Episode 201: Jaws 50th Anniversary, Polybius Video Game Urban Legend, Traumatizing 'Very Special' TV Episodes(6-25-2025)

The anniversary of one of the greatest films ever made. An urban legend surrounding a video game that was likely never made. Television episodes that traumatized 80s kids.

Episode 201 kicks off summer with Gen-X nostalgia to keep you entertained while soaking in the sun.

It begins by scaring you out of the water as we look back at the classic movie Jaws for its 50th anniversary. A killer shark stalks beachgoers and, in doing so, creates the 'summer blockbuster' movie. We do a deep dive into the origins of the film and what makes it stand the test of time so well.

We go way back in the day and down a rabbit hole as we look for the origins of a lesser-known 80s urban legend. Polybius was a video game that was said to cause mental and physical issues for its players, but did it exist at all? That is the question that we try to find the answer to. 

Childhood trauma is on the menu in this week's Top 5. Sitcoms are supposed to make us laugh. In the 1980s and 1990s, though every now and then they terrified us. These were the 'very special' television episodes that tackled more serious issues. We will go through some and open up old wounds.

There is a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around the first single released by the legendary Stevie Wonder.

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Helpful Links from this Episode

• Purchase My New Book Cape Cod Beyond the Beach!
• In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide(2nd Edition)
• Hooked By Kiwi - Etsy.com
• DJ Williams Music
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• Christopher Setterlund.com
• Cape Cod Living - Zazzle Store
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• Serenading Romero

