WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.339 You are now listening to Cryptid Cocktail Party. 00:00:40.469 --> 00:00:42.469 Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of 00:00:42.469 --> 00:00:43.929 Cryptic Cocktail Party, a show where we have 00:00:43.929 --> 00:00:45.710 a few drinks, share a few laughs, take a dive 00:00:45.710 --> 00:00:47.890 into the unknown. I am your host, Dave, joined 00:00:47.890 --> 00:00:50.950 once again by my wonderful co -host, Sarge. How's 00:00:50.950 --> 00:00:53.670 it going, Sarge? Holy shit, I missed you. Never 00:00:53.670 --> 00:00:57.369 let me take vacation again. Well, how was it? 00:00:57.450 --> 00:00:59.590 Did you have a good time, at least? Yeah, yeah, 00:00:59.649 --> 00:01:01.450 I had a blast. I was up in New Hampshire, land 00:01:01.450 --> 00:01:06.349 of cheap cigarettes and alcohol outlets, state 00:01:06.349 --> 00:01:09.599 -run alcohol dispensaries. Yeah, right on all 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:12.680 the major highways leading in and out of the 00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:17.500 state. Yeah, just please buy our alcohol. They 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:20.599 got a death grip on the sale of it. I believe 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:23.319 you can only buy beer and wine from private places. 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:25.980 You have to buy alcohol direct from the state. 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:29.379 Yeah, well, liquor. Yeah, you can buy beer and 00:01:29.379 --> 00:01:31.659 wine pretty much anywhere. It's just hard liquor 00:01:31.659 --> 00:01:36.069 you have to get from. a sanctioned state -run 00:01:36.069 --> 00:01:39.370 supply store. And I'm blown away at the amount 00:01:39.370 --> 00:01:42.069 of discount cigarette stores you can find up 00:01:42.069 --> 00:01:45.129 there. Oh yeah, dude. New Hampshire loves two 00:01:45.129 --> 00:01:48.590 things. It's cigarettes and booze. But I mean, 00:01:48.590 --> 00:01:50.310 hey, it gets cold. That's right. What else are 00:01:50.310 --> 00:01:52.549 you going to do? And like the third thing you 00:01:52.549 --> 00:01:54.709 guys seem to really enjoy is the concept of a 00:01:54.709 --> 00:01:57.069 general store, a place where you can buy a pickle 00:01:57.069 --> 00:02:00.709 and a revolver in the same building. Yeah. I 00:02:00.709 --> 00:02:02.870 mean, do you not have those in Massachusetts? 00:02:04.420 --> 00:02:07.840 We do, but New Hampshire seems to have most of 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:10.520 them. Yeah, that's fair. You know, we like to 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:14.080 keep things simple, rustic, you know. I got no 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:15.979 problem with it. Back when America was great. 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:20.580 You know it's a good general store when you can 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:22.960 walk in and find cheese that is 12 years old 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:25.199 on purpose. It wasn't like accidentally left 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:28.500 there in a barrel. An old wooden barrel that 00:02:28.500 --> 00:02:30.419 you can just reach in and grab a pickle out of. 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:31.819 Oh, yeah, dude. Barrel pickles are always the 00:02:31.819 --> 00:02:33.699 best, too. You can't go wrong with a good barrel 00:02:33.699 --> 00:02:38.780 pickle. They are the best. Well, I'm glad you 00:02:38.780 --> 00:02:41.520 had a good time, man. I'm glad. I loved it. I 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:43.060 love New Hampshire. It's one of my favorite places. 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:47.599 Awesome. Yeah, I am currently fighting for my 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:50.740 life. I am sick as fuck right now. I know. You 00:02:50.740 --> 00:02:53.780 don't sound yourself. I feel like my head's going 00:02:53.780 --> 00:02:56.759 to explode. I probably have COVID again. I work 00:02:56.759 --> 00:02:58.180 in a fucking petri dish. Yeah, you got the sniffles 00:02:58.180 --> 00:03:00.639 a little bit. Yeah. If I sneeze, I'm not going 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:03.240 to edit it out, but I will just bleep it out 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:06.599 because I think that's way funnier. What you 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:08.360 should do is instead of bleeping it out, you 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:12.900 should insert a car horn. Like an old -timey, 00:03:12.900 --> 00:03:15.120 like a wooga one? Oh, like a clown horn? That'd 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:17.319 be even better. Oh, that could be good. Yes! 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:23.270 Yeah. We'll figure it out. All right, Sarge. 