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Episodes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Extras: teaser - trailer 1 - trailer 2 - polybius - recap




REBOOT: Episode 11

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Release Date: 05/30/2010 Running Time: 13 min Size: 13.1 mb

Synopsis: Mario and Luigi are dead and while Render and the others get to know the REAL Violet, Link meets a new evil. An evil so sinister it must hide between the cracks of programming, bending permissions and destroying whatever it touches.

Release Notes: This is another big episode for a few reasons, one, Polybius is finally being introduced into the story. For people not familiar with Polybius, it's from old videogame folklore. You can read more here.

The story goes, that one day a teen and some of his friends were hanging out at the local pizza joint, playing games and eating pizza. While they're playing a few men walk in carrying a new arcade cabinet. They talk to the owner of the restaurant and then set the new machine next to the others. A big logo on arcade unit says 'Polybius' .

The group decides to give the new game a chance... but as they start playing, they start to see this is not a normal game. As more teens try to play the game, they realize that they feel sick after playing and some don't even remember playing at all. Then, just as fast as it arrived, the machine disappears, hauled off by men in black uniforms, never to return again.

This videogame urban legend always gave me goosebumps and since no one else has decided to use it yet, I thought it would be the PERFECT thing to bring into my story. The Polybius Twins are a pretty warped duo, both incredibly violent and incredibly sexual and incestuous. Smite might enjoy violence but unlike the Polybius twins, he receives no sexual gratification from blood-letting. Think the Polybius twins are warped? Just wait till you meet the rest of the family.

Another reason this is a big episode is because we learn a little more about Justin and his abusive father. While his mother protects him from the violence, she can't do it forever. Justin's transformation into a homocidal maniac that can "hear" the words of his mother is an idea I'm really fond of. We also get to see that Justin has the ability to change time.. but doesn't seem to have any control on when it happens.

Originally Reboot 11, 12 and 13 were all just one episode but because of time constraints I had to split them into three. That was about two years ago and in between that time and it's release I traveled to Japan for a month, graduated college, interned at Gawker, and finally got a real job. This is why it took so long to create Reboot 11 and 12.

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