Listen to Episode 200 here

Transcript

Speaker: 0:02

Hello world! And welcome to the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 201. After the big celebration of listener's choice last week, we're back to the same old, same old. Don't worry, it's gonna be fun though. We've got so much nostalgia to go over this week. We're gonna kick it off with a look back 50 years for the 50th anniversary of one of the best movies ever made, Jaws. We're gonna go way, way back in the day and look at an infamous, maybe slightly lesser-known urban legend, and that is the Polybius Arcade Game from the early 1980s. There's gonna be a very special, brand new top five as we look at some very special sitcom episodes that traumatized us 80s and 90s kids. And there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule looking back at the very first single ever released by the legendary Stevie Wonder. All of that is coming up right now on episode 201 of the In My Footsteps Podcast. Is this like the celebration hangover episode of the show? All the build-up to episode 200, it is now come and gone, and we're here. There's nothing to celebrate with the show, at least until November, when it'll be the five-year anniversary of the show. Thank you so much to all of you that tuned in to episode 200 that shared it. Obviously, those of you that voted. I hope it lived up to the lofty expectations. As for this week, it is time to pop the top on another weekly dose of Gen X nostalgia. Ooh, there it is. Now we can really start. Happy summer to everybody officially. I hope where you are, it's either cool and breezy or you're inside with the AC going. I'm trapped in between as the day I'm recording this, it's not super hot, but it is very windy, and I can't have the window closed. I don't have my AC in yet. So if you ever so often hear some noises, it might be the wind that is howling next to my head. Speaking of howling, I want to howl with joy by thanking my Patreon subscribers, Laurie, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin, Leo, Marguerite, Neglectoid, Crystal, Matt. Thank you all for being some of the ones that voted for episode 200 and my biggest backers that literally put your money where your mouth is to support me, my content, my never-ending quest to be a totally self-sustaining content creator. I've been doing my due diligence on backstage.com, applying several times a week to different voiceover acting gigs. I haven't gotten one yet, but it's pretty fun. It's actually pretty easy. Doing this podcast has really prepped me for voiceover acting. It just takes someone to take a chance on me because I don't have any experience in that field. But hey, I signed up for a year-long membership on backstage, so I figure if I don't get any bites in one year, that's probably a sign to not continue in that direction. One thing there is no end for, and that is me with the podcast, episode 201. I easily can see me getting to 400 episodes. That is not a binding contract in case something comes up if I get to 399 and then I fall off the map. Please don't sue me because I said I'd do 400. But let's dive into the meat of this nostalgia sandwich. Looking back at the anniversary of one of the biggest movies ever made, one that's very close to my heart and my home on Cape Cod because most of it was filmed nearby on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Also a movie that if you see it for the first time this time of year, can scar you and make you not want to go in the water. So let's cue up the ominous strings and take a look back 50 years at the release of the movie Jaws, now on episode 201 of the In My Footsteps Podcast. Oh yeah. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. Well, I guess that's Jaws 2's tagline. Anyway, 50 years ago this week was the release of the epic movie Jaws. This was the film about a great white shark terrorizing a small beach town and the world. I guarantee that there are some of you out there listening to this now that remember seeing Jaws for the first time and then looking at any body of water differently, even ones where you knew sharks weren't in there. Maybe not your backyard pool, but ponds, lakes, rivers. Although if I was a little kid and my pool was dirty enough, maybe I would think there was a shark in there. This movie, it changed the motion picture industry by basically creating the idea of a summer blockbuster, a big-time movie released from Memorial Day to Labor Day that would break all kinds of records for money brought in. Because think about it, the summer of 1975, cast your mind back before then and think about what do you think of the biggest films that were released before, and then think about after. You can start to put in place different summer blockbusters. Because after Jaws, you got things like Star Wars, Alien, National Lampoons Vacation, E.T. And then later on movies like Up, Finding Nemo, Harry Potter. The concept of the summer blockbuster originated with Jaws, and Jaws the movie, originated in a 1974 novel of the same name written by a man named Peter Benchley. This book was inspired in part by a series of shark attacks off the Jersey Shore in 1916, and the stories of shark fishermen like Frank Mundus. Universal Pictures quickly purchased the film rights for $175,000 before the novel had even hit bookstores. The producers picked 27-year-old Steven Spielberg to direct the film. He had just finished directing The Sugarland Express, but he was drawn to this project not for the thrill of a monster movie, but the suspense and humor and drama, like his very first film, Duel, from 1971. Which, if you haven't seen Duel, it's kind of like Jaws, but the shark is replaced by this old oil tanker. If you haven't seen Duel, I highly recommend that as well. When casting the film, novelist Peter Benchley wanted more classically