Adam Oster, Novelist

For those of you unaware of the mystery surrounding the video game Polybius, the story is simple. It is an urban legend about a game (called Polybius), which supposedly existed in the 1980s.

In 1981 in Portland, Oregon, a series of psychology experiments were being run by the government. One of those experiments was that of a video game, which ended up having intense mental effects on the players. It is said that men dressed in black would show up at the few arcades which housed these machines during the brief period they could be found. Only a month later all of the Polybius arcade cabinets would disappear.

There’s no mention of this game existing before the year 2000 when gamers started asking what happened to this game from their youth. And although the stories are many and varied, they match where it counts. Yet, the general consensus is that this is just a fun urban myth that people like to talk about on the internet, a form of internet cryptozoology.

However, there is one additional detail to consider when deciding whether or not this is a government conspiracy to cover up a video game which studied the effects of addiction on players. I just found out about this game a week ago. And when I went to write this story, it turns out I had already written it years ago.

And while that may appear to be just some creepypasta intended to spook you about absolute nonsense, the real thing to be concerned about here is that I’m just about to turn forty and I’m already beginning to suffer from early onset dementia. Talk about something to be scared about.