Let's discuss: Polybius

The format of these posts is simple: let's discuss a specific game or series!

Let’s discuss Polybius. What was the first time you played this timeless classic? What version of the game do you like most? Feel free to share any thoughts that come up, or react to other peoples comments. Let's get the conversation going!

If you have any recommendations for games or series for the next post(s), please feel free to DM me or add it in a comment here (no guarantees of course).

Previous entries: Tetris, Telltale Games, Kirby, LEGO Games, DOOM, Ori, Metal Gear, Slay the Spire

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For anyone who doesn't know, Polybius is an urban legend about a government experiment in the form of an arcade game set up in Portland.
Here's the wiki article.
Polybius is a fictitious 1981 arcade game from an urban legend. 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.
It's a fun tale though, and there are some good articles and video essays on it.

I remember playing this every day at the arcade. We were talking earlier about Tetris, but this was immersion on another level. I saw my life in those graphics and understood the universe. Sadly, after one month the machine must've broken down, because it was shipped away for repairs, never to return again...
- Full story with proof here: https://youtu.be/_7X6Yeydgyg
  TD;LR: It never existed.
  
  That is the same link as I posted in the original post ;).

One of the arcades in the town I grew up in had one of these, for a short time. I never played it (I was young enough to not be interested) but saw some of the older kids playing it. Pretty soon afterwards my dad forbid (forbade?) me from that arcade, because he heard that's where they sold "drugs". I never made the connection until just now. Pissed me off, because that arcade had Robotron.
- I played it occasionally but, as you said, it wasn't very interesting game for young children. I guess it was interesting only subconsciously (the vivid dreams I mentioned in the other comment). Maybe it would have been fun game if I were an adult at the time.

Ooh, I remember emulating it a long time ago; when I finished the last stage, Super Mario appeared, said "Thank you so much-a for to playing-a my game" and sucked my dick. Wanna play the original arcade cabinet eventually; some of my acquaintances who played it said that it was supposed to be Abraham Lincoln instead of Super Mario
- Gib ROM :3
  
  I believe I downloaded it from https://cucking.men

I have so many memories with this game but I had to quit because of the notorious headaches. There were plenty of flashing lights in arcade games in those days but the way they flashed in Polybius was part of the challenge. I guess having to focus on the lights to play the game caused the headaches but I don't know. It was always the busiest cabinet at my arcade so at least I saved myself a lot of time. It wasn't around for long but I can't really remember much about my life other than this game from back then so I couldn't say even how old I was when it was out. The friends I would take turns with back then don't even know what I'm talking about when I bring this game up. It was a long time ago I guess.

We didn't really have arcade in our town but there were some coin-operated games around. I think it wasn't very long period of time they had Polybius but I remember playing it occasionally during that time. I was quite young so I didn't fully understand the gameplay and can't really recall any elements of it anymore. Only thing I do remember is I used to have vivid dreams about it when I hadn't played it for a while. That sort of made me interested to play it again every once in a while. Though I must have been terrible at that game so I don't know why I even tried it that many times.
I didn't really thought about it when they had changed the machine to different one. I would rather play the Street Fighter II or whatever they had put there instead because it was much easier game to understand. There have been occasional dreams I've had much later in my life about this game but other than that I don't really think about it. Sometimes after having that kind of vivid dream I do think for a while that it would be nice to give it a try again but I don't know if they have the game anywhere or if it's possible to emulate via MAME.

We all want Polybiussy

What's there to discuss? It didn't happen.
That said the Jeff Minter Polybius is wack.
- While this is clearly a April 1st joke (thanks, I hate it!), the video is certainly worth a watch. Ahoy doing outstanding content, as always.

What a funky new font you got there, pretty hard to read the title. It's like the letters are shuffling around like SIBYL or PLOY or US BIO something.
Anyway, that game doesn't exist. I would know, I played all the arcade games they had in the area when I was a kid. It was pretty fun and harmless until they took it away. Never seen one. The game didn't even start yet.
What a fun hoax it was. They will be very amused.

17 comments