Neon-lit Nostalgia: Polybius and the Golden Age of Arcades

0:00 [MUSIC] You know, urban legends sometimes can just flutter away as times change. But I love that this one stays in the public consciousness. And even if you don't know it's there, there's Easter eggs in all kinds of pop culture where Polybius keeps showing up. So it was in the Simpsons, the Goldbergs, 9-inch nails video, less than. Loki in season one, Polybius was there. It's just going to keep going on, which is fantastic because it keeps arcade in the consciousness. [MUSIC] Hi, Caitlyn.

0:40 Hi, Cassie. Hi, creepy people. Hello. If you're new to our creepy corner of the world, this is PNW Haunts and Homicides, where we chat about true crime, paranormal, and a lot of creepy shit in the Pacific Northwest. So much creepy shit. We also do a tour reading at the end of every episode for a little bit of deeper insight into our topic of the day. And you should stick around if you're into that, but I'm going to take off. K-Bye. Yeah, Caitlyn's not sticking around for this one. The topic proved just far too terrifying for her to deal with. So yeah, also it wasn't invited.

1:24 That's not true. She was invited. She just happens to have a day job during the week, which is the only time our guests could come. So gross, you guys. With indoor weather season, now in full swing, people are most likely looking for a place to have some fun out of the house and also safe from the elements. And what better way to do that than go to an arcade? Plus it has a bar, so that's like a no brainer, right? So today I'm joined by Shana and Eric from Arcade 2084. http://www.barthattimeforgot.com/ Hello. Nice to be here. Thanks for having us. Yes, of course.

2:04 I'm so excited. Can you tell us a little bit about your arcade? Arcade 2084 is what we call a cinema grade recreation of what arcades were really like in the early 80s. This is when video arcades first emerged and became more than a national pastime, but a really global phenomenon that as everybody knows, kicked off video gaming as we know it. Yes. With a full bar and awesome food and cocktails, it's the whole package with awesome music. It's not just an arcade, it's not just a room with games. It's a full experience.

2:44 It really is. I've been there and I walked in and I was like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. There's lights everywhere. You got the 80s music and the videos and it's awesome. It's really fun place. It's a real world outside and just have some fun and escape for a while. Yeah, it's almost like stepping into like a time machine. It's time travel, for sure. Well that leads me into very well into our topic today. In 1981, arcades were at the height of their popularity. Portland, Oregon was said to have been one of the prime locations for testing new games and have you guys heard that? Yes. Okay. I'm barely an 80s baby.

3:25 I was 89 so I didn't really get to experience the 80s. I kind of have to live vicariously through things like this and you know, stranger things and everything. Did you guys get to experience the 80s? Indeed. And that's part of why this place is here because a lot of people missed it. I was a teenager every year of the 80s and going to these places was something I could do no matter what town I found myself in because I moved around a lot, a lot of kids do. And this is where we all could meet new friends and old friends and everybody got together there across all social and economic strata.

4:06 It was a really special time. He was a teenager, I'm a few years younger but yet I was there and as an only child it was great to be able to always have some place to go where there were people like to hang out with. Oh yeah, that is great. I didn't even think about that. And teenager. So as the under kid I'm like, "Ooh, I'm with the cool older kids." Yeah. Did you guys have like competitions? I don't know what is it, the high score. I know there's less competitions and more sort of just boasting rights. You got to put your initials in and maybe somebody would see that and you'd have a bit of no to write.

4:46 Nice. Or somebody would be having a really good game and people would just start to gather around and watch and you'd see like, "What's going on over there?" And then the crowd just gets bigger and bigger and... Oh, that is so cool. A lot of camaraderie. And we still see that happen. It's really wonderful. Oh, good. I love that. Do you guys get pretty packed on like the weekends? Well, I don't know about packed, but you know, we got a healthy steady crowd all day long. And it's never really, you know, sort of butt to butt there. Well, that's good. You don't want it over stuff, right? Our kids, you know, there's a lot of reputation for being like hot and dirty and crowded.

5:28 And we are nice and cool and clean and not so crowded. So let's get on with our topic for today. It's going to be really fun. So it was in this year that I just mentioned, 1981, that black, unmarked cabinets would pop up in several arcades in the city and surrounding areas. This mysterious game is known as... Polybius. I feel like I should have done like an echo. So I've heard Beaverton specifically. I didn't end up coming across it again in my notes or in my research.

