Useful glitches/obscure gameplay technique appreciation thread

[Brent Cockman]

I always love seeing a game come out and everybody scruffily flopping about like noobs, before somebody cottons on to a trick that transforms how the game is played by decent and elite players, or perhaps only elite players. In particular I love seeing this within competitive games, as it forces players to learn these techniques or face perhaps insurmountable odds without them as their opponents 'abuse' them.

I think a good example of this in fighting games is in Street Fighter Alpha 3, the "crouch cancel" glitch. It's possible to combo your opponent to death by bouncing them up in the air with an endless loop of jumping attacks that abuse an exploit in the system, ignoring the usual endpoint in a combo where your opponent is allowed to fall through your attacks and recover. (Messy explanation, hope it made sense.) With this technique and others, strategy changed dramatically to accommodate these new powerful abilities.

Of course, a result of these kinds of developments is that sometimes the technical and strategic skill required to keep up is too much for some players to manage, or it looks 'too cheap', or it makes the game 'too boring', etc. Players may drift away, which aint cool but it's inevitable. With the SFA3 example above, many people (myself included) were put off by this as it looked broken and took the fun away, despite the fact I'd never even fought anybody that could do these things or explored them for myself.

There are many instances of these tricks and strategies I can think of in fighting games but I think they're probably too tedious and obscure for most. The first time I saw somebody rocketjump over me and rain death on me from the heavens was a real lightbulb moment for me. What are your favourite or most hated techniques?

[Junglist]

Sequence Breaking in Metroid is a wonderful read, if you're that way inclined. the best site to read on it being:

http://www.metroid2002.com/

[Brent Cockman]

I am indeed that way inclined, thanks for the link! Superb site.

[I accept the terms of the]

One that I am occasionally using at the moment is being able to draw a shot on the bow to move slightly faster when burdened in Skyrim.

I don't like actually cheating, but I consider figuring little things like that out part of beating a game.

[Junglist]

I am indeed that way inclined, thanks for the link! Superb site.

I've personally managed some in Super Metroid using an emulator and save state restarting, but seeing it done on a SNES by the experts is amazing.

[Famous Mortimer]

as their opponents 'abuse' them

I think this is the ballache for me, as it transforms all the skills in a game into mere window-dressing to get to the glitch first.

[Brent Cockman]

I agree, though I will say I think glitches can be fun in some games, and even add layers of depth and personality to a game that may not have had much of them otherwise. Are there any particular glitches or techniques you have in mind?

I think with the massive playerbases games accumulate nowadays, and especially with the speed with which news of a technique spreads over the internet, a glitch becomes commonplace where perhaps it wouldn't have before. Even if people aren't looking for exploitative glitches, it's probably inevitable that such a volume of players won't stumble across them at some point.

I tend not to use/look for glitches in single-player games, as I feel I'm cheating myself out of an experience that was crafted to be appreciated in a certain way (though I get a lot of pleasure from watching other people's insane speedruns and glitch exhibitions). My attitude is different with competitive games though, as I feel that to win in such a game you are challenging yourself as much your opponents. For me, they're games where rules are supposed to be pushed to breaking point if you want to win or get better. As long as the game retains diversity and depth of strategy, I love seeing what kinds of ingeniously fucked-up shit people can find.

[Junglist]

I used a glitch to beat Crawmerax on Borderlands solo, as it is pretty damn impossible to beat him properly solo. This led to me beating him for half my friends list as they couldn't do the glitch.

Was perfect for farming though!

[placeholder]

The Pac-Man Dossier

[HappyTree]

I have had fun laughing at the amazing horse physics of Skyrim where they can climb up any sheer cliff face and stand at almost 90 degree angles. Then I watched QI which featured the Alpine Ibex goat doing just that!





I think this proves that "life" is a game with many glitches :-D

[eluc55]

You could cause some fantastic glitches in the N64 Goldeneye, using the cheats you earned. The final level - Cradle - was particularly good. If you turned on fast animation, then killed Sean Bean, the cutscene started and the helicopter flew down at normal speed, but Bond leapt up onto it and then flew off in the distance like Superman. If you turned on slow animation, the helicopter turned up, then flew off, and bond leapt off the side, missing it completely. Sadly I cant find a video on youtube, but the game was packed with stuff like that.

Another thing you could do was place hundreds of proximity mines everywhere using infinite ammo, then finish a level and watch as every character except bond got blown to shit.

[Brent Cockman]

That reminds me of turning in circles as I stared down the toilet, desperately trying to magic back in to the air vent to win by the clock (my friends were too scared to investigate the bogs and my network of strategically-placed mines).

[The Boston Crab]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggB33d0BLcY

[alan nagsworth]

MORE RIDICULOUS GLITCHES PLEASE!

