Polybius

[[File:Polybius cabineta.jpeg|thumb|right|165px|A mocked-up ''Polybius'' cabinet.]]
{{title-italics}}{{folklore}}{{video games}}
'''''Polybius''''' is a fictional [[video game]]. According to [[urban legend]], the game showed up in Portland, Oregon and caused players to have various mental conditions. The first rumor about the game appeared on clickto.com then in coinop.org in February 2000 but it claimed the game was released in 1981.<ref>{{wpa|Polybius (video game)}}</ref><ref>[http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-urban-legend-of-the-governments-mindcontrolling-arcade-game The Urban Legend of the Government's Mind-Controlling Arcade Game], Natalie Zarrelli, Atlas Obscura, Apr 28, 2016</ref><ref name=eurogamer>[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-05-22-polybius-the-story-behind-the-worlds-most-mysterious-arcade-cabinet Polybius: The story behind the world's most mysterious arcade cabinet], EuroGamer, May 22, 2015</ref>  While the [[CIA]] has proven that they are not above [[MKULTRA|horrific psychological experiments on unsuspecting civilians]], this has been proven false numerous times by multiple historians and experts. [[Conspiracy theory|Conspiracy theorists]] claim it is part of [[MKULTRA]].<ref name=eurogamer/>

==Debunked== 
A simple video game can not induce a mental condition, and video games, as long as you are sane, have no effect on the mental state of the player (though a game with specific light patterns could induce epileptic seizures in a susceptible person, or induce [[hallucination]]s in someone who plays a game continuously to the point of [[sleep]] deprivation).

EuroGamer attributed the legend to stories about gamers falling ill in the early 1980s after playing games such as ''Asteroids'' and ''Berzerk'' non-stop for 24 hours or longer, while noting that conspiracies about video games were a prominent part of the 1984 movie ''The Last Starfighter'' (in which [[Extraterrestrial|aliens]] use video games to recruit space pilots). However even EuroGamer notes there is a problem in the time delay from the early 1980s to the first documented mention of the legend.<ref name=eurogamer/>

The legend does have some (very small) basis in reality: there were cases of stomach discomfort (due to both anxiety and drinking too much Coke), migraine headache, epileptic seizures, police raids in arcades (due to illegal gambling), sale of stolen goods and drugs, and truancy.<ref name="skeptoid">"[https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4362 Polybius: Video Game of Death]", [[Skeptoid]].</ref> The [[United States]] military uses video games for training its soldiers.<ref name="skeptoid"/> There were also [[East Germany|East German]] vídeo game arcades, known as ''Poly Play'', based on [[piracy|pirated]] [[Russia]]n CPUs, which were themselves pirated versions of Western games, which weren't wonders of engineering; due to these reasons, they were recalled after the [[Berlin Wall]] fell.<ref name="skeptoid"/>

The [[YouTube]]r Ahoy did an exhaustive search for the origin of the Polybius myth and concluded that it all centered around  [https://web.archive.org/web/20000303224844/http://clickto.com/coinop/GamePage/Polybius.html a coinop.org page] created sometime on or shortly before 6 Feburary 2000<ref>The 8/3/1998 12:00:00 AM date at the bottom of the page appears to be a default value added between April 29 and Aug 10, 2003</ref> and was brought to the general public's attention in the GamePro #180 (Sept 2003) article "Secrets and Lies".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7X6Yeydgyg POLYBIUS - The Video Game That Doesn't Exist]</ref>  He also reasoned that people remembering seeing information on Polybius on Usenet in 1994 were actually remembering the Pink Floyd-related {{wpl|Publius Enigma}} internet phenomenon.

The Angry Video Game Nerd went over the Polybius story before going into what amounts to a creepypasta.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4hktqhBpzY Polybius - Angry Video Game Nerd (Episode 150)]</ref>

==Bonuses==
The name of the supposed manufacturer of the game, ''Sinneslöschen'', is nonsensical German for "sensory deprivation" or, more literally, "sense delete";<ref name="skeptoid"/> alternatively, it could be intended to mean "nonsense"?

{{wpl|Polybius}} was a [[Greek]] [[History|historian]] who wrote ''The Histories'', invented the Polybius square in [[cryptography]],<ref name="skeptoid"/> and was known for his assertion that historians should never report what they cannot verify through interviews with witnesses.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Polybius Polybius] on Encyclopedia Britanica.</ref>

==Actual game==
There have been several games that have used the Polybius name and have either presented as recreations of what might have been or as the actual game.  

One of the homage games is at [http://sinnesloschen.com/ sinnesloschen.com] and was created in DarkBasic by [http://www.roguesynapse.com/ Rogue Synapse], a group that specializes on the recreation of fictional games.  This version has been used in "discovery" videos of a Polybius cabinet.

In 2016, legendary game designer Jeff Minter announced plans for a game called ''Polybius''.<ref>[http://www.polygon.com/2016/10/7/13207530/polybius-jeff-minter-playstation-vr-ps4 Polybius, the arcade game of urban legend, is coming to PlayStation VR], Polygon, Oct 7, 2016</ref>

==See also==
*[[Deep web]]
*[[Internet assassination]]
*[[Red room]]

==External links==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDXSr8jjpVk Game Theory: Polybius, MK Ultra, and the CIA's Brainwashing Arcade Game]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOEiA6OK9Eo Polybius: Behind the Urban Legend]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7X6Yeydgyg POLYBIUS - The Video Game That Doesn't Exist]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Urban legends]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Horror]]

Categories: Conspiracy theories, Urban legends, Video games, Horror