6:10 I don't know where I heard. It was in Beaverton. Have you guys heard a specific town? No, same. When I looked into this in the past, I remember seeing Beaverton specifically. But when I brushed up on my research yesterday, I only saw Portland and surrounding suburbs. Right. Okay, so it's not just me. It's just the whole urban legend, the detail seemed to change like that and it just keeps it going. What's true? What's that through? Yeah, it's really weird. Because when I was diving into it, I was kind of on the other side of it, like, oh, it probably wasn't real. But then getting into it, I was like, no, because I just experienced the same kind of Mandela effect thing where the details are changed.

6:57 So now I'm just all confused. The mystery doesn't end with an unmarked cabinet though. Symptoms of playing this game or sickness, nightmares, memory loss and behavioral changes. No one knows what about the game caused these symptoms. But some fan-made games of what they think the gameplay was like seemed to indicate it was a mix of optical illusions and visual and audio subliminal messaging. So did you guys ever come across any Polybius cabinets? I have a supplier that has the Polybius cabinet in his warehouse.

7:38 Oh my gosh. Is it okay? Is it a real one or is it a fan-made? Well, that's a big question. That is the question, isn't it? I mean, of course, it's a mock-up. You know, I happen to know that. It depends on one's credibility when one tells you something, right? Right, yeah. Well, are you just going to believe that? This is a legend. Yes. And there's no real substantive evidence to support it, but it is fun. And there's a lot of mock-up cabinets that make people wonder, well, was that really a real one or is it just a mock-up? Yeah. It's so freaking mysterious. So have you played this one?

8:19 No. No. I have not. I don't know that it's playable, really. I know that he's used it in his own productions. Okay. Because that's one of the big things is no one really knows what the gameplay was like. Right. People have kind of speculated that it was sort of like tempest, which I don't know. I don't have any idea what that is. Can you guys describe the gameplay for that? Well, tempest is one of the greatest hits of all time and you're probably going to want to edit that out that you've never played it. I might have played it at some point, but I don't remember. Arcade 2084, almost any other arcade worth its salt.

8:59 And tempest will be there, usually an upright form factor. We have a cocktail table version. And I'll tell you in a minute why I chose that. The author of tempest wanted to create space innovators like Game. Space innovators have been such a huge hit. But he wanted to create sort of a 3D version where the aliens come toward you. And I think he did a great job. The game has this sort of 3D effect in suggestion, but it's a vector scan game. It's obvious to be a vector scan game and ours is in cocktail table form factor. So the bad guys seem to come up from underneath the table at you.

9:44 It's really a beautiful game to play. And Shana did a little something. She understands something about tempest and why. It may have been confused for Polybius. Yeah, so a couple of things about the gameplay. Well, we'll stick with tempest for a second. The tempest, your ship moves around a field. And the original version of it, your ship was stationary in the field itself moved. And that was causing nausea and vertigo. I could see that. Right. And so they changed it to what it is now. So if anybody had played those, there was this conception that arcade games can make you sick.

10:27 I think you nauseous and all that. And then the people who have actually claimed to have played Polybius describe it as a combination of tempest and Gallagher, puzzle and shooter game where the moving ship rotates around the screen, shooting at objects. And each level gets harder with distracting backgrounds and wildly spinning graphics that were brightly colored with these moving hypnotic backgrounds. So that was whoo. A people who have tried the gameplay of Polybius, which is eerily similar to a game called cube quest, which you know, you can, you can do the images of that.

11:09 And it looks almost exactly like what people describe Polybius as. There's even like these spinning skulls coming at you at the very first level. Oh my gosh. Well, that sounds fun. And that was a game that was a laser disk game. So it's like seed, they were like CDs, but they were giant because they were video, but they were like a record album with the shiny stuff like a CD. And they, it was a new technology. It broke a lot. So no, that's what show up in arcades break often. And then the operators of the arcade would say get this machine out of here. So those machines would come and go pretty quickly with this same kind of gameplay. So I suspect that people who think they played polyveas actually played cube quest.

11:53 How, I just, Polybius is such a random, very memorable name too. So I'm kind of wondering how that possibly could have got confused. Turns out that it's not so random. Oh, it's not. Okay. Polybius was the name of a Greek, let's see, in the five minutes, here's I get it right. Philosopher. Weren't all Greeks. Philosophers? No, it's a Greek historian. So it's a Greek historian born in Arcadia. Oh, okay. That's a little convenient. Yes. And he was known, it was historian that was known for relying on firsthand accounts.