You could cause some fantastic glitches in the N64 Goldeneye, using the cheats you earned. The final level - Cradle - was particularly good. If you turned on fast animation, then killed Sean Bean, the cutscene started and the helicopter flew down at normal speed, but Bond leapt up onto it and then flew off in the distance like Superman. If you turned on slow animation, the helicopter turned up, then flew off, and bond leapt off the side, missing it completely. Sadly I cant find a video on youtube, but the game was packed with stuff like that.

Another thing you could do was place hundreds of proximity mines everywhere using infinite ammo, then finish a level and watch as every character except bond got blown to shit.

These are great and reminded me of another handy snippet of fun with the 'enemy rockets' cheat. It enabled all enemy weapons to be replaced with rocket launchers which in itself was fucking amazing chaos, but in particular it was ace to watch an enemy's stationary/idle movements. Basically they would have a string of things they'd do if you stood in a safe lace and watched them for long enough, and one of them would involve the guy waving his hand about as if he was shooing a fly. However if you left it long enough there would be a sequel action where he would raise his machine gun and try to shoot the fly. With 'enemy rockets' enabled in a confined space the guard would try and shoot the fly and completely blow himself to pieces.

I remember my N64 Mission Impossible cartridge got fucked up and me and my mate used to play it and laugh our balls off at the insane glitches that occurred as a result. Like when Candace is meant to be following you through a building and you wonder where she's got to, so you turn around to see where the fuck she is and she comes balling down the corridor in a typhoon of floating limbs and face as some insane white noise/feedback soundtracks her movement. I have a really nervous temperament for things I don't understand/expect in the slightest and I remember that whole thing really set me on edge.

Another one on an outdoor snow level involved me killing a guard and the guy fell down dead, then snapped back upright like he was resurrected as a mad vengeful ghost and chased me all around the level shooting at me. I couldn't shoot him at all but he could hit me if I stood around to let him. It was absolutely terrifying. I remember going into some hut and hiding for like fifteen minutes hoping that the switch of setting from one landscape to another would reset this ghost guy and he would be gone when I went back outside. He fucking wasn't. He was still there and as soon as I open the door he comes pegging it up to me, shooting like crazy. I seem to recall the level required a bit of standing still and waiting towards the end or something(?) and I literally couldn't because this prick was hell-bent on fucking me up. I ended up jumping in the icy river nearby and topping myself to escape the nightmare. Don't think I played it much after that.

[Vader Time]

I don't think it's unusual to be disturbed by technology doing unexpected things — I get that too. Unnatural movements generally, whether real or staged can be quite unsettling.[nb]Just reminded myself of the Goddess Bunny. If you don't know, don't be tempted to Google.[/nb]

I always found the Mission Impossible game to be a bit unsettling as a kid, in a way that GoldenEye, (for example) wasn't, despite the latter being more viscerally violent. The level after you've been detained by the CIA seemed rather grim and hopeless, and I have vague memories of a bit where you have to escort a woman who's been drugged across a catwalk, above some sort of acid pool.[nb]Possibly conflating two separate sequences, here.[/nb] Horrible. The embassy and the terminal room were cool though.

[Big Jack McBastard]

I remember aiding a (now-ex) member of my friends list in Horde in GoW2 to glitch him into a wall with smoke grenades before the round started, he could then stick his gun through a glitchy patch in the wall, fire and kill but not be killed... theoretically. In reality he seemed to get downed or die in every other round (we couldn't revive him, wall in the way and all) and got loads of grenades thrown at him by the enemy which buggered his ability to fire straight, I'm convinced someone showed him it and left without telling him how it use it to his advantage, he was a shameful liability throughout but was utterly convinced it was useful just because it was weird. It might have been had he not been so crap.

This is the same guy who after owning Saints Row 2 for something like 3 months had managed an astonishing 5 Gamerscore (which you get after finishing the prologue) after which he just went around cheating in satchel charges and blowing up cars, I don't think he ever got any further into it.

I'm all for having a go at glitching stuff for a lark but when it's all you do across multiple games and you insist on inviting me/jumping into my game every time I connect to Live and then proceed to do naught but dick about it's time to get te fuck.

[HappyTree]

I probably heard of "ladder goat" from this very forum, but it never fails to cheer me up if only because of the guy laughing at it, so for anyone who has not already seen it I present you this choice glitch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggB33d0BLcY

[Space ghost]

bleeurgh, that ladder goat guy is awful. It seems to me that he has watched too many videos of the 'unboxing/watch me play a game and talk about it' variety that seem to be made by a certain type of American teen and he is just imitating that style/mode of speech. Oh everything is so crazy and wild Ima just walk over here wooo laugh hysterically.

I always report glitchers on xbox live for cheating/system tampering as well. Yeah I hate fun.

