It was 1981 when the mysterious cabinet consoles quietly appeared in arcades around Portland. The game was called Polybius, and the play style was a psychedelic vector graphics whirlwind with abstract avatars and trippy music. It was instantly addictive, attracting long lines of players awaiting their turns to relieve themselves of their parents’ quarters.
Within a few weeks, many of the hardcore players began reporting headaches, horrible nightmares, sleep-walking, insomnia, and even temporary amnesia. It was also claimed that mysterious men in black suits could occasionally be seen loitering in areas near the machines. Some reports say that these enigmatic figures were actually the ones opening the machines and collecting the quarters – presumably to retrieve fingerprints for identifying their unwitting test subjects.
The consoles then vanished as quickly and quietly as they arrived, never to be seen again.
It’s a titillating story that’s been around since the early days of Usenet (precurser to the Internet), and probably even prior to that. There are no clear origins, but the most likely explanation is that it evolved from an earlier myth about military spooks who would try to recruit the highest scorers of games like Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Defender. Combine that with tales about Atari’s trippy vector graphics console game, Tempest (alleged to inspire nausea and seizures), and you have a recipe for a powerful and long-enduring urban legend.
Some screenshots from Atari’s 1981 Tempest arcade game: LINK LINK LINK
Sinnesloschen.com is an extremely comprehensive site which deeply explores the myth of Polybius, and features downloadable emulators and images of replica console builds.
If you happen to be under the influence of LSD right now, then you gotta check this out, man:
Notarealthing.com is not responsible for any freakouts, bad trips, or zombie-assassin conversions that may result from watching the above video.
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