12:33 Asserting that historians should never report what cannot be verified through an interview with eyewitnesses. So. Yes. Wow. It's almost like someone kind of planned this out here. Right. Because that's connected a little too easily. So I heard, so we kind of talked about the optical illusion effect of the game, but I've also heard that it has video and audio subliminal messaging in it. Have you ever heard any of that? I hadn't heard that. I had heard the subliminal messages, but, you know, I don't know. It doesn't work. Yeah, I think it's, it's one of those things where they were trying to relate it to a government conspiracy, government mind control, like the MK Ultra type of thing.

13:23 So I think it kind of just all got mishmashed into the story. Yeah. So my theory and the whole thing like how it began. So yeah, in 1981, there was two players that got sick at the same arcade on the same day. One of them ended up with a migraine after playing tempest. Now remember, these games were brand new. The flashing lights and the moving lights and everything. We hadn't experienced that really as humans. Yeah. And people that might have had photo sensitive issues with lights and flashing lights, you know, might get headaches or whatever. So the one kid collapsed from a migraine. The other kid was trying to break a world record and would plan asteroids for 28 hours straight.

14:06 Oh my God. He got sick and had to step away, but he'd also been drinking like tons of coke the whole time. So, yeah. I can't imagine why he got sick. Right. So these two kids get sick at this arcade and Eugene and on the same day. And then around that same time, there were arcade operators in Portland who were fixing machines for gambling. Yes. No, exactly how it worked, but there were counters that were added. And so federal agents were in town. The FBI was in town, go into these different arcades, taking photos, opening up the back of machines, looking for illegal counters. And then, you know, a week or so after that, the feds came in and they did a raid for some of this illegal gambling.

14:53 So you got some kids that got sick in an arcade and you jean. And then in Portland, guys and suits were showing up, poking around these machines and then moving in black. Exactly. And so, you know, this was before the internet, before really quick communication among people. And it just seems to me that those two events happening right around the same time was just right for an ordeal agent. Yeah. The telephone. I agree. Yeah. So it's like the telephone effect, like the game of telephone. It changes slightly. It gets a little more exciting or dramatic as you tell the next person and the next person tells the next person. Oh my god, this is pride. It's like, now you're on the cake, you know?

15:34 So I also did see that there was on some games, I don't know how long it was for, I don't know if it was on every game, but there was an FBI message that would pop up on the screen saying winners don't use drugs. Yes. Yes. That came along. I think in the late 80s might have been primarily 90s if it didn't start in the 90s. No, I think it probably started in the 80s as part of like the dare campaign. Yeah. To get kids not to use drugs and you know, kids were in front of these games. So they put the message in the games knowing, you know, their target audience was there. Back into the Reagan administration. Yeah. Right.

16:14 And then that would, you know, that put the government logo and all these kids' heads as they're playing arcade games. So it's even more of a link to this government conspiracy type of thing. Right. And in addition, in the day, and they don't do this anymore on DVDs, but you get a VHS tape. And at the beginning of every movie was an FBI warning about copywriting and copying the tape and selling it. And you can be fine and you can go to jail. So the connection of FBI and media was already there. Yeah. I mean, after, you know, arcade games have become so huge. There are these knockoffs, these clones.

16:55 And you'd find these, you know, it wasn't quite Donkey Kong or it wasn't really Pac-Man in a lot of arcades. And so there were people, you know, the right soldiers were losing out on money and the FBI understood the importance of cracking down on counterfeit intellectual property. And that had everything to do with, you know, the rise in those warnings on arcade machines right in the software. You know, don't, you know, you're not allowed to copy this if you're playing this outside of Japan, yada yada. You know, it's wrong. And so it really, yeah, it helps to feed in and that coincidental moment to the urban legend. Yeah. Any good urban legends got these kernels of truth.

17:35 Mm-hmm. Just enough to make you go, is it true? I don't know. Just enough because I did also find that there was an 18 year old named Peter Berkowski that passed away from a heart attack while playing the game Berserk. But that was not a direct result of the game itself. It was stress put on someone who already had an underlying heart condition, unfortunately. Like you said earlier, there wasn't a lot, these were new. So they weren't really aware that that might, you know, cause stress on your body enough to cause a heart attack or a seizure with the flashing lights. So that's very sad and unfortunate, but it was not a direct result of the game.

