equivalent to thin air, but is still fun to tell just the same.

Will you join me? That is, if you can handle it.

Polybius

Polybius. The name itself should send shivers down your spine. No other video game myth has been surrounded in more conspiracy, and even popular culture, as Polybius.

The year is 1981 and the place is Portland, Oregon. The gaming industry is booming, with no end in sight.

To begin with, Portland didn’t have many arcade machines. Strange enough, the Polybius arcade cabinet began to appear in suburbs of Portland. This is where the fateful story begins.

Polybius was somewhat of an oddity. If you can recall ever using an arcade cabinet, they were covered in artwork, bright colors, and all-around pleasing to the eye.

But not Polybius. This game rested inside a completely black cabinet, with nothing on it besides the typical buttons and coin slot and then the name, Polybius, written at the top.

Polybius became an instant hit, and lines began to form at each of the machines. One of the key things regarding this myth is how unknown and airy it is; the only proof we actually have over thirty years later is the picture you see above, what we believe to be the only proof of the title ever being in existence.

Here’s where it gets hairy: people began to form an addiction to Polybius. They couldn’t stop playing. They had a physical need to play this game.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Apart from addiction, it was reported players had signs of insomnia, nightmares, amnesia, and some tellings of this legend even say reports of suicide were common.

One player supposedly became an anti-gaming activist.

The gameplay is said to be extremely similar to that of the game Tempest, a huge hit at the time, featuring vector graphics and similar in shoot-’em-up style.

You think that’s it? I haven’t even started.

The machines were ultimately recalled not long after their introduction because of the reports listed above. It was reported that when being put on the trucks, men in black could be seen going to the cabinets, taking out unknown parts and surreptitiously walking away.

Some call it a CIA experiment to test subliminal messaging or mind control via video games, a sort of Project MKULTRA for the video game world.

This theory could hold true, because supposedly some players reported subliminal messages such as “No imagination”, “Obey”, “Stay asleep”, ” Work 8 hours, Play 8 hours, Sleep 8 hours”, “Surrender”, “Be normal”, “Game corrupt”, “No thought”, “Conform”, “Do not question the authority” among many others.

The supposed creator of Polybius is Ed Rotberg, and the company named in the myth is Sinneslöschen (German for “sensory-extinguishing”). It’s rumored to be the name of a government organization or project, or even a codename for Atari.

Conspiracy

It’s now 2011, and we know as much now as when the myth originated (or when the game supposedly existed).

We’re not even absolutely sure the game existed. As stated earlier, the only tangible evidence to make the myth concrete is the black and white photograph of a Polybius arcade cabinet above, which is believed to be a fake.

A possible explanation is the distortion of the story of an original version of Tempest being released that caused motion sickness and vertigo as a result of its visuals, and had to be quickly recalled.

On March 20, 2006, a man under the name of Steven Roach made a post on coinop.org telling the story of his involvement with Polybius, and how he hoped to “lay it to rest”.

He claimed to have been working for a South American company that wished to promote a “new approach” to computer graphics (probably vector graphics). The game was claimed to be very inventive and addictive but the graphics, through mistake rather than design, were dangerous and prompted epileptic fits.

The product was recalled, the subcontractors (Sinneslöschen) were disbanded, and the program was lost.

On April 26, 2006 Duane Weatherall of Gamepulse.co.uk (now bitparade.co.uk) interviewed Roach after he posted this message on another forum. The Roach story contained a number of inconsistencies: some of it seems to be directly sourced from Wikipedia, such as the suggestion of Cyberyogi’s involvement, which was the product of extensive searching through Usenet archives on the part of a Wikipedia editor.

The interview also included some of Roach’s background, including the revelation that he comes from Rhyl, Wales, and a possible recreation of the storyline.

Reality

If the game were a CIA experiment, they certainly did a good job of covering it up and hiding the truth.

If it was something that popped up in the last decade or so as a result of the vast series of tubes that we call the internet, it’s at the very least a fun story to tell.

But if the game was real… how does that make you feel?

At least if you’re an American like myself, it once again scares you that your own government is looking for ways to subvert you (albeit thirty years ago).

In terms of tangibility, Polybius proves to be an overall inconclusive case. We don’t know enough, and there are a thousand versions of the story.

It’s just one of many, many video game myths that exist.

That’s my story, stranger.

And I’ve got many more.

Will you return again? I promise you won’t sleep after the next one.

©2011 Nicholas Laborde

xxxxxx

Filed under: Blogbanter, Editorial, GameBanter, Oxcgn Special feature Tagged: | Arcade game, Atari, Bigfoot, Central Intelligence Agency, Polybius, Project MKULTRA, Tempest, Video game, Video game arcade cabinet