Documentation of Game Glitches

Game glitches can sometimes be really annoying and other times really fascinating. This is where I will attempt to document all game glitches I've run into.

NOTE #1: In all cases in which I didn't find a glitch on my own, I will try my best to give credit to the source I got them from. In some cases, I will not be able to recall where I first heard about the glitch, either because it was far too long ago (some stuff I learned about shortly after getting on the internet in 1995), the sites no longer exist, it was one of those random cheat sites, or it was in a message board post and I can't remember what board it was or who posted it.

NOTE #2: If you take any information from this page to use on your own website, please give proper credit to the sources. If I've listed a source website, give credit to that website. If it's a glitch I've discovered on my own, give credit to this page. I don't mind sharing the wealth of knowledge, but it really irritates me when I see stuff from my site copied word-for-word and posted to other sites without any credit given to me or, in the case of reader submissions, the people who submitted it. (Especially if it's one of those big cheat code sites that are plastered with ads.)

NOTE #3: It is not my interest to document every glitch for every game on this site, only those I've either run into on my own, or really interesting ones I've experimented with. So, don't expect this article to contain a complete list of known glitches for every game. (In some cases, you can find more glitches for these games in the source websites I've linked in the entries.)

NOTE #4: Not everything documented here is necessarily a glitch. Some are very unusual or fascinating tricks that I completely discovered on my own and some are unsolved mysteries that have bugged me for a long time and seem to have no answer.

NOTE #5: Sometimes, I come up with theories as to why certain glitches occur (my mind naturally does this because I have some experience in programming). I cannot prove these theories are true, so please don't accept them as 100% fact, unless, of course, you have some way of proving them.

NOTE #6: I cannot guarantee that you will be able to reproduce all of these glitches. However, assuming that they are glitches and not just a result of my game or console needing to be cleaned (or overheating in the case of disc-based systems), there is the potential for them to occur, unless the copy of the game you have is a rerelease that's been fixed or mine is defective. In the case of game freezes, I may not document every single time a game locks up, due to the fact that it can sometimes happen because of dirt in the connectors or (especially in the case of modern disc-based systems) overheating, but if a lock-up occurs consistently within the same area(s) of the game, or if I have reason to believe a particular action caused the lock-up, I will document it here as a possible glitch.

NOTE #7: There is the slim possibility that some of these glitches could erase your save file data or corrupt your game (though I've yet to see anything that drastic happen with any of the glitches I've documented), so try them at your own risk!


A Boy and His Blob (NES)

No Enemies on Blobolonia
At the beginning of Blobolonia, the blob's planet, run all the way to the left until you can't go any farther. Toss a jellybean at the left side of the screen. If you did it right, the screen will flash the final boss screen for a brief moment. Now there will be no enemies at all on Blobolonia. (Note: I do not know where I first heard about this glitch, but I did not discover it on my own.)

Secret Limerick
There's a way to place holes in the floor so that you can fall and run right through walls. This can be used to either skip whole areas or run through parts of the game that don't exist during normal gameplay (scrambled screens, the credits screen, the ending scene, and even one that contains 5/6ths of an unused limerick). See A Boy and His Blob Weirdness for a screenshot of this glitch. (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches)


ActRaiser (Super NES)

Kasandora Town Growth Glitch
I frequently have a problem in the town of Kasandora where the growth rate remains normal, but instead of actually growing, what happens is that one house disappears, and then a single person runs out and builds a new house. This happens over and over again forever until I leave the area. I've discovered that I can sometimes curtail this glitch if I wait to use rain on the square with the pyramid until after the town's growth rate becomes "slow".

UPDATE: I figured out how to circumvent this glitch. All you have to do is use lightning to destroy the old mud huts and/or tents so that the people replace them with the adobe houses. Once you get enough replaced, the town growth rate returns to normal and eventually maxes out.

Town Oddities
ActRaiser has a number of small oddities in the simulation scenes, but I'm not sure if they're glitches or just randomly generated game elements. For example, sometimes when I do the Fillmore scenario, the houses never catch on fire. In fact, that didn't happen the very first time I played the game so I was rather surprised when it happened on a replay. Sometimes the people of Aitos build two ranches when usually you just get one. The angel always tells you when your people have something to say, except when you unearth the pyramid in Kasandora. For some reason, there is no warning for that event. And finally, the Angel's grammar is incorrect in the simulation intros. He always says, "[Name of Town] may became a land where people can live in peace". That "became" should be "become".


Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage (Nintendo 64)

Giant Game-Crashing Rats
This game is famous for locking up, and there were two places in the game where it happened to me. The first was a party of rats that literally caused the game to crash when I got into a battle with them. Here is my original post, long explanation to follow:

On the road between Talewok or Gwernia and Erromon, there is an enemy rat that can cause the game to crash. When you come to the area with three signposts near a big lake, you're close to where he is. If you found this area earlier, it's the same spot where that hilarious cinema scene with the guy in the forest who was afraid of monsters occurred. Follow that path around the bend, through some pine trees, and you should come across a Giant Rat at the top of a hill. Try to avoid this enemy! Whenever I engage him, he causes the game to crash. I'm not kidding! The screen goes blank, and some text shows up and it actually says something like, "System Crash", and then some other text that makes no sense to me. My suggestion is to save near the signposts, then try to sneak past that enemy. If you engage him and nothing happens, don't worry about it. But if your system crashes, there IS another way to get to Erromon. You'll have to look for an opening in the wall along the road (you'll pass through some pine trees.) You should pass a treasure chest along the way. You'll emerge out onto a high plateau with another treasure chest. There's like a round, stony area in the middle of the plateau. You'll have to run down off of it and find the road. Continue taking the road West to Erromon. (End of original post)

I have a theory as to why this particular crash occurred. A lot of enemy parties in Aidyn Chronicles do not respawn after you defeat them. I believe this party of rats was one I defeated earlier and was not supposed to respawn, but for some reason it did, and the game didn't know what to do when I engaged them in battle. The fact that I returned to this area much later in the game and discovered the rat party had completely vanished might be evidence for this theory.

Random Game Lock-Ups
The second lock-up occurred when I first entered the bog area. I believe the game tried to load a cutscene and failed, causing it to freeze on the spot. I think this theory is probably correct because the second time I went into the bog, the cutscene loaded and ran fine.

Floating Tree
In the area where the bog and the beach east of it meet, there is a tree that is clearly not connected to the ground. It is floating in mid-air, just above Alaron's head level. See Aidyn Chronicles Craziness for screenshots.

Missing Cutscene
There are four cutscenes you can unlock...well, you're supposed to be able to unlock them, but even if you beat the game, the ending cutscene will never be added to the menu. I once read an interview with one of the game's programmers on a site that no longer exists (damn!). He confirmed that the fourth cutscene was indeed supposed to be the ending, but he had no idea why it doesn't show up in there.

Life Crystals and Sapphires
Even though the King explains how to revive dead characters by using life crystals in the beginning of the game, you can never actually do this. Rumor has it that there was a serious glitch in the life-restoring system that caused the programmers to take it out altogether. The life crystals most likely became the useless sapphires that you win in battles and find in treasure chests here and there. (What this means is that you can never, ever revive a character when he/she dies, so either be really careful and save often, or remember where other recruitable characters are located so that you can replace your dead if necessary.)

Walk Through a Wall
Somewhere in the desert northwest of Ugarit, you can run right through a wall out into empty space. You can look around you and see floating polygons that make up part of the level. See my Aidyn Chronicles Oddities Page for more information on this one.

Anachronistic Dialogue
You're supposed to meet the recruitable character Sholeh in the desert and save her from being attacked by some enemies. The problem is that if you arrive at the Jundar city Ugarit without meeting Sholeh in the desert, she will be at the inn, and she will act like the desert scene actually occurred. So, the effect is that Sholeh and Alaron are acting like they know each other and that Sholeh was saved by Alaron, but if you missed the desert cutscene (as I did when I first played the game) the dialogue here will make no sense!

Misplaced Cutscenes
Sometimes, other cutscenes will occur out-of-order. After I got past that gate you have to go through in the desert to reach Ugarit, I returned to an earlier part of the game (I think it was the beach south of the area with the floating tree.) Alaron and Abrecan got into a cutscene discussing the gate, acting like they hadn't yet gone through it, even though they already did. I think this is because I sidestepped the actual point where the cutscene is supposed to occur, but upon stepping into it later, the cutscene loaded and played out, and I imagine it might be possible to do things like this elsewhere, too.


Airforce Delta Strike (Sony Playstation 2)

Cooling Tower Glitch in Night Blitz Mission
Occasionally, when playing the Night Blitz mission in Armaghest City, one of the cooling towers will get stuck in the "down" position. Even if I destroy all the surrounding targets, it never raises up. This makes it impossible to destroy and the only way out of this is to start the mission over again.

Seavixen Glitch
A very well-known glitch for AFDS is that one of Brian Douglas's planes, the Seavixen, never becomes available for sale in the American version of the game. This effectively locks you out of getting the Axelay unless you use a Gameshark.

Alternate Way to Beat Leopold Battery Cannons
Normally, you would have to fly into the barrels of the giant cannons in the Navarrone Valley to destroy the targets at the end. However, due to a glitch, you can sometimes lock onto those targets from the outside of the cannon and your shots will go right through. This seems to work best with a plane that has Multilock-on Ground Missles, such as the MX5000. (It's hilarious to see the Python Units' reaction if you take out the first cannon before they can.)

Freak out Amelia on the Train Mission
If you know the Train mission well enough, try flying ahead of the train and make sure to take out all the targets along the way. If you go too far ahead, Amelia will start yelling things like, "The train is under attack! Return to the guard target immediately!" and "It's surrounded! Return immediately!", even though there is absolutely nothing attacking it because you've already destroyed everything.


Akumajo Dracula X (NEC Turbo Duo)

Elevator Leaves You Behind
Repost of a glitch Crawl and 1000 sent to David Wonn's Unique Glitches several years ago: Choose Maria, and play in Stage 3. Keep the bird special weapon, and make sure you have enough hearts to use its item crash at least once. Part way through the stage are two platforms connected by chains and pulleys. Normally, if you wanted to go to the path to stage 4', you would stand on the left platform, and hit the boulder above the right platform, and the left platform will be raised upwards with you on it. Instead, stand on the left platform and use the bird item crash. The boulder will be knocked loose, and the platform you were standing on will be launched upwards to the path to 4', but the item crash animation lasts long enough that you will not be on the platform as it rises. You will be left behind!! So, after you've done this, the game is basically stuck; you'll have to turn the power off to play again. (Source: Crawl and 1000)


Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean (Sega Saturn)

Lightning Spell Glitch
When fighting Valerian or the second Belnard (when you fight him at the mountain with the dead dragon), there is a certain Lightning spell that both of these bosses have that always causes a read error on my copy of the game. (I have heard other people say this spell does the same thing on their copies of Albert Odyssey, too.) A read error message will appear in the lower left corner of the screen, and any of the following side-effects might occur:

  • Valerian or Belnard will take a really long time to cast the spell. The name of the spell appears, and then it's somewhere between 10-20 seconds before he actually casts it. Sometimes, they'll only take a long time when the read error first happens. And other times, they'll take a really long time each time they cast it.
  • There will be no sound effect for the spell.
  • The battle will lose all of its sound effects, not just the spell sound (but the music keeps going).

    Note that I have yet to see this glitch actually freeze up or crash the game completely. The battle will run as normal, even though it may not have sound effects or it may take the boss a long time to cast the spell.

    Screenshot of glitch during Valerian fight.

    Screenshot of glitch during second Belnard fight.

    Random Lock-Ups
    My copy of the game has a problem with the normal battles freezing sometimes (I have never seen it freeze on a boss battle, only the random ones). The only two areas where I have consistently seen this glitch happen are in Valerian's Castle and Balan's Fort. The battle will begin with the characters animated, but there is no music and no menus ever pop up. Resetting is the only way out, so as a precaution, save before entering these dungeons.


    Alone in the Dark: One-Eyed Jack's Revenge (Sega Saturn)

    Enter the Underground Tunnel Too Early
    This glitch messed up my game the first time I played it and I had to restart from the beginning. At the start of the game, go to the front of the mansion, then walk around the left side. Walk around near the fence there, and eventually Carnby will mysteriously start rising into the air. The screen will go blank and you'll end up in the underground passage where you find the dead body of his partner. The only way out of this is to reset, because you shouldn't be here yet and without the necessary items from the hedge maze, you can't finish the game.


    Alundra (Sony Playstation)

    Soul Leech Lock-Up
    One time I experienced a game freeze while fighting one of those Soul Leech bosses. They're the kind that stick out of a wall in the back of the room and suck you into their rib cages. This particular Soul Leech also spit out those small slime creatures. I defeated the boss, but a slime creature was still moving around. As the boss was going into its death animation, I swung my sword at the slime. Right as the sword connected, the game froze. I had to redo part of the dungeon and the boss fight over again. I am not certain if the freeze was caused by the Playstation overheating or if the game had a problem handling both the boss and slime's death animations at once, as I didn't care to try reproducing it.


    Alundra 2 (Sony Playstation)

    Toroledo Lock-Ups
    This game has frozen on me twice in the same area of the game - the town of Toroledo. One time, I was unable to move, but the animation was still going and so was the music. The second time, the screen went blank with the music still going. Both times I had just exited a building. It might have been due to the Playstation overheating, or maybe the game has a slight potential to freeze in that town.


    Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64)

    Break the Boulder in Spring
    Very well-known glitch: It's possible to break the boulder in the Spring zone of Click-Clock Woods by situating yourself on the ledge above it and pooping eggs over the edge. It could take a very long time, but eventually you might hear an explosion and the camera will show the area where the giant flower is for a brief moment. If this happens, go down and enter the tunnel. The Beaver's house is not there! You can swim into the middle of the tree and look up to see polygons that make up the level floating around in mid-air. If you leap into the black void in the middle, the game acts as though you fell into a pit and you'll restart the level. If you leap out into the void, but maneuver B&K so that they land back in the underwater section of the tunnel, you can end up running around underwater as though you are on dry land (and you won't lose air, either.) (Source: BlueMoon007's Banjo-Kazooie Page)

    Go Through a Window
    This is a repost of a glitch I sent to David Wonn's site several years ago: If anyone's having trouble collecting the Jiggy behind the ship's propeller in the alotted time, this glitch could help! When you're inside the Rusty Bucket ship, in the area with all the gears where the two propellor switches are you can see a window on the left side. When you look through the window, you can see another room of the ship. While facing the window, move over to the left side of it, where the polygon line of the window frame meets the wall. Hold down Z and press A to do the wing-assisted flip jump, and press into that polygon line as you're jumping. If you did it right, Banjo will go right through the window! You'll end up in that other room, and when you leave, you'll be much closer to where the Jiggy behind the propeller is. It may take several attempts to do this, so keep trying, but it's not that hard. (Note: I first heard about this on a Banjo-Kazooie message board, but it doesn't exist anymore.)

