While making my daily rounds on the internet, I stumbled upon a strange, yet intriguing story. It seems that in 1981, a mysterious arcade game called Polybius appeared in various arcades around Portland, Oregon. Conflicting reports describe the gameplay as either a maze type game or an action shooter. The game, while extremely popular and addictive, caused its players to suffer from a series of disturbing side effects including amnesia, insomnia, nightmares, and night terrors. A few were reportedly driven to suicide. Many players swore off video games entirely. After about a month in the arcades, all of the Polybius machines were removed just as mysteriously as they had appeared.
There has been some rumors that the game was an experiment by the United States government (likely the CIA) in the area of behavior modification. Allegedly, arcade operators reported that mysterious men would come in and collect records from the machine. They apparently weren’t interested in the quarters. They just wanted information on how the game was played.
So did Polybius exist or is it just another internet legend? Here is a rare photograph of one of the Polybius machines. Or perhaps it’s simply a good Photoshop.
While it is likely that the story is merely an urban legend, it still makes for an entertaining story.
You can read more about it on Wikipedia.
Screenshot of the evil game? You decide.
