Polybius

This is a fictional tale based off the urband myth.

During the early 1980's a mysterious game could be found in many arcades across Portland, Oregon. Some may remember an all black arcade cabinet, with no title to read upon display. Many were intrigued and a little unsettled by the bare arcade cabinet, that appeared to have no name or art style to it at all. This strangely drawn in a lot of attention, beating the far more colourful competition, as the game's screen was supposedly hypnotic to look at. Players were seemingly entranced by this machine, like as if it possessed some sort of Hypnotic spell upon it's victims. The spirals and lines that crossed and dashed all over the screen, were fascinating to behold, with the perfect sounds to hook unsuspecting children into playing such devilry. For those unfortunate players would soon become addicted, spending every last cent they had to play a game or two, or three, four, five, six... Yet, it wasn't just the drug-like obsession that destroyed these poor innocents. Players would soon suffer severe side effects. Many would feel nauseous, some would have terrifying nightmares and others, most unfortunate, would suffer seizures and so much more. Yet these players would return time and time again, without fail, even after leaving the hospital, they'd crawl right back to it. They'd play the game non-stop, even at the detriment of their own health, until an untimely death would finally free them of their addiction. This game began to disappear across every arcade within Portland, after these harrowing stories began to spread like wildfire. Sadly, this only made the game more infamous and sought after, many began to give this game the nickname of "Polybius". Some have claimed this arcade cabinet always had this title on it, others say different. It is uncertain whether or not this game truly did display it's title or not, for it is believed that every cabinet was destroyed by 1983.

However, this horror story does not end there. Many sighted mysterious men in black suits, who would often visit these Polybius arcade cabinets, not to play them, but to inspect them by accessing the game's inner code. They would take notes and discuss their findings with each other. You may suspect these were simply staff members at the arcade, checking the machines out for maintenance purposes. Yet, it was the staff members themselves who reported seeing these strange men. Whenever these men in black were approached, they'd show the staff their badges and be left alone to conduct their research. Kids who approached these men were also watched intensely, which obviously scared a lot of players. Even those most addictive steered clear of Polybius, when these mysterious strangers appeared. Nobody truly knows who these men were, FBI, Secret Agents, Spies, who knows. It was all very secret and hush hush.

There are rumours of hackers who have tracked down this old game, deciphering it's code and revealing something truly disturbing, that may explain why this game was so dangerous towards those who played it. Within the code and audio there seemed to be many insidious subliminal messages, hidden behind the sound of beeps and sights of moving pixels; were political orders, telling players what to think. Voice lines such as "obey government", "do not rebel", "Follow orders", "never question authority" would play under the beat of the Polybius soundtrack. Sometimes the pixels would suddenly form together, making words that could only be read within a split second. They'd say "you love this", "you need this", "Obey Government" and so on. There were frequencies used to create a dizzying effect upon the player, to experiment on different people and examine behaviors. It's believed these cabinets held hidden cameras inside them, although this maybe too technologically advanced for the time. Secret microphones seem more believable. We cannot determine how these secret agents analysed this data exactly, for this happened over forty years ago and some details have unfortunately gotten lost to time.

There are many who claim this legend to be false, a simple campfire tale to scare the kids. However, in recent years, many have responded in droves, claiming this all really happened, some say they've even spotted it. This mysterious arcade game may still out there to this very day. It is terrifying to think that this evil, could still very much lurk within a child friendly arcade, preying on unsuspecting victims, like some starved predator.