🎮 Episode 3 – “STRING AND STICK”

▶️ Episode THREE Now Streaming

The Polybius Protocol — a retro sci-fi horror podcastinspired by the infamous 1981 Portland arcade legend — has been recognized by the Austin Film Festival (2025) as a Second Rounder in their Fiction Podcast Screenplay category. Thank you, AFF, see you in Austin!

About the Series:
Blending analog horror, Cold War conspiracy, and psychological suspense, The Polybius Protocol explores what happens when humanity loses control of their technology, and must remember what their own creation has been forcing it to forget.

Episode 3 Summary
On her first day at a new middle school in 1980s Portland, young Liz Faire discovers her father — a military official working on a top-secret project — has forgotten her eighth birthday. That same day, she will celebrate her dubious date of birth by encountering the mind-controlling arcade game POLYBIUS.

Meanwhile, in the present day, Liz introduces us to the Men in Black: agents who investigate and suppress government-created anomalies such as Polybius. String and Stick, agents in the Portland area are called to a bizarre bank robbery involving a mannequin-human hybrid known as the Mannequin King —a living, real-world manifestation of the AI known as Polybius.

What is the Mannequin King trying to steal? And are String and Stick, descendants of the original test subjects, allies… or something else entirely?

This extended episode dives deeper into the Polybius legend in an extended episode rife with action, dark humor, and existential mystery. All hail the MANNEQUIN KING! All HAIL POLYBIUS!

🎧For fans of Archive 81, Welcome to Night Vale, and TheMagnus Archives.

TIYCwABSVDt12Gi2aAj3

Episode 2 – “SUB”

▶️ Episode Two Now Streaming

Relieve the part of 1981 that has been suppressed from the history books. Over and over again.

Polybius Protocol is a retro sci-fi horror fiction podcast, inspired by the infamous 1981 Portland arcade legend. Blending analog horror, Cold War conspiracy, and psychological suspense, the series explores what happens when haunted technology remembers what we were forced to forget.

SUMMARY

1981 – Black site scientist Shelly Faire watches her invention (POLYBIUS) almost fool NORAD into starting World War III.

PRESENT DAY – Liz Faire just wants to survive her first day as a substitute teacher, but when a purple VHS tape starts a kaleidoscope of hypnotic fury in a Portland classroom, students collapse in a mind-controlled coma. Liz meets her teenage doppelganger, but that’s not the only thing that’s a reminder of her past --

Polybius is back.
And this time, he’s not alone.

A fiction podcast for fans of analog horror, sci-fi mystery, and 1980s psychological thrillers. Perfect for listeners of Archive81, Welcome to Night Vale, and The Magnus Archives.

Before TRON, there was POLYBIUS.
▶️ Episode One Now Streaming

Reboot the program. Remain for the glitch.

Polybius Protocol is a retro sci-fi horror fiction podcast from Children of the Neon God, inspired by the infamous 1981 Portland arcade legend. Blending analog horror, Cold War conspiracy, and psychological suspense, the series explores what happens when haunted technology remembers what we were forced to forget.

SUMMARY

Liz Faire thought she was just a substitute teacher in Portland, Oregon.
She didn’t know she was the first test subject in a Cold War mind control experiment—disguised as an arcade game.

But Polybius remembers.
And it’s come back to reconnect with its long-lost best friend...
Whether she remembers him or not.

A fiction podcast for fans of analog horror, sci-fi mystery, and 1980s psychological thrillers. Perfect for listeners of Archive 81, Welcome to Night Vale, and The Magnus Archives.