18:20 And it wasn't Polybius either. It was at an arcade, so, yeah. Gosh, that would be just awful. Polybius is innocent. I agree. I did watch the documentary on YouTube. Did you guys watch that one? I think we've seen it a while ago. They had someone made, you know, a mock up of Polybius that had all of the crazy visual optical illusions and the subliminal messaging. And this guy kind of took it apart to let you see the words that were popping up and hear it. And it was like breathing and like creepy words.

19:00 It was like, if that was in a real game, that would be really terrifying. Right. Do you know of any other games like this? Well, we've mentioned, you know how there are some games which may lend to what Polybius gets described as tempest and some other laser disk games where the laser disk footage isn't directly controllable. You don't interact with that. It more overlays or underlays the gameplay. Dragon slayer, space age. But none are like Polybius exactly. You'd have to combine, like I say, a few different games.

19:42 But there have been games, you know, and again, this helps feed the urban legend. They're having games that have been adapted by the military for training. Battle Zone was one of them. Doom II is another one. So, you know, there's that little thread, that kernel of truth there with the connection. Yeah. So the military actually used these video games as training for like soldiers? Indeed. Oh my gosh. And another interesting sort of piece of that is there's a home console that predates the Atari 2600, which everybody knows as right around this time of the arcade craze, you know, to play the home-ported versions of all these arcade games.

20:31 There's a console that predates it called the Fairchild F and libraries very small. It's a very little-known system. It was the first system you could change the gameplay experience with the cartridge. And I mentioned this because the military actually went ahead and contracted with them. They got together in Fairchild after their failure in the game console market did almost exclusively military contracts. Oh, wow. I didn't know any of that. I kind of knew like nowadays they have, you know, like flight simulators and things, but I didn't think even way back then that they would be, because it's like, I don't think it's very practical.

21:16 Were they using guns or were they using like little controls? They're using the little controls. Yeah. And there are these controls that were mapped to, you know, the commands in the game. Just like there are now, you can use a steering wheel and so on. You can use a full-on helicopter mock-up cockpit and they do. These games, you know, were not necessarily games. They were adapted to military training. They were modified slightly, but the base of it was the game. And then in 1984 there was a movie called The Last Star Fighter, where a teenager was playing a game that was covertly developed to recruit him as a soldier.

21:58 Now is aliens that had done it, but that storyline was there and it was bright for urban legend. Absolutely. It was in the public consciousness that the military and the government would be using these video games against the sender various ways, but for themselves obviously to recruit trained civilians. That seems kind of crazy to me too, because they would have had to get any of the data from people playing the game. The technology in the game would have had to be way more advanced than maybe they would have had at the time to put like tracking information into an arcade game. Well that doesn't ever stop conspiracy theory.

22:41 Yeah, that's true. But yeah, I agree with you. My conspiracy theory on this, well it's not like my theory, I'm sure. But I think it was aliens who put it there to, like you said with this other movie to study us. That's what I've always thought. It's a great idea. You would be able to identify which kids are going to grow up to be the worst alien killers and just eliminate them. That's true. You get the very good tactic. The book 1984, all about government control and everything, well 1984 was coming and it was, so it was very much in the public consciousness of the reaching government and all of that.

23:28 It was just a perfect storm. Exactly. Do you think a legend like this could be born now? Yes. I suppose so. I mean there's crazy conspiracy theories that keep popping up every day. So why not? I feel like everyone now is just so suspicious because of AI and everything is just it's fake, but it looks so real. Yeah, there is a general distrust and a decline of faith in institutions, including those that bring us our facts and news and truths. And if it was going to come out today, I think it would be related to like home gaming, whether it's a streaming game or like a PlayStation game or something because so you know back in the day, arcades were where everybody was playing their games and now so many people play at home that a more truthful conspiracy theory today would be one of these home played games.

24:28 That is true. So no one be afraid to visit the arcade. That's right. No, but almost right. It's old tech. It's not that fancy. It can't watch you or anything. It can't get you. It's not tracking you. If a version of Polybius was ever found and was playable and it did create all of these symptoms, everything was true. Would you play it? No. Good answer. I'd be very tempted. Me too. I would certainly watch somebody else play it first. Yes. Yes, have someone else be the test subject.

