Polybius - The Video Game of Death

Polybius is an arcade video game from 1981 which is said to give players a variety of psychological side effects. The game supposedly gave players amnesia, insomnia, nightmares and even caused some people to commit suicide. Yes, you heard that correctly. Apparently, the game could drive people to commit suicide.

Did this game really exist? At the moment, there is no such evidence to suggest that this game ever existed. It is seen to be nothing more than an urban legend. But yet, some claim to have played the game and few have said to be involved in its development. Let’s look at the story in more detail.

It is said that Polybius started to appear in a few isolated video game arcades across Portland, Oregon in 1981. The type of game is somewhat disputed, some say the game was a space shooter similar to Tempest (a popular space shooter developed by Atari) or a puzzle game which involved mazes and problem solving. Although the game caused side effects in players, it was said to be extremely popular, and caused players to be almost addicted to it. It started to turn into a craze and people would queue for hours just to play. Sometimes people would even start arguments or fights over who had the next turn to play.

Every few days, the infamous men in black would show up at the arcades (they always seem to crop up in every conspiracy theory/weird story) and collect data from the machine. This data allegedly showed what psychological side effects the game had on players. In the long term, Polybius was said to cause people to stop playing video games and even cause some to become anti-gaming activists.

Apparently, the game was developed by a company called "Sinneslöschen" which if translated into English means "sense delete" or "sensory deprivation".

Approximately, only a month after the game was released in the arcades, the game was taken away, never to be seen again. Still to this day, no one has discovered a genuine Polybius machine. If you search the internet, you will find home built machines or forgeries, but nothing more. A few people have said to have found a machine, but these have never been proven to be true.

Today, people have created reproductions of what the game allegedly looked like, and you can even download some of them to play for yourself. 

Okay, so that's the story, now let’s look at some facts.

Do people get side effects from playing video games? Yes, some people experience nausea and headaches whilst playing video games for a long period of time. Also, some people who suffer with photosensitive epilepsy can have seizures when exposed to certain light patterns. However, these side effects are far from causing people to commit suicide. 

In 1981, an East German company called VEB Polytechnik created an arcade game called "Poly Play". The game was only released in East Germany and the exact number created is unknown, but very few exist today. It consisted of a total of eight different games, including an imitation of Pac-Man.

A Poly Play arcade machine

The game shares a very similar name to Polybius and was created by a German company, much like the apparent creator of Polybius, Sinneslöschen. Most people assume this is what the Polybius legend is based off. 

Also, the game is associated with the space shooter, Tempest. Why? Well, the prototype version of Tempest caused some people to have epileptic seizures whilst playing the game. 

Some people believe that Polybius was a US government mind control test, and they wanted to see how the game would influence people. But, has the US government ever carried out mind control experiments and projects? Yes, and on more than one occasion.

I'm sure most of you have heard of Project MKULTRA. This project was conducted by the CIA, and consisted of drug induced mind control experiments, typically using LSD and was carried out throughout the US in the 1950's.

Another project, and probably the most disturbing one, was called Project ARTICHOKE. Some of you might have heard of the film, The Manchurian Candidate. In the movie, a US soldier is turned into an unwilling assassin by using hypnosis and drugs. The soldier then has no prior knowledge of his killing. He turns into an assassin by seeing a queen of hearts playing card and once the killing is completed, he has no recognition of it.  

But, in short, the US did attempt to create a real Manchurian candidate. However, there is no evidence to suggest that they were ever successful. The goal of this project was to create an unwilling assassin and once triggered by a word, symbol or other stimulus would attempt to kill his/her designated target. Sounds crazy, right? But it did happen.

Getting back on track, let’s look at when this legend started. It started to circulate the internet in the early 2000's and at this time was the first most people had ever heard of the game. If the game really did exist, nobody seemed to mention it for over 20 years. That seems a little strange to me.

Did Polybius ever exist? Or is it just merely an urban legend? Some people don't think so, but most see it as a myth. Unless somebody finds a working machine or somebody provides adequate evidence, we may never know the answer to that question.

I hope you guys enjoyed this article! I know it’s something a little different from me, but I hope you were intrigued by what you read and learnt something new in the process. This is simply a one off thing and normal Jiu-Jitsu related posts will continue in the next few days.

Catch you later,

Giordano

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare... The Game Which Changed Everything

I told you not all the posts would be about Jiu-Jitsu!