[Hank Venture]

The Starcraft online community is pretty much based around the obscure technique category. I'm not a Starcraft player, but I heard someone on some podcast (Brad on the Giant Bombcast) explain how the online combat evolved. It was pretty fascinating stuff, if someone in the know reads this I'm sure it is of interest in this thread.

Semi-related Cracked articles:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-biggest-dick-moves-in-history-online-gaming/
http://www.cracked.com/article_19507_the-8-creepiest-glitches-hidden-in-popular-video-games.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19262_6-glitches-that-accidentally-invented-modern-gaming.html
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-most-elaborate-dick-moves-in-online-gaming-history/

[mcbpete]

I don't think it's unusual to be disturbed by technology doing unexpected things — I get that too. Unnatural movements generally, whether real or staged can be quite unsettling.[nb]Just reminded myself of the Goddess Bunny. If you don't know, don't be tempted to Google.[/nb]

My love of glitch nowadays was spawned from my hatred of it as a kid - http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=29015.msg1513761#msg1513761

[lazyhour]

My love of glitch nowadays was spawned from my hatred of it as a kid - http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=29015.msg1513761#msg1513761

That 'Genesis Bending' project you were involved in is amazing! I'm really really enjoying listening through to all the tracks. Are they genuinely all serendipitous?

[mcbpete]

Cheers man - Yep, not a single one was modified in any way (well except for global mastering I put on the tracks so they fit together a bit nicer as an album, plus a few that went on theoretically forever I faded out). But yeah no shenanigans otherwise - it was about a year's worth of collaborative experimentation and usually crashing of a poor old megadrive emulator!

[I accept the terms of the]

mcbpete, your avatar always reminds me of one of my first real programming projects: building a Game Boy emulator. That was a really great glitchy experience - seeing games SORT OF working as it was built, and then going wrong in spectacular fun ways (usually the wrong graphics page being used, although often weirder and more wonderful things). I wish I had added sound. ZZEEEEWOPPPPPP

[mcbpete]

Woah, hats off man - I can't even imagine how you go about programming an emulator, no matter what the architecture. Though spot on - it's a glitches up version of the original Pokemon for the gameboy.

[Vader Time]

Pokémon Red/Blue had quite a few famous glitches actually, didn't it? Missingno, the item cloning one, and brilliantly, the Mew glitch, which wasn't discovered until years after the original release, and gave you a Pokémon that it was long thought impossible to find without getting it from machines at gaming conventions.

The thread also reminded me of this from Metal Gear Solid 2. Of course, it was done intentionally to fuck with you, and probably wasn't the first game to feature something like that, but it was brilliantly executed. Not knowing anything about it at the time, it was terrifying when the Colonel's face appeared to start melting, as he fired Japanese surnames at me and talked complete nonsense.

[Treguard of Dunshelm]

Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube had a few cool fake glitches as part of its Insanity Effects mechanic - my favourite being the one that makes it appear all your save games are being deleted. Scarier than any Lovecraftian demon!

[lazarou]

I do enjoy a good fake crash/glitch just to mess with the player's head. Everyone probably already knows about the Muppets one, but that's still my favourite. Fake crashing before the game even seems to have started, love it. Aside from the low screen resolution (standard at the time, of course) it's still pretty convincing.

[Famous Mortimer]

There was that game for the C64 where if you typed in "Fuck you Twiddy" (Twiddy being the surname of the game designer) it tried to wipe the memory of your computer. Or maybe that was an urban myth. I liked it though.

[mikeyg27]

Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube had a few cool fake glitches as part of its Insanity Effects mechanic - my favourite being the one that makes it appear all your save games are being deleted. Scarier than any Lovecraftian demon!

Even though I knew in advance about that, I was still screaming at the TV when that came up. I felt like such a fucking idiot afterwards.

[DJ Solid Snail]

The thread also reminded me of this from Metal Gear Solid 2. Of course, it was done intentionally to fuck with you, and probably wasn't the first game to feature something like that, but it was brilliantly executed. Not knowing anything about it at the time, it was terrifying when the Colonel's face appeared to start melting, as he fired Japanese surnames at me and talked complete nonsense.

Yeah, one of the series' more effective headfucks, that one. I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-Kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!

First time I played MGS2 I had no memory card, so I ended up burning through the whole thing in one session, and when Campbell was telling me to turn off the console I was convinced it was the game telling me I'd been playing too long, and I might damage the PS2 or something. Turning off the console after all would mean losing 8+ hours of play, and I became totally paranoid that it was going to end up turning itself off.

It's a callback of sorts to the original Metal Gear on the MSX - your boss, um, Big Boss, starts giving you terrible advice on which rooms to go in before

Spoiler alert

revealing himself as the bad guy. Even though I knew the story of it, I still idiotically followed all his orders. Chain of command and all that, I suppose.

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