25:08 But yeah, you know, some of the things that just crush the legend itself is there's no actual ROM sets that can be found. There was an article on I think it's coin up thought order or something where they said they had a ROM set but they never shared it. So we've actually existed. So for listeners who may not know what a ROM set is, this is the actual software that holds the game program. And they are they had historically been stored on chips. These ROM chips that were then on the main board of these arcade games.

25:51 And now, you know, the ROM codes for all these arcade games that we all know and love in a bunch of deep cuts we don't is more or less preserved and can be reinstalled in new new chips, app ROMs and they can go into the machine and help preserve it. But again, you know, with the case of Polybius, the fact that there's no known ROM sets is deeply suspicious. Right. So there's that. There was a popular magazine at the time called Electronic Games. And from 1981 to 1984, there was not a single mention of Polybius. There was no mention of the game in any mainstream news in the early 80s.

26:34 And you'd think if kids were really getting sick from these games and such quantities, like somebody would have said something on the news. It probably would have come up in one of these magazines. The first online mention was in 1998 or maybe the early 2000s, some people speculate the date on the article isn't really accurate. But yeah, it wasn't until the 2000s that there's really any mention of Polybius at any kind of media or prancer. Yeah. It's BS y'all. But if we jumped timelines like a Mandela effect situation, then there wouldn't be, right?

27:17 It's funny that you say that because there's a story at the foundation of arcade 2084. Or it's a time travel story. It would not be uncommon for arcades in the 80s for operators to create a sci-fi motif and a little backstory for it. But audiences are a lot more sophisticated now. And the nerds are ruthless. So this narrative is really rich. And it contains multiple timelines as a time travel story. And in the original timeline, Polybius exists and our antagonist, our villain, has changed history and removed Polybius among other dastardly events.

28:01 I love that. That is so much fun. And I love how the urban legend just keeps getting held up by like, so the original game supposedly was created by a company called Sinneslöschen. It's a German where I probably completely mess it up. But it's supposed to mean like sensory deprivation. But what people say, it's a very clumsy word as if somebody went to a translation dictionary and tried to make a word. Yeah. So Sinneslöschen, there in 2007 at Sinneslöschen.com, you can download a Windows game called Polybius.

28:42 In 2017, PS4 had a game, Polyvius 2013. There was a homebrew game for the Atari 2600 called Polybius. So even if it wasn't real before, they're making that game. Yeah, it's real now. Right, exactly. Maybe not with the mind control, but there are games called Polyvius now, which, again, maybe with the mind control. It makes the research murky, you know? It did exist. Well, Polybius games do exist, but, you know, yeah. In '81.

29:23 Right. So what is your guys' favorite arcade game? Can you pick? I know it's probably a terrible question to ask. I like Gravitar. This is a mid-80s Atari game, sort of a combination between Lunar Landr and Asteroids. The physics in the game are amazing. You control a ship that you can direct the attitude of and thrust and firing, and you travel to different worlds on a two-dimensional plane. And in these worlds, you have to collect fuel, which is depleting. If you run out of fuel, even if you have, you know, three guys left, that's the end of the game.

30:06 So the tactics you use to employ, you know, your ship's fuel, it's just as important as your weapons. It's a very difficult game, and it really crushes the spirit of most people. It makes almost no money, and it is just fantastic. That sounds really stressful. I'm feeling the bodily effects of the stress right now, and I'm not even playing it. Yeah. I can't stand that game. It's just so tough. I'm dead in 30 seconds, and I'm just like, I'm done, you know. Most games, it's like, okay, let me try another token and see if I can get better, but that one's just so difficult. Do you guys have that one?

30:47 Yes, we do. Everyone goes try to play it. Yes. Shana, do you have a favorite? Um, a Tapper has been a favorite. It is so hard to choose. Um, I say Tapper, where you're a bartender that, you know, you have to serve beer to your patrons and serve more beer down the bar than there are patrons. The mug falls off the bar and you leave it. Or if the patron gets to the end of the bar before you've given them a beer, they pick you up and throw you down the bar. Oh my god. Well, that's just fun. Do you guys have that one there? We do. Yes. Oh my gosh, I have to tell you.