 

Well if you couldn't already guess this post is about possibly the most influential video game ever made, and of course I'm talking about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (most often referred to as simply COD 4). This game set the standard for every FPS game which followed, and I mean in terms of campaign, multiplayer, game mechanics etc. Games like this come along now and again and totally revolutionize the entire genre, and this game spawned the infamous "COD Killer" slogan which is still used frequently as of today. If you have no idea what I'm talking about when I refer to "COD Killer", it simply means every major FPS game which comes out is a potential attempt overthrow Call of Duty's dominance over the FPS market and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the beginning of solidifying this dominance.

 

Now before I start, I want to make one thin absolutely clear! and that this is NOT a review of the game, but simply an acknowledgement of what made this game so great and how it changed the simply everything we now know about video games.

 

Prior to the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the Call of Duty franchise in my opinion was pretty decent, but not spectacular. The games before were all centered around World War II with popular series such as Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Brother in Arms etc, and Call of Duty was no exception. But Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare made that change to try something new and break away from what we came to expect from FPS games, and it did pay off due some truly spectacular features which we shall now discuss.

 

Probably the main reason this game became reached legendary statues was due to the games multiplayer, which was completely fresh and different from anything we had ever seen before. The game offered many different game modes on a variety of well designed maps, but the main stand out was the create a class system. This system offered the player to completely edit what weapons and abilities his player had. An example of the create a class system can be seen below:



Create a class menu

The choice of weapons on the game was also quite diverse with the player being able to choose from a selection of assault rifle, submachine guns (SMG), light machine guns (LMG), shotguns and sniper rifles for their primary weapons and a choice of four handguns for their secondary weapon. What weapons you choose was pretty much all dependent on your play style, but to be really competitive you should probably choose either an assault rifle or an SMG, and the ones I would recommend are as follows:

 

Assault Rifles

• M16A4 (W/ RDS)
• M4A1 (W/ RDS)
• AK-47 (W/ RDS)

Submachine Guns

• MP5 (W/ RDS)
• AK-74u (W/ RDS)
• P90 (W/ Silencer)

So why did I select these weapons? Well they are simply the best weapons in the game, and yes you can call me a try hard, but to get good at the game you should just use the best weapons available to you. So how do I know these are the best weapons in the game? Well through obviously trying them in real multiplayer matches, but also from watching professional MLG players play the game and seeing what classes they use. (a classic Call of Duty 4 MLG match can be found here if you guys are interested). Also, really the only worthwhile attachment you should use is the red dot sight (RDS), except for the P90 which is particularly well suited to the silencer. All of these weapons I selected have a good fire rate, high damage, and various degrees of low recoil.  

 

So what perks should you choose? Well you could really use any tier one perk, but I personally use bandolier as it benefits me the overall best, but for tier 2 and 3 perks, I would recommend:

 

Tier 2

• Juggernaut (Reduces incoming damage by 25%)
• Stopping Power (Increases bullet damage by 40%)
• UAV Jammer (Player becomes invisible against enemy UAVs)

Tier 3

• Deep Impact (Extra bullet damage when shooting through walls)
• Extreme Conditioning (Doubles players sprinting time)
• Steady Aim (Increases hip firing accuracy)
• Dead Silence (Foot steps are 75% more silent)

The selection of each of these perks is all dependent upon your exact play style, but I personally use stopping power and dead silence on all of my classes. So why do I use these? Well I use a headset when I play, so the ability to here my opponents footsteps and not my own is a HUGE advantage, so dead silence is really a no brainer for me. Also, I use stopping power for no other reason than you will secure kills much faster with the perk equipped. Finally, you should also choose stuns over flashes every time as you can throw stuns much quicker.

 

I think we are starting to get a little off topic right now, so lets get back on track!

 

Another reason for this game becoming so popular was the sniping cult which developed on the game, and I'm talking about quickscoping, trickshooting, people trying to get montage clips etc. The weapon of choice was of course the legendary M40A3 sniper rifle. Love it or hate it sniping was a massive part of this game, with people either using regular scopes or the ACOG scope which in fact is the only attachment available for each of the sniper rifles.  And of course who can forget the bounce shots! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then look here) What causes the bounce is a piece of the map which has not been rendered correctly. A lot of famous YouTube snipers gained major popularity due to this game, people such as zzirGrizz, Muzzafuzza, Hutch, OpTic Predator etc.   

 

The truth about this game however is nobody expected it to be massive, especially Infinity Ward the games developers. Most people expected this game to really blend in with all the rest of the FPS titles, but this game stood out like a sore thumb, due it's killer graphics, awesome campaign and storyline, exceptional map design, and phenomenal multiplayer. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is truly a class above the rest and has made Call of Duty franchise a worldwide phenomenon, and this game I consider  to be one of the greatest video games ever made!   

 

Catch you later,

 

Giordano

 

(Sorry for the lack of content as of late but I have been very busy with school)



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