00:03:23.270 --> 00:03:25.810 Before we begin, I just want to real quick give 00:03:25.810 --> 00:03:28.550 a huge shout out to Chris Collari from Scared 00:03:28.550 --> 00:03:30.750 All the Time and Brennan Storr from the Ghost 00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:32.449 Story guys for filling in for Sarge while he 00:03:32.449 --> 00:03:35.889 was gone. I appreciate it. I'm sure Sarge appreciates 00:03:35.889 --> 00:03:39.009 it as well. It was a huge help making sure that 00:03:39.009 --> 00:03:42.909 the show kept going in his absence. So thank 00:03:42.909 --> 00:03:46.310 you to them. Yeah, thanks for covering for me, 00:03:46.330 --> 00:03:51.560 guys. I apologize. For what? uh for making them 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:55.699 do my job for me no they didn't mind hopefully 00:03:55.699 --> 00:03:58.280 they had a good time all right sarge are you 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:01.360 ready to get into today's episode fuck yeah i 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:05.400 am let's do this i'm refreshed and ready so today 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:07.699 we're gonna be talking video games something 00:04:07.699 --> 00:04:11.780 we both love and enjoy oh yeah i went to fun 00:04:11.780 --> 00:04:14.680 spot up in new hampshire because of my love of 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:17.360 video games the largest arcade in the world One 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:19.420 of the best. It's definitely, what is it, four 00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:23.600 stories? No, it's like three stories, I think, 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:27.600 and it's just full of every video game. Some 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:29.560 video games you probably don't need to have there, 00:04:29.639 --> 00:04:32.220 but it's many video games. That's valid. Well, 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.649 as I'm sure you were aware. Back in the early 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:37.009 80s, hell, even up to like the early 90s, arcades 00:04:37.009 --> 00:04:39.350 were like a huge deal. Like everyone went to 00:04:39.350 --> 00:04:42.990 arcades. Kids, teens, adults. It was a huge cultural 00:04:42.990 --> 00:04:46.350 moment all across the country. Like the world, 00:04:46.529 --> 00:04:48.970 really. It was a place for everyone to come and 00:04:48.970 --> 00:04:51.230 have a good time. And for the most part, it was 00:04:51.230 --> 00:04:53.449 a place for kids to go and like stay out of trouble. 00:04:53.569 --> 00:04:55.129 Like keep them off the streets. You know, if 00:04:55.129 --> 00:04:56.990 they're in the arcades, they're not running rampant 00:04:56.990 --> 00:05:00.310 in packs through the streets of whatever city 00:05:00.310 --> 00:05:02.360 you happen to be in. Yeah, of course. Do you 00:05:02.360 --> 00:05:05.060 remember Dream Machine? I do remember Dream Machine. 00:05:05.480 --> 00:05:07.959 It was like a chain of arcades. I still have 00:05:07.959 --> 00:05:10.519 a Dream Machine token somewhere. There was a 00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:12.240 Dream Machine in the Fox Run Mall. I fucking 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:14.420 love that place. There was a Dream Machine down 00:05:14.420 --> 00:05:16.319 the street within walking distance from my house 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:20.939 up until about six months ago. Really? That recently? 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:25.540 Yeah. It was like the only thing still thriving 00:05:25.540 --> 00:05:27.639 in a failed shopping mall that they just recently 00:05:27.639 --> 00:05:32.000 closed. That is wild to me. I mean, I guess it 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:33.579 makes sense. I feel like if you brought arcades 00:05:33.579 --> 00:05:35.879 back now, they would probably go do gangbusters. 00:05:35.959 --> 00:05:38.759 I feel like everyone's like nostalgia is really 00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:40.160 big right now. I feel like if you brought them 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:42.879 back, like I think you might. Yeah. Well, I feel 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:44.500 like they did bring them back because you got 00:05:44.500 --> 00:05:47.160 like Dave and busters. Yeah. But also, I mean, 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:49.680 but also now you have like barcades. Like I feel 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:51.980 like barcades are huge right now. Like you got. 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:54.860 Right. Was it Barcadia National Park or whatever 00:05:54.860 --> 00:05:56.980 the fuck that one's called? There's tokens in 00:05:56.980 --> 00:06:00.639 Dover, New Hampshire. They're everywhere. Tokens 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:02.220 is more like pinball, I feel like, but that's 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:04.399 still whatever. Yeah. It's crazy though. There's 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:06.180 arcade. I mean, if you go to, to where beach 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:08.439 up in New Hampshire, where I was on vacation, 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:12.420 there are three arcades all, all within like 