Transcript
A (0:00)
Sam, if you're hearing this, well done. You found a way to connect to the Internet. Welcome to the QAA podcast. Premium episode 324 Polybius Lives. As always, we are your hosts.
B (0:45)
Jake Rockatansky, Jack LaRoche, Julian Fields, and Travis View.
C (0:49)
Portland, Oregon 1981 the year is 1981. If you're lycanthropically inclined, maybe you're heading to the carpeted floor of a Malibu Grand Prix amusement cent after spending an afternoon at the multiplex watching Wolfen the Howling or An American Werewolf in London. The bright lights of Space Invaders and Defender are illuminating the faces of the teens bent over the cabinets. There's still a line for the new Pac man machine, and you can hear the waka waka waka over Russia's moving pictures blaring from the loudspeakers. The scent of smoke is strong in the air. In fact, ashtrays are set up beside a lot of the video game cabinets and built into the pool tables. It's the heyday of American arcades, and you heard that there's a new, unmarked machine that everyone is just dying to play. The cabinet is impossible to miss. The line, for it stretches out the front door. You dutifully wait, sweaty fingers clutched around your precious quarters with maybe a few house coins painted over with red nail polish. When it's almost your turn, you set a quarter on top of the cabinet, marking your place in line. The mystery box could be anything if it's late enough in the year. Its slight build could remind you of Galaga, but the shallow sides are white instead of black. The coin box isn't consistent with Namco machines. There's just a single joystick and a button. As the line dwindles, you notice that the kids ahead of you don't look so good when they're done playing. Their eyes are glassy. The neon lights glint off the sweat on their foreheads. They look pale. Whatever. You step up to the screen and drop your quarter into the coin box. The title screen is slick. The large bubble letters are more detailed than anything you've seen before or would see again until 1983, when Mario Bros. Uses a similar giant bubble lettered font. The word flashes on the Polybius. The copyright at the bottom lists the year 1981 as well as the company Sinislocian. You hit play and dizzying vector graphics fill the screen, creating the illusion that you're flying through a tunnel. The joystick moves the background, but not your ship. The strobing effects cause pain to blossom behind your eyes Your temples throb and an icy sensation spreads low in your gut. But you keep on playing. Quarter after quarter hits the coinbox as your mouth goes dry and your vision starts to blur around the edges. The game isn't even that good, but you still keep playing. Just like the others. You can't stop. You won't even remember the game in much detail later, but your migraine will remind you that you overdid it. In the arcade, the nightmares begin that night. They don't stop.