Was it real?
>>12572618No
>>12572618Yes
>some arcade manufacturer had a proto cab they moved out to an arcade in East Cousinfuck, Missouri as a test one week in 1982>after the test was done they removed the cab>Coast to Coast AM listeners decide there was some top secret conspiracy and aliens were probably involvedAnd that's the story of what likely happened with Polybius.
>>12572618Poly(sexual)Bi(sexual)US(A)
>>12572618https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7X6YeydgygNah. This guy effectively ended any doubts about it. Seems it started as a fake page on Coinop.org by Kurt Koller, and then people went wild trying to connect it with somewhat related incidents in the past. Like the FBI monitoring arcades or reports of people getting sick from playing a game in Portland in the early 80s.>fbi raiding arcade sourceStreckert, Joe (2020). Storied & Scandalous Portland, Oregon: A History of Gambling, Vice, Wits, and Wagers. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 171.>kid getting sick playing asteroidshttps://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19811129&id=arRQAAAAIBAJ&pg=6688,7639998https://lowendbox.com/blog/polybius-the-most-dangerous-arcade-game-ever-made-a-deep-dive-into-some-arcade-lore/>Several actual events likely contributed to the Polybius legend:>In 1981, a player in Portland, Oregon collapsed after playing the arcade game Tempest, which used strobing vector graphics. Later, in the same arcade, a kid was forced to stop a 28-hour Asteroids run after severe stomach cramps. There’s the “seducing kids” and “messing with their minds” bit.>Ten days later, the FBI raided several Portland arcades to investigate illegal gambling and pirated software. (The FBI doesn’t investigate drugs. That’s the DEA, and I’ve never read that the DEA was investigating arcades. It was the 80s and they already had their hands full). The FBI made 52 arrests in Portland arcades in 1981, and 25 arrests in a single arcade. Men in black, anyone?>The Cold War-era fear of government mind control programs like MK-Ultra made people more willing to believe such experiments could happen.
>>12572632And the most important link, the original source of the storyhttps://www.coinop.org/game/103223/polybius
>>12572638The page itself might have some mysteries, actually. Like an ARG sort of thing where the text contains a secret message. Polybius ciphers are a thing, after all, and it had anomalies like misspelled words that may be intentional.https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/65447/is-there-a-hidden-message-this-old-polybius-listingOr maybe it's just another layer of fucking with people to make it seem more mysterious by adding the suggestion of a hidden message without actually including any? Who knows, nobody has found anything to my knowledge. One of the comments on the Coinop page links to an ARG style site, as mentioned in that stackexchange link.>For what it's worth, the last comment from "Sinnesloeschen" points to a site. When I open it (web.archive.org/web/20091222084744/http://6152410.ath.cx:80) it on Wayback Machine and select "View frame source", an invisible text shows up: "Portions of program materials and resources Copyright (C) Alan Memorial Institute 1953-1973; Ewan Cameron 1967, University of Oregon Department of Psychology, 1979-1981; Sinneslöschen Group AG, 1980-1981; Concordia Research Institute 2004-2007, Universidad De Puerto Rico, 2005-2007." (there's more) – >Nautilus Commented May 7, 2018 at 18:41
>>12572618just an urban legend based off of cube quest
>>12572618From what I remember no one ever actually believed it, it was just something that made for fun discussions. I'm guessing youtube has distorted the history on this.
>>12572651Kurt Koller, creator of the article, also sent Ahoy (documentary creator) a message saying something like "the wording of the page is very specific." Along Polybius squares being a hidden message thing, and anomalies like intentional misspellings like "disappeard" (e has been deleted, company means "sense deletion") and the update using Kyiv instead of Kiev before that was popular (removing the e).It's all suggestive of a hidden message or ARG thing, but I can't tell. Maybe it's all just part of fucking with people by making it suggestive of a mystery without actually having an answer - thus driving people insane like the story of the game.
>>12572618As real as you being old enough for the 4chin
>>12572965Well I'm 30...
Erm... I have some bad news...
>>12573078>2017not retro :)
>>12572618Don't be ridiculous
>>12573078Based Jeff Minter
>>12572618No it wasn't real. It's best to just forget about it.
>>12572624/thread
>>12573078and you know Minters version would be better than the original anyway
>>12572620So much happening in a single image. This is what your friends claim you're missing by not hanging out with them that one time.
I dunno, but the movie about it is real.
>>12573058>Well I'm 30...But of course you are sweaty
>>12576638people born in the year 2000 are closer to their 30s than their 20s, sister
>>12576671You will never be retro.
