Polybius: Fact or Fiction?

[Phan]

Polybius was alledgedlly an arcade game that caused amnesia, nightmares, and epilepsy. Men In Black would often be seen collecting data from the machine. Most people believe it was a hoax, others aren't too sure. What do YOU think?<p>P.S. I bet you all have heard about this a million times and are going to kill me for bringing it up again... <p>Here's some information on it (for those who have never heard the story):<br> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius_%28Game%29 <br> http://www.coinop.org/g.aspx/103223/Polybius.html <br> http://www.solidsharkey.com/polybius.html <br> http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/996/ <br>

[thriwren version 2]

Was ammusing, but is a pure hoax.

[Phan]

<blockquote>Was ammusing, but is a pure hoax.</blockquote> <p>I agree.<p>Anymore thoughts?

[Lord Khyron]

There is a arcade ROM with the same name, so I doubt it is a hoax.<p>Even in Japan, there were Arcade versions of NES hits that never came over here, some have never even been heard of. Same with PC ports. <p>Tempest did cause epilepsy for some people, It was my first arcade game. <p>P.S. Consider the fact of Phantasy star IV for the NES. If anyone had mentioned it, before the rom was found, you would have called it a hoax. But it's true. Just like the very rare NES versions of Wanderers from YS 3 and Valis. People also considered the Valis anime to be a hoax, but it does exist. <br><p>[size=small][Edit by Lord Khyron on [TIME]1127611181[/TIME]][/size]

[Phan]

<blockquote>There is a arcade ROM with the same name, so I doubt it is a hoax. </blockquote> <p>But do you also believe that Men In Black from a shadowy government agency came to collect data from the machine?<p>By the way, I just found an alledged photo of the said machine: http://www.demolitionman.org/images/polybius.jpg <p> <blockquote>P.S. Consider the fact of Phantasy star IV for the NES. If anyone had mentioned it, before the rom was found, you would have called it a hoax. But it's true. Just like the very rare NES versions of Wanderers from YS 3 and Valis. People also considered the Valis anime to be a hoax, but it does exist. </blockquote> <p>Is the Phantasy Satr IV NES rom a pirated version though? Could you give me a link to it?

[jherm]

"this game is definitely real, because i played it. right after i played it, i exploded. twice."<p>this is a comment on one of those articles. it pretty much sums up my feelings on this.

[Lord Khyron]

He could have exploded into a flurry of sparkles with his consciousness..<p>He just lacks the vocabulary to go that in depth..<p>But alot of rumored things actually turned out true.

[Damien 1234]

B.S. in my opinion.

[Phan]

Here's a an .exe file that claims to be Polybius: <p> http://www.gooddealgames.com/articles/Polybius/polybius.exe

[Lord Khyron]

Considering it's partially emulated in MAME, and freezes up on the start screen..<p>You can't fake a MAME rom that easily. Well can't fake a arcade board that easily.

[LaconianSandals]

My guess is that the myth is derived from Tempest's prototype, called Vortex causing motion sickness and vertigo. If I'm not mistaken Vortex originally worked on the system where the "Vortex" rotated and the claw stood still, which could give someone a headache. Maybe for some stupid reason the owner of the arcade made a booth for a game called Polybius and used the game for Vortex (Someone at an Arcade near my home did that with Silent Scope EX, calling it something else) for whatever personal reason (trying to avoid paing royalties or such? not too educated on this) and the rumors spawned from that. Anyway, I'm off to make a fake and creepy arcade machine and call it Polybius to see who will buy it.