http://www.gooddealgames.com/articles/Videogame%20Urban%20Legend%20-%20Polybius.html
We have all heard a tale or two that was simply too impossible to believe - and then we frighteningly learn the truth...
An urban legend is a tale of contemporary folklore that purports to be true and is often designed to elicit an emotional response. It is an assertion or set of assertions widely repeated from individual to individual, though its truth is unconfirmed.
In most civilizations of the world, folklore has always existed in conjunction with, or in place of, recorded history. Where history is passionate with accurately writing down the details of events, traditional folklore is characterized by the "oral tradition," the dispatching of stories by word of mouth.
Unlike mythology, these accounts are about real people in believable situations. Just as with modern legends, old folk tales often focus on the things a culture found alarming. Countless of the "fairy tales" we hear today originated as credible stories. In place of warning against gang wars and child abductors, these stories expressed the dangers of the forest or other local phenomenon. In early European times, the arcane woods were a mysterious place to citizens, and there were indeed creatures that might attack one in such locales. Even today we share many common fears with our ancestors. The fear of food contamination is clear in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and still a worry to some today.
Urban legends are often false, but that is not always the case. A small amount turn out to be largely true, and several of them were inspired by an actual event but evolved over time into something portrayed differently. More often than not, the original source is usually not able to be located or identified. However, we present to you Polybius...
Polybius: Only known screenshot
Polybius was a puzzle game that had a very limited release, reportededly restricted to less than a dozen arcades in a small Portland suburb. The games history is hazy. Reports indicate that children that played Polybius could no longer remember common and basic information critical to their lifestyle such as how to find their home or even recall their own name. It is unknown if these effects of amnesia were permanent. It is known that those that played the program were victims of unbearable nightmares often waking up at night screaming in fear.
One of the previous arcade operators vows that gentlemen dressed in black coats would periodically come to retrieve play statistics and other records from the coin-op. The mysterious collectors failed to take the coin earnings, nor did they seem interested in or recognize any monetary potential that is usually associated with such devices.
Supposedly it is rumored to have been developed by some kind of uncanny military tech offshoot organization. It was said to have some kind of proprietary behavior modification algorithms developed for the CIA or other other secretive outfit.
The game itself is very abstract in design with fast action and puzzle elements. While the kids that played Polybius refrained from playing other videogames aftwerwards, one in particular became a big anti-videogame advocate. We have contacted an individual that knows him, and he claims that the Polybius machines were removed from arcade premesis within a period of four to six weeks. For over twenty years all has been silent concerning polybius until the ROM recently appeared. Our source regrets mentioning his involvement, and claims that our hobby is not his hobby, and wishes to wash his hands of the entire story.
Do you accept what GDG has confirmation about Polybius or do you believe that it is simply modern folklore, contemporary legend and cautionary tale? If you know of any additional information concerning Polybius, please contact us immediately! From A Tool Newsletter dated 'SEPTEMBER 2003' E.V.
My interest in this vintage arcade game came from an email I received a couple of months ago. It began: "Dear Blair, I don't know if you're big on video games and such, but I thought this article would be of interest to you." The e-mailer then copied an article about Polybius which was posted on the coinop.org site which reads: "GAME SUMMERY: We need information. GAME DETAILS: This game had a very limited release, one or two backwater arcades in a suburb of Portland. The history of this game is cloudy, there were all kinds of strange stories about how kids who played it got amnesia afterwards, couldn't remember their name or where they lived, etc.
(The bizarre rumors about this game are that it was supposedly developed by some kind of weird military tech offshoot group, used some kind of proprietary behavior modification algorithms developed for the CIA or something, kids who played it woke up at night screaming, having horrible nightmares. According to an operator who ran an arcade with one of these games, guys in black coats would come to collect "records" from the machines. They're not interested in quarters or anything, they just collected information about how the game was played. The game was weird looking, kind of abstract, fast action with some puzzle elements, the kids who played it stopped playing games entirely, one of them became a big anti videogame crusader or something. We've contacted one person who met him, and he claims the machines disappeared after a month or so and no one ever heard about them again. Until the ROM showed up. Here's what we've found so far: Found English strings "insert coin" and "press 1 player start" and "only" - looks like a 1 or 2 player game. Text in the game says "(c) 1981 Sinnesloschen." Maybe a German company. If anyone has heard any additional information about this game, we'd appreciate hearing about it."