    Fall Through the Giant Snowman
    This glitch will allow you to go right through the giant snowman in Freezeezy Peak. Stand on the Flight Pad that's on the pile of gift boxes and take off into the sky. Fly around to the front of the snowman where his buttons are. Try to aim at the spot above the top button near the polygon line where the snowman's scarf and neck meet. Now press B to do the move that makes Banjo & Kazooie rocket forward and aim right at that spot. If done correctly, Banjo will hit the snowman and fall through the polygon line! You will fall through the snowman and fall out and land between his feet. It happens really quickly, though. (Note: I first heard about this on a Banjo-Kazooie message board, but it doesn't exist anymore.)


    Battletoads (NES)

    Rat Race Lock-Up
    On the level where you race the rat to diffuse the bomb, sometimes the game doesn't move you onto the stage boss when you boot the last bomb. This is unfortunate because there is no way out of this other than to reset. I had a theory that this glitch was caused by the game being confused as to who actually got to the bomb first when it's a "tie". One day, I saw what really happens to cause it. I was watching the rat drop down the floors as he normally does when he suddenly went right through the wall on the right side of the screen and disappeared! I could still hear the sound of him bumping around, but he was nowhere to be seen. When you boot the bomb, the rat is supposed to fall down and hit his head on the floor, which shakes the screen and causes you to fall down to where the boss is. But since the rat had disappeard, he couldn't fall, and he couldn't shake the screen, thus leaving the toad stranded at the end of the level.


    Blaster Master (NES)

    Kill a Boss With One Grenade
    This one is pretty well-known. Throw a grenade at a boss and when it scores a hit, pause the game. Leave it paused several seconds and then unpause. The boss will be defeated instantly. This will only work on certain bosses, like the brain, the two giant insects, and the two giant frogs. It can work on the crab, but it's very difficult to do. Also, be careful not to hit pause while Jason is taking a hit because he'll continue to take damage, too, and when you unpause, he'll die. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Missing Bosses in Demo Mode
    Here's a weird one that I've never seen mentioned anywhere else. If you watch the game's demo, it will eventually show two different demos of Jason fighting two of the game's bosses. If you play through the game and defeat those bosses, then end the game and watch the demo again, those bosses will not appear in those scenes. Jason will be shooting at nothing.

    Random Glitches
    This game has a lot of little random glitches of enemies disappearing yet still actually being there (I hate it when I get hit by those things that slide really quickly across the screen because they've "become invisible" and I couldn't see that they were there), enemies and sometimes even Jason getting trapped in walls, and sprites or background tiles changing the wrong color.

    Jason Death Animation Glitch
    In the platform areas, take Jason out of SOPHIA and get him killed somehow. Drop him into the bramble at the beginning of the game, get whomped by enemies, whatever. While he's spinning around, pause the game, then unpause it, and he'll be replaced with this weird little stick thing. (Screenshot 1) (Screenshot 2) (Source: Codie Martin)


    Blinx the Timesweeper (Microsoft X-Box)

    Final Boss Glitch
    When I finally beat that !@%#$ of a final boss, I think I may have done so through a glitch. Normally, you have to hit the boss's second form twice before he moves onto Phase 3. But I only hit him once in that form and he immediately went to Phase 3. This made things much easier because (A) I had more time to deal with his 3rd and 4th forms, (B) because I didn't take as much damage from Phase 2 as I normally would have while waiting for him to become vulnerable a second time, and (C) because it left me with a surplus of spiked balls in reserve to use on the final form.


    Castlevania (NES)

    Grim Reaper Lock-Up
    Pretty well-known glitch: The game often locks up on the level with the Grim Reaper. Possibly a defect in the way the cartridges were made and not the game itself because I've never seen it happen on a ROM. (Source: Crawl and 1000 - Although it did eventually happen to me, it was through him that I first learned about this glitch. I never played this game as much as he did.)

    No Music in First Level
    If you wait until the third demo plays and start the game, there will be no music in the first level. (Source: Crawl and 1000)


    Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse (NES)

    Hidden Worlds
    I did not discover this glitch on my own, but I sent an explanation of it to David Wonn's Unique Glitches. It's the "Hidden Worlds" glitch explained in detail on that site. Here is a repost of it (lengthy explanation to follow):

    Play Castlevania 3 until you reach the Clock Tower and defeat Grant. Allow Grant to join you once you've defeated him. Now, when you begin to make your way back down the tower, make sure you're playing as Trevor when you reach the first set of stairs going down. Walk slowly down the stairs. Now, here comes the tricky part: Press Select to switch to Grant *just* as Trevor is about to walk down off the screen. Trevor's feet should be together, at the very bottom of the screen, and if you did it correctly, once he transforms into Grant, he should automatically walk down onto the next screen. Now turn around and start going back up the stairs, and just keep walking. You'll find that you'll be able to keep going, up past the stairs and off the screen into a glitched-up area of the Clock Tower that you normally could not get into. For some more interesting results, try going back down the stairs one screen, then going back up again. Sometimes, Grant will be repositioned on the "invisible stairs", and thus, be able to go farther with this glitch.

    This glitch can also be performed on the first stairway going down in Level 3, the swamp area. This one's even better than the Clock Tower glitchy area, because you can keep this one going longer, and you may even end up seeing graphics from different levels of the game! If you keep going far enough with this glitch, you may eventually end up in a glitched-up version of the boss room where you'd fight that huge Bat, but the boss will not be there, and once you enter the room, there is no way back out of it.

    I have heard this works on other staircases in the game, such as the first one on the Pirate Ship and the last one before you get to Alucard's Boss room, but the two above are the only ones I've actually performed, myself. Have fun exploring these "hidden worlds" of Castlevania 3!

    Note: I cannot remember where I first heard about this glitch.


    Countermeasure (Atari 5200)

    Game Freeze
    My copy of Countermeasure would always start glitching up after playing it for so long (graphics would scramble and it would eventually freeze). One day, I played a friend's copy, and sure enough, it did the same thing after awhile. I have no idea if this was a problem with the game itself or if it just didn't work too well on the 5200 consoles that only have two ports (I have heard that some games only work with the style that had four ports.) I have not played enough of the game on my four-port 5200 to test it.


    Crystalis (NES)

    Fly Over the Water Without the Fly Spell
    This one's a little difficult to explain, so I've included screenshots. Even though I used a ROM to get them, this absolutely CAN be done on the actual cartridge. Teleport or walk to Portoga if you're not already there, then leave through the west exit. Take to the boat to the shoreline, then use the shell flute to call the dolphin. Equip the rabbit boots, get on the dolphin and move him so that he's facing up at the shoreline (screenshot). Now ram into the shore and jump as you hit it. Make sure you jump before the dolphin says, "Take care!" (screenshot). If you timed it just right, after you make the dolphin's dialogue box disappear, you'll land on the water and keep floating over it (screenshot). The game now acts as though you are using the Fly spell, even if you don't have it. Your magic will start counting down (normally, jumping with the rabbit boots does not use magic.) You can float over the water as much as you want because even when your magic reaches zero, you'll still continue to float. You can even go up the waterfalls. This might take multiple tries as the timing and position of your jump are critical. (Note: I have no idea where I first heard about this glitch as it's documented on numerous cheat sites, but the descriptions of what to do aren't very articulate on a lot of them.)

    Warp Code Warning
    You might already know about the code that warps you to different locations. Hold A and B on controller 1 and then push A on controller 2 to warp. Each time you do this, the game will cycle you through a distinct set of locations. This is most likely something that was intentionally put in so the programmers could easily check areas of the game, but there is one major precaution that Nintendo Power magazine didn't mention: If you use this code while in the final tower to warp out to someplace else and then save, you will not be able to get back into the flying tower to complete the game. (Source: Nintendo Power)


    Dark Savior (Sega Saturn)

    Warden's Claw Switches Arms
    Repost of two entries I sent to the Video Game Bloopers Archive. They're more like oversights than glitches: The Warden (Kurt) has this huge metal "claw" thing that covers his entire right arm. But sometimes, it alternates between being on his right arm and left arm. It depends on which way he's facing. This is because Climax just flipped the sprite for facing opposite directions. But it really looks weird when it changes position several times in a single scene. (Example: Pay close attention to it during the scenes where the Warden is in the lab talking to the Doc.)

    Phantom Doors
    I don't really want to nitpick every single graphic glitch in 3D games, but this one just really bugs me. When Bruno's men escort Garian into J.J.'s Theater, they have to go through its saloon-style double doors. The problem is that Climax was too lazy to animate the doors opening and closing, so the characters go right through them as though either the doors don't really exist or they're ghosts.

    Boss Battle Trick
    If you keep using the sword on a boss over and over again by mashing the button and pressing into him/her, you can sometimes end up "inside" of the boss where you can keep attacking it, but it can't attack you. This is especially easy to do on M-Bilan, because he's so big.


    Disney's Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (NES)

    P Bottle Mystery
    Not sure if this a glitch or what, but it's certainly a mystery: What is the bottle with the letter "P" on it for? I have never found a use for it or mention of any use for it anywhere.

    Mystery Solved by JamesEightBitStar: According to James, this item is a Pep Drink and it allows you to pick up large objects without losing speed and jumping power. Normally, picking up a large object, like an apple, would decrease your jumping height, but if you have a pep drink, there's no change. Thanks for finally solving that mystery as I never was able to figure out what that thing was for.


    Donkey Kong (Arcade)

    Barrel Point Oddities
    Pretty simple glitch that probably everyone who's ever played this game knows about: Sometimes, when you jump over the barrels, you won't be awarded any points for it, when you should always get 100. May not necessarily be a glitch, but when Donkey Kong throws that diagonal blue barrel at the beginning of the second round and beyond, it's possible to run ahead of it so that it lands behind you. Just as it lands, jump and you may get 100 points for it, even though you didn't jump over it, only away from it.


    Donkey Kong 64 (Nintendo 64)

    Take Any Kong to the Banana Fairy
    There's an easy way to take any Kong to visit the Banana Fairy (not just Tiny). For a detailed explanation, visit my DK64 Oddities page. (Source: David Wonn's Glitches)

    Hidden Room #1: K. Rool's Cockpit
    Using the same trick as above, you can go below DK Isles and even get into a hidden room (actually, the cockpit of K. Rool's escape ship used for one of the cutscenes.) For a detailed explanation, visit my DK64 Oddities pages. (Source: David Wonn's Glitches)

    Giant Boulder Oddities
    The boulders that Chunky can pick up have some weird properties. I've already explained this on my DK64 Oddities Page, so go there for more info.

    Fall Through a Cabin Floor in Crystal Caves
    One time when Crawl was playing this game, he fell through a floor in one of the rooms of Crystal Caves. It's the log cabin with the bongo pad in front that only Donkey Kong can enter. Inside are switches that cause the house to rotate when you press them. After falling through the floor, Donkey Kong was wandering around in the black space below the house and when you looked up, you could still see the room above you. I witnessed this glitch myself, but I have been unable to reproduce it on my copy of the game. Note: This glitch is also documented at David Wonn's Unique Glitches, but it happened to Crawl completely by accident.

    Hidden Room #2: Snide's Bonus
    There's a weird secret room you can enter once you get all the blueprints in the game and talk to Snide to play a bonus game. See my DK64 Oddities Page for more details. (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches)

    Percentage Total Glitch
    I experienced a weird glitch in the game's percentage system. When I got the Golden Rareware Banana from the Banana Fairy, the game recorded my percentage as 101%. The problem is that I was still missing a Golden Banana from the Crystal Caves level at the time. My total should have only been 100%. After I got the missing banana, it stayed at 101%.

    Roll Ending Credits During Opening Cinema Scene
    There's a way to screw up the ending credits sequence under DK Theatre in the Mystery Menu so that the credits roll during the opening cutscene instead of the ending. For a detailed explanation, see my DK64 Oddities Page. (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches)

    Ending Credits Out-of-Order
    Here's another way to mess up the ending credits sequence under DK Theatre in the Mystery Menu. Start the End Squence, wait until some credits are shown at the left side of the screen. Cancel and go back to the Mystery Menu. Start the End Sequence again, and this time the credits will roll, but will be slightly out-of-order. When it gets to the very end, for some inexplicable reason, the number "33" appears under the last set of credits (screenshot). (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches)


    Donkey Kong Classics (NES)

    Random Lock-Ups
    My copy of Donkey Kong Classics freezes up on the title screen a lot and sometimes the graphics glitch during gameplay (more often on Donkey Kong than Donkey Kong Junior). I'm not sure if I just need to take mine apart and clean it or if it's defective.


    EarthBound (Super NES)

    Inconsistent Arrangement of Cabin Logs
    These three entries aren't really glitches so much as funny oversights. I originally sent these to the Game Bloopers Archive at Deathamster's Nest. For the first one, if you look at the outside of the Drugstore located in the Dusty Dunes Desert, the logs of its walls are vertical. But when you're inside the Drugstore, the logs are horizontal.

    Inconsistent Weather
    When you first reach Threed, the town is all dark because of the Trillionage Sprout blocking out the sun's rays. However, when you go in the houses, it appears to be sunny outside the windows.

    Backwards Runaway Tour Bus
    When the Runaway Five's bus moves from right-to-left, the word "RUNAWAY" is written backwards on it. That's because this is another case of the game's developers just flipping the sprite, like the Warden in Dark Savior.


