Most Memorable Glitches

[KageYuuki]

Glitches are a normal part of games. They can be game breaking, twisted to our advantage, hilarious, or down right disturbing. So, ever encountered a glitch so bizarre, hilarious or rage inducing it stuck with you well after the fact? Let's hear some stories!


Of course, it's not very fair if I ask for stories without giving one of my own . . .


It's been years now . . . maybe 11 or more at this point. I grew up playing The Legend of Zelda series, still play it today, still love it as much as I did then. I don't really remember which Zelda game was my first, either Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. I remember getting to play them once a year at my cousin's house until I'd gotten an N64 of my own.


The glitch that sticks out to me the most happened while playing Majora's Mask. While certainly not BEN DROWNED levels of insanity, it was plenty unnerving to little 10yr old me. I shared a young with my younger sister's at the time, we had a little tv in there to play SNES and N64 games on. I wanted to take another crack at trying to get through the Great Bay Temple. (Young me was not very good with puzzles, mind you) So I turn on the TV, turn on the game and-


The save files were gone . . .


Both of them. (I'd kept the original owner's file because he was further than me and I liked getting to run around with the extra masks)


So what's the first thing a kid with younger siblings would do? Blame them for messing with your stuff and deleting your files of course. As always though, they swore up and down they had nothing to do with it. Ugh, yeah right. Fine, whatever, I'll make another save file. Start the game back up and sit through the intro cutscene. Everything's fine until the cutscene's end. The moment I gained control of Link, he died. Just, keeled over. Luckily for me he at least respawned where you start and not in some weird, out of bounds spot. Unluckily for me, this bug wasn't done just yet. Immediately I noticed I had no sword or shield, and all the C-Items were Ocarinas of Time. I paused the game to bring up the inventory and every single slot was an ocarina.


Bottles? Ocarinas. Key items? Ocarinas. Mask!?


Ocarinas.


By that point, 10yr old me had enough and turned the game off. I pulled the cartridge out (Likely blew in it) and put it back in. When I turned the console back on lo and behold all my saves were back. Everything was fine after that. It was such a bizarre thing that happened, it never really did leave me.


A friend happened to quote some lines from that Haunted Majora's Mask creepypasta and reminded me of this little series of events. Finally I actually looked it up to see if anyone else encountered at least something similar. Wouldn't you know it was because my cartridge wasn't inserted all the way . . . Essentially a crooked cartridge glitch taken to the extreme. This link here explains what's going on and how to get something really similar to what happened to me. http://www.jaytheham.com/zcw/Majora's_Mask_Crooked_Cartridge_-_48_Ocarinas

This trick is actually a way of duplicating a certain hardware error that occurs when the cartridge is not inserted properly or otherwise cannot be "read" properly by the N64. This error causes any saved files to not appear, and if a new file is started, all saved data is written as zeros -- or not written at all.


If this happens to you, turning off the N64, taking out the cartridge and then firmly reinserting it should cause your save files to reappear and your game to write data properly.

So that's hands down the most memorable glitch I've encountered so far.


Now it's you turn, what have you stumbled across over the years?

 

[Creek]

I like to think that I'm excellent at causing games to glitch, whether I do it on purpose or it just happens. I don't remember all of the strange, funny, or annoying things I've managed to do in games, but here are a few stories:


One time when I was playing through Final Fantasy VII, I attempted to get Vincent, one of the two optional characters, as soon as possible. However, I just couldn't beat the boss Lost Number, no matter how hard I tried. So, after getting a game over a few times, I decided that some level grinding was in order. I left Nibelheim and went out to find some random encounters in the field. The first one I ran into was Yuffie, the other optional character. After fighting her and beating her, I of course assumed that I would get the usual cutscene afterwards where you can get her to join your party. Imagine my horror when, instead, I was suddenly back in Nibelheim, fighting Lost Number for what was probably the eighth time. I lost and just decided that the strange occurrence was a fluke. Surely it wouldn't happen again? However, each time I got into a random encounter, it was Yuffie, and I was teleported back to Lost Number afterwards. This kept happening until I finally decided I could fix it by going to look for random encounters elsewhere. 


After the fact, I looked up the glitch and discovered that encountering Yuffie right after a game over would teleport you back to where you died. Even the final boss. Apparently it's helpful in skipping large portions of the game or keeping a certain character on your team, even when the story says they should be dead. Still, it was pretty infuriating at the time. 


This second story is more about multiple smaller glitches, but all from similar games. Namely, the Lego games. My brother and I played them a lot when we were younger, since they're co-op, and he still occasionally wants me to play them with him. These games aren't always the best quality, though, and I've managed to encounter many glitches over the years. I've been out of bounds probably more times than I can count. However, I'd never managed to make a level unbeatable until the most recent game, "Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens." 


I managed to make an object that was vital to moving on disappear in the very first level. My brother moved his character around, trying desperately to figure out what had happened, while I just laughed my head off. Eventually we just decided to restart. 


Then, a few levels later, I was playing as BB8 and managed to get enough speed to jump clear over an object that was blocking our path. However, since I wasn't supposed to be over there, the loading zone didn't work. Apparently, there was something I was supposed to do as BB8 back in the area I was supposed to be in. Much to my brother's annoyance, I couldn't get back, and, after trying desperately to remedy the situation, we had to start that level over, too. It was then that we discovered that it was a bad idea to let me play that game. 

