Urban Legends and things: Polybius
Entry posted by Scanty Demon
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I'm a fan of urban legends, something about them is just really appealing can't explain why. I just find that stuff really cool. Now that doesn't mean I believe them 100% but I still find them fascinating. I did briefly talk about my interest in number stations so I'm gonna talk about a gaymin legend.
Polybius or the Cursed game
BRIEF OVERVIEW:
Polybius was a supposed arcade game made in the 1980s that was quite popular. Except it had some...adverse affects on players like causing headaches and other symptoms. There is some conflicting theories about what the gameplay of Polybius actually entailed. Even more eerie was the fact that BZP Lovers would then download the data from the game. It was quite addictive (though to be fair a lot of games are like that) and had very long lines just to play it. This went on for a month until all traces of the game were removed from the arcade.
Sounds fishy right? Well there may be some truth to it. For one thing in the 80s federal agents did investigate quite a few arcades (because of gambling not aliens). And there are actually reports of gamers getting sick from playing video games though due to playing them for a really long time. However please keep in mind that this does not confirm that the legend is true. Instead it just gives us some precedent or whatever.
MY VERDICT:
To be totally honest I'm skeptically of this actually existing but I'm optimistic. I have a thing for straight up weird things so it would be cool. However I will only change my stance if someone brings me an actual working cabinet and after playing it I do experience said side effects.
Please note that the reason for the data collection was for army training and to test the player's mental capacities. This is very similar to the plot of the 1984 moive The Last Starfighter in which a human is recruited to join the starfighters because of his mlg mad skillz at vidya gaemz. So the legend might just be someone liking the Last Starfighter too much.
Real or not it has left an impact on culture as it most famously appeared in an episode of the Simpsons and the Goldbergs as a background gag. If you'd like to see more of this weird stuff let me know in the comments or pm or smoke signal or morse code or whatever. I'm going include some more (read better links) so you can do your own research.
Remember I am only stating the information about the urban legend. I do not support or deny their existence, I only seek to post what is known.
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