YouTube filmmaker delves into the history of mysterious ‘Polybius’ arcade cabinet

YouTube filmmaker ‘Ahoy’ has uploaded an hour-long documentary on YouTube in which he examines the history of the Polybius arcade cabinet. The game could be an experiment in mind control by the US government.

The Polybius arcade cabinet is said to have been placed very temporarily in a limited number of arcades in the US state of Oregon in 1981. Stories about Polybius spoke of players getting sick from the game, suffering amnesia and nightmares. Also, they would start to behave differently and completely lose interest in video games. The whole thing is reminiscent of the CIA’s MKUltra program in the 1950s to 1970s, in which human experiments were conducted to develop new interrogation techniques and drugs.

Despite the greatest stories about the arcade cabinet, there is not a single copy of Polybius to be found. The British filmmaker takes it upon himself to list all traces of the closet and to try to find a definitive answer to the question: what is and is not true about the stories about Polybius? His search leads him through internet forums, newsgroups, newspapers, web archives and magazines, which together form a crumbling trail that travels across several continents. In the end, he’ll probably get as close to the source as anyone can get.

Intentionally or unintentionally, the video also serves as a nice nostalgia trip for fans and connoisseurs of the arcades of the past.