The story is based on an urban legend about Polybius, a fictitious 1981 arcade game secretly created for a government-run crowdsourced psychology experiment, with gameplay producing intense psychoactive and addictive effects in the player. Supposedly, the Men in Black visited the arcades to data-mine the machines and analyze the effects.
Adrienne Barbeau's character's name is "Wilma". The name of her character in the movie "Creepshow" (1982)
This episode takes place in 1984.
Wilma worked for a software company named "Sinnesloschen". "Sinneslöschen" is slightly ungrammatical German for "erasing senses".
There are no creatures called Polybius in Christian mythology. Polybius is actually the name of a Greek historian the supposed originator of many popular quotes.