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:14.920 maybe a hundred feet of each other. Yeah. Arcades 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:16.980 were huge. I mean, like I said, they're not as 00:06:16.980 --> 00:06:20.420 big as they were now. Cause you know, right we 00:06:20.420 --> 00:06:23.160 have fucking xbox and ps5s but yeah of course 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:25.939 at the time like arcades were a huge fucking 00:06:25.939 --> 00:06:28.480 deal well yeah because you you needed a giant 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:31.660 cabinet to house your video game yeah and so 00:06:31.660 --> 00:06:34.779 putting it in a huge retail space was the only 00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:36.699 way to get enough of them together to make it 00:06:36.699 --> 00:06:39.860 worth your while yeah but in 1981 a story started 00:06:39.860 --> 00:06:42.259 circulating out of portland oregon about an arcade 00:06:42.259 --> 00:06:45.250 cabinet that was unlike any of the others Nestled 00:06:45.250 --> 00:06:48.569 among the familiar titles like Pac -Man, Galaga, 00:06:48.730 --> 00:06:52.629 Asteroids, a new cabinet showed up. Plain black, 00:06:52.870 --> 00:06:56.970 no logos, no flashy artwork, just a name across 00:06:56.970 --> 00:07:00.449 the title screen. The game, Polybius. Are you 00:07:00.449 --> 00:07:03.089 familiar with this story at all? Yes, it's one 00:07:03.089 --> 00:07:06.250 of my favorites. This was actually suggested 00:07:06.250 --> 00:07:08.910 to us by our good friend Cam over at Narragansett. 00:07:08.970 --> 00:07:11.189 And I've actually wanted to do an episode on 00:07:11.189 --> 00:07:13.550 it. I wanted to do one early on when I first 00:07:13.550 --> 00:07:15.689 started the show, but didn't really know if it 00:07:15.689 --> 00:07:18.089 would have been a good fit for the show. But 00:07:18.089 --> 00:07:19.970 I think now, since we've been covering more and 00:07:19.970 --> 00:07:24.550 more conspiracy stuff, more strange bullshit, 00:07:24.730 --> 00:07:27.329 I think this is the perfect time for us to do 00:07:27.329 --> 00:07:30.170 this episode. So you said it's one of your favorites. 00:07:30.230 --> 00:07:34.629 How familiar are you with this Polybius? game 00:07:34.629 --> 00:07:41.009 so um i am addicted to youtube uh and i i love 00:07:41.009 --> 00:07:43.870 to watch just weird shit like yeah you know there's 00:07:43.870 --> 00:07:46.810 great content creators out there like mr ballin 00:07:46.810 --> 00:07:50.689 and nexpo and um they they talk about all kinds 00:07:50.689 --> 00:07:55.209 of crazy stuff like this and um i think nexpo 00:07:55.209 --> 00:07:58.910 might have done a thing on is it polybius or 00:07:58.910 --> 00:08:02.350 poly i don't know polybius polybus i never actually 00:08:02.350 --> 00:08:06.160 pronounced it Out of my own mouth? No, I actually 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:08.939 struggle. It's Polybius is how it's pronounced. 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:12.779 Okay. Yeah. But yeah, I heard the story of it 00:08:12.779 --> 00:08:15.779 and I was very intrigued. I'm still somewhat 00:08:15.779 --> 00:08:19.920 intrigued by it because I love the idea of, well, 00:08:20.019 --> 00:08:21.839 let's get into it and then I'll talk about it 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:24.560 afterwards. Okay. So like I said up top and like 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:26.920 we've been discussing pretty much this. for the 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:29.800 entire intro, is arcades in the early 80s were 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:32.980 like neon churches for kids back then. The air 00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:35.340 reeked of cigarette smoke and body odor, the 00:08:35.340 --> 00:08:38.279 floor stuck to your shoes, and every corner glowed 00:08:38.279 --> 00:08:40.220 with the games we all know and love today. Like 00:08:40.220 --> 00:08:42.539 I said, you got Pac -Man, Galaga, Donkey Kong. 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:46.639 But in 1981, a new game hit the arcades across 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:48.580 Portland, Oregon, and the surrounding suburbs. 00:08:49.389 --> 00:08:51.110 It didn't look like the other cabinets. There 00:08:51.110 --> 00:08:54.269 was no cartoon art on the cabinet, no brand logo, 00:08:54.470 --> 00:08:56.850 just a plain black box with the title screen 00:08:56.850 --> 00:09:01.220 glowing a strange word. Polybius. Now, the kids 00:09:01.220 --> 00:09:03.220 who played it said the game was unlike anything 00:09:03.220 --> 00:09:06.539 else and not like in a good way. The game was 00:09:06.539 --> 00:09:09.720 like a dizzying mess of pulsating geometric shapes, 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:12.440 flashing lights, and puzzle -like mechanics mixed 00:09:12.440 --> 00:09:14.480 with like breakneck action. It was like a really 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:16.519 fast game. Almost like Space Invaders, right? 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:21.559 Yeah, but it didn't sound fun. Like it was... 00:09:21.789 --> 00:09:23.950 It was more addictive to the point of obsession. 