The video game that doesn’t exist

1981

A new arcade game named

Polybius appeared in
several suburbs of Portland,
Oregon. 1989-2000

‘Winners Don’t Use Drugs’

campaign together with the
FBI’s seal appeared in all
North American arcade
games.

Players suffered from a

series of unpleasant side
effects, including amnesia,
insomnia, night terrors and
hallucinations.
 2000

An entry for the title was

added to arcade game
resource coinop.org on
February 6, 2000.

The author claimed to be in

possession of a ROM image
of the game.

2006

Claimed ‘Polybius’ board A man named Steven Roach

claimed he had been one of
Polybius original
programmers.

Bootleg ‘Ms. Pac-Man’ board

 2007

PC freeware developers and

arcade constructors Rogue
Synapse registered the
domain “sinneslochen.com”
and offered a free
downloadable game titled
Polybius for PC.

2016

Llamasoft announced a
game called Polybius for
the PlayStation 4.

The game was inspired by

the urban legend but does
not attempt to reproduce
its alleged gameplay.

By: Sofia Rueda Romero