 

[Chachalotte]

 

[Fangs9090]

My most memorable glitch is actually one that I saw on a video and then overused to my advantage. On The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, there's a glitch that let's you clone items in your inventory. I know have at least two files where, while wandering the world, you're likely to find about a hundred apples or pumpkins or watermelons sitting at the bottom of a hill or some other slope. It's just so much fun to spawn a ton of apples and run down a hill with them. It makes the game lag if you do it too much though...

 

[ctdos]

My most memorable glitch is actually one that I saw on a video and then overused to my advantage. On The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, there's a glitch that let's you clone items in your inventory. I know have at least two files where, while wandering the world, you're likely to find about a hundred apples or pumpkins or watermelons sitting at the bottom of a hill or some other slope. It's just so much fun to spawn a ton of apples and run down a hill with them. It makes the game lag if you do it too much though...

Actually used this glitch myself, and I can't remember the circumstance that led me to it but it was with poisoned food. Turns out some NPCs will pick up the occasional poisoned apple and consume it. So along with piless of discarded items throughout the capital it will always stick with me - seeing a couple of people die at random and then searching their bodies to find I'm responsible. 

 

[KageYuuki]

Actually used this glitch myself, and I can't remember the circumstance that led me to it but it was with poisoned food. Turns out some NPCs will pick up the occasional poisoned apple and consume it. So along with piless of discarded items throughout the capital it will always stick with me - seeing a couple of people die at random and then searching their bodies to find I'm responsible. 

The game even tells you during the Dark Brotherhood questline that if you leave a poisoned apple out an NPC will eat it. Removing all the food in the room generally helps in that process.

 

[ctdos]

The game even tells you during the Dark Brotherhood questline that if you leave a poisoned apple out an NPC will eat it. Removing all the food in the room generally helps in that process.

I can't even remember the amount of times I played through the Dark Brotherhood before that, and can't remember that coming up. Now I feel like my subconscious maliciously engineered the whole thing.

 

[KageYuuki]

I can't even remember the amount of times I played through the Dark Brotherhood before that, and can't remember that coming up. Now I feel like my subconscious maliciously engineered the whole thing.

It's been a long time since I last played through that quest . . . it might have been an optional dialogue choice or something.

 

[ctdos]

It's been a long time since I last played through that quest . . . it might have been an optional dialogue choice or something.

No, please, don't try to excuse my subconscious. He's been out to get me for years so this latest revelation isn't that big of a surprise. 

 

[Assailant]

Oh, wow, most memorable glitches. Unfortunately, I haven't had a ton of HUGE glitches. None that I remember, anyway. I know I have some crazy stories, but I can't really remember them.


The most memorable one, though perhaps not the most insane, was whilst playing Star Wars Force Unleashed. It's memorable because it was the first HUGE glitch I remember, plus it ruined a lot of hard work.


I was playing on the Death Star. Anyone who knows the game knows that the beginning of that level is insanely difficult. You're bum-rushed by a lot of really difficult enemies. I was killing them all, and this seemed to be the run where I would win. I started attacking an AT-ST, and I ground-pounded (don't remember the official term for it, but that gets the idea across.) Suddenly, I fell through the floor. I was just endlessly falling into the abyss. I sat there for one minute... two... three... I went and grabbed my brother, and we just watch me fall endlessly. After around 5-10 minutes, I finally died. I respawned, and had to do all that shit over again.


It's not a particularly crazy glitch, but it's one of my most memorable.

 

[Assailant]

Actually, I remembered another. I was playing Halo: Anniversary Edition and I got to a particular level. I don't remember what it's called, but you start by jumping out of a Pelican onto a nearby ledge. The Pelican flies away once you leave. However, the controls are given to you as you're falling out. So, I really quickly managed to turn around and jump back into the Pelican as I was falling, and felt ecstatic as it started flying away with me in it. The world seemed to turn upside down as the Pelican flew at... strange angles. I was hanging off the side. Suddenly, the screen became really white and I took damage. Eventually, I jumped out of the ship. The world was REALLY foggy. I seemed to be on a ground of metal. I began investigating, only to discover that the pelican had crashed and the pilot was dead. I began to wander around, looking for a way out. After walking for awhile, I stumbled across a large wall. It wasn't too big, but the fog made it look infinitely high. I began wandering around the edge and found nothing. I seemed to be trapped in a very large, open roofed box. I began walking around the middle of the box, and I found mostly nothing. However, I did find things occasionally. Weird, sporadically placed pillars showed up every so often. I then discovered random blood stains on the ground, but no corpse nearby. As I kept wandering, I eventually DID find a corpse. A few, actually. Some human, some grunt. Speaking of which, I eventually found two living grunts. They ignored me for a bit until I walked away, then they attacked me. After killing them, I tried to grenade-jump out. I almost made it, but I never could. Eventually, I just gave up and restarted the game.

 

[Fangs9090]

Actually used this glitch myself, and I can't remember the circumstance that led me to it but it was with poisoned food. Turns out some NPCs will pick up the occasional poisoned apple and consume it. So along with piless of discarded items throughout the capital it will always stick with me - seeing a couple of people die at random and then searching their bodies to find I'm responsible. 

Wow, that's great. I need to try that sometime.