00:09:24.250 --> 00:09:26.389 You'd pump in quarters not because you wanted 00:09:26.389 --> 00:09:27.950 to beat your friend's score, but because you 00:09:27.950 --> 00:09:29.669 just couldn't stop yourself from playing it. 00:09:30.210 --> 00:09:32.389 It's like Tetris, I feel like. I feel like for 00:09:32.389 --> 00:09:35.850 me, that's my version of it. I recall coming 00:09:35.850 --> 00:09:39.450 out of my bedroom one night and seeing my parents 00:09:39.450 --> 00:09:44.970 playing Tetris at midnight. And they would tell 00:09:44.970 --> 00:09:46.649 you that it was rotting your brain just so they 00:09:46.649 --> 00:09:49.309 could get you off of it? Right. Exactly. See, 00:09:49.370 --> 00:09:51.950 I had the two -hour maximum on the video game 00:09:51.950 --> 00:09:55.909 consoles daily. They did not. But not long after 00:09:55.909 --> 00:09:58.090 this fucking mind -numbing game showed up into 00:09:58.090 --> 00:10:00.870 the arcades, some side effects started to occur. 00:10:01.149 --> 00:10:04.330 Players started reporting brutal migraines, nausea 00:10:04.330 --> 00:10:07.690 that wouldn't go away, insomnia so bad that some 00:10:07.690 --> 00:10:10.899 kids said they stayed awake for days. Others 00:10:10.899 --> 00:10:13.320 described terrifying hallucinations like shadow 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:15.200 figures out of the corner of their eye, distorted 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:17.419 voices whispering over the hum of the arcade, 00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:20.200 and nightmares that left them drenched in sweat. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:23.379 Some even reported memory loss, forgetting their 00:10:23.379 --> 00:10:25.299 own names, or not remembering how to get home 00:10:25.299 --> 00:10:27.960 after playing. And then things got a bit darker 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:30.440 with the reports. Some of the kids started suffering 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:33.500 from seizures, breakdowns, even suicide attempts 00:10:33.500 --> 00:10:35.899 started cropping up in the weeks following. Polybius 00:10:35.899 --> 00:10:38.580 showing up in Portland. So not great. These are 00:10:38.580 --> 00:10:43.379 all side effects of Four Loko too, though. But 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:46.600 none of that kept the kids away. The pull of 00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:49.639 the game was too strong for them. Then, just 00:10:49.639 --> 00:10:51.379 to add some more high strangeness to the mix, 00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:54.039 the men in black started showing up to the arcades. 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:56.879 strangers in suits who didn't look like cops, 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:59.279 but they didn't look like gamers either. They'd 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:01.340 show up not to empty quarters from the coin box, 00:11:01.580 --> 00:11:03.899 but to pull the cabinet open and extract something 00:11:03.899 --> 00:11:06.980 from inside, like notes on high scores, gameplay 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:09.519 logs. Like they were there not to collect the 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:11.899 cash from the machine, but data from the machine. 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:15.279 Right. And they came back regularly, like every 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:17.779 week or two, like they were on a schedule. Some 00:11:17.779 --> 00:11:20.320 arcade owners even swore that the cabinets rebooted 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:22.799 on their own or powered up without anyone touching 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:24.779 them as if they were being controlled remotely. 00:11:25.139 --> 00:11:27.019 This makes me think of The Last Starfighter. 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:29.000 Do you remember that movie? Kind of, yeah. It 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:30.860 was a kid playing, you know, he played this video 00:11:30.860 --> 00:11:32.519 game and he absolutely loved it. And it turned 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:36.379 out it was like an alien federation recruiting 00:11:36.379 --> 00:11:40.279 him to fly Starfighters in space. Yeah. It was 00:11:40.279 --> 00:11:42.320 fucking great. It's also kind of like, what was 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:45.470 that? Ender's Game? Yep. Where they think they're 00:11:45.470 --> 00:11:47.090 playing a video game, but really they're fucking 00:11:47.090 --> 00:11:50.450 just out there killing everyone. Yeah, exactly. 