Polybius (urban legend)
Polybius is a fictitious 1981 arcade game from an urban legend.[2] The legend describes the game as part of a government-run crowdsourced psychology experiment based in Portland, Oregon. Gameplay supposedly produced intense psychoactive and addictive effects in the player. These few publicly staged arcade machines were said to have been visited periodically by men in black for the purpose of data-mining the machines and analyzing these effects. Supposedly, all of these Polybius arcade machines then disappeared from the arcade market.
This urban legend has persisted in video game journalism and through continued interest, and it has inspired
Legend
The urban legend says that in 1981, when new arcade games were uncommon, an unheard-of new arcade game appeared in several suburbs of
The company named in most accounts of the game is Sinneslöschen. The word is described by writer Brian Dunning as "not-quite-idiomatic German" (a word constructed outside the norms of German-language usage and grammar) meaning "sense delete" or "sensory deprivation". If it was real German vernacular, "Sinneslöschen" would be pronounced [ˈzɪnəslœʃn̩]. Its meanings are derived from the German words Sinne ("senses") and löschen ("to extinguish" or "to delete"), though the way they are combined is not standard German; Sinnlöschen would be more correct.[2]
The game has the same name as the classical Greek historian Polybius, born in Arcadia and known for his assertion that historians should never report what they cannot verify through interviews with eyewitnesses.[4][5]
The first online mention of Polybius is a coinop.org article started in 1998, which extends the legend by claiming possession of a
Reception
The alleged original Polybius arcade game is generally believed to have never existed, and the legend a
Skeptics and researchers differ on when, how, and why the story of Polybius began. American producer and author
Internet writer Patrick Kellogg believes that players claiming to remember having played or seen Polybius since the 1980s may actually be recalling the video game
Ben Silverman of
Legacy
Video games
In 2007, freeware developers and arcade constructors Rogue Synapse published a free downloadable game titled Polybius for Windows at sinnesloschen.com. Its design is partly based on a contested description of the Polybius arcade machine posted on a forum by an individual named Steven Roach who claimed to have worked on the original.[14] To complete the illusion, Rogue Synapse's owner Dr. Estil Vance founded a Texas-based corporation bearing the name Sinnesloschen (without umlaut) in 2007.[15] He transferred to it the "Rogue Synapse" trademark[16] and a newly registered trademark on "Polybius".[17] Its website says that it is an "attempt to recreate the Polybius game as it might have existed in 1981".[18]
In 2016,
Other media
Polybius has cameos in many TV series, such as The Goldbergs (2013) and The Simpsons (2006). The Loki (2021) cameo gained its own acclaim on social media, including that the game seems catastrophically integral to the multiverse, and is a key example of Loki interplaying conspiracy with reality. An IGN alum said "Loki has a Polybius arcade machine and I'm losing my goddamn mind."[4] For Paper Girls (2022), CBR reported that the Polybius cameo conferred the series with 1980s science fiction credentials, and differentiated it from Stranger Things (2016).[24]
The Polybius Conspiracy is a 7-part podcast published in 2017, adapted from a canceled feature film project.[13][25]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Polybius Entry at coinop.org". September 28, 2014. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Dunning, Brian (May 14, 2013). "Skeptoid #362: Polybius: Video Game of Death". Skeptoid. Archived from the original on September 7, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
- ^ a b Silverman, Ben (January 25, 2008). "Video Game Myths: Fact or Fiction? – Video Game Feature". Yahoo! Video Games. p. 2. Archived from the original on January 29, 2008.
- ^ a b c d Bankhurst, Adam (July 9, 2021). "Loki: The Strange Gaming Myth Behind That Polybius Machine in Episode 5". IGN. Retrieved January 2, 2023.
- ^ Farrington, Scott Thomas (February 2015). "A Likely Story: Rhetoric and the Determination of Truth in Polybius' Histories". Histos. 9 (29–66): 40. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 22, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
Polybius begins his history proper with the 140th Olympiad because accounts of the remote past amount to hearsay and do not allow for safe judgements (διαλήψεις) and assertions (ἀποφάσεις) regarding the course of events.... he can relate events he saw himself, or he can use the testimony of eyewitnesses. ([footnote 34:] Pol. 4.2.2: ἐξ οὗ συµβαίνει τοῖς µὲν αὐτοὺς ἡµᾶς παραγεγονέναι, τὰ δὲ παρὰ τῶν ἑωρακότων ἀκηκοέναι.)
- ^ Elektro, Dan. "Secrets & Lies". GamePro. GamePro.com. p. 41. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
- Snopes.com. November 29, 2007.
- ^ Good, Owen S. (June 17, 2017). "Was Polybius real?". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
- ^ "Tummy derails asteroids champ". The Register-Guard. November 29, 1981. Archived from the original on February 6, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2014 – via Google News Archive.
- ^ Kellogg, Patrick. "Polybius by Patrick Kellogg". Archived from the original on August 21, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
- ^ Whelan, James (October 5, 2022). "Polybius: The Most Dangerous Video Game to Never Exist". Ripley's Believe It or Not!. Archived from the original on August 24, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
- ^ John, Finn J.D. (January 29, 2017). "Story of sinister videogame almost certainly a myth". Offbeat Oregon History. Archived from the original on August 24, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
- ^ a b Van Buren, Eleanor (November 8, 2017). "Polybius: The Most Dangerous Arcade Game in the World". Portland Monthly. Archived from the original on August 24, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
- ^ "Serious Game Classification : Polybius (1981)". Archived from the original on September 13, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
- ^ "Taxable Entity Search". Comptroller.Texas.Gov. Archived from the original on May 3, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
- ^ "Rogue Synapse Trademark of Vance, Estil – Registration Number 3052170 – Serial Number 76564186". Justia Trademarks. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
- ^ "Search trademark database". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on March 12, 2019. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
- ^ "What is Your Pleasure Sir". SINNESLOSCHEN. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
- ^ Machkovech, Sam (October 8, 2016). "A video game called Polybius is actually coming out. Will it kill you?". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on July 13, 2017. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
- ^ "Polybius on PS4". Official PlayStation Store US. May 9, 2017. Archived from the original on October 29, 2017. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
- ^ Minter, Jeff (October 7, 2016). "Sample the ludic psychedelia of Polybius". PlayStation.Blog.Europe. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
- ^ "Polybius: Early Days". The Grunting Ox. Llamasoft. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
- ^ Seppala, Timothy J. (July 13, 2017). "Nine Inch Nails' latest video taps into gaming legend". Engadget. Archived from the original on July 28, 2017. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
- ^ Meszaros, E. L. (July 31, 2022). "How Paper Girls Establishes Its '80s Sci-Fi Cred With an Urban Legend". CBR. Archived from the original on August 10, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
- ^ Brogan, Jacob (November 10, 2017). "The Polybius Conspiracy's Story of an Arcade Urban Legend Is Twisty Fun. It's Also Fake". Slate. Archived from the original on August 24, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
External links
- Polybius at the Killer List of Videogames, includes alleged cabinet photograph
- 7 Greatest Video Game Legends
- Polybius home page
- Article about the game in Atlas Obscura
- Eight minute documentary by the BBC