 |
| Polybius arcade cabinet built by Robb Sherwin Image courtesy of Wikipedia(Khtexg98537) |
The game proved to be incredibly popular, to the point of addiction, and lines formed around the machines, often resulting in fighting over who played next. Then this was followed by clusters of visits from men in black. Rather than the usual marketing data collected by company visitors to arcade machines, they collected some unknown data, allegedly testing responses to the psychoactive machines. The players themselves suffered from a series of unpleasant side effects, including amnesia, insomnia, nightmares, night terrors, and even suicide in some versions of the legend. Some players stopped playing video games, while reportedly one became an antigaming activist.
 |
| Title frame of the alleged game Image courtesy of Wikipedia(Khtexg98537) |
Polybius gets its name from the Greek historian born about 200 years BCE. In a Polybius square, the letters of the alphabet are arranged in a grid, numbered five across and five high (the Greek alphabet had only 24 letters, so it fit). His idea was that this would make it easier to send messages by flag or drum or fire, having only five characters to worry about instead of a whole alphabet. But rearrange the letters within the grid, and you have a simple ciphering system.
If these game consoles were ever actually in Oregon, they must have gone somewhere. Many owners of rare and classic arcade games are members of the Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, which lists exactly one person as the owner of an original Polybius: Robb Sherwin, who lives in Colorado, and owns a dozen or so classic video games.
References: [Wikipedia] [Skeptoid]