Polybius Ultra

Astonishing Legends vor 10 Jahren

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Our ancient ancestors spoke of a legendary place -- where the
young and young at heart could test their skills against a
magical, electronic device, using strategy, and their reflexes at
25¢ a pop. These wondrous havens were called "Video Arcades" and
these hulking machines were called "Video Games." Believe it or
not kids, it was the only place you could play a decent-looking,
somewhat sophisticated video game, housed in a heavy, laminated
wooden cabinet, because at the time the only thing you could play
on your "push-button" phone was the tune, "Mary Had a Little
Lamb." There is another legend however, that at least in one or
more of these Video Arcades in Portland, Oregon in 1981 A.D.,
there lurked a mysterious Arcade Game called "Polybius" and it
had a much more nefarious purpose than to provide amusement and
rook a kid out of a short stack of quarters -- it may have been
there to try its hand at brainwashing you, and then report its
findings to a sinister government agency. There were reports of
players who suffered terrible side effects from the visual
phantasmagoria of the gameplay, like severe headaches, nausea,
memory loss, nightmares, an aversion to playing any video games
afterwards and in some extreme cases, suicide. But were these
reports true? Did this diabolical game ever exist? Was the legend
of Polybius just an "Urban Legend?" One thing we do know is true,
prior to the legend of Polybius, a secret government agency
really did try to zap unsuspecting people's brains and take
notes.

Tonight's Quote:

“The obvious objective of video games is to entertain people by
surprising them with new experiences.”

Miyamoto Shigeru, the "Father of Modern Video Games" and
Co-creator of The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Super Mario
Brothers and many more.

For more information on this episode visit our website!

Show Links:

We've found that some sites are not showing these links as
clickable unless they are URLs, so until those outlets improve
their show notes section, we are providing actual URLs next to
the clickable description of each link to make things easier for
our listeners!

"The Cosmos' Most Ridiculously Implausible Videogames: Polybius -
the most mysterious game of all time?" an article by Jason Helton
http://bit.ly/1JZlNST "Polybius: Video Game of Death" by Brian
Dunning from his Skeptoid Podcast #362 http://bit.ly/1SZ8eFN
"Polybius: Portland's Own Seizure-Inducing Mystery Game" an
article by Richard Grunert in Willamette Week
http://bit.ly/1PVKKRB Polybius, the real Greek historian
http://bit.ly/1Pjh2Aa Text of Original Polybius Comments from
Steven Roach and Cyber Yogi http://bit.ly/20HOSpY The Simpsons
and all it's Math http://bit.ly/1mqpuEw Duane Weatherall's
Interview with Steven Roach http://bit.ly/20s6U2K Power Gloves
& Tinfoil Hats: Case #001 http://bit.ly/1S1SnWB Download the
Supposed ROM of the Game. PC Required http://bit.ly/23Ka7tA
Interview with Ed Rotberg about Battlezone and the Military
http://bit.ly/1SZaGMi Vector vs Raster http://bit.ly/1UMB2Pr
Another Good Summary Article http://bit.ly/1NRnZXj Halcyon Days
The Book http://bit.ly/1nOykP7 TEMPEST
http://my.ign.com/atari/tempest BATTLEZONE
http://my.ign.com/atari/battlezone

Episode 031 - "Polybius" Produced by Scott Philbrook &
Forrest Burgess; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research
Assistance by Tess Pfeifle. Copyright Scott Philbrook &
Forrest Burgess 2016. All Rights Reserved.