Polybius

The main reason that this urban legend originally grabbed my attention was while getting information for an essay I was writing. I was searching for Polybius a Greek historian (and apparently he was also a cryptographer) and noticed on wikipedia that there was an alternate entry that said "for the video game of urban legend." The article seemed worthy of a break, so I clicked the link. Here is the link to the wikipedia entry about the Urban Legend Polybius…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius_(Game)

Also got a coinop.org entry that is kind of interesting...

http://coinop.org/g.aspx/103223/Polybius.html

And of course at the bottom of the Snopes roundup is a small write up about the urban legend...

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/roundup.asp

Overall I think it is interesting that such an odd story has lasted this long (the story is circa 1980's). "Men in Black" going to collect information from some crazy video game that can cause amnesia is a pretty tall tale, however I can see how the early 80's and late 90's video game youth culture explosion could have triggered some parents and even kids to wonder about "these machines" and "their true origins."

And never forget it is US vs. THEM.