Coffee Talk #244: Memorable Videogame Bugs and Glitches

Last week a few of you started talking about videogame bugs and glitches and I thought to myself, “Self, this would make a fantastic Coffee Talk topic!” So here it is! Whether they were bugs that completely ruined your game’s progress or glitches that…

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Last week a few of you started talking about videogame bugs and glitches and I thought to myself, “Self, this would make a fantastic Coffee Talk topic!” So here it is! Whether they were bugs that completely ruined your game’s progress or glitches that you exploited to get an edge, I’m sure y’all have some great stories to share.

As for me, I’m going to have go old school, since I don’t really think about bugs or glitches as a pure gamer anymore. Obviously I loved getting extra lives in Contra using the most popular startup code in the universe, but I’m going to give Super Mario Bros. World 3-1 my vote. I remember playing the game with my friend Alex and laughing at how long it took him to master the infinite lives glitch. That little glitch led to hundreds of hours of gameplay and friendship in my parents’ basement. Good times.

Now it’s your turn! What are some videogame bugs and glitches that have been seared into your memory?

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

52 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #244: Memorable Videogame Bugs and Glitches”

  1. First thing that comes to mind for me are the 3D versions of GTA. Damn those games are glitchy as hell. Theres nothing like stealing a car, getting chased by police then randomly appearing under the city and or crashing and getting stuck in the sky.

  2. since Rpad and BB stole the glitches i felt like bringing up, i'll bring up this one even though i'm not sure if it qualifies as a glitch but in Mega Man but i always liked and hated being able to run to the previous screen and resetting the next screen.

  3. I have 2:

    1) Superman 64 (the entire game)

    2) WWF No Mercy for 64. It would erase everything you earned or made randomly. You could save your CAW's on a memory card, but all the unlocks went the way of the dodo.

    @ Slicky

    I tried that Vicki and Vance glitch, but they patched it for 360. The patched helped with other things as well.

    1. You could technically unpatch it but you'd have to use a save that was done before the patch or it will read as corrupt data. Then do the glitch and then repatch. But seems like lots of work.

      1. … yeah, too much work.

        I don't think I have any saves from all the way back there anyway. I'm ready to liberate an independent New Vegas. I'm just cutting loose ends and saving stimpaks before it no longer lets me.

  4. Glitch, I liked being able to get into Karazhan in vanilla WoW before the first expansion released. It was neat to wander around an empty raid dungeon like that. Even more thrilling once the content was officially added a year later. There is a dungeon or zone inside of Stormwind (human city) that has been behind a gate for 6 years. Never could get in that one. Looks like Cataclysm will use it. Amazing how much is created but not used huh??

    @Conan
    Meh.

  5. I remember the SMB lives one because I was so mazed by it when I was really young and my aunt showed me how it worked.

    My most memorable one though would have to be MissingNo from Pokemon Red/Blue (I'm assuming it was in Green as well). Then in the recent past I found this awesome web page where somebody explained how the whole thing worked and why it was possible. This glitch is of course one of the more famous ones from the recent past, and I would dare to say is as infamous for my generation as the Contra code is for the previous one.

      3. Do you know if they have a Xbox version of that game. I would totally pay more for that game just to play it.

        -M

    1. sweet! i forgot about that one. i'll try that one out next month when i pick up that 25th anniversary game.

  9. I'd like to add "duping" items in Diablo 1. It made leveling unnecessary and could turn your indestructible warrior into a wizard of epic proportions. A wizard who wore full plate and toted a 2 handed axe that is :)

  10. Oblivion Item duplication. I remember going into a small house with someone sleeping and launching out enough watermelons to fill the house at least half full and burying the person.

    1. I'll admit that I spammed the hell out of that glitch to dupe stuff to sell. Money was so friggin' sparse in that game. You had to crawl hours through pointless dungeons just to get some crap to sell. Not to mention that everything was so incredibly expensive. Scrounging for money in that game has to be one of the most tedious, grind-numbing experiences that I've ever had to go through in a game. It was making the game very annoying.

      -M

  11. I also exposed the hell out of a Fable 2 security flaw. Fable 2 allowed players to get paid in real time (every 5 minutes whether the console was on or off). After I bought a couple thousand dollars worth of property in that game I would save it, disconnect from XBL aka the real time keeper, set the date and time as far back as possible. Load the game, save it (so the save file thinks it is 2005), go back to the date and time settings but push it to the most future date possible (2025 or so), load the previous game (that the system thinks is a file from 2005) and BAM!! millions of dollars.

    2. That's brilliant! If I ever play Fable 2, I'll be sure to try doing that.

      Oh, and by the way, all you have to do to get this glitch to work in real life is an atomic clock and a continuum transfunctioner.

      -M

  13. So a friend of mine and her kids are coming by the new house today. I wanted the kids to have something to do so I bought Kinect last night. Setup took longer than I thought. It is not nearly as cool as they made it out to be and it has far less functionality than I expected. It had a hard time "seeing" my movements, but for the most part it was pretty accurate.

    Then I went out for a few beers and played some more when I got home. I was getting ready for bed (in my underwear) and played Kinect dodgeball…..

    Just so you know it randomly takes pictures of you playing the game. DELETED!!!! It was an Oh $h1t moment

      1. Luckily I just moved 2 days ago and I haven't finished setting up my living room yet, so no couch or coffee table to move. Sadly my living room is 15+ between the tv and the next wall and it said I had a "GOOD" space but I needed more room for the "BEST" space.

    2. I've heard it looks pretty cool if you turn it on in the dark, have you tried that out yet? I guess you are supposed to be able to see all of the infra red lights that gauge your movements and depth.

    3. " It had a hard time “seeing” my movements…"

      Are you black? Because I hear that the Kinect is racist.

      -M

    1. Smegging hell!!!!

      I actually already own all the DVD's, and I have them all on my computer for instant watching and streaming.

      But… I strongly recommend this purchase to everyone. The price is unbeatable, you'd be helping Ray out, and this is quite possibly my favorite TV show of all time.

      3. Ray pretty much said it.

        I've loaned it to several people, and a good deal of them give it right back to me because it goes directly over their head. You really do have to be on a certain level to enjoy it.

        That said, I believe everyone on this site is on that level.

        My gamertag is A Judas Rimmer which is based off of a character/sub-plot character on that show. See Arnold Rimmer is the main character on the show that everyone hates. In season 4, they introduced his persona from an alternate dimension named Ace Rimmer who is the Space Corp equivalent of James Bond. He's super suave, always gets the girl, and people always say "What a guy" after he leaves the room or does whatever he did.

        In season 7, Ace Rimmer came back to the dimension the show takes place in, and he was dying. It turned out that this Ace wasn't the same Ace we met originally, but another Rimmer from another dimension that had to carry on Ace's mission after that Ace died… the Ace he replaced wasn't the first Ace either.

        They ended up putting the remains of the old Ace where he specified and that was a planet whose rings were completely mad up of remains from previous Ace Rimmers, all from different dimensions. One of which is A Judas Rimmer because Ace/Arnold's full name is Arnold J. Rimmer (He says the J stands for Jonathan, but it really stands for Judas).

      4. I'm quite fond of Babylon 5. Check that out if you already haven't. Netflix streams all 5 seasons.

      5. Wow, that sounds pretty elaborate. At least now I know where your XBL name is from. I was wondering about that for a while. I just figured you really liked the drummer from Judas Priest.

        -M

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