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The Polybius was an arcade game released in 1981 by a company called Sinnesloschen (german for sense-delete). The company initially installed a couple of machines in Portland, Oregon for testing purposes. The game had vectorial graphics and sounds far more advance than anything ever seen, but its story was very primitive and similar to Condor Wars – control a spaceship and shoot enemies.

Rumors began to spread that people who played it suffered from health problems, including amnesia, insomnia, headaches and nightmares. Gamers claimed the game had subliminal messages which appeared for fractions of a second:

OBEY, COOPERATE, NO IDEAS, NO IMAGINATION, CONSUME, REWARD INDIFFERENCE, SUBMIT, OBEY AUTHORITY

Voices were heard during the game and ghostly pixelated faces appeared. Some arcade owners said guys in suits came from time to time prompting questions about the players reactions and checking to see which were the high scorers. Soon after its initial release, a 13 year old kid died from epilepsy which ultimately was the reason the machines were taken off the market. Sinnesloschen disappeared from the face of the world too.

The only known picture of a Polybius

Parody in The Simpsons

A government project during the cold war years? A failed new approach on computer graphics that prompted epileptic fits? An all around urban legend? Have your say!

• Special thanks to Pablo who told us about the Polybius on our guestbook.