31:28 That's why I'm a Tapper. It's got the Budweiser logo and that ended up changing over time to root beer Tapper to make it more kid friendly and all of that. Yeah, that is sort of, but I guess that is surprising that they made a beer game for children. Well, the games are originally not for children. I mean, if you look at even the size of them, most kids need a chair to stand on. It is a broad misconception that our kids were and are for children. They're not necessarily children. And a lot of them, like the Chuck E. Cheese and even like the mall arcades, we're maybe geared a little bit more to kids.

32:08 And far more accessible, obviously. Right, but these original standalone arcades were seen as like these very seedy places where people were dealing drugs and doing bad things and not for kids. Yeah. That is true because all the gambling stuff, that's right. There were even some towns that had ordinances. And it's really interesting if you, Eric did some research a while back looking through old newspaper articles. And a lot of towns had laws where arcades could not be opened during school hours. And other such things. Parents just thinking, yeah, they were just full of drugs and bad things.

32:50 It was a mean, yeah. No, well, it came, the belief among the carons of the day came from, again, curls of truth. And it's why we now believe arcades to be, there are preconceived notions that arcades are for children. They're broken, they're dirty, they're rip off joints, there's no good food, there's no good drink. It comes from way back when these gaming parlors, billiards, pinball even, were in fact controlled by the mob. And Kramah was a little girl and she knew that those places were controlled by the mob.

33:31 And coming out of the 50s and 60s, pinball at its peak, there are lots of pinball places that still had a lot of crime going on. It was that third place like bars that maybe were less frequented by the authorities. To be sure, there were narrative wells and things going on. But going into the late 70s with video games, the dynamic was a little different. Teenagers did like to go there, but there was far less drugs and crime than was suspected. And there was no longer any mob control to speak of.

34:11 But you can see how women were very concerned, maybe some men too, about the kids being in these places. I'm glad we're setting all of these records straight right now. For real. And definitely, you guys have great food. It is nice in there. Like you said, it's clean, it's fun. I feel like everyone got it. We're really proud of the menu. The drinks as well. We're bringing to bear just decades of experience in food service and hospitality. Because people deserve good food, good service, good drink and special products and special place and a friendly crew, they deserve it.

34:58 And they're not getting it. They don't expect it with our kids. So the bar is low for better or for worse for us. Do you guys do any events at the arcade? Well every night, every day we're open every day. There's a special, the thirsty Thursday, for example, $5 drafts. karaoke. Yeah, $4 bottles. You've karaoke? Yes. Thursday’s are now karaoke night. But only songs from 1989 and earlier. Oh my God, I love that. That is amazing. Friday is fast times Friday. That's where you can get some of my Nitro beverage line at a discount. Route 84 is a Nitro root beer.

35:39 And there's a non-alcoholic version that was a huge hit for a couple of years. But a lot of guests would drop in a shot. And you get a great flavor profile with whiskey or vanilla. But the alcohol destroys the effervescence when you do that. So I've created the new, smooth and hard line and this has the alcohol right in in the brewing process. So it's just head for days and it's an amazing draft root beer on tap. Oh my gosh. And Saturday is super shot Saturday. So we have our jealous shots and the big syringes. They come with bonus tokens. Sundays all day happy hour. And then.

36:19 Dollar up all food and drink on the menu. And then we do try to have other kinds of events eventually. We're going to get into doing some kind of tournaments, competitions. But see, this month alone we've got the Mrs. Roper romp. So not arcade related, but definitely 80s related. Two is a character from Three's Company. Who has this big curly red hair and wore these very colorful, they're called calf tans. It's kind of like a big moomoo, big chunky jewelry. So everybody dresses up like Mrs. Roper and kind of bar hops. So we're doing that actually this Friday. And then we do paint nights from time to time, black light paint night.

37:02 Oh my god. Yeah, do paintings with these phosphorescent paints that will glow under the black light. And yeah, and we're open to other kinds of events. You know, if anybody's got an idea for us, just hit us up. We'll see what we can fit in. That sounds like so much fun. I am so into that black light paint. Oh my gosh. That sounds great. You have a paint be support. Yeah. And of course we do private parties too. You can rent out the entire arcade. Oh, you can? Yes. Oh my gosh, that's so fun. Has anyone done that yet? Yes. Have you had a wedding there? No wedding is mostly birthdays, team building. It was cute even during Pete COVID.

