View Full Version : What's up with Polybius?
Sylentwulf
11-12-2003, 02:47 PM
Never even heard of this up until today, anyone know any backstory or anything else about this?
http://coinop.org/g.aspx/103223/Polybius.html
BHvrd
11-12-2003, 02:50 PM
Oh, oh, I gotta play this! :evil:
Here's a little more fuel for the fire:
http://www.geocities.com/prg017/index.html
hmmm, that guy sure can spell!
zmweasel
11-12-2003, 03:04 PM
Never even heard of this up until today, anyone know any backstory or anything else about this?
http://coinop.org/g.aspx/103223/Polybius.html
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/roundup.asp
An amusing myth, nothing more.
-- Z.
Darth Sensei
11-12-2003, 03:16 PM
I love the Snopes website. One of the best on the net.
D
Sylentwulf
11-12-2003, 04:26 PM
But was there ever an actual game named polybius?
zmweasel
11-12-2003, 04:39 PM
But was there ever an actual game named polybius?
Doh!! No, there wasn't. Read the Snopes link again. And, hey, I got this bridge in Brooklyn I wanna sell you...
-- Z.
Phosphor Dot Fossils
11-12-2003, 06:06 PM
I think I'll hack an Odyssey2 game's sprites and retitle the resulting mongrel dog of a game "POLYBIUS!"
The excitement of a game. The mind of a computer. The mind control of the CIA and the Illuminati combined. You'll love the Odyssey2. Because you MUST love it. We command it.
Great new sales pitch eh?
Zaxxon
11-12-2003, 08:07 PM
POLYBIUS is the hidden game in RE2. You just need to beat the game in under 2 hrs using just the knife. I read it in EGM.
TheRedEye
11-12-2003, 09:17 PM
Lost Levels has received about four emails requesting that we cover that game. No joke.
Sylentwulf
11-13-2003, 07:58 AM
Doh!! No, there wasn't. Read the Snopes link again. And, hey, I got this bridge in Brooklyn I wanna sell you...
-- Z.
Just for the record, snopes doesn't say anywhere that there was never a game called polybius, just that the hype was untrue, it also says something about high score initials from missile command, but that doesn't mean missile command never existed.
Arcade Antics
11-13-2003, 10:11 AM
Not that it hasn't already been said, but...
Polybius is a complete and total hoax.
zmweasel
11-13-2003, 12:36 PM
Just for the record, snopes doesn't say anywhere that there was never a game called polybius, just that the hype was untrue, it also says something about high score initials from missile command, but that doesn't mean missile command never existed.
Here's what the Snopes link says:
No arcade game called Polybius induced amnesia, caused gamers to wake up screaming in the middle of the night, or attracted the attention of mysterious "men in black" who periodically came to "collect records" from Portland-area machines. This one is just a gag someone invented several years ago which has now become enshrined on the web, another version of the conspiracy rumors involving military intelligence agents visiting arcades to collect stored information from game consoles which date to at least the early 1980s. (Back then we were supposed to watch out for men in black who came around to take down the initials of high scorers at Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Defender.)
You claimed a reference to Missile Command, but there isn't one, which makes me think you're not reading for comprehension.
The crucial sentence:
This one [Polybius] is just a gag someone invented several years ago...
How do you interpret that sentence as meaning anything but "There's no such game as Polybius"?
-- Z.
Oh, oh, I gotta play this! :evil:
Here's a little more fuel for the fire:
http://www.geocities.com/prg017/index.html
hmmm, that guy sure can spell!
I think I did, but I don't know where, or when.
Who am I?
How did I get here?
What's going on?
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Sylentwulf
11-13-2003, 04:22 PM
The crucial sentence:
This one [Polybius] is just a gag someone invented several years ago...
How do you interpret that sentence as meaning anything but "There's no such game as Polybius"?
-- Z.
This one [this false story] is just a gag someone invented several years ago....
That's how I interpret it, since if you take it as you wrote it, then someone invented the game polybius several years ago, meaning it does exist, therefor nullifying your argument.
zmweasel
11-13-2003, 04:51 PM
The crucial sentence:
This one [Polybius] is just a gag someone invented several years ago...
