Polybius - The Truth

[Stevenroach]

Since speaking out on this game and trying feverishly to dispell all the persistant and often childish rumours, I've recently been offered to put together a website which could produce a full in-depth breakdown and possible recreation of the game itself.

I need to look into the legal ramifications of this and speak to the other four programmers involved, some who I haven't been in contact with for many years to see whether this is viable and whether too much damage has been done to it's reputation within the gaming community who wouldn’t be prepared to take it seriously.


Steven

[revgiblet]

Since speaking out on this game and trying feverishly to dispell all the persistant and often childish rumours, I've recently been offered to put together a website which could produce a full in-depth breakdown and possible recreation of the game itself.

This would be great.

[Kaede]

Why not just tell us what you had to do in this game. Was it a puzzle game?

[space_ace]

Forgive my obvious & understandable scepticism but if people are going to start sorting the wheat from the chaff in respect of all the hype and paranoia surrounding this game, you really need to back up your statement with some sort of facts and details on the game itself.

I appreciate that if it truly does exist, there would be a great amount of information to divulge but some sort of outline wouldn't be too demanding at this moment in time surely.



Dave

[stigodump]

Why not just tell us what you had to do in this game. Was it a puzzle game?

What is this? I'm sure he didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.




HA! Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

You WILL tell us the nature of this game or face the charge of heresy.
If you do not plead guilty to this charge we WILL be forced to use...the comfy chair!

[space_ace]

Maybe not. It's just that we see so many of these myths creeping around the internet, it would be nice to see someone actually put some weight behind what they have to say.


Dave

[Stevenroach]

Thank you to all who have communicated so generously with me on this recently.

I've recently spoken with Marek and we have put together a brief synposis on the game which I will post very soon. We have also located some of the premiliminary artwork and gameplay details, plus Marek is absolutely convinced that we have a Marquee that was forwarded to us for our opinion, which we rejected because the artwork was too "showy" - as I stated previously, we preferred to let the game do the talking and favoured just a bold logo with a plain black cabinet.

We initially had reservations about commenting on the game but with all the correspondence and offers we've received, we're quite flattered. As I also stated recently, I'd like our only foray into the gaming market to be given some justice if we are going to prepare a website or otherwise but I am prepared to give an outline of the game at this stage.


Thanks again, Steven

[Kaede]

You can't just tell us if it's a puzzle game or a shoot 'em up?

[Stevenroach]

Most games of the time were based around the idea of destroying wave after wave of aliens without any real need for thought. For obvious commercial purposes, we needed to incorporate this kind of action but wanted to add a puzzle element to the game without giving it an educational edge - a game that was reasonably difficult but that relied on intense individual skills and thought behind actions made. Many games of the time were purely about destroying waves of alien spacecraft and that was it - we favoured a two pronged approach without overcomplicating the gameplay so it could maintain longevity.

The game centred around a moonbase, largely plagiarized from Star Wars which displayed a number. There were six sets of different aliens: the first, which varied through six levels, appeared as random waves sent out from the moonbase which needed to be destroyed. The others were numbered between one and ten which had to be repelled back into the base to lower the total. The figure had to match exactly to clear the level otherwise you lose two lives or just the one if you had one remaining

The moonbase has a completely random number between one and ninety-nine which is displayed on the front. There are six different waves of ships: one that is numbered individually and needed to be repelled back into the moonbase by bouncing them off the ship as opposed to destroying them, sending them back into the moonbase to get the figure down. The others were purely out to destroy your ship.

The longer the level went on, the more frantic the game became. Not only that, if the Aliens managed to get past you, they formed a line at the bottom of the screen. The numbered aliens would fire lasers back towards the ship to try and increase the number again and take you out as well, as well as the normal ones gathered there trying to kill you. The longer you dithered, the more intense the gameplay came.

We studied a great deal of footage on synchronized swimming and flight patterns of wildlife to gain inspiration as to how we can vary the imagery of the oncoming spacecraft. Galaga was a good example at the time of how you can make the gameplay graphically enjoyable and a pleasure to watch.

We admired Astro Blaster, Phoenix and other games of the ilk but we wanted people to feel they were having an experience as well as playing a standard video game and neutrals to appreciate it. Our main priority was the atmosphere, effects and playability which was the key to keep people playing in our opinion.

[space_ace]

Interesting.

So, the epileptic fit - did the game contain lots of flashing effects that could generate such an effect on someone or was it a coincidence?


Dave

[GarryG]

If this is real and provable (and I’m not saying it is or isn’t) you really should try and get something in the magazine about it.

If true this could be a bigger scoop than the Megatree article!

[space_ace]

I completely agree Garry.

I don't want to be sucked into a right load of cobblers but I can't deny that what has been written so far by this person is very well put together and has some intellectual weight behind it, of that there is no doubt. He doesn't appear to be dodging any questions which have been posed with a certain level of contempt but I'm not an authority to state whether there could be any truth in this and hence worthy of some sort of article. Saying that, over 500 people have read some or part of this topic at some point or another so the interest is undoubtedly there.

I'd be very interested in the standpoint of the magazine writers themselves.



Dave

[Stevenroach]

Good question.

We never really received any specific information as to what point in the game the seizure occurred which was very annoying at the time and caused us a great deal of consternation. Also, because they settled out of court, there is no legal or existing first hand account which is also annoying, both then and now.

I think it had to be the explosion of the Moonbase itself - there were two flashing white bars would appear to separate the moon upon implosion and lots of rhythmic flashing while the moon particles scattered, then a brief burst of spech which purely said "Polybius" after the last piece of debris has disappeared. This was a really impressive effect if we say so ourselves and we didn't see anything on the market for years afterwards that could have competed with it.

Possibly because the whole cabinet was completely black, it may have caused a greater degree of focus which triggered off the reaction.


Steven

[space_ace]

So, the company name, Sinneschlossen - this translates into something like Deleting Senses or something very similar which adds a lot of fuel to the fire that this is all bunkum. Can I ask where the name originated from? Enquiring minds want to know.


Dave

[space_ace]

*Incidentally, there is a funny story involving the name the company name of Sinnesloschen. Our team of programmers were of varied nationalities - I'm Welsh, there was Ulrich Koller who was German and the other three were all Czechs. Basically, we wanted to treat the programming side as a completely separate entity and set up another company under a different name but we were so busy that we didn't have time to think of a moniker. We then received a call from bank requesting the name of the account to be set up under and Ulrich took the call and just blurted out Sinnesloschen - he thought it sounded quite grand with a European Flavour but he later informed us that it translates into something like "Delete My Senses" or something.

Thanks again to everyone who has been in contact with me privately. We are currently going through several offers so I imagine that your individual curiousities will be satisfied before much longer.

Steven

*Copied across from my e-mail address, received from Stevenrroach.com.