    Equinox (Super NES)

    Go to Level 4 Early
    NOTE: This is a repost of three glitches I discovered for this game that I sent to David Wonn's site a few years ago. The first one will allow you to reach Level 4 earlier than you normally should. Equinox is a game that's divided into many different dungeons, but normally you can only move on to a new dungeon once you've completed the current one. The "spirit" of the current dungeon boss will block the bridge to the next dungeon, and you must find and defeat him to move on. However, there is a way to bypass the Dungeon 3 boss spirit and go to Dungeon 4 (Atlena) early! You'll have to beat Dungeons 1 and 2 first to open up the way to Dungeon 3. Once you have access to the area surrounding Dungeon 3 (it's a desert area with cacti and giant purple eggs), walk along the southeast coastline until you can see part of the docks that connect to Dungeon 4. You'll notice that one part of the docks extends out to a small desert island. It is possible to leap over the water and reach this island, although you may have to rotate the camera a bit using L and R. This, for some reason, shortens the distance between the mainland and the island. Once you've reached the island, you can easily walk or jump along the docks to reach Dungeon 4, Atlena. This may be useful, if you wanted to collect the weapon and spell from Atlena early, but eventually, you'll need to go back and beat Dungeon 3 in order to proceed with the game, because you need all 5 harp strings, which can only be gotten by beating all five of the dungeon bosses. See Equinox Weirdness for screenshots.

    Cheat With the Save Spell
    In the Afralona Dungeon, you'll get a Save Spell that will let you save your game anytime, anywhere inside a dungeon (except the boss room.) Equinox's rooms are set up so that if you collect a Token in a room, then die before leaving the room, the room will "reset" and you'll have to collect the Token all over again. There are some rooms, especially on the Ghost Ship, that can be tough to get out of once you get the Token, because the Tokens are hidden behind spikes or other obstacles that are difficult to jump over or get around. So, as long as you have the Save Spell and enough Magic Power to use it, collect the Token, then use the Save Spell. Choose to "End Game", then reload the file. Tah-dah!! You're now at the entrance of the room, away from danger, and you still get to keep the Token!

    Get Stuck in the Middle of the Ocean
    After you beat the first five dungeons in Equinox, you'll be able to warp to the Afralona Dungeon. However, I strongly suggest making sure that you got all the weapons and spells that you need from the first five dungeons before warping. Why, might you ask? There's a chance that you could never come back. When you're ready to go, go to the island near Galadonia and take the warp to Afralona. Now, save your game by entering and exiting one of Afralona's dungeon entrances (just to be on the safe side.) Now, go back to the warp you arrived on, and use it again. If you're lucky, all should go well, and you'll end up back in Galadonia. However, most of the time, the game makes you reappear out in the middle of the ocean!! There's no way to get back to shore if this happens. Sometimes, a troll or bat may get stuck out there, too, and if you engage in battle with it, the battle will go as normal, but once you leave the battle, you'll still be stuck in the ocean. This happens so often, that I can't believe the gameplay testers would've missed such a huge glitch! NOTE: Even without this glitch, you won't be able to go back to any previous dungeons once you board the Ghost Ship, anyway, so be careful!

    Warping Key
    One time I entered a room in the Deeso Dungeon that had a key on a pedestal in the middle. The graphic for the key began rapidly circling around the room, however the actual object never left the pedestal because I was able to collect it just by jumping to the spot where it was. (This stopped the key graphic from warping around, too.)

    Random Graphic Glitches
    Equinox has a number of glitches that sometimes cause blocks to not overlap correctly, or cause Glendaal to not overlap the blocks correctly. There's a particular room in the Atlena Dungeon where part of a block is always peeling away. These graphic glitches were actually mentioned in the manual where it states that they won't affect gameplay.

    Missing Room
    The Ghost Ship is missing Room #02. The rumor is that the room was programmed in, but had to be sealed off because of a problem with it. (I do know that Equinox was delayed from its initial release date because of a number of glitches that popped up and had to be fixed. This is why Nintendo Power magazine reviewed it months before it actually came out.) As a result, this is the only room of the game I have not seen.

    Naming Inconsistency
    This is more of a plot inconsistency than a glitch. The game's opening story says that Shadax defeated Melkior, but the villain's name in Solstice was Morbius, not Melkior.


    Final Fantasy (NES)

    Invisible Woman
    Everyone knows about that invisible person in the first town that tells you to save the princess. But did you know that the reason the person is invisible is because of a bug in the way she (yes, it's a woman) was programmed? Eyes on Final Fantasy has a complete explanation of this little wonder.


    Final Fantasy 6 (Super NES)

    Phoenix Cave & Relm Glitch
    One time on a replay, I had a problem with the Phoenix Cave glitching every time I got into a battle. The music would run as normal, but scrambled graphics would flash all around the screen and the battle became unplayable. I discovered that by leaving Relm behind on the airship instead of putting her into one of my parties, the glitch was avoided. I'm guessing this glitch might be related to the same problem that causes her Sketch glitches, although just having her in my party was enough to activate this one.

    Vanish + Life Spell
    Here's one I discovered and never saw any mention of it anywhere else, but it's not really that useful. Cast Vanish on one of your party members. Then cast a Life spell on him/her. Normally, the Life spell will have no effect on a character that is alive, but if he/she is invisible, they'll actually gain a few hit points back from it (probably what he/she would have gotten if you revived him/her from the dead), and then turn visible again. It also works with a Fenix Down.


    Harvest Moon 64 (Nintendo 64)

    Refrigerator Lock-Up
    This game once locked up on me while I was going through the items in my refrigerator. I don't know what exactly caused the lock-up, but I'm careful not to scroll through it too quickly now.

    Spelling Errors
    This game has numerous typographical errors, which is not really all that unusual, but this one is just ridiculous: Natsume misspelled their own name on the title screen as "Natume"! If that wasn't enough, it's also misspelled in the end credits as "Natusme"!! Also, when betting on the horse races, it says, "Horse Race Odos" instead of "Odds".

    Weird Baby Glitch
    After my baby turned into a toddler wearing a mouse hat, I had the weirdest and funniest glitch occur. I took him around town to show to everyone and entered the bakery. I got a cutscene of Popurri eating cakes at the bakery with Elli and Jeff. When the cutscene was done, I sat my baby down on the floor and he turned into Jeff!! I picked him back up and he turned back to normal. I sat him down again, and he turned back into the infant stage version. When I picked him up, he again returned to normal, but left an "invisible Jeff" on the floor where I put him. You can't walk through the space where the invisible Jeff is and if you try talking to it, you get a message from Jeff saying "Welcome". If you put the baby down in a different spot, the previous invisible Jeff is erased but a new one is created where you put him.


    Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller (Panasonic 3DO)

    Phantom Sophia
    Note: Some of these are reposts of entries I sent to the Video Game Bloopers Archive. Go to the Interface Bar and talk to Sophia Bene. When you recruit her into your party, she disappears from the place where she was sitting. However, when you talk to Mindrunner, you can still see Sophia sitting behind him even though you've already recruited her.

    Hitman Glitch
    This game has a particularly nasty bug that could leave you unable to complete it. When you talk to Splits Magnola in Fitzgerald's Bar, he'll give you a clue for defeating the hitman. The problem is that a glitch in the game causes the hitman to kill Splits Magnola immediately after you're done talking with him. If you save your game after this happens, you won't be able to complete it because you need to recruit Splits Magnola to get through another part. The effect is that you'll have to initiate the sequence for killing the hitman before you talk to Splits and learn what to do. As if this part of the game wasn't botched enough, when you're done, talk to the man who is watching TV. He will say, "That guy just killed Splits Magnola!", even though Splits is alive and well and in your party.

    Phantom Rachel or Gideon
    If you play as Gideon, you'll eventually reach a part of the game where you won't have Rachel with you. But if you use the lockpick to unlock a door, you still hear Rachel's voice say, "That worked!", even though she's not there. The effect of this glitch (or oversight) is reversed if you chose to play as Rachel instead. You'll hear Gideon say, "That worked!", even though he's no longer with you.

    Phantom Deepthroat
    After you've rescued Deepthroat from the Pentagon jail, go back to Dante's apartment and use the Psychopomp on your character. Enter the password GARAGE. You'll end up back in the virtual reality garage and see Deepthroat standing there in his trenchcoat. You can't talk to him, but he shouldn't even be there at all because you already rescued him from the Pentagon!


    Ikari Warriors (NES)

    Get Trapped on Level 3
    A glitch on Level 3 sometimes causes you to reappear behind a wall after being killed. If this happens, there's no way to complete the level because you'll always respawn behind that wall. You'll have to reset. (As if this game wasn't bad enough.)


    Illusion of Gaia (Super NES)

    Misnamed Building
    When you enter the gambling house in Watermia, the message window that pops up says "Desert" instead of "Gambling House" (or whatever the official name of that building is supposed to be.)


    Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (Nintendo 64)

    Random Lock-Ups
    Hoo boy. This is the glitchiest game I have ever seen in my entire life. First of all, the game locked up on me four times in Level 3 (the snowy river area). Once was when I entered the place where you put the four candles. Once when I was going downriver and crashed into a wall. Once when I entered that building with the giant barrel pistons. And I can't remember exactly where the fourth lock-up occurred. I believe these lock-ups may occur because of the game not loading the music correctly. They always seem to happen right as some music starts playing and gets stuck on a note.

    The game also locked up once on Level 5 when I went into my inventory screen. The game suddenly backed out of the inventory menu, Indy disappeared, and the game froze.

    The game froze again when I first entered the room in the mines where you have to place the three gems. It also appeared to be a case of the music getting stuck on a note and crashing the program.

    Misplaced Water Wheel
    At the bottom of Level 3, there is an elevator in a cave that takes you back to the top of the level. You activate the elevator by pulling a switch. The switch causes a large cog to slide into place with a smaller gear. The cog turns the gear, which allows you to use the elevator. Now one time I came down to this cave after having been here earlier, and for some reason the large cog had not repositioned itself correctly from the last time I moved it. This caused the animation to skip when I pulled the lever and the large cog started spinning on the wrong axis! It was the most hilarious sight, but at least the elevator still worked. Update: I now have a series of screenshots that illustrate this glitch. The first two screenshots show how the wheel looks when you first find it. It is positioned correctly in these pictures. (Figure 1, Figure 2) The next series of screenshots show what the wheel looks like when you leave the area and come back. The wheel isn't repositioned correctly and spins on the wrong axis. (Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8)

    Random Graphic Glitches
    This game has numerous problems with polygons smearing, tearing, disappearing, and flickering. Too numerous to mention them all, but here are a few of the more spectacular ones: In the Monastery (Level 4), leave the big central outdoor area the way you came in and sometimes the bridge leading out disappears. It's still there, even though the polygon is gone, so it's safe to walk on. Also, in the monastery, sometimes the polygons smear on the ceiling of the attic in the area with the bedrooms, and also on the door that leads into the treasury (you have to look at it from the other side of the room.) The graphics glitch in a really weird way when you run down the right side of the ship in Level 5, too. I have also had the framerate drop dramatically on this level, especially after entering the sunken temple.

    Sinking Into the Floor
    Sometimes, Indy's feet sink into the floor or ground and you have to jump a few times to get him back up.

    Float Up an Object
    One time I was underwater in Level 6 and I swam up out of the water too close to one of those stalagmites. Indy floated up the side of it as though he was impaled on it, hovered a bit in mid-air, and eventually fell back into the water. He didn't take any damage from this. It just looked funny. Update: This glitch can happen in a lot of places. Sometimes it can happen if you jump into an object while on land. Be careful, because there is a possibility of Indy becoming stuck inside the object.

    Get Stuck in a Floor
    In the Monastery of Level 4, there is a large vertical room with a woman statue at the very top and a clock face at the very bottom. In this room is a switch you can pull to form a bridge between two platforms. After forming the bridge, be careful when standing at the edge of the platforms near it. The game may give you the option to "hang" on the side of the ledge by pressing the B button. If you do this, Indy will go right through the bridge and become stuck. Resetting or quitting is the only way out.

    Get Stuck in a Wall
    In Level 6, there is a large gate that you have to open. It leads to the double doors that are opened by the shark key. If you walk into the part of the wall where the gate used to be on the right side (not sure if it works on the left side, I didn't try it after this happened), you'll become stuck in the wall with no way out.

    Gun Glitch
    In Level 7, I picked up an assault rifle, but it suddenly became useless for no apparent reason. Even though it was clearly visible on Indy's back, I couldn't put it back into my hand. It then disappered from my inventory after a cutscene occurred. I've since picked up another assault rifle and it hasn't happened again (yet). Update: This is actually the game's standard procedure for when a weapon runs out of ammo, but it shouldn't have happened in this case because I still had about 20 rounds.

    Glitchy Fish
    While swimming around inside the ship of Level 5, I got attacked by a fish that kept suddenly appearing out of nowhere and disappearing. I had a really hard time killing this guy because I couldn't hit it when it wouldn't stay visible. Update: This happened again on a replay of the same level and in the same area. It must be a consistent glitch with one of the pirahnas in the ship.

    Hatless Indy
    When Indy goes swimming, he always removes his hat and puts it back on when he climbs out. However, in Level 5, it's very easy to swim towards the shore and have Indy pop up on land without going through the climbing animation. When this happens, Indy will be running around without his hat and none of the buttons are usable. You can correct this glitch by going back into the water then climbing out the normal way.

    Missing Spear
    After going through the Palawan Temple, you'll end up in an outdoor jungle area. There are caves in this area with faces on the floor that have open mouths. When you run across them, a spear shoots up out of the mouth. One of those faces has a mouth that's suffering the "polygon smearing" glitch that occurs elsewhere in this game. Because of this, the spear can't pop through its mouth, even though you'll hear the sound effect for it when you run over it.

    Pole Oddities on the Russian Freighter
    When you're captured and taken onboard the Russian boat, you'll find a room with a lot of crates in the middle and doors around the edges. At the top of this room is a pole you can latch onto with your whip, but why is it there? Not only is it not necessary, but you'll become stuck in a box after swinging halfway across. I didn't get stuck for good (eventually Indy fell out of it), but it's weird because the Indiana Jones Theme even plays as you do this. Update: On a replay of this level, I discovered the reason the bar is there - it's how you're supposed to get yourself up to the top of the room, but the first time I got this far, I actually found another way up there, which was probably another glitch in itself. Heh.

    Get Stuck Between Two Objects
    On the boat level, I got stuck between a wall and a crate and had to reset, just like with the Shark Gate on Level 6. In general, beware of wedging Indy between any two objects that are only about as far apart as he is wide.

