The April 29th episode of The Goldbergs immediately became one of my favorites because it featured 80s video games. I have no doubt the upcoming Star Wars episode will be just as, if not more, awesome in its nostalgia-y goodness.
If you're a video game historian (or just old like me) you may have noticed one game in the arcade that you didn't recognize: Polybius. There are a couple times you can see it when the guys first arrive at the arcade.
The next time you see it is to the right of the new Punch-Out machine. I had to rewind it as we were watching to make sure my eyes saw what I thought they did.
So, what's the deal with this Polybius cabinet? It's a bit of a video game urban legend. It was supposedly some kind of government developed thing to test behavior modification software for the CIA. Rumor says it caused players to become addicted to it to the point of fights breaking out over who got next and some players reported amnesia, night terrors, and other side effects. Sounds fun, right? You can read all about it on Wikipedia, or if you want the TL;DR version, check out Nerd Out With Me.
The legend sort of reminds me of The Last Starfighter only with government Men in Black instead of aliens looking for their savior pilot. Big thanks to Adam Goldberg for tossing in this little Easter Egg for us video game geeks!
Update: prior to the Star Wars episode I tweeted a link to this post and the Man himself replied to it! I love when show creators are in touch with their audience.
Oh man how cool they actually had Polybius in there.
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