00:11:50.570 --> 00:11:52.649 I mean, that was a popular trope because I think 00:11:52.649 --> 00:11:56.049 the Robin Williams movie Toys also used that 00:11:56.049 --> 00:11:58.470 briefly. Did it? I don't really remember that 00:11:58.470 --> 00:12:01.269 movie. You know what's weird is that I've seen 00:12:01.269 --> 00:12:02.809 that movie, couldn't tell you anything about 00:12:02.809 --> 00:12:06.570 it. Yeah, the movie's mostly a fever dream. Like, 00:12:06.570 --> 00:12:10.389 none of it makes any sense. I watched it and 00:12:10.389 --> 00:12:14.700 remember hating most of it. even though i loved 00:12:14.700 --> 00:12:17.639 robin williams and joan cusack it was just a 00:12:17.639 --> 00:12:21.600 fucking literally a fever dream yeah that sounds 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:25.480 like the last movie that was made with like 1980s 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:30.120 cocaine oh the good stuff yeah the stuff that 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:35.440 brought us alf and small wonder all right and 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:37.960 then there's a story of bobby feltstein he claims 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:40.419 that after a late night session of Polybius as 00:12:40.419 --> 00:12:42.779 a teenager, he blacked out. The next thing he 00:12:42.779 --> 00:12:45.379 remembers is waking up in the Tillamook State 00:12:45.379 --> 00:12:49.779 Forest, not prison, State Forest, 60 miles from 00:12:49.779 --> 00:12:52.700 Portland with only fragments of memory. Those 00:12:52.700 --> 00:12:56.279 memories being marched through underground tunnels 00:12:56.279 --> 00:12:59.120 with strange men in suits at his side. I feel 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:00.539 like this would have been a way more fun story 00:13:00.539 --> 00:13:02.980 if he woke up in a prison, to be honest. It would 00:13:02.980 --> 00:13:06.200 have been, sure. Now, the thing about this, though, 00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:09.399 is that Portland does have tunnels underneath 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:11.600 it, the Shanghai tunnels, where men were allegedly 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:14.299 kidnapped and smuggled onto ships. So the setting 00:13:14.299 --> 00:13:17.480 made his story just a little more unsettling. 00:13:17.539 --> 00:13:19.659 And today, Feldstein still talks about it, even 00:13:19.659 --> 00:13:22.340 running a Polybius walking tours of Portland 00:13:22.340 --> 00:13:26.379 to share what he says happened to him. Really? 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:28.700 I didn't know that. That's awesome. Yeah, and 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:31.799 I would love to go on one of those tours. And 00:13:31.799 --> 00:13:34.480 then, just as suddenly as it appeared, Polybius 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:37.500 was gone. Within a month, maybe two, the machines 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:39.679 vanished overnight. There was no official records. 00:13:39.860 --> 00:13:42.519 There was no photos of this thing. There was 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:45.879 no ROMs. The only thing anyone had to go on as 00:13:45.879 --> 00:13:48.860 to like the origins of Polybius was a strange 00:13:48.860 --> 00:13:51.960 company name linked to the game. And that is 00:13:51.960 --> 00:13:56.759 Sinuslution, which I probably horribly pronounced 00:13:56.759 --> 00:13:59.379 that. But when translated from German to English, 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:03.870 it means sensory deletion. Oh, okay. Not. A great 00:14:03.870 --> 00:14:07.629 name for a company, but it is what it is. I thought 00:14:07.629 --> 00:14:12.970 it was like a portmanteau of synergy and solution. 00:14:13.909 --> 00:14:17.570 No, although that seems like you would see that 00:14:17.570 --> 00:14:19.669 for a commercial for a company where you're not 00:14:19.669 --> 00:14:22.389 quite sure what it does. You know what I mean? 00:14:22.470 --> 00:14:25.490 Yeah, like if you're watching a business channel. 00:14:25.730 --> 00:14:28.490 Yeah, it just flashes random words like synergy, 00:14:28.710 --> 00:14:32.879 solutions. Yeah, I could definitely see that. 00:14:33.379 --> 00:14:37.840 I think it's pronounced sin -a -slu -tion. Sin 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:39.600 -a -slu -tion. Sure, I don't know. They're spending 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:42.600 too much time on that. Sin -a -slu -tion. But 00:14:42.600 --> 00:14:44.379 that right there was enough to fuel the conspiracy 00:14:44.379 --> 00:14:47.960 theories. You know, maybe it was a CIA experiment, 00:14:48.179 --> 00:14:51.460 part of MKUltra's long shadow testing subliminal 00:14:51.460 --> 00:14:54.379 messages to arcade games. Or maybe it was a recruitment 00:14:54.379 --> 00:14:57.000 program using the flashing chaos to pick out 00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:58.919 potential fighter pilots, like you said, like 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:02.100 Ender's Game or... Whatever that movie was that 00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:04.679 you said that I'd never seen. Or Last Starfighter. 00:15:04.700 --> 00:15:07.000 Yeah. Last Starfighter. Louis Gossett Jr. plays 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:10.259 an alien. Great movie. Or maybe it was just a 00:15:10.259 --> 00:15:12.340 data harvesting machine tracking psychological 00:15:12.340 --> 00:15:15.980 responses under the guise of a video game. Whatever 00:15:15.980 --> 00:15:19.059 the truth, the theory stuck and Polybius became 00:15:19.059 --> 00:15:22.620 the stuff of like a whispered legend. But here's 00:15:22.620 --> 00:15:26.100 the reality, Sarge. Polybius... Never existed. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:33.440 At least not in 1981. No! Fuck! There's zero 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:36.759 evidence. You got me again, internet! Yeah, the 00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:39.500 internet tends to do that to people. Like I said, 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:42.600 there's zero evidence. There's no arcade distributor 00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:45.700 logs, no firsthand accounts from the time, no 00:15:45.700 --> 00:15:48.919 pictures of the thing. The name Polybius doesn't 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:51.440 even show up anywhere until the late 1990s when 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:53.740 an anonymous post appeared on the arcade collector 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:57.799 site coinop .org. And it's that forum post where 00:15:57.799 --> 00:15:59.440 we get pretty much all the information we have 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:01.879 on the game and the legend itself. The Portland 00:16:01.879 --> 00:16:04.620 release, the kids getting sick, the men in black. 00:16:05.289 --> 00:16:07.669 And from there, the story spread to retro gaming 00:16:07.669 --> 00:16:10.590 forums, Usenet threads, and eventually into the 00:16:10.590 --> 00:16:14.049 pages of GamePro in 2003. That's when Polybius 00:16:14.049 --> 00:16:18.230 jumped from obscure rumor mill shit to a mainstream 00:16:18.230 --> 00:16:20.929 urban legend. And it was the perfect blueprint 00:16:20.929 --> 00:16:23.409 for this myth to really take off. And the reason 00:16:23.409 --> 00:16:25.669 why it felt kind of real at the time was because, 00:16:25.889 --> 00:16:29.190 as is true with any good urban legend, a few 00:16:29.190 --> 00:16:31.809 real things actually happened in Portland in 00:16:31.809 --> 00:16:35.230 1981. Oh. In November. A kid collapsed from a 00:16:35.230 --> 00:16:37.769 migraine after a long tempest session. Another 00:16:37.769 --> 00:16:40.549 teenager got sick after playing asteroids for 00:16:40.549 --> 00:16:44.850 28 hours straight because no shit. But also... 00:16:47.149 --> 00:16:50.950 But also around this time, the FBI raided arcades 00:16:50.950 --> 00:16:54.049 in Portland. Agents in plain clothes were looking 00:16:54.049 --> 00:16:56.870 for machines rigged for illegal gambling. So 00:16:56.870 --> 00:16:59.710 government agents really did hang around arcades, 00:16:59.710 --> 00:17:02.490 watching and even writing down high scores. So 00:17:02.490 --> 00:17:05.950 you combine sick kids with government suits in 00:17:05.950 --> 00:17:08.349 arcades, and it's easy to see how rumors of a 00:17:08.349 --> 00:17:10.730 quote -unquote dangerous new game under surveillance 00:17:10.730 --> 00:17:13.630 could snowball into the story that it is today. 00:17:13.730 --> 00:17:17.509 That's fair. But as for the fake company Sinneslöschen, 00:17:17.609 --> 00:17:23.950 this seems to have been invented in the 90s. 00:17:24.470 --> 00:17:27.170 Researchers traced it back to a German retro 00:17:27.170 --> 00:17:30.890 computing hobbyist with the handle CyberYogi, 00:17:31.049 --> 00:17:33.869 a guy known for creating elaborate hoaxes about 00:17:33.869 --> 00:17:36.589 quote -unquote lost games. He never admitted 00:17:36.589 --> 00:17:38.750 to it, but his fingerprints are pretty much all 00:17:38.750 --> 00:17:43.910 over the early Polybius lore. Then in 2006, a 00:17:43.910 --> 00:17:46.529 man using the handle Stephen Roach claimed online 00:17:46.529 --> 00:17:49.289 that he worked on Polybius. He said the game 00:17:49.289 --> 00:17:51.250 was pulled after a kid had a seizure and that 00:17:51.250 --> 00:17:53.670 the company behind it disbanded shortly after. 00:17:53.809 --> 00:17:56.089 And then that kid who had a seizure went on to 00:17:56.089 --> 00:18:03.430 join the Goonies. Famous Oregon crew. As which 00:18:03.430 --> 00:18:08.950 one? Chunk, naturally. No, it sounded plausible. 00:18:10.250 --> 00:18:13.089 until people realized that he offered zero proof 00:18:13.089 --> 00:18:16.829 and coinop .org itself labeled him a fraud which 00:18:16.829 --> 00:18:21.009 is pretty funny oh that makes me sad why because 00:18:21.009 --> 00:18:23.430 i mean you know i want it to be real this is 00:18:23.430 --> 00:18:26.809 great it is pretty good but unfortunately it's 00:18:26.809 --> 00:18:31.150 not um now um now some years later it just wasn't 00:18:31.150 --> 00:18:34.859 meant to be Journalist Kat Despira even uncovered 00:18:34.859 --> 00:18:37.460 that a real Stephen Roach in Europe had ties 00:18:37.460 --> 00:18:40.500 to shady quote -unquote behavior modification 00:18:40.500 --> 00:18:44.400 programs for kids, which only made things creepier 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:46.420 but still didn't prove anything about Polybius 00:18:46.420 --> 00:18:48.460 or that the two were even the same person. Like 00:18:48.460 --> 00:18:50.420 the Stephen Roach who made the forum post could 00:18:50.420 --> 00:18:52.579 have just been using the shady Stephen Roach's 00:18:52.579 --> 00:18:55.200 name as an alias, which is more than likely the 00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:57.660 case, or they just have the same name, but who 00:18:57.660 --> 00:18:59.799 knows. It doesn't help the conspiracy theories 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:03.380 at all. But still, even knowing the story is 00:19:03.380 --> 00:19:07.259 fake, it doesn't die. Polybius has appeared on 00:19:07.259 --> 00:19:10.400 The Simpsons as a gag cabinet stamped with property 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:12.799 of the U .S. government on it. It's been the 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:15.759 subject of documentaries, YouTube deep dives, 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:18.279 and even a fictionalized podcast series called 00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:21.640 The Polybius Conspiracy. Also, an indie developer 00:19:21.640 --> 00:19:24.859 named Jeff Minter, he released his own VR game 00:19:24.859 --> 00:19:28.400 called Polybius in 2017, deliberately leaning 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:30.859 into the trippy visuals that the legend promised 00:19:30.859 --> 00:19:33.140 that the game had. I'd actually heard that some 00:19:33.140 --> 00:19:36.140 retro gaming folks actually created their own 00:19:36.140 --> 00:19:40.099 fake Polybius game, and you played it through 00:19:40.099 --> 00:19:42.539 an emulator. See, I would play the fuck out of 00:19:42.539 --> 00:19:44.799 that. Me too. It was like a top -down scroller, 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:47.119 like you were in a spaceship and you were going 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:49.240 up. It was kind of a lot like Asteroids, honestly. 00:19:49.690 --> 00:19:52.569 But I fucking love stories like this. There were 00:19:52.569 --> 00:19:55.849 games that disappeared. So in the 1980s, with 00:19:55.849 --> 00:19:58.450 the release of home consoles, that's what kind 00:19:58.450 --> 00:20:02.309 of killed arcades for a lot of people. So there 00:20:02.309 --> 00:20:06.829 was tons of arcade games that just never went 00:20:06.829 --> 00:20:09.670 any further. And so I was actually following 00:20:09.670 --> 00:20:13.089 a Reddit thread about this one game that people 00:20:13.089 --> 00:20:14.589 were talking about. It was like a racing game. 00:20:15.049 --> 00:20:17.430 And all these people remembered playing it, but 00:20:17.430 --> 00:20:20.630 no one could find any record of it. simply because 00:20:20.630 --> 00:20:24.549 the arcades all closed and no one really kept 00:20:24.549 --> 00:20:27.829 records of what games they had. And then somebody 00:20:27.829 --> 00:20:31.569 actually found a cabinet of this game in Australia. 00:20:32.170 --> 00:20:34.349 Because for a while, people actually thought 00:20:34.349 --> 00:20:39.250 it might have been like a Mandela effect situation 00:20:39.250 --> 00:20:41.250 where they remembered playing this game, but 00:20:41.250 --> 00:20:43.490 it was like another game entirely. And it turned 00:20:43.490 --> 00:20:46.509 out... in a country club in australia they found 00:20:46.509 --> 00:20:49.329 this one cabinet of this game and i guess it 00:20:49.329 --> 00:20:52.609 was like pretty normal racing game but then if 00:20:52.609 --> 00:20:55.789 you crashed like the sky got a little bit more 00:20:55.789 --> 00:20:58.029 cloudy the next time you raced and like every 00:20:58.029 --> 00:21:00.269 time you crashed i guess it got worse and worse 00:21:00.269 --> 00:21:04.529 and it was like really not graphic bloody but 00:21:04.529 --> 00:21:07.470 like really um that's just uncomfortable shit 00:21:07.470 --> 00:21:10.450 would happen after you crashed This sounds like 00:21:10.450 --> 00:21:14.589 a creepypasta that someone would write on a forum 00:21:14.589 --> 00:21:17.630 somewhere. It does, but it's real. It's a real 00:21:17.630 --> 00:21:19.309 video game. I just can't remember the name of 00:21:19.309 --> 00:21:20.970 it. That's pretty rad. If you can remember it, 00:21:20.990 --> 00:21:23.289 let me know and I'll put it somewhere. I don't 00:21:23.289 --> 00:21:28.170 know. I'll look it up. Stories like that is one 00:21:28.170 --> 00:21:32.990 of the reasons why this story kind of perpetuated 00:21:32.990 --> 00:21:36.049 the way it did. If you're saying games just disappeared, 00:21:36.230 --> 00:21:38.240 who's to say that this game... couldn't have 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:39.940 existed i mean we know it didn't exist but it 00:21:39.940 --> 00:21:42.359 helped perpetuate the myth kind of right and 00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:45.019 the reason why it endures today is that polybius 00:21:45.019 --> 00:21:47.500 is the perfect myth like it taps into the paranoia 00:21:47.500 --> 00:21:50.240 of the 80s government mind control shadowy surveillance 00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:53.299 the fear that new tech was warping the brains 00:21:53.299 --> 00:21:56.299 of our children and it mixes in with like pure 00:21:56.299 --> 00:21:59.440 arcade nostalgia it's sinister but it's also 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:02.880 