10 Video Game Conspiracy Theories You'll Start To Believe
9. You Die If You Get A Specific Score In Berzerk
As creepy as the urban legend behind Polybius sounds, Berzerk is much scarier for two reasons. Firstly, it's reported that the game killed someone. Secondly, it actually existed.
Like any game released in 1980, the gameplay of this maze shooter is simple. Playing as a stick-like humanoid, you must navigate through a labyrinth while robots shoot lasers at you.
Even though Berzerk is pretty fun, it has a dark reputation since it's the first video game to be involved in the death of a player. In January 1981, a young man called Jeff Dailey died of a heart attack immediately after posting his high-score on Berzerk at the arcade. As tragic as this incident is, no rational person would believe this specific game was responsible for this man's death. But after Peter Burkowski died from a heart attack while playing Berzerk the following year, people started seeing this game as a supernatural killing machine.
What makes the situation more bizarre is how both players died after allegedly obtaining the same score - 16,660! Even though skeptics will see the men's death as a coincidence, it's pretty crazy the score they obtained before they died contained the number "666".