good-looking, I guess, for lack of a better term, actors for the film. But Spielberg chose down-to-earth relatable performers, Roy Scheider as Martin Brodie, Richard Dreyfus as Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as Quint. Filming of this movie was supposed to only take 55 days, but ended up taking more than 150 due to weather problems, script rewrites, and most notably issues with the mechanical shark named Bruce, which was after Steven Spielberg's lawyer. What ended up being a happy accident was Bruce the Shark was supposed to be the star of the film. But because it kept malfunctioning, you don't see the shark as much, and it adds to the terror of the movie. That minimalist approach with the score, that violin score you heard at the beginning of the segment created by legendary John Williams, that made it more scary. It's almost like in any monster movie, horror movie, if you see the villain a lot, I guess you kind of become desensitized to it. I was not as scared of Friday the 13th, part 7 or 8, where Jason's everywhere, as I was in the original, where his mother, the killer, you never see her. Amity Island is the fictional place where Jaws takes place, but the movie was actually filmed on Martha's Vineyard, which is located only a few miles off of Cape Cod. Growing up here on Cape Cod and growing up with the movie Jaws, going to Martha's Vineyard, you get a better feel for the movie afterwards, if you see all the locations, or vice versa, if you've seen Jaws and you go to Martha's Vineyard and you see places like the Jaws Bridge, where everyone is jumping off of it in the movie when the shark ends up in the pond. Or the beautiful narrow streets in Edgar Town, where you see in the movie Chief Brody walking down the street to the police station. The Chappaquddick Beach Club with those sort of striped clowny-looking beach tents. There's even a scene next to Gay Head Lighthouse. And obviously the classic Quint's Boat Shop and when they're leaving on the Orca going through Menemsha. If it's at all possible, I highly recommend you watch Jaws and go to Martha's Vineyard. It really makes the movie better and makes you appreciate the vineyard more. Not to get too heavy into spoilers, but I mean I'm sure most of you know what Jaws is about. But it's a man-eating shark that terrorizes Amity Island. The mayor at first doesn't take it seriously because he doesn't want to close the beaches as Fourth of July weekend is approaching. But as more beachgoers are killed by the shark, he has no choice. They then hire Quint to go out on his boat, the Orca, to catch Jaws the Shark. Well, I mean, the shark's not named Jaws, so forgive me if I say that every now and then. I just get used to it. But Quint, Brody, and Hooper all go out on the Orca to find the shark and kill it. The shark ends up being way harder to catch than they expected, eventually destroying the Orca, killing Quint until the famous scene at the end with Brody on the crow's nest of the sinking ship with his gun trying to blow up an air tank that is in the shark's mouth. You get this famous line. It's gotta be one of the most famous lines ever in movies. If I was to just walk up to someone on the street and say that, I mean, before getting maced or punched, they'd probably know it was from Jaws. I recommend you go out with your camera to take someone's picture and say that to them. Smile you SOB and say, no, it's from Jaws. The movie was released June 20th, 1975, to rave reviews and massive audiences. It was the first major motion picture to be released simultaneously in hundreds of theaters across the country. The movie Jaws would be the highest grossing film of all time by the time it was out of theaters. It grossed $7 million in its opening weekend, which is equal to just under $42 million when adjusted for inflation to 2025. And all in all, it raked in just a shade under $478 million in 1975. When adjusted for inflation, that puts the total at more than $2.8 billion. Ironically, Jaws was surpassed as the top-grossing film ever only two years later by the original Star Wars, or Episode 4, for those that want to really be accurate. Jaws was nominated for four Academy Awards and won three Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound. It actually lost Best Picture to one Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, though many still debate that decision. Sometimes horror movies, suspense movies don't get the praise they deserve because of the bad name that horror gets. I mean, you wouldn't see Friday the 13th nominated for an Academy Award, but Jaws sure should have won Best Picture. There are so many classic scenes in that movie. I could spend this whole episode of the podcast just talking about them. That first scene with the girl going for the night swim and everything is perfect, and then suddenly she gets grabbed just enough, but you hear the panic in her voice. That scene right there was enough for me to not want to go deep-sea swimming ever. Not knowing what's underneath you. I'm not trying to make anyone scared of the ocean, but it definitely can get to you if you're out over your head in the water, knowing there's enough area under you that you can't see that something could be there. I am speaking like someone who saw Jaws as a kid and was definitely affected, and that is true. There's the scene with little Alex Kintner who gets eaten off of his raft. And the whole final what 30 minutes when they're out on the orca, it's some of the best film you'll ever see. I think when I was a kid, I would watch that part from when the orca leaves harbor to the end. I would watch just that. I think because there were less people getting eaten. The whole story Quint tells from World War II on the Indianapolis with the shark attacks, Brody seeing the shark for the first time and just saying.

