Okay, I’ve decided to come out and give the final word on the

Anyway, the briefcase outlined everything the game had to do in order to properly make the effects they wanted, and it was all entirely through audio tones on specific frequencies. Truth be told the specifics are above my understanding but, whatever we went along with it. We thought it all was silly and wouldn’t work, but we didn’t care since we just got 5 million dollars and had another 5 on the way, and if the CIA was dumb enough to spend 10 million dollars on a stupid game then why not.

So we got to work on it right away. As for the game itself, it was literally just Tempest. Seriously, if you’ve played Tempest, you’ve played Polybius. I’ve seen the mockups of what the game might have been like, and believe me as far as gameplay goes, those are far more interesting than what Polybius actually was. What we were adding to it was the audio tones that the CIA hoped would induce the following effects; headaches, paranoia, fear, etc. They wanted to try and make anyone playing it subtly become more and more paranoid. That part of the story is true, though whether or not this had any connection to MKUltra that I’ve seen sites claim I don’t know.

But, here is where it gets a bit mundane. We did finish the game and created one cabinet for it for testing. Again I won’t say where, but we put it into some pizza parlor and let it stay there for about 2 weeks. CIA agents, the so called “Men in Black”, frequently visited the place as just regular civilians. Their observations were a big disappointment to them. The game did cause the occasional headache due to the frequency at which the sounds were often played at, but nothing else. No paranoia, no fear, no mind control, no nothing. Notta. The Polybius project was a failure, and wasn’t even that remarkable of a game.

Luckily, we did still get the money, but that didn’t save the company because our boss at the time was frankly an idiot who had no idea how to handle money, and somehow even with 10 million more in the bank we still went under. You’d be amazed how often this happens.

So, what was the purpose of Polybius? Why go through all this trouble? It wasn’t to try and mind control the US populace. No, the plan was actually to sell it through a shell company named, you guessed it, Sinneslöschen, to the Soviet Union, because the CIA wanted to spread fear and paranoia among the populace. Yep, just like every brilliant idea during the Reagan years, it was all just to fight the commies, and they were willing to spend 10 million to get it done and keep us quiet about it. They even went through the trouble of making a fake east Germany company just so it would be easier to convince Soviets to buy the game.

So that’s the story about Polybius. A real game, that had a real sinister intent, but was ultimately a total failure and a waste of money, and probably the funniest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Neat to know, thanks OP.

>>19563166
Still got the src code? Probably not but if you do, will you upload it?

>>19563156
ITT: A larper that watched the new documentary put out by Ahoy and decided to incorporate it into his shit posting.

>>19563187

No, it's long gone now. The company I worked for sold off all it's assets and we wiped everything before we sold the computers (We had a lot of source code for other programs our boss didn't want others to know, but it was all business stuff). If I'd known this game would become such a legend I'd have stored it or at least kept the hard drive. I'd like to think that there is still one of our computers out there, but I know it's not likely to be found. I can't even remember what the computer was other than it was likely an IBM that ran on an 8088 processor.

>>19563212
Was about to post this.

https://youtu.be/_7X6Yeydgyg link for anyone who cares

>>19563213
Damn. Thanks for the info tho, well told.

Why would the US Gov't spend $10,000,000 on this?

>>19563247

You'd be amazed at how committed the Government can get to stupid ideas like using an arcade game as a cold war weapon.

>>19563156
You say the xboxahoy vid,didn't you?

>>19563213
8088. Hard drive.

Yeah genius. Of fucking course.

>>19563254
^This.

>>19563212
>>19563221
kek, exactly what I was going to post

I heard if you play ploybius you'll cry blood

>mr smith who always has a magic briefcase
>men in black (because that's how you blend in as a secret agent)
>headaches
0/10 shit larp
Trying way too hard

>>19563156
nice LARP

>>19563402
Pretty much
>wiped computers

It's obviously a LARP, but it was an enjoyable read. Certainly more realistic than most Polybius LARPs I've seen, especially since it took into account how incompetent the Government actually is.