How do you interpret that sentence as meaning anything but "There's no such game as Polybius"?
-- Z.
This one [this false story] is just a gag someone invented several years ago....
That's how I interpret it, since if you take it as you wrote it, then someone invented the game polybius several years ago, meaning it does exist, therefor nullifying your argument.
Unfortunately, your interpretation of that sentence (and that entire paragraph) is incorrect. You're still not reading for comprehension, alas.
At least you now know that Polybius is a hoax, and I'm sure you'll be more skeptical in the future, which is great. There can't be enough skepticism in the world.
-- Z.
Sylentwulf
11-13-2003, 07:05 PM
Of course I was incorrect, as shown by your stunning display of evidence proving me so. I'm glad at least one of us can come away from this topic a little wiser. Although my original post was intended to find out if polybius was an actual arcade game, not a google-esque search to see if the rumor was true or not (Which I was already well aware of) and my original questions as to wether the game actually existed or not still remains unanswered.
One of us is wiser for having done this post. We have a new depreciation of yet another board member to chalk up to our list.
SoulBlazer
11-13-2003, 08:09 PM
Oh, brother, not again. :roll:
No, the game never DID exist, does not NOW exist, and never WILL exist, unless someone wants to make a gag game with that title. LOL
Happ now? :D
zmweasel
11-13-2003, 11:21 PM
If you really were "well aware of" the information about this nonexistent game, and already done your own "Google-esque search," you never would have started this thread at all, because you would've already figured out that Polybius doesn't exist. Your question HAS been answered, over and over again.
I don't "depreciate" you, but I am confused why you've become so hostile toward me after I addressed your question and gave you the credible, reliable source from which I obtained my answer.
-- Z.
lendelin
11-14-2003, 01:53 AM
I can't believe you guys even seriously discuss this topic.
Of course Polybius exists, the company which created this game was "Sinnesloeschen"; it's German for Erasing Senses; therfore it must be true. A secretive corporate or governemnt conspiracy makes always dumb mistakes like that, they want to keep something top secret, and then they give it away.
I played this game in a bar in Germany in the 80s. I saw the arcade machine, remembered how much fun it was to read Polybius (who wrote a very modern version about the seperation of powers, btw), and I started to play. I remember only a big pink alien on the screen, then I had a blackout...I dunno...I can't remember a thing what happened. The next morning I woke up in a bed, and beside me was a beautiful woman, who said: This was the best sex of my life, you are my hero. Right there I knew something was fishy because all the women I slept with made fun of me afterwards. This women turned out to be Farah Fawcett.
Since then I know Polybius isn't merely an urban myths, and I know that Farah Fawcett is actually an alien, green, pink, I don't care, it just freaks me out. I tried to warn the world, but noone listens.
If I disappear after posting this, please tell the world my story.
I swear to God it's true, it really happened.
spoon
11-14-2003, 06:18 AM
I can't believe you guys even seriously discuss this topic.
Of course Polybius exists, the company which created this game was "Sinnesloeschen"; it's German for Erasing Senses; therfore it must be true. A secretive corporate or governemnt conspiracy makes always dumb mistakes like that, they want to keep something top secret, and then they give it away.
I played this game in a bar in Germany in the 80s. I saw the arcade machine, remembered how much fun it was to read Polybius (who wrote a very modern version about the seperation of powers, btw), and I started to play. I remember only a big pink alien on the screen, then I had a blackout...I dunno...I can't remember a thing what happened. The next morning I woke up in a bed, and beside me was a beautiful woman, who said: This was the best sex of my life, you are my hero. Right there I knew something was fishy because all the women I slept with made fun of me afterwards. This women turned out to be Farah Fawcett.
Since then I know Polybius isn't merely an urban myths, and I know that Farah Fawcett is actually an alien, green, pink, I don't care, it just freaks me out. I tried to warn the world, but noone listens.
If I disappear after posting this, please tell the world my story.
I swear to God it's true, it really happened.
Dude, did the President ask you to have a cheeseburger with him afterword?