Speaker 1: 14:43

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

Speaker: 14:47

This is a film that, despite being 50 years old, it holds up so well, it has aged so well. I think part of that is because Steven Spielberg directed it. His work usually has a good shelf life. It's wild for me to think now in 2025 that when I first saw this movie in probably the late 1980s, there were no reports of great white sharks around Cape Cod. And now it's every summer. Here they are, they return. So it's made Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket more like Amity Island. It's art imitating life or life imitating art. In 2018, we actually had a shark attack on Cape Cod that was fatal. I'll never forget that. A man named Arthur Medici, who was 26 years old, was bitten in the water off of Newcomb Hollow Beach in Wellfleet. He was only 30 yards offshore. It was one of those things that yes, we knew there were sharks in the water, and yes, we knew there was always a chance that there was some danger, but until a man actually died from a shark attack, it didn't really hit home. Going back to Jaws, though, with all of that success naturally came sequels. Jaws 2 came out in 1978. That was, I think, an underrated movie. I thought it picked up right where the original left off. Because if you have one shark in your area, you likely have more than one. We know that on Cape Cud, so it only would make sense that you would have another shark story there. They brought back most of the original cast. Although they did kind of up the ante. You saw the shark a lot more. The shark got blown up by a boat at one point where the woman poured the gasoline on it and lit it on fire. The shark ate a helicopter, well, pulled it under at least, got electrocuted. That should have been the end. But no, they had Jaws 3D in 1983, and then one of the worst ever, Jaws the Revenge in 1987. I don't think I realized how bad that movie was when I originally saw it. I saw it when it came out, probably on HBO or something. But only when I got older did I realize just how bad Jaws the Revenge was. So here as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jaws, it's seen as more than just a monster movie. It's a landmark in film history. It elevated Steven Spielberg. Think about it, he wasn't a big name director. And then he gets Jaws, and then his resume is a it's more than any other director could dream of. Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan. I mean, I could just list his his accomplishments, but I don't have time for that. The movie Jaws reshaped the Hollywood release calendar, demonstrated the power of suspense, storytelling, and innovative filmmaking under pressure when your mechanical shark doesn't want to work. Jaws will be making its return to theaters for special 50th anniversary screenings. If you're on Cape Cod in the summer, watching Jaws in the theater while you're down here, that's definitely a good part of your vacation. Just don't blame me for recommending it or Spielberg for making it if it makes you not want to go swimming on the ocean right after. This week in history, we are going back 62 years to June 22nd, 1963, and the release of the song Fingertips, which was the first ever single by Little Stevie Wonder. I could not pass up the chance to talk about the icon, the legend of legends, Stevie Wonder. He's one of the most remarkable and influential musicians in modern history. He was a child prodigy, little Stevie Wonder, who became a global superstar. His talent transcends genre, error, expectation. He was blind from infancy, and he was able to play all these instruments and create these unbelievable songs. Stevie Wonder was born Stevlin Judkins, which was later changed to Stevlin Morris, on May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Michigan. It was complications at birth, resulted in a condition called retinopathy of prematurity, which left him blind shortly after birth. Despite this, Wonder displayed extraordinary musical ability from a very young age. He taught himself to play the piano, harmonica, and drums. Yes, he could play the drums. And he did all of this before the age of ten. I thought I did good stuff by being in the top one percentile of the testing that we did as kids. Back back when I was eight, nine years old. I couldn't imagine having to learn to play piano and drums. Stevie Wonder was discovered by Ronnie White of the Miracles at age 11, and soon was auditioning for Motown founder Barry Gordy. He was given the stage name Little Stevie Wonder, and then it was on June 22nd, 1963, that he released his single Fingertips. It went to number one. It made him the youngest artist ever to have a number one song at the time. What makes Stevie Wonder exceptional? It's not just his ability to perform despite being blind, it's how he redefined what a musician could be. He has complete command over his instruments, his songwriting. He pioneered the use of synthesizers in pop music, particularly in his 1970s albums. He was known for playing nearly every instrument on his recordings. Go back and listen to Stevie Wonder's hits of the 70s and realize that most of those instruments are played by a man who cannot see them. Despite not being able to see, Stevie Wonder possesses a combination of a perfect ear, emotional depth, technical skill, and social insight. Much like a few minutes ago where I said I could just list all of Steven Spielberg's films, I could list all of Stevie Wonder's hit songs and just go on forever. There were massive hits like Superstition, Sir Duke, Isn't She Lovely, I Just Called to Say I Love You, Higher Ground, Livin' for the City, You Are the Sunshine of My Life. Some of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs are his lesser-known ones. I