Polybius is an urban legend about a rare arcade game released in 1981. The game was created by a mysterious company called Sinneslöschen (German for “Sense Deletion”) and was a puzzle/shoot-’em-up somewhat like Tempest. It was only released in a few suburbs of Portland, Oregon.
It was supposedly very popular, with people forming long lines to play it. However, players reported strange things about the game, such as hearing a woman crying and seeing grotesque faces out of the corner of their eyes. Players would also have nightmares, experienced nausea, headaches, blackouts or even develop amnesia. Some even committed suicide. Others stopped playing video games altogether and at least one became an anti-video game activist. According to one owner of an arcade, men wearing black suits would often come to collect “records” from the game.
They did not take any money, simply data on gameplay. Because of this, the leading theory is that it was some sort of government experiment using subliminal messages. The game remains in obscurity as around one month after its release, all of the cabinets suddenly disappeared. One cabinet reappeared in an arcade 1998, but quickly disappeared again. While some have tried to recreate the game, no one has ever found the original ROM.
Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius_(video_game)
35 Comments on 'Polybius'
You did really well on this , must have took you some time to do all the research for this creepy pasta. Job well done…….
what the heck? how did this got approved? (RIP 1000 influnce) this is not creepy at all, this is just information about a rare game and there is not even a story。
this is utter crap. i just read this exact article on wikipedia. nice cutting and pasting, mate.
i wonder why wood they want a ROM
This is not a pasta
I would like to learn more about polybius, it seems like a very interesting subject.
My uncle had all those side effects happen to him because he played the game but still living life 😀
I think that there could have been more of the describing and maybe a person describing the experience that they had and like haunting in every video game that they played after that.
this game did exist and was made by atari. I did some looking around and found a newspaper wkith a picture of the game. also, there is an atari game cartridge called polybius that cause seizures.
This is not a great thing. Why would you put this on a creepypasta site?! This is for scary stories, true or otherwise! Not old wive’s tales!
Although this isn’t an original, I still thought it was interesting.
But there could’ve been more details added.
Atleast you tried.
The truth behind this urban legend is actually quite interesting.
http://skeptoid.com/mobile/4362
I thought this one was actually quite “meh”. Not awful, and barely considered a creepypasta since it at least had the “creepy themes” like strange effects after playing a game and the actual reason why being unknown. I would actually consider that in the “creepy zone” right next to old people and the homeless. Not super scary, and it’s a video game pasta so not good in subject, and not good in length since it is a bit too short to have any real effect at all. So yeah, 2/5. Only because a 1 means i cringed and vomited at how terrible it was.
this is true and one man died of a heart attack after get a score w/ the same number as the mark of the beast
This doesn’t give me any scary feels.
Thanks for the information, but this isn’t a creepypasta. It could start a creepypasta, but it can’t stand on its own.
6/10
Wow this is a very terrible creepypasta or “copypasta.”
Fear the return of Arcade Games!!!!! uuuu~uuhh~hhh
Is it disturbing that I’ve seen this thing with my own eyes?
this is not even a story,just a copy from wikipedia
this is not even a story,just a copy from the creepypasta wikia (http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Polybius)
Interesting, may not be a story but its creepy information on a weird game. The government does some weird crap. Sounds like some sort of paranormal stuff. I now want to look into this.
How did this get approved while mine hasn’t even been looked at? This isn’t creepy.
This is not a story but more of a fact file its not fun to read and I might as well have went on wikipedia and searched up lynching
Copypastas are getting too common, and THIS ISNT EVEN A FUCKING PASTA! IT IS A COPY AND PASTE FROM WIKEPEDIA, AND IT HAS NO STORY!
Not even a story :/
I’ve heard this pasta before. It’s an original one. The incident it true.
Why is this on here? it’s just some infomation then a wikipedia link.
Good, but I think if you made a story on someone’s experience playing the game, and, what they when through it would be a little more entertaining.
Its scary only because it’s so awful. SHAME!!!
Not a creepy pasta,but still an intresting read.
Maybe next time you could write the story in the perspective of someone that played the game, making it a bit creepier. Its an interesting subject~
why is everyone so rude….
people are only rude because they have no idea what a ‘creepy pasta’ is and they think they do so they come here to tell you that you’re doing it wrong..
this is exactly a creepy pasta..
it piqued my curiosity.. the only bad thing is that li nk is not to the video game but more for different names for schools of fish.. but i am very very curious about this now !!