    Giant Hole in the Sky
    In the level with the pyramids, there is one point where you exit a pyramid by blowing a hole in the wall. Somehow, this also causes a large black rectangle to get cut out of the sky behind the mountains. This glitch remains that way up until you finish the level. (Figure 1, Figure 2) It should also be noted that the glitch is even visible on the picture used for the map select image. (Circled in White)

    Mine Cart Oddities
    If you go too fast in the mine cart, the game won't be able to keep up with you in rendering the background graphics. The effect is that you'll be riding through rooms that aren't drawn in completely and it looks weird. Likewise, if you climb into the mine cart when it's sitting at the entrance of the room with the control cabin, the animation of Indy climbing into the cart skips wildly.

    Get Stuck in King Nub's Tomb
    Somewhere in the King Nub's Tomb level is a room with a grate on the floor, shelves on the left and right walls, and snakes underneath the grate. At the end of this room there was a push-pull block sealing off the passageway. I couldn't move the block at all, and thus couldn't get out of this room no matter what I did. I saved and restarted and somehow the push-pull block had been moved all the way out of the hallway up into the main room with the shelves. Now I could move on. Update: This glitch seems to have occurred as a result of me finding another way into the room beyond where the push-pull block is. Normally, you are not supposed to get to that room until you come in through the room with the shelves and grated floor. But it is possible to leap to the ledge that eventually leads into that room from the starting area of King Nub's Tomb.

    Glitchy Column
    The polygon-smearing glitch happens so often and in so many places in this game, that I'm probably not going to report any more cases of it except for this one because it's particularly obvious and spectacular. One room of King Nub's Tomb has an entire column that smears and jumps around as you pan the camera around it.

    Stuck Sound Effect & Dropped Framerate
    After I got the last part of the Infernal Machine in King Nub's Tomb, I used Azerim's Part to levitate up to a blue crystal. The problem is that after I put the part away, the sound effect for it remained and would not go away! I don't know if it was directly related to that problem or not, but the framerate dropped really badly in the boss room. Once I beat the boss, I had to save and restart to correct the framerate and get rid of that annoying sound effect.

    Gun in the Water Glitch
    In The Infernal Machine Level, I fell into the water with the Combat Rifle somehow still assigned to my "B" button. The effect was that pressing "B" did not make Indy swim or dive, but rather fired the gun even though it wasn't in his hands! Also, as I swam below an enemy that was hovering far above near the ceiling, the targeting system latched onto it. When the targeting system let go, my camera view was severely messed up. I couldn't see Indy or where he was going, but when he hit the wall and started to climb out of the water, it fixed everything.

    Wall-Walking in the Water
    I don't remember exactly what level it was (I think it was the Teotihuacan Pyramid that has all the doors you have to open by moving those large stone gears around), but I fell into the water and somehow Indy was swimming sideways! The effect is that it looked like he was walking along the walls.

    Die With No Death Animation
    In the Meroe Pyramid level, jump down into the pit where you find the watch. When you hit the bottom, Indy will float in midair just above the ground and you won't appear to lose any energy. However, in a few moments, you get the "Game Over" screen anyway. This can happen in other areas of the game where you can fall a very long distance to your death.

    Infernal Machine Parts Oddities
    In The Infernal Machine Level, I placed Urgon's Part into the wrong slot (it's the one near the entrance with the two wheels you can turn). This caused the game to freeze. Also, it should be noted that whenever you place a part into a slot in this level, Indy appears to place one part in the slot while simultaneously keeping another one in his hand. (You won't have it in your inventory once the cutscene ends, though.)

    Repeating Room Glitch
    I don't even know how to explain this one, and nor do I even know how it was physically possible, but it happened. In the Infernal Machine level, there is a hallway that leads to a room of mashing pistons at one end. I ran past the room of pistons, down the hallway...and instead of reaching the exit, I was at the room of pistons again! I ran down the hallway once more, only to arrive at the pistons room again! I tried over and over again with the same results. WTF?!?! I was caught in an everlasting loop that wouldn't end! I had to purposefully kill myself with the pistons and continue to fix the glitch and escape the hallway.

    Missing Mist Columns
    This is possibly the worst glitch I encountered in this whole game: On the final level, there is a large open circular room (which eventually becomes the final boss room) that has three columns of green "Aetherium" mist going up to the ceiling. You need to swim up these columns to reach the parts of the stage at the top of this room. However, for some unknown reason, the mist disappeared from the columns sometime after my first encounter with Marduk. I was stuck on the middle level with no way to go up and no way to get back down. Nothing I did would make the mist reappear. I had to restart the level to fix it.

    Olmec Lock-Up
    On a replay of Olmec Valley, after I completed the puzzle that causes a gush of water to push an Olmec block out the side of a mountain, the background wasn't rendered correctly in the cutscene (polygons were missing, transparent, or the wrong color), and this caused the game to freeze yet again.

    Sound Test Crash
    When you find all the treasures in the game, you'll unlock a Museum that contains a Sound Test. After playing the different songs for awhile, eventually they'll stop working. Hmm...could this have something to do with the problem that sometimes causes the game to freeze when loading music? Maybe Musyx crashes sometimes?

    Sparkling Water Inconsistency
    When you drain the water from the small pond to kill the lava monster in the Palawan Temple, the ground beneath the pond continues to shine and sparkle as though there is water in it, even though there no longer is.

    Missing Boulder
    The first time I got to the end of the secret level (Return to Peru) the boulder didn't follow me down to the exit gate. I had to restart from an earlier save because the boulder must crash through the exit doors in order for you to complete the level.

    Get Sucked Into the Walls in Peru
    After you make the water rise up really high in the secret level (Return to Peru), don't try swimming back out the way you came in. If you do, you'll likely get sucked right through the walls and become stuck.

    Missing Hyenas
    In the Meroe Pyramid level, you have to kill all the hyenas running around so that a little boy who's afraid of them will help you. One time when replaying this level, the game wouldn't make all the hyenas appear. Because they wouldn't appear, I couldn't kill them and advance the game. Thus, I had to purposefully kill myself to make the remaining hyenas show up. Once I respawned in the level, the missing hyenas popped out of nowhere right in front of me.

    Raft Ride Glitch
    In the secret Peru level, you have to ride Indy's raft down some rapids to a small pool of water at the very end. One time I did this and fell into the pool, but somehow the raft ended up underwater. I couldn't get it to surface, and I got sucked down into the righthand tunnel which takes you down a small waterfall into a cave. Since you are not supposed to still be on the raft when you reach this cave, there is no way to get out of the raft. The raft was leaking air when this glitch happened to me, so I let it run out. When it finally ran out, Indy drowned, even though technically the water he drowned in was safe for swimming!

    Missing Generator
    This one is VERY similar to the "Floating Tree" glitch of Aidyn Chronicles. In some areas of the game, there are these sets of four light switches connected to a generator that the Russians have set up to illuminate some dark rooms (Figure 1, Figure 2). However, there is one set of lights in the Palawan Temple that are not connected to anything! Because someone forgot to render the generator they should be connected to, they are floating in midair. (Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3)


    Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (Sony Playstation2)

    Skip the Final Stage
    This is a known glitch that Crawl and I were unaware of when he was playing the game and he accidentally stumbled onto it: When you first enter the final stage (Gol and Maia's Citadel), there will be a cinema scene. Save and quit after the cinema scene concludes. Restart the game from your save file. Instead of starting from the beginning of the stage, you'll be at the end. You'll be able to fight the final boss without doing any of the stage. Furthermore, if you go back and get any of the other power cells, the game will lock up after Daxter does his victory dance. You WILL get the power cell, but you'll have to reset after every one. (Source: Crawl and 1000)


    Kartia (Sony Playstation)

    Graphic Glitch
    Sometimes, the sprites don't quite overlap the floor tiles correctly, so that a part of the floor obscures a character's head or other body part. Take a look at the bottom-leftmost dragon in this screenshot (the one right below Toxa) for an example. (This reminds me of a similar graphic glitch that occurs in the Super NES game, Equinox.)

    Anachronistic Dialogue
    Due to a blunder, Duran says that he's glad they were able to rescue Misty in the cutscene that occurs BEFORE the battle where you actually rescue her! Don't you just love bloopers that give away the plot?


    Kid Icarus (NES)

    Warp Through a Wall
    A glitch at the beginning of Level 2-2 will allow you to jump into a lionhead statue at the left side of the screen, slide through it, and then reappear on the right side of the screen. This glitch bears an uncanny resemblance to the Minus World glitch of Super Mario Bros. (Source: Kid Icarus Coliseum)

    Get Stuck in the Fortresses
    In the fortresses, if you go through a door in the ducked-down position, sometimes Pit will go "flying" into the next room and become stuck in the corner, or underneath something. I've had this happen to me in the rooms with the low ceilings, two platforms, and four Kobils walking around. Pit became trapped under the far right platform and couldn't get out.

    Abnormally Looping Final Stage
    If you enter the password 8uuuuu uuuuuu uuuuuu uuuuuu you'll start on the final level with invincibility, but there is something strange about this code. First of all, Pit is not visible in the stage intro, although the three treasures are there. Second, the status screen indicates that you have the maximum number of strength arrows, but your bow is actually very weak. Finally, and perhaps strangest of all, the stage loops about 3-4 times before moving on to the boss, Medusa. (Source: Nintendo Power is where I got the code, but they neglected to mention anything other than the invincibility.)


    Killer Instinct Gold (Nintendo 64)

    Missing Music
    I had problems with Killer Instinct Gold losing all of its background music after playing it for so long. I don't really know why this happened because I didn't stay interested in this game for very long, but it happened almost every time I did play it. Sometimes it took longer than others for it to occur.


    King Arthur and the Knights of Justice (Super NES)

    Walk Through the Wall of Flames
    Oh boy, here's another game with a lot of glitches. Don't know how it made it through playtesting. At the very beginning of the game, there's a wall of fire that blocks the path to the first boss. The only way to dispel it is to find three ingredients in the forest and take them to Merlin, who then makes a potion that dispels the fire. Well, the very first time I played this game, before I found any of the ingredients, I walked right through the wall of fire unharmed and was able to get all the way to the first boss. I have since not been able to duplicate this glitch.

    Get Stuck in a Wall
    I have often gotten stuck in walls during boss fights. I don't remember what specific bosses it happened to me on, but it seemed like it could happen on almost any of them.

    Missing Staff Piece
    At one point in the game, you have to collect a bunch of staff pieces to break a hole in Hadrian's Wall. If you fail to collect all the pieces before you beat this area's boss (Warlord Viper), sometimes the piece that's supposed to be lying under a tree in the forest won't show up again. If you take a password at this point, and continue with that password, that piece will never show up. The only way to fix this mess is to start from an earlier password and hope it shows up the next time, because you can't finish the game without that missing piece.

    Go to an Area Too Early
    King Arthur & the Knights of Justice's game world is divided into many sections that are blocked off by gates. When you enter a new area, these gates prevent you from moving on to the next area before you've completed the current tasks required of you. When you're sent on the mission to the Swamp of Zagar to find the cure for Squire Everett's illness, there are two sets of gates that block off two completely different sections of the game world. One is the area with Crownhorn Village and the Giant Boulder that makes Morgana's army invincible. The other is the Gnome Woods where you have to collect four elemental keys to unlock Castle Vilor. The problem is that only ONE set of these gates is active. Which one depends on what password the game is giving you when you reach this point, which is determined by what items you've collected to this point. This glitch seems to be caused by an oversight in the programming - it looks to me like all the gates in the entire game are always toggled off, with the exception of the one set of gates in the immediate area that need to block progress to the next. But it looks like someone forgot that the Swamp of Zagar actually needs to have TWO sets of gates toggled on.

    If you can get to the boulder area before you're supposed to, you will not see the boulder, but instead see the graphic for what the boulder looks like when it's destroyed. Morgana's army will not be invincible yet and you can get all the way to the end of the Cape of Death. However, the boss will not be there and the Key of Truth will be on the floor. Even if you brought Darren, you cannot collect the key. Come back later after you've been given this quest, to find the boulder fully-formed. Complete the quest to destroy the boulder, and it looks like what it did before. Now you should find the boss at the end of the Cape of Death and be able to get the key.

    If you can get to the Gnome Woods instead, you will find that the Fire Key and the Gnome who has the Earth Key will not appear. However, if you go to where the cellar door to Castle Vilor is located, you will see that all four keys are already in place! And you can enter it and get all the way to the boss room. Just like with the Cape of Death, the boss is not there, and Brick's Key of Truth is on the floor. But even if you brought Brick with you, you will not be able to collect it. You'll have to continue through the Swamp of Zagar and do the game's events in the correct preordained sequence.

    Game-Crashing Invincible Warlords
    When you're given the quest to destroy the Giant Boulder, you will find that the boulder's power makes the warlords in the area invincible. An even worse problem is that the game will often crash if you try fighting or approaching them while they're invincible. The results can be any of the following: The game will reset or the screen will go blank and freeze. Sometimes, Arthur will get stuck in place and although you can turn him and swing your sword, you can't move him from that spot. Sometimes the enemies will be unable to find you. One time I pushed a warlord up onto a ledge where I could not reach him and he could not get back down. This caused all the other warlords on the screen to become "confused" and start wandering about aimlessly. They would not attack me because they seemingly couldn't find me. Since they could not kill me, I was essentially stuck on that screen with no way out other than to reset.

    Game-Crashing Gates
    When given the quest to destroy the boulder, use the map to warp to the swamp and leave through the west exit. You'll be in a rocky mountain area. In this area are a couple of gates that previously blocked progress farther north. One or both of those gates might have a glitched-up graphic on it. If it does and you go north through them, the game will crash.

    Missing Teleporter
    Some of the castle basements have a teleporter system to warp you around to the various rooms. The teleports are marked by a star inside of a flaming star-shaped hole. Sometimes the star disappears, leaving only the hole (although the teleports will still work.)


    King's Field (Sony Playstation)

    Title Screen Crash
    Every so often when you turn on the game, the title screen will crash. It'll either show a scrambled screen with the music playing as normal, or a scrambled screen with music stuck on a note. Resetting usually fixes it, but there may be a reason this glitch only occurs in the title screen and never anywhere else in the game. By using a Goldfinger accessory, I discovered that the title sequence, actual game, and ending sequence are all three completely separate programs! (So far, this is the only Playstation game I know of that's like this.) There must be a bug in the title program that causes the glitch.