37:43 We opened July 2020. It was rough. You know, a lot of people couldn't come in and there was a period where nobody could come in. We're just afraid to be around other people. And we had this adorable couple who reserved the arcade just for themselves for a fun date night, just the two of them. That is so freaking sweet. I love that. As indie podcasters, we love to show our support of other awesome shows. So stay tuned for the promo we've got to share with you this week. Let show them some love. Hi guys, I'm Courtney and I'm Lisa and we are the host of the Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast based out of New Jersey where we tell you about the most obscure cases that you may have never heard of.

38:35 So join us in the Book of the Dead library for another chapter of the Book of the Dead wherever you get your podcasts. Bye guys. You guys! We're back! And don't worry, we did get more wine. Well of course. Well on our episodes, we usually do a tarot reading. How do you guys feel about tarot? A fun activity. Yeah. Yeah? Okay. You're not scared, right? Oh. It's just no science man. It's not a big deal. I agree. But some people are like, "Oh no, evil. We're gonna..." I have a stranger thing, Stack. I thought it would be perfect to you.

39:16 Okay. So I'm giving it a couple of good shuffles here. Okay. So I'm just gonna send me your Polybius vibes into the deck. I think we're gonna go with this one. Okay. We got the five of strands, which is Wands I Believe. And I have my little interpretation book. I'm gonna find the page. I don't have all the cards memorized or anything. We're pretty good now. We've been doing it about almost three years now.

39:57 So we're pretty good with our intuition with the cards, but we still always like to read the little interpretation. It's a big deck. A lot to learn. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I know the major arcana pretty well. Nerd. I am. I have so many tarot decks. It's ridiculous. That's cool. That's kind of cool. Yeah. I like how I do that. And then I have a theme for like any topic. Perfect. So there needs to be like a Pac-Man, you know, an arcade-game tarot deck. There should be. You guys should invent one. You should invent one. We can work on it together. I know. I don't know a lot about arcade games.

40:38 I know how to play Pac-Man sort of. There's patterns. Are you going to teach me secrets right now? Like that. There's a hiding spot in Pac-Man. There's no pause button on any of these games. So if you need to go take a pee break, you better hope you bought the asteroids branded diaper because you can't step away without losing your guy. Well on Pac-Man, there's a place in the maze where you can tuck Pac-Man in there. The monsters won't bother him. But what if someone else comes and moves the little stick and moves them out? Yeah. Is it a stick? Or is it a Piss-But? You take it with them behind the arcade. Take them out back. Yeah. Deal with...

41:19 Talk to NATO or the UN or something. Okay. So for five of strands, which is ones, I double checked. Five of strands is like navigating Murkwood Forest with a dim flashlight. No matter how hard you try to find your way, you're surrounded by shadows and illusion throwing you off course. Although you may feel lost, remember that all you need is clarity. What is the source of your current conflict? Are you trying to solve the right problem? As tricky as this card can be, it does indicate a great payoff if things can be resolved. Now it's just a matter of deciding whether you think it's worth it.

42:02 Ooh, is that a threat? That's a good one. I feel slightly threatened. Maybe we shouldn't be trying to solve this mystery. Right? A plebeia is, yeah, don't be close. Yeah, I kind of think that's what it was saying. Oh, awesome. As a patriarchy, I do suggest we stop this immediately. Okay. That is interesting, though, that it said it talked about illusion. Right? That was like so perfect for this game. I like the lights, too, kind of just remind me of the whole vibe of the, with all the lights in the arcade.

42:42 So do we get any more cards? Can you hit us? Can you hit me? Do you want another card? We'll double down. Yeah. Let's do it. I don't know how to play. So. I just grabbed, I felt like grabbing the one just that was on the top right here. And it's the page of dice. Dice. Dice are swords. Ooh. Okay. Page of dice. Will Byers is full of creative ideas from stories to game campaigns to exploring the world of science. Okay. As the page of dice, Will is finding his voice and learning how to express himself.

43:23 His presence in your reading encourages you to pursue your ideas or consider new ways of communicating your thoughts. So which is it? Should we not pursue it? Should we pursue it? That was good. That was, it literally says game campaigns like in science. I love it. I'm thinking of a shape right now. What is it? I don't know. Triangle. Oh my God. I'm going to miss a phenomenon. Thank you. I was just thinking of pizza because I'm hungry. It was a circle. It was a fucking circle. I was close.