highly recommend Love's in Need of Love Today, Knocks Me Off My Feet, Overjoyed, as Think about the fact that we're going back 62 years to Stevie Wonder's first hit song, and he's only 75 years old now. He influenced so much of what is popular today in RB, pop, funk, hip-hop. Stevie Wonder inspired Prince, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Beyonce, Pharrell Williams. You name them, Stevie Wonder is one of their influences. All in all, Stevie Wonder has sold more than a hundred million albums, he's won twenty-five Grammy Awards, he's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His legacy as a performer, songwriter, cultural figure, it's all undisputed. And in the words of Stevie Wonder himself, quote, music at its essence is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it. And Stevie Wonder's first single ever, Fingertips, was released 62 years ago this week in history. Oh, here we go, the first time capsule of summer. We're gonna stick to the same day. June 22nd, 1963. Stevie Wonder's first single has been released. What was going on in the world of pop culture back then? Well, let's find out. The number one single was Sukiyaki by Kiyu Sakamoto. The song was originally released in 1961 in Japan, and Kiyo Sakamoto is a Japanese crooner. This song would go on to be one of the best-selling singles worldwide ever, with more than 13 million copies sold. The song is called Sukiyaki in America, which is a Japanese hot pot dish cooked with beef. Its Japanese title is Ui O Muits Aruko, which I'm sure I mispronounced. It translates to I Look Up as I Walk, and it spent three weeks at number one in America. The number one movie was Cleopatra, and you could get into the theater with a ticket costing 86 cents. This movie stars Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, who was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BCE. This film clocks in at nearly four hours in length, so be aware if you've never seen it and want to watch it. It is 56% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and it would end up grossing more than $57 million when combining movie tickets and rentals. It was a very modest hit money-wise, which makes it seen as actually more of a flop. The number one TV show was the Beverly Hillbillies. This is about the clampett family that discovers oil on their property, so they get rich and they move to Beverly Hills. It is the classic fish out of water scenario, full of shenanigans. The show was on for nine seasons and two hundred and seventy-four episodes from 1962 to 1971. It was the number one show overall for its first two seasons, and stayed in the top 20 for eight of its nine seasons. And if you were around back then, June 22nd, 1963, maybe the heat of summer has already gotten to you. You can't afford an AC unit, but you want to keep yourself and your kids cool. Well, I got something for you. Fresh out of the Sears catalog. An above ground kitty pool, eight feet in diameter, triple wall strength in case kids go diving into it. There's a slide so you can slide into the pool. In the pictures, the kids look like they're having a lot of fun, even though it's maybe twice the size of a bathtub. You can get this pool for $23.88. Or about $250 when adjusted for inflation to 2025. So that's not a bad deal. Of course, it doesn't come put together, so there is that part of it that you've got to put together, so don't mess that up. But that'll wrap up another time capsule, another this week in history. Now the mood is about to change. If talking about Jaws didn't traumatize you, well, my 70s, 80s, 90s friends, I'm about to traumatize you even more with the brand new top five as we look back at some of the most well-known quote-unquote very special TV episodes coming up now. I'm sure a lot of you know what I'm talking about when I say the very special TV episodes. For those of you that are younger, or those of you that might not remember, the quote unquote very special episodes, these were the typically sitcoms would have a way more serious and intense episode, and these would usually start off with a warning, maybe. So I'll even start with a warning. A lot of what I'm gonna talk about, these issues are very serious. I will do my best to keep it as light as I can, but it's gonna be hard with some of these. This is one of the top fives where I had to go dig deep and go back and watch some of these episodes. Some of them brought back traumatic memories for myself, where you're expecting a show with all the laugh track and funny high-energy, low-risk plots on these shows, and then suddenly you get hit with stories of drugs, alcohol, abuse, neglect. When you're a kid, you're not ready for it, and it definitely can stick with you. As with most of these top five lists, I have some honorable mentions, and the top five itself is in no particular order. You'll be able to find most of these episodes online if you want to watch them to remember, but I'm sure there are some of these you probably don't want to go back and see. So let's start this list off with the honorable mentions. So here we go. Honorable mentions for the most memorable, very special TV show episodes include Wesley's friend from Mr. Belvedere. This is from season two in 1986, where Wesley's friend Danny gets pulled out of school because he has transmitted the AIDS virus through a tainted blood transfusion. Another honorable mention is the uh-oh feeling from the TV show Webster. This is from season two in 1985, where the titular character Webster overhears a teacher's inappropriate advances towards another student, and we learn that substitute teacher is also a child molester. There is Shape Up, an episode from the show Full House. This is from season four in 1990, where DJ develops an eating disorder