I downloaded some game from online that was supposed to be the ROM of this. Aint, slept yet, but I haven't had any weird mental deals. Of course I don't believe this, and that game probly wasn't even really the original, but wow it was freaky. Things gradually slow down, the music is weird and it just randomly stops. I didn't but I could see how u could get a headache from that...weird. It's just another weird hoax to make ppl believe in freaky things.

What a great story. I just love the mind-control and men-in-black type stories.

As any relatively mild arcade geek might know, Tempest was originally a game where the tubes rotated and the player's "claw" stayed still. This was changed after it caused motion sickness to the tubes being stationary and the claw rotating, and apparently the Polybius name was just a prototype for Tempest. "Sense deleting" refers to a lead coders Herculean alcohol consumption. Someone clearly took the stories of a prototype game in Oregon causing motion sickness and added a load of Men in Black for good measure, before faking a ROM.

The whole "woke up at night screaming" thing sound silly. I think some people watched too much movies about kids dialing into NORAD's supercomputer from home.

But video games developed by a government organization is a reality. Take for example the popular video game America's Army developed by the U.S. Army as a recruiting tool.

I am aware that the secret service worked on the mind altering program with former members of Atari. Polybius was the Tempest prototype commonly called Vortex. Vortex was secretly released under the name Polybius with the mind altering cpu attached.

The existing ROM has been altered to LOOP MODE. ACCESS IS DENIED.

I cannot provide anymore information out of fear of being traced.

this game is definitely real, because i played it. right after i played it, i exploded. twice.

Ah, the memories of Polybius...

I was tracking discussions in various forums a few years back, but I had fallen out of it due to a lack of intelligent conversation about the topic. I've brushed back on it from time to time, but it's just become a fun story, one I thought had stopped being told by now, but it seems it still has a following... Perhaps I'll resume my position.

but if you want to hear something equally strange, check out this address...

http://www.archive.org/audio/netlabels.php

look for a link to something called "The Conet Project - Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations"

I like to imagine that Polybius is related to these transmissions, but you don't really think... do you??? The collection is 133 MB, and very much worth the download, just go there and find it and get it, and then... I dunno, do whatever you want.

Polybius is a stupid hoax made up by equally stupid people.

Once, I played Polybius, then, Freddy Kreuger popped out, and ripped out my trachea. So then I started to play the game again and suddenly a life sized cutout of Jared the subway guy attacked my dog and beat it to death. The arcade man tried to stop it, but he couldn't, but he knew who could: Bond, James Bond. So he called James Bond and told him to get his spy gear and get ready to attack an arcade game that was killing innocent pets/babies/children/astronauts. Polybius was looming over my placenta, when James Bond smashed into the arcade in his Aston-Martin DB5, and enlisted the help of Roger Rabbit. Roger Rabbit then in turn whipped out UZIs and tried to blow it back to Atari headquarters (curse you Nolan Bushell). Afterward, the game ripped out Roger Rabbit's intestines, and hung the arcade manager with them. So then all of these ninjas came over and stabbed James Bond with a double bladed Insuto Fish commando sword with a Tsun-Tai combo move. So, it then occured to me that I could unplug the machine, so I did, and it let out a horrible scream, then it dematerialized. But then, Amish people started to attack the arcade.

To be continued...

Polybius was a secret Government testing machine. Don't believe all of those wierdos who tell you otherwise. Besides, I'm really Government Agent A-113, and not some nerd sitting at a computer! MOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!

Lizard Man knows what Lizard man says and Lizard Man believes because Lizard Man is aware of the time of reckoning, and Lizard Man know the truth to Polybius, and Lizard Man will appear when the time is right until then Lizard Man waits in his Lizard Man habitat waiting for the Apocalypse.

One day, I was in Portland around 20 years ago. I was a Radical teen back then, so kids would always try to get me to do stupid things. But one day someone told me the story of Polybius , and I didn't believe it. So He offered me $20. So I tried it, but when I tried it I had nightmares. I cannot say any more because I fear I'm being traced.

