Polybius

[scheming_dreaming]

Soembody sez they found a copy: http://www.huliq.com/10282/polybius-video-game-surfaces-oregon-resort-while-legend-states-it-produced-zombies

[Rlyeh]

I thought World of Warcraft did the same thing?

[grc]

I thought World of Warcraft did the same thing?

You are right, there are many games out there that are doing that, I guess it's a case of "choose your poison".

scheming_dreaming, that's a good one, maybe the game is some sort of method for subliminal message induction for God knows what purpose.

[George Ford]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre#Video_games

video games make you kill! it's proven above!

[scheming_dreaming]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre#Video_games

video games make you kill! it's proven above!

Polybius gets its own article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius_(video_game)

" According to the story, the Tempest-style game was released to the public in 1981, and caused its players to go insane, causing them to suffer from intense stress, horrific nightmares, and even suicidal tendencies."

see ther? worse than Columbine

[Soul Kitchen]

Soembody sez they found a copy: http://www.huliq.com/10282/polybius-video-game-surfaces-oregon-resort-while-legend-states-it-produced-zombies

OMIGOD YESSS!!!!

Ever since I had first heard of this legend I sorely wished that the game would be brought to light.

This is awesome, thank you so much. I might just get you the hat you wanted now.

[greywolf]

Maybe the people were "insane" before they played the games?

[Mike G]

Polybius gets its own article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius_(video_game)

" According to the story, the Tempest-style game was released to the public in 1981, and caused its players to go insane, causing them to suffer from intense stress, horrific nightmares, and even suicidal tendencies."

see ther? worse than Columbine

From that link...

the company named in the urban legend is Sinneslöschen (German for "sensory-extinguishing" is the exact translation), often named as either a secret government organization or a codename for Atari.

Quite a breadth of speculation there. It is either the product of subversive black ops program... or those guys that brought us Pong!

[scheming_dreaming]

OMIGOD YESSS!!!!

Ever since I had first heard of this legend I sorely wished that the game would be brought to light.

This is awesome, thank you so much. I might just get you the hat you wanted now.

i will hold you to that

sadly the whole thing does pretty much look fake... no solid info at all, and even most of the made up stuff is pretty recent.

[Soul Kitchen]

i will hold you to that

sadly the whole thing does pretty much look fake... no solid info at all, and even most of the made up stuff is pretty recent.

But at least there's is hope.

Of all things to hoax, why an 80's arcade game?

[King Fluffs]

I think its fake.

[MetallicBlood]

I think that's a load of crap, I mean what would the government have to gain by testing it out in Oregon of all places?

[Ozner]

I've heard that the Polybius legend was actually based on an earlier version of Tempest, which supposedly had weird graphics that caused headaches (and other problems) in some people.

[Rafterman]

The newest episode of Skeptoid covers the Polybius legend. Very cool stuff and textbook urban legend stuff.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4362

Polybius: Video Game of Death

Did a 1981 video arcade game sicken players while government agents collected the data?

Combine the story of the Portland teenagers being knocked out by video games, the government agents in Portland arcades, and the game whose name started with Poly being mysteriously removed from arcades, and it's not surprising that the story of Polybius exists. Indeed it might be more surprising if it didn't exist. At the very least, whoever first posted it to Coinop.org needed a lot less creativity than the creators of most urban legends. The lesson learned from Polybius is that the closer you can stick to truth, the longer legs your urban legend will grow.

[JesseCuster]

If such a game existed, I'd be willing to give it a try if there was working ROMs for MAME out there, but after consulting Google, it seems that there home-made ROMs of some ghastly looking games that looks like it could induce seizures, but no original ROMs that I could find.

There are a couple of people who claim to own the original arcade game - one in its original cabinet and one in which it was installed into a different cabinet.

http://www.arcade-museum.com/members/game_census.php?klov_id=11344

When I was a youngster I got aura migraines on a few occasions after lengthy sessions playing games in my local video arcade. That a game could induce seizures is not impossible sounding to me that after a test run of a new game, it was pulled from arcades and the story turned into an exaggerated version about a military experiment that turned people suicidal or insane. Can't find much in the way of verifiable facts though which makes me think it's just another urban legend.

[kitty81]

beautiful word.. 'Polybius'.. .

[ReaperS_ParadoX]

http://en.wikipedia....cre#Video_games

video games make you kill! it's proven above!

It seems to me them playing those games was actually holding them back from committing crimes, but even so thats just the case in those 2 kids. Its not a majority, it even said some of the parents of the victims TRIED to file unsuccessful lawsuits. So that in no way is a majority, these kids were just off in the head