before going to a pool party trying to lose weight on a crash diet. Another honorable mention is the bicycle man from the show Different Strokes. This is from season five in 1983. The kids befriend an owner of a bicycle shop, and the man turns out to be a pedophile. This is the show, the episode that started the quote unquote very special episode trend. And the final honorable mention is Cherry Lifesaver from the show Punky Brewster. This is from season two in 1986 when Cherry gets stuck inside a refrigerator and they need to perform CPR on her to save her life. So those are the honorable mentions. Do you remember any of those traumatizing you as kids? We covered a lot of serious subjects there, but let's get into the actual top five, starting with number one, the episode Mother Simpson from The Simpsons. This is from season seven in 1995. It is the episode where Homer fakes his death by throwing a dummy off a cliff into the water and it gets stuck in the gears of a dam. He fakes his death so he can just go have fun. It is in this episode that Homer's mother shows back up. She had left him when he was a child, but Grandpa Simpson, Homer's dad, had said his mother was dead. Glenn Close plays Mona Simpson, Homer's mother, and they get to reunite, and it's this great feel-good moment, feel-good episode. But it turns out the reason that she had abandoned Homer was that she and a group of hippies were protesting germ warfare and they destroyed Mr. Burns' lab. And once she's back around, Mr. Burns recognizes her, and the FBI comes after her, and it ends up where she has to leave again right after Homer has gotten to reunite with his long-lost mother, and she again has to abandon him. This was one of those subtly traumatizing episodes because there's still so much funny stuff in it, but it's the idea of thinking someone close to you has been dead forever, and they come back and you get to reunite only for them to be taken away from you again. Number two is an episode entitled Sick and Tired from the Golden Girls. This is from season five in 1989, and it concerns Dorothy, played by Bea Arthur, having this kind of long-term illness that is unknown, where a lot of people don't believe she's even sick, where she has days that she can't get out of bed, she can't talk, she can't even wash her hair in the shower. And it's terrifying when you're sick and you know you're sick and something's wrong, but either no one believes you, or there's nothing out there in the medical field that tells you what exactly is wrong with you. This is a two-part episode. In the second part is when they discover that she has the more recently discovered chronic fatigue syndrome, and even though there's no cure for it, just knowing that what she has is real and has a name kind of gives her some relief. The Golden Girls has a lot of these types of very special episodes. The one where Rose could possibly have gotten HIV through a tainted blood transfusion, or when Blanche's brother comes out as gay and she's trying to reconcile with that fact. Also, side note while I'm talking about the Golden Girls, if you like that show, my old school friend, high school friend Patrick Hines, who does the True Crime Obsessed podcast, he also does a Golden Girls Deep Dive podcast that he actually got an award for. So you know it's good. He does deep dives in all the episodes, so go check that out if you like the Golden Girls. Number three is an episode entitled, A My Name is Alex from Family Ties. This is from season five in 1987. This concerns Alex Keaton, played by Michael J. Fox. One of his closest friends, Greg, dies in a car accident, and Alex has a lot of survivor's guilt because he was supposed to go with his friend Greg to the store. It was an errand that Alex was sending him out on. So he has to deal with a lot of survivor's guilt and this misdirected rage and anger. This is a very emotionally charged episode. If you've never seen one of these very special episodes, this would be a tough one to start with. Yes, I went back to watch it as part of the research for the podcast, and it gets to you when Alex is screaming and crying and asking why he's still alive while his friend is dead. It just shows the greatness of Michael J. Fox. Number four is an episode entitled Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. This is from season four in 1994, and it is about Will's deadbeat dad Lou that shows back up in his life, and it's a whirlwind of promises and fun. And Will, who's been living with Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv and his cousins Hillary Carlton and Ashley, and he's now excited to go with his quote unquote real dad. But true to form, with all deadbeat dads, Lou ends up going back on all of his promises and tries to sneak out before Will catches him, and he's all packed and ready to go on a trip with him, and Lou makes the excuses, and sadly, Will sees through it. This one, oh, it'll really get to you. Will's whole speech about how he has become a man and built his life without his dad and he doesn't need him, but then he just breaks down to Uncle Phil asking him why his dad doesn't want him. Again, I watched this episode for research, and man, you need the tissues next to you for it easily. And finally, number five on the list of top five very special TV episodes is an episode entitled Jesse's Song from Saved by the Bell. This one may be familiar to a lot of you. This is from season two in 1990, where the character of Jesse, played by Elizabeth Berkeley, becomes addicted to caffeine pills. Zach and Slater warn her about the pills, but she needs them to deal with midterms and her singing group. It has the now very meme-worthy scene of her singing, I'm so excited, and then breaking down and saying, I'm so scared.

