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Coin-Operated Folklore: Polybius, Portland's Mythical Arcade Game

provided by Joe Streckert
Joe Streckert

One of Portland's most notorious and awesome urban myths is that of a mysterious arcade game called Polybius.

 

Legend has it the machine showed up in suburban arcades sometime in the early 1980s. This was no run of the mill video game. Polybius would mess with your mind, resulting in sickness or euphoria. And If that wasn't weird enough, men in black were reportedly witnessed recording the game's data for reasons unknown.

 

Gabriel Spitzer gets the skinny from Portland historian Joe Streckert, who just released an e-book on the subject, and together they sort out fact from fiction.