To start this thing rolling, here’s one I recently came across. How I managed to go so many years without hearing about this one I will never know.
Ladies and Gentleman… POLYBIUS!
This mysterious game appeared one day in an arcade in Portland, Oregon. Always something fishy about the Pacific Northwest. The machine didn’t stay too long before it was quietly removed, never to be seen again.
Supposedly this game was very unusual in that players would first become fiercely addicted to it before eventually succumbing to a variety of bizarre side-effects.
What sort of side affects, you ask? How about nausea, insomnia, memory loss, suicide and, according to at least one purveyor of this tale, the INABILITY TO FEEL SADNESS.
Oh yeah, did I mention that strange men in suits would occasionally come and collect information from the machines? As with every other aspect of this story, no one knows what exactly the information was or who these strange men were.
This tale is generally thought to be just another urban myth, with several plausible explanations as to the story’s origin.
For a more in-depth view, have a look at what everyone’s favorite free, web-based encyclopedia has to say. Also, click here for a list of odd video game legends (including this one).
The next time you have some money begging to be slid into a machine at your local Chuck E. Cheese, make sure you look around for the men in black first.