Speaker 1: 36:29

I'm so excited! I'm so excited! I'm so scared.

Speaker: 36:38

At the time, this was a very serious episode dealing with addiction. I guess there are worse things to be addicted to than caffeine, but still, if you're a high school kid, like I said, now that scene is just very meme-worthy. But at the time it was very serious and very special. But that wraps up the top five. Very special TV show episodes. How many of those do you remember seeing when they came out? How many of them traumatized you? All of the ones in the actual top five I remember seeing when they came out, and remembered definitely being affected, kind of confused because it wasn't what I expected with my sitcoms. We're gonna go now, though, from very special TV episodes that definitely existed to the urban legend of an arcade game that likely never existed. As we look at Polybius and the urban legend around it right now. When I was a kid, a little kid in the early to mid-1980s, that's when the heyday of the video arcade was going on. Kids that were older than me, eighth grade, high school, they'd be spending a lot of time on the weekends, wasting away at the video arcade, trying to get as many quarters as they could. You had the legendary games like Pac-Man, Qbert, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Spy Hunter. I could name tons. There were all of these games that you'd go in there and you'd just see them lined up with the title at the top of the big arcade cabinet. We all had our favorites, but in the midst of all these games that we knew and loved and played on regular rotation, there was also a name that floated around on the outskirts and the dark corners of the video arcades. There was this urban legend of a video game that was so addictive that it actually affected you mentally. It was a game that caused issues with you physically. What we're gonna do now is we're gonna take a deep dive and look into this urban legend, and that is the game known as Polybius. The synopsis of this urban legend deals with a mysterious arcade machine that appeared briefly in Portland, Oregon in the early 1980s. This game named Polybius was an addictive game that caused intense psychological and physical effects in players and was allegedly monitored or even controlled by shadowy government agents. There's a reason why I don't remember this urban legend as a kid, and the reason why is that it didn't gain widespread attention until the early 2000s. So, you know, I kind of make the joke that in the arcades in the 80s there were whispers about this game. There may have been, but nothing like when a user named Cyber Yogi or other similar aliases posted on forums like Coinop.org and later Game FAQs about a strange game that had briefly appeared in the arcades around Portland in 1981. Maybe some of you out there who are a little older than me that frequented video arcades in the early to mid-1980s heard of the Polybius legend. I grew up on Cape Cod, so maybe it didn't trickle down to where I live. These early internet postings described Polybius as a game that was so mesmerizing and psychologically intense that it caused strange side effects in players. These included amnesia, insomnia, night terrors, hallucinations, seizures, and even suicide. Even more creepy than the possible side effects was the report that the game was supposed to have been monitored by men in black who came to collect data from the machine rather than quarters. This was implying that the game was part of some kind of government experiment, possibly involving mind control or psychological warfare. The game's title, Polybius, further fueled speculation. It shares its name with a real historical figure named Polybius, who was a Greek historian that lived in the second century BCE and was known for his writings on cryptography, secret codes, and government control. The connection seemed almost too perfect, which added a layer of academic eeriness to the tale. For any urban legend to have legs, it's got to have things that could be plausible or feasible. And it's even better when it's connected with things that are real, like a real Greek philosopher, historian. Legend has it that the Polybius cabinet looked just like any other standard early 80s arcade machine. The difference was the interface was stark and futuristic. The game itself was described as a mix between fast-paced puzzle elements like Tempest or asteroids, and hypnotic visuals resembling subliminal messaging or fractal patterns. It allegedly used vector graphics and pulsing rhythmic sounds that entranced players. Some accounts claimed that after only a few plays, kids would become obsessed, even addicted, and start to suffer from strange ailments. Others reported that players experienced memory loss or developed an aversion to video games entirely. As you go deeper into the urban legend, there were some stories that even claimed that Polybius could tap into the subconscious, creating dreamlike or nightmare scenarios that continued long after the player left the arcade. Reports of players experiencing nausea, blackouts, or seizures echoed real concerns of the time, especially after several incidents in the early 80s of kids getting sick while playing games like Tempest or Berserk. With the game Berserk, there were actually two confirmed deaths. In 1981, 19-year-old Jeff Daly died of a heart attack after setting a high score. And in 1982, 18-year-old Peter Burkowski also died of a heart attack after posting a high score. So you gotta take that into account, these two deaths from the game Berserk, that the Polybius legend starts to come around from that same time period, early 1980s, where you've got a game that people have died playing, so it only is logical to make the leap that there could be a game that intentionally kills people, like Polybius. A key component of the Polybius myth involves the mysterious men in black, who were seen servicing the machines. These agents were said to not empty coin boxes or fix joysticks, they supposedly just collected data from inside the cabinets and left without speaking to arcade owners. The implication was that the game was a tool for surveillance or experimentation. This aspect of the story ties into broader Cold War era fears of government surveillance, mind control experiments, and secret psychological tests. Around this same time, there was public awareness of real programs like the CIA's MK Ultra that began to grow, feeding the public distrust in federal agencies and making the polybius story all the more plausible to some. So where did this story come from? There's never been an actual polybius cabinet found. There's no proof of gameplay, there's just the stories. There are several factors that might have contributed to the creation of the polybias legend, government conspiracies, MK Ultra. Because this program, it experimented with mind control, hypnosis, psychoactive drugs on unwitting citizens. Like I mentioned a minute ago, the deaths from the game Berserk. There was also in 1981, a teenager in Portland collapsed after playing the game Tempest for 28 hours straight. That same year, the FBI reportedly raided several arcades in Oregon to investigate illegal gambling or software tampering. So you start