TIGSource: Polybius

Polybius

Derek Yu — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 06:13:00 +0000

Polybius is an urban legend – a mythical arcade game that supposedly appeared briefly in Portland, Oregon in 1981. According to the legend, the game was developed by a pseudo-company called Sinneslöschen (German for “sense-delete”), which was actually a front for the United States government. It’s said that men in black suits would come to collect “marketing data” while people played the game!

Players of Polybius purportedly experienced a variety of negative effects as a result of interacting with the game, including amnesia, insomnia, nightmares, and night terrors. Some went so nuts that they killed themselves… OOOooohhhhhh, scary!

Well, whether Polybius existed or not, it’s still pretty neat that some intrepid indie developers have created a fake version of it for the PC, based on internet descriptions of how the game played. And what is it like? Well, it’s basically a slow raping of your rods and cones disguised as a shoot ‘em up. Which isn’t really a condemnation of the game, since I find it to be fairly entertaining and plenty intriguing. Just don’t show this to any Japanese schoolchildren…

The gameplay involves rotating around a hexagonal base and shooting shapes that are launched from the base. On each of the outside “arms” is a circle with a number in it. In order to destroy the base and move on to the next level, you must reduce that number to zero by shooting certain special shapes that have numbers beside them… I dunno, read the readme for a full explanation!

This game really did kind of screw up my vision after a few playthroughs, so I would strongly suggest playing in moderation. Drugs may enhance your experience, or they may just cause you to freak out. Play at your own risk.

(Source: selectbutton.net)

"Polybius" by King-N

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:43:27 +0000

I can…see…my soul…

"Polybius" by simonc

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:28:54 +0000

We got Erin Mehlos to do an illustration for a Gamasutra article a couple of years back which is a great interpretation on the Polybius ‘theme’:

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050504/qotw-polybius.jpg

"Polybius" by Lackey

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:55:03 +0000

"Polybius" by !CE-9

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:20:16 +0000

stop subliminal messaging kthx

"Polybius" by Impregnator

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:07:00 +0000

Oh sorry Hev, that wasn’t the game.

"Polybius" by Raincoatduck

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:16:21 +0000

The story of it sounds like a premise of a Chuck Palahniuk story, especially with it happening in Portland.

"Polybius" by Hev

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:27:49 +0000

This game made me pregnant

"Polybius" by oof

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:19:34 +0000

…this game made me really dizzy.

"Polybius" by Stephen

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:19:09 +0000

I guess I have to make a post about this one, huh?

"Polybius" by Lackey

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 10:01:16 +0000

It would be nicer if it didn’t take 2 minutes to start every time.

"Polybius" by ptoing

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:44:13 +0000

Not that great a game imo. Gameplay is rather boring and it DOES do your eyes in after like 10 minutes.

And that all the screens outside actual gameplay are horizontal and the game itself in a supposedly vertical screen is quite odd..

/me pets his pivoting screen.

"Polybius" by fish

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:42:55 +0000

what a great story, and what an interetsing looking game. right up my alley.

but sadly, it dosent work. nothing ever works. i hate PCs.