44:04 I was a fucking circle. That was very close. See, I am a witch. He said that pizza is a circle, but a slice of pizza is a triangle. Yeah. Yeah. So I was right. Everybody was right. Yeah. Okay. Well, do you guys have any last words? I did want to mention how urban legends sometimes can just flutter away as times change. But I love that this one stays in the public consciousness. And even if you don't know it's there, there's Easter eggs in all kinds of pop culture where Polybius keeps showing up. So it was in the Simpsons, the Goldbergs, Nine Inch Nails video, Less Than.

44:46 It's prominent in that one. There was a short live show called Dimension 404. It's got an episode all about Polybius, which I highly recommend. Loki in Season 1, Polybius was there. And some show called Paper Girls have never heard of. But Polybius shows up there, too. So. Wow. I feel like that's just going to cement the legend for way in the future. They're going to be like, look, it was real. It's in all of these old things. Right. And I think as people learn about it, you know, like you weren't necessarily there, but you learn about it. Like, oh, this is interesting. And then they put it in their movie or book or whatever. It's just going to keep going on, which is fantastic because it keeps arcade in the consciousness.

45:26 Yeah, I agree. So I had the opportunity to be at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo a weekend. Oh, fun. Yeah. And I met some fellows that work on independent new arcade games. And they have a number of titles that are hugely successful in barricades across the country. And I plan to pick up one or two of those for our arcade to introduce new audiences to these old titles. These games, these guys are making are in the spirit of these original eight 16-bit games from the '80s.

46:12 The gameplay is on point as if the arcade phenomenon of the '80s didn't stop. They've really, really nailed it. And I'm excited to be working with them also on a new Polybius game that will be at our arcade. Oh, my gosh. I'm so excited. You have to let me know when it comes. I'm going to do like an opening day. We hope that every day people come along. There's been since we opened up a contest to create Polybius as well as some arcade games in the style of the '80s and one with our own stories and narrative elements.

46:53 But there have been no submissions in this entire time. So I'm hopeful that working with these guys, we can act the rubber to the road and get these games rolling. And bring this urban legend to life. Yes. Oh, this is so exciting. I'm so glad to have you guys on. Yeah. Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you so much for your opportunity to talk to you. Yeah, absolutely. Do you guys have Instagram or Facebook or anything like that? A website? All three. Yeah. Website barthattimeforgot.com. That will swing you over to barthattimeforgot.com. That's our speakeasy style cocktail bar, board winning cocktails.

47:35 And Instagram, @arcade_2084. Yeah, and I think our Facebook handle is bar timeforgot. Bar that timeforgot. I can't remember if there's underscores in it or not. Well, we'll link to the website and I'm sure that they can find you all from there. Excellent. Have a creepy ass day. See you in the future. We won't have a tarot read video for our Patreon this week, but we will have a very special bonus episode, a whole episode for you guys. Oh, my gourd. Yes, so that will be released in place of a video.

48:17 I'm very sorry. You won't see our beautiful faces. Still, if you have any true crime, paranormal, witchy, or other creepy stories, maybe like any creepy video games you've played recently. Yeah, definitely that. You should attention them too, Cassie. That'll be for our listener appreciation episodes, creepy people chronicles. Email them to us at pnwhauntsandhomicides@gmail.com or you can use the Google contact link in our episode description. Slash.

48:57 Show notes. When you are always welcome to remain anonymous, if you have a story that maybe you're worried the men in black will come after you for. Oh, great. We don't want that to happen to you. I wasn't worried about that, particularly, but after this episode you might be okay, great. It's fine. But they also don't have to be specifically from the Pacific Northwest. Yes. Yeah, let's focus on that. These great, pre-impressed that I said specifically Pacific. Oh, yes. All of us on all of the socials, if you don't want to miss out on photos of the tarot cards, our beautiful, alter setups and a lot of backstage shenanigans, unless the men in black are after you.

49:50 And therefore you have no time for shenanigans. None. And whatsoever. Also this week's tarot card photos will not be with an alter, but they'll be very special. You can find our website and link tree in the description of this episode to check out all of the strange fun we have to offer. pnwhauntsandhomicides.com Oh.

50:45 Do you want to say it with me? You don't have to say the ass part. Oh, I'm into the ass. Okay, cool. We love the ass around here.