I don't care if its true or not (actually to be honest i don't think its true at all) but i do have to say the post that lizard man and bo-shiggity wrote were hilarious.

i like legends/myths/hoax or what not because you can usually find humor in it.

thanks for the laughs XD

So the Amish were ravaging the arcade. Their were guts, blood, car parts, etc. all over the place (Messy, messy, messy!). So I whipped out my convieniently placed salami log (And I mean the sandwhich meat, you dirty, dirty, dirty perverts!), and held their leader hostage. But they had responded by kidnapping one of our own: Albert Brooks. So I let their leader go. But they didn't realize that I had rigged their leader with a 6 Megaton Hydrogen Bomb! I grabbed Albert Brooks, and my trusty jetpack, and flew away, to the planet of Coruscant. But little did I know, that they were following me with a fleet of flying DeLoreans! They shot me down somewhere over Prague, Czechoslovakia. Upon crashing, I was shocked to see a bunch of Czechoslovakianeeseianish people, running away. But when I looked up, it all made sense. They were being attacked by a giant Gojira monster! I started to fight it, but I realized: It had a mind control device on the back of its head. I freed the Gojira monster from it's trance, and it became my best friend. We were married later that day, but an old aqquaintance showed up without an invitation: Polybius!

To be continued...

you never know, some off-shoot military techs could have released some type of arcade cabinet and altered them to where the machines did creepy stuff that made kids scared and have nightmares. It's at least "possible." I believe that Polybius WAS real due to there being at least some evidence but we'll never know anything more about it as its probably locked in a dusty safe somewhere.

Hidden somewhere in the Polybius story (which is intriguing, even if it is b.s. - just like those weird shortwave numbers stations mentioned by Vornan Cuel) is a seed of truth. Some arcade-style game somewhere (maybe not Portland) created some kind of adverse effect in players. Sort of like the Pokemon cartoon that supposedly induced seizures. This is a fun urban legend to track down to its source; that's why the mystery won't go away.

Hello there.

My name is Steven Roach, one of five programmers based in the Czech Rupublic that put Polybius together almost twenty-five years ago.

I'm quietly enjoying all the Urban Myths and good-humoured Paranoia that has been spread liberally around the internet but I felt it was about time someone put the record straight, mainly because of the fake mock-ups and screenshots doing the rounds are a bit of a slap in the face to a game that should have been one of the guiding lights of the industry at the time.

My full statement is on coin-op.org. Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).


Steven

Um, I found the top-secret Internet version of Polybius and I am playing it right now! Who are you? I am just playing Pong, OK?



Uh, what's Polybius?
Where am I?

If you could tell me please let me know.

Loving the intelligent comments...

anyway, i came across the polybius story after a friend of mine, dave, tole me of his dream;

"I was in an asteroid field, but each asteroid was like a greek island, with villages etc on em. When i went past one, the villigers came out saying "We are being attacked by The Polybius". I went in, and i saw the most bizzare creature - it was simply your (my) head, with no body,. but with wings where the neck ended. It (I) flew past repetedly screaming "I am the polybius!". It flew so fast, that it could evade any arrows shot at it. So I (dave) got the Nexus Warrior, and he used the NExus Arrow which, when fired, split into an infinate arc of other arrows (barring a small cone around the nexus warrior). there were so many, that the polybius could not avoid them."

I AM THE POLYBIUS!

Statement from a member of their creative team (taken from coin-op.org):

by stevenroach. Comment: "I think it's about time I laid this to rest, however entertaining the speculation. My name is Steven Roach who is primarily based in the Czech Republic. Sinneschlossen was a company set up by myself and several oter mainly amateur programmers in 1978 that worked on component parts for Printed Circuit Boards that saw programming as a limited but very profitable sideline. We were approached around 1980 by a Southern American company that shall remain nameless for legal purposes to develop an idea they had for producing an Arcade Game with a puzzle element that centred around a new approach to Video Game Graphics.
The inspiried graphics combined with the puzzle elements and scintilating gameplay was something to behold - we playtested it for hours and hours and it certainly was an addictive game that was well loved professionally and recreationally by all that played it. The company couldn't have been happier and we all thought we were on the verge of something very special indeed. We then received a phonecall stating that the intense and engrossing gameplay of this new step was very much an unknown quantity so the game was put back several months due to divided opinion within their board of directors, much to our consternation for breaking our backs to finish it on time. We received heartening collated playtesting figures and were then told that the game would receive a temporary limited release which bouyed us significantly but shortly after, we received terrible news - a thirteen year old boy from the Lloyd District of Portland, Oregon had suffered an Epileptic Fit while playing the game, only six days after the machines had literally been installed. One of the senior employees that I knew very well contacted me to tell me that it caused immense ripples of panic throughout the company who were of the opinion that they had "created a monster" as such. It may sound laughable now but please bear in mind that this was 25 years ago when the Video Game Industry was in it's infancy. Every effort was made to withdraw the game from the public domain as quickly as possible but the scaremongering was already out in force and a lot of the children were queueing up or daring their friends to play this supposedly nightmarish game. Company Directors descended on the town to assess the situation which may account for these reports of "Strange Men in Black Suits hanging around" and the machines were often taken in daylight, causing minor but noticable incidents. As far as I was made aware, only seven machines were distributed around the area and no other health-related incidents were reported.
I'm sure people will doubt the sincerity of this so feel free to drop me a line at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) as I'm happy to answer any questions. Steven. " (2006-03-20 14:21:27Z)