    Kingsley's Adventure (Sony Playstation)

    Disappearing Key
    Major bug warning! When you get to the abbey in Level 3, you'll be given a key to the rootbeer machine that opens the way to the catacombs area beneath the abbey. Whatever you do, don't leave the abbey until you've used the key. If you leave before you've used it, there's a possibility it could disappear from your inventory, never to return. If that happens, you can't get another one and you won't be able to open the door to the catacombs. You'll have to restart your game from the beginning or a previous save.


    Koudelka (Sony Playstation)

    Save Anywhere
    Normally, you can only save the game after defeating a boss and using the save point it was sitting on. But there's a glitch (or intentional programmer's trick maybe?) that allows you to save in any room that has a name. As soon as you enter the room and its name appears, press the circle button. For some reason, this brings up the save menu instead of the usual inventory menu. (Source: Setzer the Great)


    LandStalker (Sega Genesis)

    Get Stuck in the Final Dungeon
    In the final dungeon of the game there is a dwarf guarding a ladder that leads to a tree. When you talk to him again after meeting his father, he'll move out of the way of the ladder. However, if you're standing too far to the right when he moves, he'll overlap Nigel and Nigel will become stuck "inside" of him. The only way out of this is to reset.


    Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The (Super NES)

    Hidden Chris Houlihan Room
    The only glitch I have ever performed in this game is the one that was explained in Nintendo Power magazine for accessing the secret room with Chris Houlihan's name in it. According to an explanation sent to David Wonn's Unique Glitches by dvdmth, you only enter this room if the game encounters a glitch while loading a cave or dungeon. The method explained in Nintendo Power is a way to produce the glitch almost every time, although there is an extremely slim chance you could encounter this glitch at any cave or dungeon entrance in the game.

    Skull Woods Bumper Glitch & Unused Dungeon Tile
    This is a trick I learned from David Wonn's Unique Glitches. I did not come up with it on my own. However, there is one very important discovery that can be made with this glitch that's not documented anywhere else that I know of: An unused Skull Woods Dungeon Title. See this page for a full explanation of my adventures with this glitch.


    Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, The (Nintendo Gameboy)

    Glitched-Up Opening Cinema
    Here's a weird one I discovered quickly after first playing this game. Walk south of Mabe Village until you reach a screen that has an Octorok enemy. Save and quit your game. Now watch the demo. Some of the graphics are all messed up! The lightning bolts look like a string of Octoroks. Marin is a wave of water, Link is a scrambled mess. The glimmer that bounces across the title screen looks like half of an Octorok.

    Screen Warp Glitch
    This is another well-known game glitch: Walk to the edge of any screen, then press Select just as you exit. If you timed it right, when you leave the pause screen you'll be in the same exact spot (near the edge of the screen), but one screen over. This allows you to bypass barriers before you have the necessary items. It can also cause you to become trapped in a wall or find glitchy rooms. NOTE: Use this glitch with extreme caution and at your own risk! I once heard a story from someone who warped into a weird area that "fried" his game. He claimed the graphics were messed up and the game was unplayable that way. I have also heard that if you save in certain areas, you can become stuck there with no way out. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Fishing Game Glitch
    Go talk to the fisherman and start a game of fishing. When you catch one, he'll ask if you want to keep going. While you're talking, press A, B, Start, and Select to bring up the Save Screen. Choose to return to the game and you'll be able to move Link on the fishing scene. If you have the flippers, jump into the water and swim offscreen to the left. You'll end up in a glitchy version of the Raft Shop. Move forward a few steps and you'll fall and be outside the Raft Shop. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Second Shovel Warning
    After you get the Magnifying Glass, you can trade an item for a Boomerang in a cave near the shore. If you trade the shovel, another shovel becomes available for sale in the shop back in Mabe Village. If you buy that shovel, it will occupy the slot in your inventory that is meant for the Fire Rod, and there is no way to get the shovel back out of your inventory. What this means is that when you find the Fire Rod in the Turtle Rock dungeon, it won't be added to your inventory and you'll be unable to complete the game. I had this glitch happen to me on a replay. It was later mentioned in an issue of Nintendo Power - too late for me to avoid it, but at least it didn't happen the first time I played through the game (in fact, I didn't even find the boomerang the first time.)


    Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The (Nintendo 64)

    Swordless Link Ganon Battle Version
    The Swordless Link glitch is known to just about everyone who's played this game. When fighting Ganon, wait until the part where he knocks the sword out of Link's hand. Then save and quit your game as soon as you have the chance. Restart the game and you're playing as "Swordless Link", which causes a number of weird side effects, the most notable is that you can now use items while riding Epona. Note that this will only work on Gold versions of the game and some, but not all, gray versions. Note: This glitch can be undone anytime simply by equipping the sword from your inventory menu again. (Source: The Odyssey of Hyrule)

    Free-Floating With the Hookshot
    Perform Swordless Link then use your hookshot to snare the ladder found in Hyrule Field while riding Epona. Dismount Epona and Link will rise into the air, still attached to the hookshoot. You can use the control stick to extend the hookshot and float around all over Hyrule Field and even go outside the boundaries! Note that if you touch the ground Link becomes stuck in place. Float too far out of the boundary, and Link will scream as though he fell. There is no way out of this other than to reset or quit. It is also possible to do this on the tree at Hyrule Lake and the signpost at the entrance of Gerudo Valley. (Source: The Odyssey of Hyrule)

    Float Above Epona
    I don't recall the details of this one, but one time I was fooling around with the Swordless Link glitch and I somehow got Link floating several feet above Epona as he was riding her. I think it had something to do with playing the Ocarina while riding. Try Saria's Song and see if that works.

    Purple Fog
    Do the Swordless Link glitch and then go do one of the horse races at the Lon Lon Ranch. During the race, use the Ocarina to play the Song of Storms. A really thick purple fog will cover the entire area for a little while, making it very difficult to see anything. It eventually does go away. (Source: The Odyssey of Hyrule)

    Swim Through Hyrule Castle
    On the road to Hyrule Castle, take the vine up to the area where you got Din's Fire. Face the path leading into the Din's Fire area and you'll see a hill on your left. Walk up to this hill and try to situate Link in front of it so that his legs are straddling the polygon seam. SLOWLY try walking up this polygon line, and after many, many tries, you may go up the hill. If you look down at the black void below you at night, you can see the sun floating around down there. If you head towards Hyrule Castle, and then jump off the wall towards it when you get close enough, you'll start swimming in mid-air! If you swim out far enough, Link will eventually scream as though he fell and he might actually fall anyway. Note: If you head the opposite way from Hyrule Castle, you can see the background tile for the marketplace floating in midair. Using this glitch, you can get closer to it than you normally ever could. As far as I can tell, unlike Swordless Link, this works on all versions of the N64 game (don't know about the Gamecube remakes). (Source: The Odyssey of Hyrule)

    Swordless Link Fishing Line Version
    There's another way to accomplish the Swordless Link glitch. On gold copies of the game, and some (but not all) gray copies, go to the fishing hut while wearing the hover boots. Get the fishing rod from the fisherman, and run into the water so that you float over it, then quickly do a backwards roll while casting the line at the same time. What happens if you did it right is that Link is now carrying a casted fishing line in his hand so that it drags all over the ground. What's more is that you can leave the fishing hut with it, which is something you normally cannot do. Once outside, save and quit, and when you restart the game, you'll be playing as Swordless Link again. (Source: The Odyssey of Hyrule)

    Go Over the Outside Wall of Ganon's Castle
    Get yourself on the small ledge to the right of the entrance to Ganon's Castle. Face the entrance and shoot the hookshot up towards the part of the entrance that extends just beyond the wall of the castle. If you did it right, you'll shoot up and over the wall of Ganon's Castle and land on a ledge inside of it. You may have to fiddle with the camera to reorient it. The inside of the castle is completely hollow and you can see the whole lava lake beneath it from here. This works on all versions of the N64 game. (Source: The Odyssey of Hyrule)

    Swim Through Hyrule Field
    Go to any place where land gradually slopes down into water (Lake Hylia, or the small body of water found in Hyrule Field, for example). Go into the water, turn and face the shore, then hold Z to swim forward. While still holding Z, switch to your iron boots. When Link reaches shore, he'll continue to swim right through the ground. You can remove the iron boots at this point, but don't let go of Z if you want to keep swimming through the ground. This works on all copies of the N64 game. (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches)


    Little Ninja Brothers (NES)

    This is not a glitch, but it's worth mentioning anyway. There's a part during the ending sequence where character faces from all throughout the game are flashed briefly across the screen, timed with the music. Two of the faces shown are not used in the game. They are a crying monkey and a clown-like character with long ears. The monkey reminds me of Son Goku from "Journey to the West", and indeed, many aspects of this game seem as though they were inspired by that legend.


    Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals (Super NES)

    Scrambled Screens
    This one must've been competing with Knights of Justice and Equinox to be the Super NES game with the most glitches. The first and most obvious one is that the Submarine Shrine is a big scrambled screen. For a minute, I thought I was going to have to return the game when I first got to that area because I didn't realize it was still playable (screenshot). The very last floor of the optional dungeon is also scrambled like that.

    Menu Glitches
    When fiddling around with the sound options in the menu, I once caused a "phantom" version of my item list to appear. Sometimes, the cursor also disappears when messing around in the menus.

    Scrambled Area Names
    Several areas of the game have glitched-up names. One is a series of underwater caves that eventually lead to the fish-like Capsule Monster (screenshot). Another are the different floors of the military kingdom's dungeon.

    Walk Through Walls
    Some towers in the game allow you to walk through the walls at the left or right side of the screen out into the black area. There is a place in the final dungeon where you can walk off the floor into a space you normally should not be able to and in effect be walking on thin air. I don't remember specifically where all of these glitches occur, but some of them are documented on David Wonn's Unique Glitches. However, I've never experienced a problem with getting stuck. I've always been able to return to the room by following the same path backwards. (I've also done the glitch mentioned there in which you can use a pot to transform an enemy's sprite and can confirm that it works.)


    Magic of Scheherazade, The (NES)

    Sound Test
    This is not a glitch, but I discovered it completely on my own, so that's why I'm including it here. I remembered reading in Nintendo Power magazine that if you enter "END" as your password, it would show the ending to the game. This was around the time I had first learned about the existence of sound tests in some NES games and wondered if entering "SOUND" would give you a sound test. I tried this, completely not expecting it to actually work, especially since the "D" was separated from the "SOUN" due to the way the password system lumps characters into groups of four, but to my extreme surprise, two zeroes appeared on the screen after I hit start! Later, I bought Little Ninja Brothers, and seeing that it was also a Culture Brain game with a password system, I wondered if the same trick would work, and it did! The "END" trick didn't work, but it does if you change it to "ENDING", though neither of those were ever mentioned in Nintendo Power.

    Keep Coronya in Chapter 5
    If you use the password "5W" to skip directly to the last chapter, you'll keep Coronya for the entire chapter, even though in the game's normal sequence of events, you'd eventually lose her.

    Phantom Coronya
    Even after you lose Coronya in Chapter 5, if you use a Magic Carpet or go to the Time Door again, she shows for those scenes anyway.

    Enemy Wraparound Glitch
    If you push an overworld enemy up off the top of the screen with your sword or rod, it might reapper in the menu area at the bottom of the screen. This is easiest to do with the giant Antlions that leap around in the desert areas.


    Magi Nation (Gameboy Color)

    Battle Curtain Glitch
    Um. I once found a glitch that involved the types of spells that cause a curtain to appear over the monsters. I don't remember the details of it now. I sent it to David Wonn's site, but it was right before he stopped updating, and I've lost my original email. I think what happened is that if you performed the glitch, the curtain would appear over the enemies during the next round, even though you didn't cast the spell again. I'll update this entry if I figure it out again.

    Unobtainable Monsters
    Due to a glitch in the game's programming (or more likely because the game was rushed and it wasn't finished), it's impossible to get some of the final monsters without use of a Gameshark.


    Maniac Mansion (NES)

    Freeze Nurse Edna
    I did the "freeze Edna" glitch that was featured in Nintendo Power magazine years ago once just to see it happen. Haven't messed with it since. It's just as easy to call her on the phone. What you do is put one party member outside Edna's room and one outside Ed's room. Have the first person enter Edna's room, then quickly switch to the second person and have him/her enter Ed's room. Ed will do whatever it is he's programmed to do (depending on whether you've made friends with him or not) but when you switch back to the first person, you'll see that Edna has frozen in place and can't move.

    Walk Around While Dead
    If you give the exploded hamster to Weird Ed, he'll kill your party member, but you can still move that person around as though he/she is now a ghost. This only happens with this particular death, so I'm guessing it's a glitch. (Note: I did not discover this myself, but I don't remember where I first heard about it. Yeah, even though I played the game a lot and got all the possible endings, I never once thought to put the hamster in the microwave.)

    Exploding House
    Be careful about draining the pool or shutting off the circuit breaker. If you do either at the same time that Dr. Fred turns the power off, sometimes the countdown to nuclear explosion can't be stopped. Even if the power comes back on, the countdown sound effect is still heard and eventually the house explodes.

    Hidden Keypad
    In the long second floor hallway with the two doors that lead to the lab and the arcade room, go near the very left end and search around the wall near the base of the Steel Security Door. You should eventually find an invisible Keypad. If you use it enough times in a row, the house will explode. But even if you just use it once, the countdown alarm will start and eventually the house will explode anyway. The moral of the story is...don't use it. But the question remains...why is it even there? It's a remnant of something that was only in the PC version. Many early DOS PC games had security features to discourage people from making illegal pirate copies of them. In the PC version of Maniac Mansion, the Steel Security Door had a keypad on it and you had to enter a code to get past it. The codes could only be found in a code booklet that came with the game. If you entered the wrong code too many times, the house would explode and end your game. Now, why the Keypad was not just taken out of the NES version altogether still remains a mystery. (See The Maniac Mansion Fansite for more information.)


    Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64)

    Steamboat in the Sky
    In DK's Jungle Parkway, when you're driving through the cave, drive into the part of the left wall where it meets the ground near the end of the cave. Jump into it with the R button at the last moment. If you did it right, you'll go through the wall and land in a body of water far below. If you land in this at the right moment, you'll see the steamboat that's located in this level way above you in the sky. I first learned about this trick through Nintendo Power magazine, but it appears that they got it from David Wonn's Unique Glitches. Neither source mentions the steamboat, though.


