BONUS: The Polybius Conspiracy

The Truth

Fiction

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2018

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An investigation into the origins of the Polybius legend leads to Bobby, who claims the game was responsible for his abduction as a teenager. In the thirty-five years since, Bobby has remained steadfast with his story, going so far as to organize a for-profit walking tour while obsessively searching for the one person he believes could corroborate his allegations. Local players from the Portland arcade scene cast doubt on Bobby’s story, as do journalists who refute the game as ever having existed. The Polybius Conpiracy is a production of Showcase from PRX’s Radiotopia. Hear the full series at http://radiotopia.fm/showcase Sponsored by: Harrys.com/TRUTH hellofresh.com (Promo Code: TRUTH30) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a special bonus episode of the truth. We took a break over the holidays and then I actually
0:04.4	got a little sick for a couple weeks and so I had to take some time off. So we're just getting
0:08.4	back into the swing of things. We are going to have a brand new story for you in two weeks.
0:13.2	But we wanted to give you guys something to listen to. So today we're going to play the first
0:17.1	episode of the Polybius Conspiracy. This is a limited run series that appeared on Radio Topia's
0:22.6	Showcase last fall. Some of you may have heard it already, but if you haven't, I wanted to kind of
0:28.1	put it in front of all you guys to say, go check this out. It's really, really well done.
0:32.6	It's a hybrid of fact in fiction. Okay. About the mysterious arcade game, Polybius.
0:39.7	After the break, it's the Polybius Conspiracy. Hey there, a quick favor. We're conducting an
0:45.6	audience survey and we'd be really grateful if you could take just a few minutes to answer our survey.
0:50.2	Please visit survey.prx.org slash truth to take the survey today. That's survey.prx.org slash truth.
0:58.6	Thanks. Before we get started, a quick note. This podcast features explicit language and may not
1:05.8	be suitable for younger listeners. Well, I mean, in the beginning, it was just a...
1:15.2	That was... That was the closest I ever felt to my parents. I remember my mother was sobbing when she
1:22.7	saw me. Bobby is that awkward kid you went to high school with that never quite fit in.
1:29.7	Always on the fringe, probably a few pounds over or underweight, with that one deep abiding passion
1:36.4	that just didn't mesh with the rest of the school culture. In Bobby's case, it was video games,
1:42.1	a pastime that consumed his allowance, and whatever income he could scrounge together.
1:46.9	Because for Bobby, getting that high score meant the difference between invisibility and notoriety.
1:53.2	You see, figured if you could just get his initials up there on that screen,
1:57.0	people would finally see him as the special person that deep down he knew he was.
2:02.7	And for a moment, in the fall of 1981, people finally did take notice of Bobby,
	...

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