Thanks for that Philo_T
It's such a great UL. It's the Sinnesloschen bit that really does it for me
Might as wel copy some of that across so we can find it again.
From The Halloween Retro Special link:
Since the dawn of Pong, people have always played video games to escape. Ask any gamer and he or she will tell you that they play games to feel like their in a different world. You can get emotionally attached to polygons, get caught up in the beauty and fantasy of other worlds. For a few hours, you can leave reality and enter another dimension. But what happens when that fantasy becomes reality, and where does the line begin and end? Are you the kind who believes...or the kind that doubts?
You've heard it all before. Everquest players committing suicide because a date from across the planet virtually dumps them. Men in Asia dieing after nonstop Starcraft marathons. Carjackers and murders claiming they did it for Grand Theft Auto or Doom; These people force these games into their reality. But when normal, everyday kids commit suicide, forget who they are, and have nightmares from a game; you have to wonder what really happens to our minds in video games. This is the legend of the arcade game Polybius, the game that leads everyday people like you and me into insanity.
It's 1981 in Portland, Oregon. Arcades are the hang out spot for teenagers who have nowhere to go, dumping their allowances into machines for short spurts of fun. Some of the greatest games of all time like Ms. Pacman and Donkey Kong are released this year recapturing the imaginations of people of all ages. Good times are all around in the heyday of coins and extra lives. New companies churn out machines to get in on the craze and the kids always come back for more. A small, unknown, German company named Sinneslöshen Inc. introduces a game to a limited release in one or two arcades in the suburban neighborhoods of Hillsboro and Beaverton. Some say that the game was immensely popular, with people lining up around the block to play. Others say that everyone ignored the game in favor of the more popular titles. The only thing everyone seems to agree on though, is what happened after... Kids who played the game suffered from amnesia and forgot everything about their lives: who they were, where they lived...They would wake up screaming in the middle of the night with unbearably terrifying nightmares. Some committed suicide and some never played a video game again, becoming anti-game speakers. One person who met an anti-gamer claimed that he said the machines disappeared after a month or so. "I vaguely remember this game." says an old Portland native, "Years ago I spent the summer with my aunt and uncle in Lake Oswego, Oregon. I think I was 16 or 17 at the time: I'm 32 now. Anyway, I would drive into Portland to visit this arcade there where you paid a dollar or so to get in, then each game was a nickel. Well, I remember playing this game there. If I remember correctly it was only there on two of the times I went there. Really weird, I don't remember the gameplay but I remember not liking the game when I played it. The second time I was there I remember avoiding the machine. I never had nightmares or anything weird like that but I do remember not liking the game, and back then I loved anything inside an arcade cabinet. I'm guessing only a few were released and not much interest in them was shown so they weren't produced on a large scale."
According to the owner of one of these arcades, mysterious men in black coats would show up every so often and take High Score lists and data from the games but would never take the coins. Rumor has it that the game was a CIA testing platform for proprietary behavior modification algorithms which control nerves in the brain. These men were taking psychological data. The game was supposedly a fast-pace, abstract puzzle game with weird music and graphics.
The mystery has taken the classic gaming world on a spin. Some claim to have the Polybius ROM but refuse to distribute it out of fear of punishment from the government. The word Sinneslöshen means "sense-delete" in German. Only two pictures exist of the game: one screenshot and one rumored picture of the machine itself. People all over the internet are searching for this game, following any clue or hint and researching info. So is it real? Did the government destroy the minds of innocent children for research, or is this simply a gag? Many may dismiss this article and think that this is all a hoax, but in when it all comes together you have to ask yourself again:
What type of person are you? The kind that believes...or the kind that doubts?
Supposed appeal for info att coinop.org:
Game Summary
We need information.
Hardware Platform: -Unique or Unknown-
Game Details
This game had a very limited release, one or two backwater arcades in a suburb of Portland. The history of this game is cloudy, there were all kinds of strange stories about how kids who played it got amnesia afterwards, couldn't remember their name or where they lived, etc.
The bizarre rumors about this game are that it was supposedly developed by some kind of weird military tech offshoot group, used some kind of proprietary behavior modification algorithms developed for the CIA or something, kids who played it woke up at night screaming, having horrible nightmares.
According to an operator who ran an arcade with one of these games, guys in black coats would come to collect "records" from the machines. They're not interested in quarters or anything, they just collected information about how the game was played.
The game was weird looking, kind of abstract, fast action with some puzzle elements, the kids who played it stopped playing games entirely, one of them became a big anti videogame crusader or something. We've contacted one person who met him, and he claims the machines disappeard after a month or so and no one ever heard about them again.
Until the ROM showed up.
Here's what we've found so far:
* Found english strings "insert coin" and "press 1 player start" and "only" - looks like a 1 or 2 player game.
* Text in the game says "(C) 1981 Sinneslöschen" Maybe a German company?