Polybius

PRGE EXCLUSIVE: POLYBIUS CART FOR 2600

We have always had exclusive homebrew and prototype games released at the Expo and this year is no different. To kick off the release announcements for 2013 we have Polybius for the Atari 2600 by Lost Classics.

The legend is that an arcade game by the name of Polybius showed up in a suburb of Portland in 1981. The arcade operator had no idea where it came from as it was never ordered. Yet there it was in an arcade waiting for anyone who dared to give it a try. Players reported seizures and various psychological maladies including thoughts of suicide, depression, schizophrenia, increased stress and nightmares.

Despite the risks players felt addicted to the gameplay. This might have been in part because of subliminal messages which were put in the game. Some observers started to notice that the players were being watched by men dressed as government agents. Was Polybius a government project to control people through the then emerging medium of gaming? Was it put there to study if a game could cause players to go crazy?

No release of Polybius has ever been found...until now.

From Chris Trimiew of Lost Classics:

"I recently bought a large lot of various gaming hardware from a local electronics recycler. Among the items were some odd finds, including commodore 64 prototype boards, emulator cards for systems long forgotten, and even a bunch of sealed games from the early 80's. After days of digging through and cataloguing the items an Atari 2600 prototype was found. The label on the cart read "Polybius". I decided to make reproductions of it so that it could be shared with others. There will be 30 cartridges up for grabs in this exclusive first run at PRGE.

Here's a video showing gameplay of Polybius for the 2600:

Thanks to Chris for sharing this mysterious game with us. Get to the Lost Classic booth early to get your copy of this exclusive "reproduction"!

Visit the Lost Classics web site »

Please note: Parts of this story may or may not be not untrue.

Source:

www.retrogamingexpo.com (US)

The urban legend comes true! Polybius has a long and storied history. The game was said to have induced madness in players when it arrived in an arcade in Oregon in 1981. People reported seeing FBI agents around the game while players lined up to take a shot at the mysterious machine. Was it a government plot? Was it a hoax? Who knows!

The gameplay is similar to Tempest and features psychoactive elements for the player to discover. A fast and frantic game, Polybius lives on!

This cartridge was initially programmed and produced by Lost Classics for the 2013 Portland Retro Gaming Expo in a limited run of 30 hand numbered copies. We've decided to do one last small run of the game with a label variation to differentiate from the original run.

These carts will be numbered in the order that the pre-orders are received.

Note: This game uses the paddle controller.

Polybius on Wikipedia

Source:

www.lostclassicvgs.com (US)