    Mega Man (NES)

    Pause Glitch
    Everyone knows this one: Fire any weapon (Elec Beam works best) and then rapidly press the pause button. The weapon shot will do multiple damage as it makes its way through the target, killing some things, like the Rock Monster or final boss, very easily. (Source: Nintendo Power)


    Mega Man 2 (NES)

    Change Stars to Birds
    Another commonly-known one: Select any boss at the stage select screen and hold down the A and B buttons. The stars in the background will change into small birds. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Pause Glitch
    Rapidly pressing the start button will sometimes cause enemy fire to go right through Mega Man. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Scroll Enemies Away
    This is a glitch common to a lot of 8 and 16-bit games, but I'm including it anyway because it's particularly obvious here: On Air Man's level, it's possible to make those fat fanny (*snicker*) enemies disappear by walking back and forth so that the screen scrolls. Sometimes they disappear just when walking straight at them, too.

    Scrambled Level
    There's a way to scroll into a glitchy area from Air Man's room. See this page for more details. (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches)


    Mega Man 3 (NES)

    Super Jump and Invicibility
    Geez, this game has a ton of them. Where to begin? First of all, if you hold right on Controller 2 and then jump, Mega Man will jump the entire height of the screen. Now, fall into a pit so that Mega Man "dies" and all his energy drains. Before the screen changes, use the code to leap back out of the pit. Mega Man will have no energy and cannot use his arm cannon, but he cannot be killed, either. The stage will have no music, but you can still complete it by using a special weapon. The invincibility will be undone if you pick up an energy refill capsule. NOTE: If you hold right on Controller 2 before falling down a pit, you will not die or lose energy and can leap back out. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Scrambled Penguins
    In Gemini Man's stage, after you pass the first section, you'll come to a screen where Proto Man beams down, destroys a plug in the middle of the floor, then leaves. Right before you enter this screen, super jump into it and if you timed it right, you'll go right through the plug! When Proto Man's whistle is done playing, there will be no stage music, and the graphics for the large Penguin robots with the cranks on their heads will be all scrambled. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Get Rush Jet Early
    After you have the Shadow Blade, but before you have the Rush Jet, go to any weapon power-up in any stage. Highlight the Shadow Blade in your inventory and press Right. Even though you did not yet earn the Rush Jet, due to a glitch in the inventory system, it will be highlighted. Now pick up the weapon power-up and you can use the Rush Jet. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Get Rush Marine Early
    You know, after I read about this in Nintendo Power and tested it, I got to thinking...might this not work for the Rush Marine as well? So, I tried it and, yes, in fact, it does! Get the Spark Shock from Spark Man, then walk up to any weapon power-up. Highlight the Spark Shock and press right. Rush Marine will be highlighted. Pick up the power-up and now you can use Rush Marine.

    Freeze the Action
    You can often freeze the on-screen action by holding Up and A on Controller 2. This makes it easy to defeat some bosses. (Source: Nintendo Power)


    Metal Gear (NES)

    Stop the Pits From Expanding
    When those pits open up in the floor, if you go to your Transceiver screen, the pit will stop opening up. When you return to the normal game screen, the pit will appear to be gone, but actually still be there. It'll only be as big as it was when you changed to your Transceiver screen, so now if you can remember where it was, you can safely go around it. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Skip the Supercomputer
    I learned how to do this trick from some game strategy book that I own, but I don't remember what it was called (it was not an official Nintendo book), and I'll have to give credit later when I find it. Anyway, when you reach the room with the Supercomputer, immediately hold down and right (or down and left, I can't remember which or maybe both will work) as soon as you enter the room. If you did it right, you'll end up in the room with the final boss and skip the part with the Supercomputer altogether! This makes beating the game easier because the timer that's normally activated after destroying the Supercomputer isn't there. So, in effect, you have unlimited time to beat the final boss and escape.


    Metroid (NES)

    Hidden Worlds
    Shoot a door, get inside of it, and let it close on Samus. Then rapidly start pressing up and down. Sometimes, you can go up through the wall and eventually, start getting into "hidden world" areas of the game. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Weird Password Oddities
    This is not really a glitch, as it seems to have been intentionally programmed in (perhaps something used by the developers to test the game), but I have to mention it because of how weird it is. Someone in one of my highschool classes told me about this one and I have no idea where he got it from: Enter as your password for the first row, all 9's and for the second row, all K's. I don't remember all the effects this password has, but I do remember that if you reach Mother Brain without getting a "game over", the brain won't be there at all and the message for the timer is there, but it's not counting down (and it's the wrong color). Just like with that Metal Gear glitch, you have unlimited time to escape. What's even weirder is that you get an ending I have never, ever seen during normal play. Samus puts her armor on and turns her back to you. (This, according to the Metroid Database, apparently is the ending you get if you take over five hours to complete the game with armorless Samus. I guess that explains why I've never seen it otherwise.)


    Might and Magic (NES)

    Magically Changing Items
    This one I learned about in Nintendo Power magazine, but I didn't actually bother to intentionally try it out. However, the funny thing is, it happened to me one day through normal play just from fiddling with the menus too much. Fill up your lead character's backpack and make sure the sixth item is anything but a Club. Select the Use command, select Equip, choose any blank spot in the menu and press B. The screen will flash and the last item in the leader's backpack will change into something else. (If you did put a Club there, it will vanish.) You can repeat the code to change it to something else. The game cycles through these items in a definite order, but once it reaches the Club, it will always vanish on the next try.

    Equip a Sling on the Wrong Character
    One time I managed to equip a projectile weapon (a sling, I think) on a character who could not normally equip it for some reason (I can't remember if the reason was related to character class or the fact that they were using a two-handed weapon, or something else). I also cannot remember how I performed the trick, but it was also through some glitch in the menu system that could be exploited like the one above. If I ever figure out the details of this one again, I'll update this entry.


    Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra (Super NES)

    Major Game Crash
    Worst glitch I've ever encountered. While exploring a cave, the game crashed big-time (scrambled screen with loud buzzing noise) and deleted my save file. That was enough to put me off from playing this sorry excuse of a sequel for a long time.


    Mortal Kombat 2 (Super NES)

    Noob Saibot Lock-Up
    For some reason, whenever I tried doing the code to fight Noob Saibot, most of the times I'd just end up with a blank, frozen screen. Not sure if it's a glitch in the programming or if I have a defective copy.


    Ninja Gaiden (NES)

    Fall Through a Wall
    Commonly-known glitch: In the level where you're on the side of a mountain, there's a part where you have to use a Z-shaped jumping pattern to get to a low ledge. This is difficult because you're likely to fall off the screen. But if you climb up the wall that's above the low ledge instead, you'll fall through it at the top and easily land on the low ledge without risking anything. (Source: Nintendo Power)


    Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (Super NES)

    Random Lock-Ups
    This game has a nasty habit of locking up with a stuck note. It seems to happen more often on Ninja Gaiden 1 than 2 or 3, especially during the final boss fight.


    Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (Nintendo 64)

    Item Use Lock-Ups
    When I first played through this game a few years ago, I had a problem with using any item that permanently increases a character's stats, such as the Champion Statuettes that instantly raises experience level, and the Cup of Life that increases the maximum HP. Whenever I'd go into my organizing screen from the world map and use one on a character, the screen would go blank once I exited the menu. The map music was still playing, but I couldn't see or do anything and had to reset. I once had to redo a whole battle because I didn't save before using a Champion Statuette and this happened. I have talked to other people who have played the game and they claimed they did not encounter this problem. However, I just checked my old save file before finishing this entry, and sure enough, it did it again. Sometimes, I think I just get really unlucky when it comes to glitches.


    Omikron: The Nomad Soul (Sega Dreamcast)

    Misplaced Jewel
    Repost of an entry I sent to the Video Game Bloopers Archive: In the jungle area of the game, you have to put all three of Vyagramuhka's jewels into a statue head, but I accidentally left one in storage. I put the two jewels in the eyes, then had to run back to town to get the third one. But when I went back to the statue head, one of the jewels was missing from the eye and had been mysteriously placed in the forehead, instead! Weird, but placing the third jewel allowed me to move on, anyway.

    Freeze the Gandahar Boss
    Repost of the "Freeze Gandahar Glitch" I originally posted on ezboard and later sent to David Wonn's Unique Glitches: With perfect timing, it is possible to freeze Gandahar, the boss that looks like a big centipede sticking up out of a pool of lava that you fight in first-person shooter mode. Fight Gandahar until both you and him need to be hit only one more time to die. Then time your last shot so that he shoots at you at approximately the same time. If done correctly, your shot will hit Gandahar and kill him, but as he's about to go into his death animation, your character will be hit and killed, too. The battle will restart, but Gandahar will be frozen in place. He can no longer shoot at you, and you cannot damage him at all, either, but you can get as close as you want and look at him! Unfortunately, the only way out of this predicament is to jump into the lava pit and restart the fight, again.

    Fighting Mode Lock-Ups
    Sometimes, the freezing glitch may occur if you're fighting an enemy in the "one-on-one" mode and you both kill each other at the same time. I had it happen to me in the training room in Kayl's apartment. In this case, all you can do is reset because both of you will be frozen.


    Q*Bert (Atari 5200)

    Random Lock-Ups
    I had the same problem with 5200 Q*Bert that I had with Countermeasure. Again, I'm not certain if it's the game or the console. I'll have to play it for awhile on my four-port version and see what happens.

    Get Outside the Normal Playing Field
    One time I ended up bouncing around outside the pyramid in the black area of the screen. I was never able to duplicate it after that one time, but it appears to be a well-known glitch that's documented on a lot of cheat sites with exact instructions of how to pull it off.


    Radar Rat Race (Commodore VIC20)

    White Death Animation
    Run up to a cat, turn and dump stars so that they cover the cat. Turn back around and ram into the cat. The "EEK!" that appears when you die will be white instead of the usual blue. (This is the first true glitch I ever discovered in a game.)


    Rampage (Atari 2600)

    Walk in Mid-Air
    Long ago, I remember playing this game and finding it possible to walk off the roofs of buildings at a certain height on certain stages and keep walking right in mid-air. It's been so long since I last performed it that I've forgotten how to do the glitch, and I haven't been able to reproduce it. I'll keep working on it. (This is the second true glitch I ever discovered in a game.)


    Ranma 1/2 (Super NES)

    Play as Happosai
    Start the game, choose any character, and before the actual fight starts, hold R, X, and A. This will bring up a debug menu that allows you to change many of the game's options. That part of this trick I got from Nintendo Power magazine. But what they failed to mention is that you can even change your player to Happosai, the secret final boss you fight if you play as Pantyhose. It's apparent that it was planned for Happosai to be playable at one point as it's possible to perform all of his moves and he even has a profile picture for the between-round scenes that's not used anywhere during normal game play. The problem is that if you play as Happosai, the game will never ever end. After you beat everyone, it will just keep looping and you'll fight everyone all over again. Also, the dialogue in the between-round scenes will be all glitched and unreadable.


    River City Ransom (NES)

    Enemies Can't Touch Alex
    Not a glitch, but it was something I discovered on my own and never saw mention of it anywhere else. Start a new game, but don't touch any buttons and just leave Alex standing still. Enemies will run up to him, but they'll be unable to do anything to him. They'll try to hit him, and VERY rarely they will, but usually one of the following happens:

  • If one enemy runs onto the screen without a weapon, he may punch and kick for awhile to no avail, then eventually turn around and run away.
  • If one enemy shows up with a weapon, he may attempt to throw the weapon at Alex, but it will miss and hit the edge of the screen, bounce off, and then hit the enemy himself in the head! (Really funny!)
  • If two enemies without weapons show up, they may take swings and punches at Alex, but end up hitting each other, instead. It's even possible for one enemy to knock out another, though it's rare. They're more likely to give up and run off-screen.
  • If two enemies show up, and at least one is carrying a weapon, they may end up hitting each other with the weapon. I've even seen one enemy throw the weapon, only to have it miss and bounce off the screen and hit the second enemy in the head!


    R-Types (Sony Playstation)

    Scramble the First Level of R-Type
    Repost of an entry Crawl and 1000 sent to David Wonn's Unique Glitches several years ago, lengthy explanation to follow:

    I found a glitch in the Playstation version of R-Type, which is on the R-Types collection. The trick is to die right before the boss of stage 1 (the huge red boss that looks like something H. R. Giger did for Aliens) dies. There are a few ways to do this, but this is the method I find easiest to time. It takes two powered-up hits directly to the head coming out of the boss's stomach to kill the boss. This is slightly harder to do than the usual method of killing it (sending the pod towards the head and then get out of the way) because you need to get close, past the tail, and fire right after the mouth fires. After the first shot, time the second so you'll be hit, say by the tail, immediately after you fire. You'll die, and a moment later your shot will hit the boss, killing it.

    Here's the glitchy results of doing that. When you get your next ship you'll begin at the last continue point as you normally would. However, the music that signifies clearing a stage will play and you won't be able to control your ship, just like the first few seconds after finishing a stage. However, enemies will still be attacking you and you'll inevitably die.

    Then when you get your next ship it'll seem like you're about to fight the boss of stage 2! In fact, the background will be that of stage 2, except it looks sort of like the negative of it. Sometimes the graphics are even more glitched up, and some tiles will flash or do other things - it's like the result of putting a dirty game into an NES. The enemy sprites are glitched up as well, and most don't look like anything. However, despite the graphics, this is STILL stage one. The enemy patterns are the same, and so are the positions of the walls - which means you'll need to be careful, as you can't see the walls! If your R-9's fire is stopped by something invisible, that means a wall is there. This glitch leads me to believe that hit detection in R-Type is based on tile boundaries rather than actual collision of pixels. The graphics remain glitched up even if you die or continue, but will go back to normal for stage 2 if you beat the stage one boss as usual (at which time the tiles of the boss become black on the screen rather than exploding as they're supposed to. It looks like what happens if Ryu loses his last life on the final boss - the demon - of Ninja Gaiden and the screen flashes). (Source: Crawl and 1000)


    Rygar (NES)

    Scrambled Final Castle
    When you reach the final area (Ligar's floating castle), run all the way to the left from the starting point. Jump from the edge of the ground to the left edge of the screen. Normally, you would fall to your death if you jumped out into the sky like this, but if you manage to hit the left edge of the screen, it will scroll and you'll end up in a glitchy version of the final castle. (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches)


    SaGa Frontier (Sony Playstation)

    Get a Second Roufas
    Repost of an entry I sent to the Video Game Bloopers Archive, more of an oversight than a glitch: It is possible to recruit a second Roufas in Emelia's Quest. Normally, during the course of Emelia's Quest, Roufas stays at the Gradius HQ (yes, that's what it's called), and gives you your missions. But you can recruit another Roufas in Ancient King Mu's Tomb in Shrike (the same place where you'd recruit him in any of the other quests.) So, there's one Roufas in Gradius HQ and there's another in your party!