http://www.coinop.org/g.aspx/103223/Polybius.html

He's also posted here, above.

Don't be silly the game did exist it was called Astroglobs not Polybus. It was invented by a programmer who's kid promptly got addicted and nearly starved himself to death spending to much time playing and not enough eating. All known copies were wisked away and delivered to the Govts secret Warehouse 23. (if you didn't know warehouse 23 is the super secret warehouse that contains every thing from the Holy Grail to the martian war machines its where the arc went at the end of Raiders). See Gurps Warehouse 23 for the real scoop 😊

Here you'll find some polybius-t-shirts: http://www.spreadshirt.net/shop.php?sid=30455&search;[text]=Polybius

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:fR6ZOdpyU4cJ:gorex.110mb.com/polybiusno.htm+polybius+ROM&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

thats the rom supposedly

I have played the orignal arcade game once. I experienced no desires to do anything except to play the game more. There is some subliminal messaging in but soley to make you want to play the game more. The new remake is designd to freak your freinds and after the subliminal messaging option in higher commands all the other options are fake.
The code for the higher options is 35-34-31-54-12-24-45-43 which is Polybius TM on a polybius square cipher. The orignial is real! Dreams of the game but zero nightmares. Slight paranoia remains...

the polybius-shirt is also available in the usa, now.
http://www.spreadshirt.com/shop.php?sid=20099&search;[text]=Polybius

actually i have jus downloaded the game from a reliable source and i dnt want to play it lol

So, just as the Gojira monster and I had finished exchanging vows, Polybius stood up in the audience, whipped out two gold-plated, 9mm lugers, and began shooting at me and my new bride. I hit the deck, but the Gojira monster was fatally wounded. Now it had become personal. I lunged at Polybius, but before I had made it 3 feet, it unleashed a squadron of 13 Jesse Jacksons at me, and quickly escaped to its conveniently parked dirrigible. The Jesse Jacksons swarmed in on me, kicking me, and threatening to blackmail me if I didn't hire 100 black workers for my non-existant company. One swift kick to the head from one of the Jacksons, and my vision began to fade...

TO BE CONTINUED (Don't worry folks, the wait won't be NEARLY as long this time)

Wow what a good story... Someone should make this into a film based on "real life" Wish I was a writer.

Just gose to show that computer games and the internet itself is creating there own Myths that are fact or fiction.

Sorry just going to look for Bigfoot

hi internet. my name is robert and i grew up in portland and im here to share to you my story with polybius.

it was in spring toward then end of my ninth grade year in 1981. i wasnt really an avid arcade player but i would go with some of my friends occasionally (one of whom was REALLY into videogames). anways we usually would ride our bikes down to the arcade. one day i remember going and seeing the arcade really busy. it was suprising especially since there was rarely many people in there. i remember being pissed off and telling my friend we should leave. he wanted to see what the fuss was about and so we checked it out.

the amount of people around of that machine was unbelievable. i cant remember how the arcade cabinet looked but i remember seeing this kid about 12 years old just staring wide eyed into the screen. every so often he would turn his head as to look away from the screen (i assume it hurt his eyes). he was pressing a button and moving a joystick. the sound was wierd and it was almost piercing (the beeps). i remember someone shouting to the kid that he wouldnt make it through the level. the line that followed was riduculous and me and my friend decided that we would come back the next day (early) to try it out. unfortunately i was grounded later that day and couldnt go back to the arcade for another week. by that time the machine was gone. my friend claims he tried it while i was grounded, but his stories are inconsistent. it was only years later that i heard stories about this game. ever since then i wish i had played it

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