Polybius (1981 Video Game)

Polybius is a shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Sinneslöschen. It was first released in a yet-to-be-determined date in the year 1981, having only been officially based in Portland, Oregon as part of a government-run crowdsourced psychology experiment. After seemingly all of them were allegedly lost since a month later, the arcade game was once considered as an urban legend. However, around 25 cabinets have been rediscovered since mid-2020s, with a few of them still working with functional screens and coding as originally intended.

Gameplay
Polybius is a fast-paced shooting game with elements similar to Cube Quest. The game's play was originally designed to test the player's responses to the game's psychoactive effects. The game is so intense that there is a warning to the players of a series of unpleasant side effects, including seizures, amnesia, insomnia, night terrors, and hallucinations.

History
In 1981, when new arcade games were uncommon, an unheard-of new arcade game, Polybius by Sinneslöschen, appeared in several suburbs of Portland, Oregon. The game was popular to the point of addiction, with lines forming around the machines and often resulting in fights over who would play next. The machines were visited by men in black, who collected unknown data from the machines, testing responses to the game's psychoactive effects. Some players suffered from a series of unpleasant side effects, including seizures, amnesia, insomnia, night terrors, and hallucinations. Approximately one month after its release in 1981, Polybius was said to have disappeared without a trace.

For nearly half a century, the game was considered as an urban legend by skeptics, until in 2003, when Polybius appeared in a September issue of GamePro, as part of a feature story on video games called "Secrets and Lies". This is the first known printed mention of the game, exposing the game to a mass-market audience. The article declared the existence of the game to be "inconclusive", helping to both spark curiosity and spread the game's existence. It wasn't until 2026, when the first ever authentic Polybius cabinet was rediscovered, and in 2027, when the first one with a working gameplay was found. Since then, the game has become popular amongst arcade enthusiasts and nostalgic people, with some having made their ways into arcade and restaurant joints; however, the warning papers were imported on one side of the cabinets to warn players of the side effects.