    Disappearing Rouge
    Sometimes, when you talk to Rouge in Luminous, he mysteriously disappears after you're done talking with him. If this happens, there's no way to recruit him in your current quest. I'm not sure if this is a true glitch or not, but if there's a reason he's supposed to disappear, the game doesn't indicate it.

    Erased Party Member
    If you've played this game long enough, you might know that once you've recruited so many party members, any new ones you pick up will usually not be added to your roster and simply disappear. I have found one (annoying) exception to this: There is a point near the end of Asellus's quest where you go through a door maze called the "Labyrinth of Darkness" or something like that. There is a turnip-like monster in there and if you talk to it, it will join your party when you leave the labyrinth. White Rose automatically leaves your party at this point and Zozma replaces her. The problem is that if you have a full roster of characters and talked to that turnip, it will overwrite one of your other characters when it joins. In my case, it was one I had built up (I think it might've been Rouge, but I'm not sure - it was definitely someone I didn't want to lose). I had to redo the labyrinth and avoid talking to the turnip monster to keep this from happening.


    Secret of Evermore (Super NES)

    Skip the Verminator Boss
    This is one of my favorite all-time glitches. It allows you to completely skip the Verminator boss in Gothica. Nintendo Power mentioned this glitch, but did not explain how to actually perform it, nor did they explain that it's possible to skip the Verminator without actually getting stuck in the room he should be in. I figured those last two parts out all on my own and here's the explanation I sent to David Wonn's site a few years ago: Once you reach the town outside the Ebon Keep Castle (the town where you can find Cecil), do NOT enter the castle. Instead, turn around and go back out the way you came. You'll have to go all the way back through the sewers and the dark forest until you come out on top of the chessboard, again. (An easy way to get through the Dark Forest is to look in the trees for a creature that looks like an Owl. If you see the Owl, then you took the right path.) When you reach the chessboard, you'll notice that the bridge to Ivor Tower, where you originally came from, no longer exists. However, the bridge to Ebon Keep is down! Cross the bridge and you'll enter Ebon Keep without encountering the Verminator! But be careful when leaving the castle. If you try to leave through the main gate, you'll become trapped in a stack of boxes, and you'll be unable to get out. This is where the Verminator would have been if you had entered from the front of the castle, like you were supposed to. In order to avoid this predicament, simply leave Ebon Keep through the side entrance that you came in from off the bridge. You'll end up back at the chessboard again.

    Lose the Windwalker
    When you have the Windwalker that you get from Tinker or the spaceship you find in Omnitopia and fly around the overworld with it, try landing in the ocean in the southwest area of the map. You might disappear and find yourself back at Tinker's place with no spaceship or Windwalker. DO NOT SAVE YOUR GAME if you perform this glitch because there is no way to get the airship back and you'll be unable to finish the game! (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Hero Stats Glitch
    One time while playing this game, I spontaneously became invincible to all enemy attacks. When I checked the status screen, the boy's Attack and Defend ratings were way off the scale! The red lines extended beyond the limit of the screen. But the tradeoff is that I was unable to hit anything. Whenever I swung my weapon, it would just say "MISS", and the "MISS" was all shadowy in color. This glitch seems most likely to happen in the very first world and if you spend a long time there (I was trying to max out my Cure and Heal spells when it happened.) The only way to fix this is to quit the game, but as far as I can tell, it's safe to save before quitting, as it'll be corrected when you restart.

    Unlimited Running Power
    Don't you hate it how you can only run for so long in Secret of Evermore, and then you have to wait for your meter to fill up before you can start running, again? Well, here's a way to get around that! Equip a weapon that can be charged up to at least the first power. Charge up the weapon and start running at the same time. Continue to hold both buttons down, and you can run forever! (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Magical Telescope
    This isn't a glitch, but a hilarious plot oversight that's been pretty well-documented. When you reach Ebon Keep and the boy talks to the real Queen Bluegarden, they will spy on the fake queen over in Ivor Tower with a telescope. The funny thing is, the boy responds to what he sees as though he understood what the fake queen was saying. Um...telescopes let you SEE things that are far away, but not HEAR things. It's either a magical telescope or the boy is a really good lip-reader.

    Neverending Bazooka Shells
    For some reason, the Bazooka shells never, ever count down. Is it a glitch or was it intentionally left that way to make the final area easier?


    Secret of Mana (Super NES)

    Phantom Neko
    My copy of the game seems to have issues with the Neko that's supposed to appear in the Lofty Mountains. Most of the times, he isn't there. Other times, he only appears there once I've already passed the area where he should be and crossed the ledge above him. But one time I was climbing a staircase and I wasn't anywhere near where he should actually be and his dialogue box appeared out of thin air (this was actually how I discovered a Neko was even supposed to be in this area because he never showed up for me before). When I chose to buy an item from this "phantom Neko", an item ring appeared and kept spinning rapidly and wouldn't stop until I hit the cancel button.

    Neko Save Glitches
    One time all of my save files got erased. I thought this was because either my game or my Super NES may have needed cleaning, and that's still a possibility, but I have since learned through various sources that it also might have been because I saved at a Neko in the wilderness. (Some of the Nekos can glitch your game or cause save files to be erased if you save at them.)

    Turn Trees into Sky
    When traveling the road to Sage Joch's cave in the Lofty Mountains, the background will appear to be trees when you reach the top. But enter the cave and exit and the background is now sky. This appears to be caused by a scrolling error - the background does not scroll as far as it should as you're traveling up, but it's correceted once you leave Joch's cave. See Secret of Mana Oddities for screenshots.

    Kill Karon With Magic
    On the screen where you find Karon, the ferryman who takes you over the Desert Moon-Sea, you are not permitted to draw your weapons. But for some unforeseen reason, you can still cast magic and the game recognizes Karon as a Robin Foot enemy. Target Karon with any attack spell and you'll kill him. But enter his Sandship and he'll still be alive. See Secret of Mana Oddities for screenshots. (I seem to remember discovering this one on my own, but my memory's a bit fuzzy on it. If I did hear about it somewhere else first, it probably would've been GameSages.)

    Get Back into Potos Village
    After you leave Potos Village a man blocks the path leading back in, so that you'll never be allowed into that area of the game again - except through use of this glitch. When you have all three characters, walk up to the guard and hold Up while pressing Select repeatedly. Eventually, you'll go right through him. See Secret of Mana Oddities for screenshots. (Update: I believe I heard about this one from GameSages.)

    Mysterious Spinning Object
    This is more of a mystery than a glitch: I have noticed something on Secret of Mana's world map that has always bugged me. Just what is that odd circular object down there near Empire Northtown? It's not the ruins...the ruins are farther off to the northeast. This object even appears to be spinning like a merry-go-round. There's nothing that matches it in the town itself. Very odd... See Secret of Mana Oddities for screenshot.


    Shadowgate (NES)

    Get Through the Room of Flames Without the Cloak
    This is a weird glitch I discovered on my own, although it's not really that useful. It will allow you to get through the Room of Flames without ever getting or putting on the cloak. Before putting on the cloak, go to the room with the three mirrors. Go through the middle door and you'll be in the Room of Flames. You'll get a message saying it's too hot and you have to turn back. You'll be back in the room of mirrors. Now kill yourself in that room. (There are a number of ways to do it - the easiest is probably to use a torch on yourself.) Choose "Continue". Now due to the fact that Shadowgate always puts you back one room when you die and continue, you'll start in the Room of Flames. If you know what to do to get past this part and have the necessary item, you can go right ahead, even though you're not wearing the cloak.


    Shadow Man (Nintendo 64)

    Disappearing Blood
    This is more of an oversight than a glitch: Somewhere in this game, in the asylum, there is a room with a Dark Soul on a high ledge that has a really big hook in the way of it. In that same room is a door with blood splattered on the window. But enter the door and look at it from the other side. The blood isn't there!

    Get More Than 120 Dark Souls
    There's a bug in the game that sometimes causes Dark Souls to reappear after you've collected them. Because of this, it's possible to collect more than 120 Dark Souls. (I think I finished the game with 122 because of two that reappeared in one of the asylum rooms). This will have no effect on your game, except that it could be a way to get Shadow Level 10 without having to collect some of the really hard-to-reach Dark Souls.


    Skies of Arcadia Legends (Nintendo Gamecube)

    Unusual Clipping Error
    Normally, I wouldn't bother documenting every clipping error in every 3D game because of how often they occur, but I had to mention this one both because the game is usually very good about not letting this happen and because of how funny it was. I only saw this happen once, and I know of no way to reproduce it, but here's what happened: I was in a random battle onboard the Delphinus and somehow, Vyse ended up standing on the same spot as Enrique. The result is that Vyse was inside of Enrique, so it looked like Enrique had an extra pair of legs (which looks hilarious because Enrique stands straight up, but Vyse's legs are bent), and when Vyse swung his sword, it came out of Enrique's chest.


    Star Fox (Super NES)

    Percentage Total Glitch
    I have gotten 100% on every level of Star Fox except the Fortuna level on Path 3, which I've only been able to get as high as 99%. It is believed to be a glitch in the game that was fixed on later versions. See F.J. McCloud's Star Fox Page under the "Game Variations" section for more details.


    Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)

    The Giant Letter F
    Mystery of the big red letter "F" solved by Flying Omelette and Crawl and 1000: Long ago, I found out how to see a big 3D letter "F" behind a wall in Super Mario 64 via this archived webpage from N64.com. With the help of Crawl, I've since discovered what this letter "F" really is. It's nothing more than the trapdoor that leads to the first Bowser World. And here's the proof: First of all, go to the wall near the painting of Cool Cool Mountain. Press Up-C, then rotate the camera behind the wall to see the letter "F" (screenshot). You can also see it from a different angle near the wall to the right of the painting of Bob-omb Battlefield (screenshot). Now, take the Star Door into the room with the trapdoor that leads to Bowser's Road. Fall through it, then kill yourself in the level so that you're kicked back out the trapdoor and it remains open (screenshot). Now go look at the letter "F" behind either wall again. Doesn't look so much like an "F" anymore, does it? (screenshot 1, screenshot 2).

    Duplicate Mario's Hat
    In Snowman's Land, let the Snowman blow the cap off of Mario's head, then take one of the warps located near the trees. Return to where you would normally get your cap, and it will have duplicated. Each time you enter the warp while not wearing a cap, it duplicates itself again. This can be done in any level where Mario loses his cap, but I've only personally experimented with it in Snowman's Land. (Source: Nintendo Power)


    Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo DS)

    Get a 100 Coin Star With High Score Total Showing Less Than 100
    I'm not sure if this is possible to do on the N64 version, but it might be. Go to any course that has a coin somewhere above a bottomless pit (the coin rings at the top of Tall Tall Mountain are your best bet, since that is where we saw this glich happen.) Also, make sure that you have NOT previously collected 100 coins in this course, otherwise this trick will be pointless. Enter the course and collect enough coins so that you almost have 100, but make sure the 100th coin you pick up is one that's over a bottomless pit. This will make the 100 coin star appear OVER the bottomless pit. Grab the star, and you'll immediately plummet to your doom. There will be no "Star Catch" animation or fanfare, and you'll exit the course and lose a life. Now check your totals for that course. Even though you died right after getting the star, you still have it in your totals! What's even weirder is that your coin total will not be counted since you died, and remains at whatever it previously was. So if you previously collected 0 coins on that course, your high score will be "0" and you'll still have the 100 coin star! You'd think something like this would've been bug-checked. (Source: Crawl and 1000)


    Super Mario Bros. (NES)

    Minus World
    Okay, EVERYONE knows about the Minus World glitch, but in case you're the one person who's been living in a cave the past 20 years here it is: At the end of World 1-2, as Super or Fiery Mario, break the bricks above the exit pipe except for the rightmost one. Leap backwards into that brick (be careful not to break it) and you may eventually get sucked through the wall. Go down the left or right pipe to reach World -1, a neverending water world that is a copy of a later water world and just keeps repeating when you reach the exit pipe. There is no escape short of getting a game over or resetting. If you entered the middle pipe instead, you'll get warped to World 5 instead of World 3 like it normally would have. Now, since everyone knows this glitch, would you like to hear my cockamamie theory as to why this happens? I think somehow the game gets confused and thinks you're at the normal warp to World 5. That Warp Zone only contains one pipe to World 5, and therefore, the game doesn't know where to send you when you take the left or right pipe. I don't know this for a fact, but having some experience in programming, it looks like a plausible theory. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Too Many Extra Lives
    Another trick most gamers know about is the one where you can bounce a Koopa shell between Mario's foot and a brick on a staircase to earn a surplus of extra lives. The problem is that if you earn too many, glitchy symbols start replacing the digits used to show your number of lives in reserve. And if you go over a certain amount, you'll get a "Game Over" when a lose a life, regardless of how many you collected. (Source: Nintendo Power)


    Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)

    Wrong Music in Level
    Sometimes when I leave Subspace, the Subspace background music (a variation of the original Super Mario Bros. theme) continues to play in the normal world. There is a way to purposefully reproduce this glitch, but I've had it happen a number of times without even trying.

    Name Reversal
    Birdo and Ostro's names were reversed in the end credits. This was fixed on Super Mario Advance but not Super Mario All-Stars.


    Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)

    Fire-Less Bowser
    Not sure if this is a glitch or an intentionally-programmed trick, but I learned about this through some TV special years ago. Howard Phillips, who used to work for Nintendo Power magazine, was on this special and he showed this trick. Use a P-Wing in Bowser's Castle and when you reach his chamber, fly up the wall on the left. When you reach the top, keep flying left. If you drop to the other side of the wall, you'll fight Bowser in that room instead, but that's not the real glitch. Instead of dropping down, run back the way you came and fight Bowser in the first room you entered. He'll have no fireballs, even though he's still trying to breathe them out.