fun to imagine like yeah i I was on board. Yeah, 00:22:02.980 --> 00:22:05.119 like it's fun to imagine the idea that like somewhere 00:22:05.119 --> 00:22:07.700 out there in some dusty warehouse, there's still 00:22:07.700 --> 00:22:10.119 some black cabinet waiting to be plugged in. 00:22:10.539 --> 00:22:13.619 And who knows? Maybe there is, maybe there isn't. 00:22:15.180 --> 00:22:17.420 Who's to say? But anyway, so yeah, that's the 00:22:17.420 --> 00:22:21.200 story of Polybius. I'm very sick, so this is 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:24.750 a shorter episode. I apologize, but hey. We're 00:22:24.750 --> 00:22:26.269 here. That's right. You need to get your rest, 00:22:26.329 --> 00:22:28.089 but at least we got Polybius out of the way. 00:22:28.150 --> 00:22:30.049 Yeah. So how are you feeling so far? I mean, 00:22:30.069 --> 00:22:31.549 not so far. That's the end of the story. How 00:22:31.549 --> 00:22:34.009 are you feeling? You got any things you want 00:22:34.009 --> 00:22:36.289 to elaborate on? I love it. I love stuff like 00:22:36.289 --> 00:22:39.390 this. It makes me so happy. It taps into my childhood 00:22:39.390 --> 00:22:41.490 memories of going to Dream Machine up in North 00:22:41.490 --> 00:22:48.329 Conway and going to Nantasket Beach where there 00:22:48.329 --> 00:22:51.460 used to be an arcade. fucking love stories like 00:22:51.460 --> 00:22:53.539 this you see the old creepy video games and you 00:22:53.539 --> 00:22:56.680 wonder like which ones were really popular back 00:22:56.680 --> 00:22:58.599 in the day and which ones people just ignored 00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:02.059 so this is this hits all the all the spots for 00:23:02.059 --> 00:23:05.720 me hell yeah man i yeah definitely it was for 00:23:05.720 --> 00:23:08.440 me too my my dad is really big into like arcade 00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:10.880 cabinets and stuff like that for a while he was 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:14.700 buying and fixing fixing up and then like reselling 00:23:14.700 --> 00:23:17.299 old arcade cabinets so in my house growing up 00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:22.140 We had Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2, Bad 00:23:22.140 --> 00:23:26.660 Dudes. We had Pac -Man. All those games were 00:23:26.660 --> 00:23:28.880 just in my house at all times. So it was super 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:31.000 cool. That's awesome. So this, for me, definitely 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:34.839 is a fun story. But I didn't hear about this 00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:39.160 until, obviously, much later after that. I probably 00:23:39.160 --> 00:23:40.819 should have hit my dad up. Been like, hey, did 00:23:40.819 --> 00:23:43.180 you ever hear about this? And been like... Do 00:23:43.180 --> 00:23:45.980 you know anything about this fucking video game 00:23:45.980 --> 00:23:49.559 cabinet that's cursed or whatever the fuck? But 00:23:49.559 --> 00:23:52.680 yeah, no, it was a fun one. I think I even remember 00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:58.160 there being like a TV show that used, it was 00:23:58.160 --> 00:24:01.599 kind of like a serialized TV show, kind of like 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:04.079 Black Mirror, but when I was younger in the 90s. 00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:07.099 I think I remember there being like a video game 00:24:07.099 --> 00:24:10.319 story. where it was like back in the eighties 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:12.759 and it was like a video game that like made people 00:24:12.759 --> 00:24:15.500 go crazy. It probably was. I mean, it was a long 00:24:15.500 --> 00:24:19.019 time ago. Yeah. Well, yeah. Who knows? I'm out 00:24:19.019 --> 00:24:23.579 of breath. Fuck. I'm done. All right. All right. 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:26.400 Let's wrap it up so you can breathe. All right. 00:24:26.660 --> 00:24:29.440 Um, well, is, uh, is there anything you want 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:33.559 to plug or say to the audience before I say my 00:24:33.559 --> 00:24:37.839 usual spiel? Um, Find me on social media, Sarge 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:40.180 the Destroyer. I'm all over. You just Google 00:24:40.180 --> 00:24:41.779 Sarge the Destroyer. I'm the only one who uses 00:24:41.779 --> 00:24:44.059 that name. All right. And if you want to follow 00:24:44.059 --> 00:24:46.000 us on social media, you can follow us on Cryptic 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:47.859 Cocktail, follow us on TikTok, Cryptic Cocktail 00:24:47.859 --> 00:24:50.900 Party. Leave us a five -star rating and review. 00:24:51.059 --> 00:24:54.539 It really helps get the show out there. And, 00:24:54.539 --> 00:24:57.460 yeah, I think that's it. And with that out of 00:24:57.460 --> 00:24:59.200 the way, Sarge, for the first time in two weeks, 00:24:59.299 --> 00:25:00.819 do you want to say goodbye? And I love you to 00:25:00.819 --> 00:25:04.619 the audience. Of course I do. Audience, goodbye. 00:25:05.470 --> 00:25:06.009 And I love you.