to see where these things get mixed together where the polybius legend could come from. Some versions of the Urban Legend claim that the Polybius game was created by a mysterious German company called Cinesloschen, a name which roughly translates to sense delete or sensory deprivation. Now no such company has ever been found in corporate records, but the creepy name lent authenticity to the Polybius story. But we've been going on and on about the urban legend for several minutes here. Let's get to the reality. There has been no verifiable evidence ever that Polybius existed. No cabinets, no ROM files, no company records, nothing but the story, the urban legend. Most people agree that the story likely originated as a hoax, a creepypasta style tale, or even a satirical post that snowballed into a widely believed urban legend. The first online mention of Polybius is generally traced back to 1998 on the website coinop.org. The entry was likely meant to be a joke or fictional submission. However, as the internet's reach and nostalgia for early gaming grew, so did the legend. It was only bolstered by eerie photoshopped images of a polybious arcade cabinet, and then quote unquote interviews with people claiming to remember seeing or playing the game. Even today, people occasionally report having vague childhood memories of the game, despite the total lack of physical evidence. It's one of those things, like I said, I have no memory of this urban legend as a kid. That doesn't mean it wasn't out there. Despite all of that, Polybius has become a permanent fixture in pop culture. It's been referenced in TV shows like The Simpsons, Loki, American Horror Story. Now today, developers have actually created several playable versions of Polybius based on the legend. One of the most notable is the 2017 VR game by Lamasoft, created by legendary game designer Jeff Minter. Polybius remains a popular subject in forums dedicated to gaming lore, creepypasta, and unsolved mysteries, with some believing it was a real project and that all traces have been deliberately erased. So where do you stand on Polybius? It's a fascinating case of modern folklore, an urban legend born out of real fears and embellished by the internet's ability to spread stories faster than ever before. Whether or not the game ever existed in any form, its story taps into something deeper. The intersection of nostalgia, paranoia, the mysterious early days of the digital age. It is highly likely that Polybius never existed as described. But like all good urban legends, its power lies in the mystery. Polybius, the game that never was, remains one of the most iconic and haunting legends of the video game era. An urban myth as addictive as the game itself was said to be. But until next week, that will wrap up episode 201 of the In My Footsteps Podcast. That is not an urban legend. Thank you all for tuning in to the first episode of Summer. Thank you for making it to the end. I hope you enjoyed your weekly dose of Gen X nostalgia. The train's gonna keep rolling next week with episode 202, and boy, do we got some good stuff. We're gonna look at 1995, the year in music, part two, the second half of the year. And we're gonna look back 40 years for the anniversary of one of my favorite movies of all time, Back to the Future. I mentioned Michael J. Fox's greatness when I talked about the very special TV show episodes. Well, back to the future, at least in my opinion, that's his Magnum opus. So come on back next week for a brand new episode. If you enjoy me, if you enjoy my content, you can become a subscriber on Patreon for five dollars a month. You get access to bonus podcast episodes, access to the remastered without a map live streams, early access to YouTube videos. I'm thinking I might do more polls voting for things on episodes, where you who are the subscribers on Patreon have a little more input because I like it. I want it to be more interactive. I have hundreds of topics that I can put into my episodes, and I think you'll enjoy most of them. I don't think I wouldn't make a show that I didn't think you'd like. That would be just foolish, like some kind of statement making an anti-podcast. It would be like creating the podcast version of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. That was his 1975 album that was just like machine noises, no music or anything. I'll just make a podcast with my fan blowing into the microphone for an hour. You'll be waiting for something and be like, what the hell waste of time was that? No, no, no, I wouldn't do that. I enjoy making this too much and sharing a lot of classic nostalgia with you. I wouldn't create an episode to make some kind of artistic statement. Special birthday shout out to my old friend Megan. We go all the way back to the mid-1990s, coming up in the restaurant industry together. Tons and tons of wacky stories from the restaurant days, tons of fun memories, loads of fun concerts. She's truly one of the hardest working and most determined people I've ever met. It's interesting how a lot of my motivation and my work ethic comes from friends and family and what they've done, and not some rando celebrity, which I guess is a good thing. If you have people in your own life that inspire you, and you don't have to go looking through the pages of magazines and such. So happy birthday to Megan. Hopefully you get some time to enjoy it. I know you work a lot. Maybe you can distract yourself with next week's show for an hour. So, yeah, it's officially summer. What are you doing on your summer vacation? I've got a note on my phone with a list of things that are my plans for the summer because you know I cannot rest. I've mentioned trying to get voiceover acting gigs and applying for those. It's also anticipating my first acting role being released where you can actually watch it. I now have an IMDB page. If you go and look me up, there I am. I'm also going to try to finish and officially release, self-publish my tenth book, which is a Cape Cod History Anthology, with all of my spinning plates that I have that I call my life. No surprise that I forgot about that. I'll keep you updated on that if it becomes available as a paperback. I mean it will, I just have to do it. There's no magical fairy that comes along and does my work for me. It's me all on my own. So everything you see and hear, from this podcast to all the Patreon content, all my blogs, initial impressions 2.0, all my YouTube videos, anything that might come up with acting, it's all me. I'm a one-man show. Visit my homepage, Christopher Setterlund.com. If you're interested in any of my nine books so far, maybe a tenth coming soon. Then above all else, lean into the things that make you happy. Favorite foods, favorite places, favorite podcasts. Maybe you can take this show with you to the beach or walking in the forest, enjoying the scenery. For all of my other things I do, this is my main focus. But I'll be keeping this going until I run out of content, which is not anytime soon. And remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you all again for tuning in. This has been the In My Footsteps Podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. You already knew that. Talk to you all again soon.