    Go Through a Wall in Bowser's Castle
    In Bowser's Castle, there's a part where you go up a staircase-shaped layer of bricks, then go down the other side. At the top of this area is a mushroom block. If you duck and jump to that block, you can squeeze yourself between the block and the "ceiling". Stand up and you'll go right through the solid wall on your right, taking a valuable shortcut through the castle. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Get Stuck in World 7-5
    Not a true glitch, but a precaution: If you enter World 7-5 while wearing a Frog Suit and don't lose it early in the stage, you'll eventually reach an area from which you cannot go any farther. You'll fall through a hole in the floor and be trapped on the left by a wall of bricks you can't slide under while wearing a Frog Suit, and a wall of ice blocks on the right you can't pick up while wearing a Frog Suit, either. You can't jump back out the hole you fell through because invisible blocks appear to bar the passage. The only way out of this mess is to let the timer run out.


    Super Mario Kart (Super NES)

    Keep Playing After Losing Battle Mode
    Probably just about everyone who's ever played the two-player Battle Mode of this game knows this one. Sometimes, after you lose, you can still keep driving around. If you collect a Red Shell and fire it near the other player, it'll stick to him/her. If you get a star and use it, once the star's music wears off, the regular battle theme starts again.

    Shrink Your Kart
    Not a glitch, but I actually discovered the shrinking code on my own before it was published in Nintendo Power magazine. I was playing the game 2-player, and the other player started the race quickly after I did the code, so I wasn't even sure I saw what I thought I saw...until the race started and I was indeed a tiny kart racer.


    Super Mario World (Super NES)

    Scrambled Map Screen
    Get to the end of Chocolate Island 3 while riding Yoshi. There's a block with a vine that's below the exit goal. Jump from that block, then leap off of Yoshi so that Mario lands on the upper platform without the screen scrolling up with him. Run through the exit goal and the screen will glitch and flash as it fades out. When you arrive back on the map screen, the colors are all messed up. (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches.)

    Misplaced Keyhole
    In Donut Plains 1, you can do something similar to the above glitch. Throw the key up onto the platform with the keyhole. Go back down and get on Yoshi if you're not already on him. Leap off of Yoshi's back so that you land on the keyhole platform without having the screen scroll up with you. Run so that you pick up the key and insert it into the keyhole while offscreen. Instead of expanding out from the key like it normally would, the giant keyhole appears in the middle of the screen. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Anti-Gravity Rooms
    In Vanilla Dome 2, find the P-Switch and take it to the arrow of blocks on the left. Use the P-Switch to turn the blocks into coins. Now, as Super, Fiery, or Caped Mario, run into the coins, but duck so that you only collect the bottom row. Then stay ducked down and wait for the P-Switch's time to run out. When it does and the coins turn back into blocks, try spin jumping and you might go through the floor, into the wall! (It's actually possible to do this anywhere in the game that has a low overhang that you can duck and squeeze yourself into, but in some places you'll go through the wall and in others, you'll get crushed to death.) This particular room has a strange property - any item dropped in here will float from side-to-side as though there is no gravity. If you bring Yoshi or the other P-Switch in here, they will float from side-to-side if you let go of them. If you come in here as Fiery Mario and shoot fireballs, they, too, will float from side-to-side. (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches.)

    Item-Eating Lock-Up
    Make sure you have an item in your Item Box at the top of the screen and take Yoshi into any level that has berries. Run up to a berry, press Select to release your item, then jump up so that Yoshi eats the berry AND the item at the exact same time. The action will usually freeze if you did it right, but if you're lucky, your coins start rapidly counting up and each time it hits 100, you get an extra life. Note that you can only escape this situation if you've already completed the level and use the Start/Select code to return to the map screen. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Weird Graphic Glitch
    When fighting Iggy or Larry Koopa (the ones that are on the giant rocking turtle shell in the lava), wait until the shell rocks diagonally enough so that you can slide on it, and try sliding into the balls the boss throws. If you slide into them, they turn into a very strange-looking glitched-up graphic. It looks like piece of a Reznor boss, but it's bright red, and it you launch it high enough, it'll spurt lava! But since it looks like a piece of an enemy and the lava is red, it almost looks as though it's spurting blood! (Screenshot 1) (Screenshot 2) (Source: David Wonn's Unique Glitches.)


    Super Ninja Boy (Super NES)

    Special Passwords
    Not a glitch, but one time I cracked part of this game's password system (Culture Brain made it easy to do so with a lot of their early games). I found that by simply entering two-letter codes, you could start at various points around the game world, and even call up special game modes, like a sound test and others. Here are the passwords and what they do:

  • CB - Start in Edo City, Level 10, 2 Auraballs, Arc-De-Travel
  • FX - Start in Cactus Village, Level 32, 7 Auraballs, Gift of Love, Watch, Ultimate Scroll, Marvel Box, Bigbot
  • GS - Start in Arcadia Town, Level 20, 5 Auraballs, Gift of Love, Watch, Shark Cruiser
  • KH - Start in Kingland, Level 16, 4 Auraballs, Gift of Love, Shark Cruiser
  • KR - Start in Moo, Level 24, 5 Auraballs, Gift of Love, Watch, Bigbot
  • NR - Start in Athletown, Level 29, 7 Auraballs, Gift of Love, Watch, Ultimate Scroll, Bigbot
  • RG - Start in Fairy Town, Level 11, 2 Auraballs, Gift of Love, Arc-de-Travel
  • RZ - Start in Yokan, Level 7, 1 Auraball
  • SR - Start in Moo, Level 25, 6 Auraballs, Gift of Love, Watch, Ultimate Scroll, Bigbot
  • XJ - Start in Kingland, Level 15, 2 Auraballs, Gift of Love, Kite Machine

    Note that all of these codes start you with the maximum amount of money and medals and a bunch of other minor items and magic spells, too. In addition to the town passwords, there are three passwords that call up special modes of the game. They are:

  • NS - Sound Mode - A sound test that contains all the music and sound effects in the game.

  • RS - Information Mode - This will allow you to view all the cutscenes in the game. However, there are a few oddities that occur depending on what you view. Once you watch a cutscene, if you view it again, you'll only be able to see what the character would say after that cutscene occured. Sometimes, viewing one cutscene will change another or cause another to not load at all. If you view the ending cutscene, you'll have to reset the game to get out of it.

  • TZ - Messenger Mode - When I found this, it was the first time I'd ever seen anything like this in a game. It allows you to view all of the game's dialogue (the kind that occurs when talking to villagers, not the kind used in cutscenes, like those of the Information Mode).


    Sword Master (NES)

    Lost Items
    This game seems like it was competing with Mega Man 3 to be the NES game with the most glitches. First of all, don't ever kill a boss if it's offscreen. If you do, it won't drop the item it was carrying. If this glitch happens with the boss that has the item that allows you to change into the wizard, you will not be able to finish the game.

    Fall Through Solid Floors
    Sometimes, when walking across a solid floor, the knight will fall right through it to his death. This seems to happen a lot to me on the second level boss (there isn't even a pit on-screen there!), and on the stage with all the purple walls and spears shooting out of the floor.

    Final Boss Lock-Up
    In a glitch reminiscent of the one in Castlevania, the game will sometimes lock up during the final boss fight.

    Blocking Glitch
    The first few times I made it to the final boss, I was unable to block the bricks he shoots with the shield. They'd go right through it and I'd take damage. I assumed it was not possible to block them and thus the boss could only be defeated by having more energy than him, getting right up to him, and whacking away to outlast him. I have since seen a video of someone beating the boss the "correct" way and the player in that video was able to block the bricks with the shield. Why didn't it work for me? Another glitch? Probably.


    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (PC/DOS)

    Invincibility & Walk-Through Walls & Programmers Easter Egg
    Note: I've decided to dedicate an entire page to this one.


    Tetris (NES)

    Score an Instant Tetris
    Commonly-known glitch: On the Nintendo version of Tetris only (not the Tengen one), watch the demo until the CPU scores a Tetris (four-line score) and hit start while the screen is still flashing. Start the game and you'll immediately be given the score for earning a Tetris. (Source: Nintendo Power)


    Ultima 6: The False Prophet (Super NES)

    Zoltar Lock-Up
    This is a bizarre glitch that only happened to me once (and that's probably a good thing.) One time while wandering east of Britannia, the Gypsy King Zoltar came running up to my party out of nowhere. He'd start a battle, the battle theme would start, he'd deal one HP of damage to my lead character, and then the battle music would fade and stop. Then the battle music would start again, he'd again deal one HP of damage, and the battle would stop again. This cycle kept repeating over and over and over. I couldn't move and I couldn't bring up any of the menus. I had to reset and start from an earlier save to get out of it.


    Wanderers From Ys (Super NES)

    Debug Menu Oddities
    This is a repost of a glitch I sent to David Wonn's site several years ago. It's a pretty lengthy explanation, but here goes: Wanderers From Ys has a built-in Debug Code that opens up the door for some interesting glitches. Here's how to enter the code - turn the game on, and wait until the Sammy logo fades COMPLETELY in. Quickly, on Controller 2, press Up, Down, Up, Down, Select, Start. Now choose to Continue, and pick any game file. Press Select on Controller 1 to bring up your subscreen, then go to Status. Then press Select on Controller 2. If you entered the code correctly, the word "DEBUG" will appear on your Status screen. This will make Adol completely invincible to all attacks - even if his life meter goes down to zero, it will automatically refill. This will also unlock all areas on the map, even ones you have not been to, yet.

    And now for the side effects of this code: Try moving the D-Pad on Controller 2! Adol will slide back and forth on the screen without any animation at all! And that's not all...Adol will slide right through some walls! While you are sliding, NO enemies will appear. But when you stop, any preset enemies for the area you stop in will appear out of nowhere. If an enemy appears on the screen, and you start to slide Adol again, the enemy stops moving and slides in the direction Adol is going. When you let go of the D-Pad, the enemy disappears! But, as before, if there's any preset enemies in the area you stop in, those enemies will appear.

    If you walk up a set of stairs and stop before you reach the next screen, then use Controller 2 to start Adol sliding, he will slide across the screen in MID-AIR! Sometimes, when you reach the end of a screen, Adol slides through the wall. Other times he just stops moving, and you have to use Controller 1 to get him moving again, and if you do that while Adol is stuck in mid-air, he'll behave like he's on stairs. If he is supposed to go up a screen, he'll walk upwards, right through the roof into the next room. If he's supposed to go down, then he'll walk downward, as though he's on invisible stairs! Sometimes, Adol may become completely stuck, and you'll have to reset to get out.

    Finally, there's one other glitch I encountered while using this...There's a slight chance that using the sliding glitch may cause the final boss, Galbalan, to be INSTANTLY DEFEATED! If you have a save file ready to beat Galbalan, take the teleporter up to him and begin the battle. Wait until Gabalan slides down onto the screen, then start pushing Left and Right on Controller 2! This will cause Galbalan to freeze and unfreeze, and there is a slight chance that you'll hear an explosion, and he'll go down in defeat, EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVEN'T EVEN TOUCHED HIM! Now you can just sit back and watch the ending. Unfortunately, I had difficulty reproducing this, so I cannot guarantee you'll be able to get it to work very easily, but I wonder if it might work on other bosses, too?


    Willow (NES)

    Weird Password Oddities
    Enter this password: oBH jq2 xgI 5ve iNw g5f. Press the select button and it will bring up two numbers. Hold B and press Up or Down to change the first number and hold A and press Up or Down to change the second number. These are coordinates to different areas around the game. Pressing select again will warp you to those coordinates. Although this appears to be an intentionally-programmed code used by developers to test the game, it can also be used to access glitchy, scrambled areas that do not exist during normal gameplay. One side-effect I discovered of this glitch is that if you warp into a screen with a boss (I usually ended up warping to Bavmorda's room as multiple ones exist - most are scrambled), and then warp again, the boss will follow after you. Bavmorda is impossible to kill when using this password because your level is not high enough. (Source: Nintendo Power)


    Yars Revenge (Atari 2600)

    Hidden Programmer Initials
    This is not a glitch, but I'm including it because for years I thought it was. If you destroy the Swirl in mid-air and then stay on the lower half of the solid black line during the explosion, the game will end with the initials "HSWWSH" in place of your score. I had no idea what this was for years and assumed it was a bug (no pun intended) in the game. It's actually programmer Howard Scott Warshaw's initials and he intentionally put this easter egg in there.


    Zanac (NES)

    Destroy All Mines
    It's probably not a glitch, but it's another trick I feel I'm the only person on the face of the planet who's discovered it (or at least mentioned it on the internet). You know those round ball enemies that don't shoot or move around, but take like a gazillion hits to destroy? There's one level (an early level, not sure exactly which) where you fly through a ton of these things over water. Use one Number 6 weapon shot on them (the one that blows up everything on-screen) and no more will appear during this entire area. I wonder if the reason this happens is because the Number 6 weapon actually kills all enemies that the game has loaded into memory (not just those on the immediate screen), and maybe once you begin that area, the game has already loaded the entire enemy pattern, and thus it's completely wiped out. Just another of my theories, don't know for sure if it's true.

    Spelling Error
    Look closely at the stage names and you'll notice "AREA" is actually spelled as "ARER". This was corrected on the Playstation remake that came with Zanac x Zanac.


    Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link (NES)

    Glitched Palace
    Go to any palace that has blocks that fall and wait until they pile up to the ceiling. Get Link on top of the pile so that he's offscreen, then use the Fairy spell. Press left or right and Link will fall and land on top of the palace. Jump up off the screen, activate the Fairy spell again, and press left or right. Link will fall and land in a strange palace that is the same color of whatever palace you were just in, but has a layout and enemies identical to that of the first palace. When you leave, you'll be near the palace you actually entered. (Source: Nintendo Power)

    Glitched Town
    Do this trick on the roof of the tallest building in Darunia. You'll fall and land in a strange town with a blue sky (instead of Darunia's red sky) where people give different clues. (I thought there may have even been a line of dialogue that wasn't spoken anywhere else, but I'm not too sure of that since my memory is a little unclear.) When you leave the town, you'll be stuck in the middle of the ocean. NOTE: After I had performed this glitch, the game then acted like I had already found the lost child in the cave, even though on that particular save file, I had not. (Source: Nintendo Power)

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