(NOTE: Evidently the game is listed in some catalogs, though it is always listed as unavailable. Also, a title screen shot seems to exist, but this could easily have been faked or created by Photoshop. Also, I've read that there is a possible Soviet origin to the game).
In doing some research on my own, and reading the various comments posted by readers of the coinop.org site, it is evident that, even if Polybius is just an urban legend or film promo, the whole thing nevertheless still contains elements of our old friends from The Nation of The Third Eye. Yep, that's right folks - those constructs of dark-matter, the MIBS. According to what I've read on the coinop site and elsewhere, the name Sinneschlossen is German for"senses-deleting" , "loss of senses" or even "senseless." Might the word "senseless" be a phonetic pun for 'cents-less?' If so, then this brings to mind the classic stories of the MIBs who threaten UFO experiencers by putting a coin in the palm of their hand and making it seemingly vanish into thin air before telling the witness that the same thing will happen to their heart if they don't keep silent on the subject. (NOTE: In a Tool newsletter from a couple of years ago [May 2002 I believe it was] I recounted the story of my one possible experience with an MIB while standing in line in a local Burger King restaurant. The strangely dressed man [he was wearing a black suit with a homburg-style hat], who seemed to be extremely confused as to whether or not a 'Whopper' was a hamburger as he understood hamburgers to be, paid for it [after standing at the counter for what seemed like an eternity] with five brand new-looking silver dollars, turning to me before they 'disappeared' [presumably into the cash register] and saying something to the effect that where he came from [a different time?] a hamburger wouldn't have cost near as much).
With this possible MIB connection in mind, it was amusing to read the comments of one person who claimed to have a Polybius game until a strange man came to buy it - even though the owner hadn't advertised it as being for sale! "They just came to me and wanted it very badly."
This (as well as other cliches and colloquialisms associated with the Polybius arcade game) should be very familiar to anyone who has studied the MIB phenomenon where the victims allow strangers into their homes and give them their valuable evidence (photos, etc.) but only days later wonder whatcompelled them to do so.
If a Polybius isn't a many-eyed monster (moon-star?) from Greek mythology, then he was a ancient Greek historian who among other things made the first mention of Thule (see the interview with Danny Carey in Dagobert's Revenge VOLUME 4, NO. 2 for a possible connection between the mystical Thule of ancient geography and the name of the band TOOL). Also see: THULIUM, rare-earth metallic element whose atomic number is 69.
Interestingly enough, Polybius also developed a Greek method of cryptography which substitutes numbers for letters - known as the Polybius Square or Checkerboard (a 5x5 grid of letters in which letters are represented by a two digit number - decryption consists of mapping the digit pairs back into the corresponding letters). For example:
T = 44
O = 43
O = 43
L = 13
Recall, that the arcade game was supposed to have certain puzzle elements.
But Polybius also wrote about something called anacyclosis, meaning internal decay of government or how democracy turns into tyranny:
"For who is so worthless or indolent as not to wish to know by what means and under what system of polity the Romans in less than 53 years have succeeded in subjecting nearly the whole inhabited world to their sole government, a thing unique in history (?)"
- Polybius
IS THERE AN ILLUMINATI CONNECTION HERE?
(for more information see Polybius and the Founding Fathers on the Internet)... However, "if you value your health, welfare and sanity, you must not reportthis matter to anybody."
On a personal note, it's strange but I just can't remember if I played Polybius or not while in Gresham, Oregon in 1981. Since that time, I sometimes sufferfrom bouts of amnesia, and I still have nightmares of the place...
