A recent topic here on the forum about the bugfest Frontier First Encounters had memories of those and other bugs and glitches in various games come back to me. Most bugs were rather harmless, many were serious/game breaking but then there were those who had me guffawing out loud over the ridiculousness of it all. 2 such bugs and glitches:
Daggerfall and the flying horse: If you thought FFE was bugridden, then apparently you never played Daggerfall, or Buggerfall as it is affectionally called by some fans. The nasty bugs aside, the most hillarious one was when you cast a levitation spell while riding a horse. Now you had your own pegasus. Of course, if that horse was pulling a cart, now you could be Santa Clause!
Battlecruiser 3000AD and hypertanks: I thought it would be interesting to try to land one of my ship's tanks using one of the ship's shuttles so I loaded up a tank in a shuttle and launched. We soon came under attack and it was rather nasty so I knew the shuttle wasn't going to survive for long. Also knowing we were at low altitude at that point, I let the tank out the cargo door with me inside it. Then... we didn't fall... Instead, the tank started to pick up horizontal speed at an alarming rate and since it did not respond to control inputs, I thought "let's see where this ends". Very quickly the tank was traveling through space at a speed so great I then started to wonder "when will this number be too great for my computer to handle?". Well past light speed I gave up, and exited the game while still giggling like a madman over my superduper hyper tank.
What bugs and glitches have you encountered that had you in stitches, or at least giggling like a fool?
NB: In memory of one game I wanted to like and ended up despising beyond words, and some of the glitches were its only saving grace: Ultima 9 This is not my page or pictures but they still bring "fond" memories of that attrocity that U9 was
http://www.it-he.org/ultima9.php
Bugs Like You Wouldn't Believe it
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matthewfarmery
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X3 when it first came out, sadly, that was a very buggy mess of a game.
Disgea (PC steam version) This had a very nasty damage number bug, once you start doing a heck of a lot of damage, the game would crash. It took a long time before the devs finally fixed it, even though they knew full well that the bug existed from near the start. Disgea 2 (also PC) you can't play with a series 9xx graphics card as there is no talking text, (you you can't read what people are saying) that bug still isn't fixed.
You can also add Oblivion and skyrm to the list too, as well as morrowind. all those games were very buggy upon release, and the devs haven't fixed all the bugs.
Prey (recent version)
Sadly is a buggy mess for a lot of people still, bugs in this game include, crashing when returning to a early level, disappearing bodies and keycards, and more. Even though 5 patches have been released, its still not fully playable, and the console versions are suppose to be worse.
Can''t remember anymore at the mo, but I will try and remember.
Disgea (PC steam version) This had a very nasty damage number bug, once you start doing a heck of a lot of damage, the game would crash. It took a long time before the devs finally fixed it, even though they knew full well that the bug existed from near the start. Disgea 2 (also PC) you can't play with a series 9xx graphics card as there is no talking text, (you you can't read what people are saying) that bug still isn't fixed.
You can also add Oblivion and skyrm to the list too, as well as morrowind. all those games were very buggy upon release, and the devs haven't fixed all the bugs.
Prey (recent version)
Sadly is a buggy mess for a lot of people still, bugs in this game include, crashing when returning to a early level, disappearing bodies and keycards, and more. Even though 5 patches have been released, its still not fully playable, and the console versions are suppose to be worse.
Can''t remember anymore at the mo, but I will try and remember.
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The difference with those games is they got patches, FFE's bugs never were fixed by the publisher. Braben might have, but the publisher obviously had no interest in further supporting the game once it was sold.
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. ... Niccolò Machiavelli
Er, they did support it? There were something like six patches released for FFE by Gametek--I already mentioned in the FFE thread how I got one of those via floppy through the post. Can you imagine a publisher doing that now? "Oh, this customer doesn't have Internet access, just post 'em a USB stick with the patch on it!".mrbadger wrote:The difference with those games is they got patches, FFE's bugs never were fixed by the publisher. Braben might have, but the publisher obviously had no interest in further supporting the game once it was sold.
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Mighty Midget
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Masterbagger
- Posts: 1080
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Battlefield 1942 briefly had a bug where a player who jumped into water while looking up and mashing the jump key would shoot up into the air and continue flying as long as they kept mashing jump. I was playing a modern combat mod for it and while piloting an F16 I see this mustached iraqi guy go flying by furiously doing air squats. Tried like hell to hit him with the 20mm vulcan but those pumping legs had more thrust a jet fighter.
Who made that man a gunner?
Recounting this from memory, so it's probably wrong... 
Anyway, long ago in the early days of MMO's, a player complained loudly and often that no matter what dungeon they went into with their friends, no matter what "raid" and no matter how deftly they tried to avoid it, they would be set upon by every nasty critter in the dungeon and ruthlessly killed. His character was doomed, he said, to die every time he entered a dungeon. It was as if the gods had decided to punish him simply because he existed.
Of course, complaining that one's character is always the victim of misfortune and developer bugs is a common thing. Nobody wants to admit they don't excel at playing a game, after all.
However, after repeated complaints and some supporting testimony from the player's friends, the developers finally took a look at his specific case...
It turns out that a unique situation existed. All player chracters had an internal ID number and portions of this number were used as a seed for random events. It wasn't thought that this small multiple would have any repeatable effect and it was simply a way to reduce overhead. It turns out that this player character's numerical ID would interact with the algorithm to have the unique and quircky result of a severe faction-altering change and what amounted to a "threat level" increase for this character as far as the monsters in the dungeon were concerned. It was unavoidable and inescapable - No matter where this character would go in the game, anything that could attack him.... would attack him.
He was, indeed, cursed by whatever game-gods existed. It's the one instance I know of that a player's claim of "the game hates me" is actually true.
PS - Don't remember the name of the game, atm. It was popular when it first came out, that much I do remember.
Anyway, long ago in the early days of MMO's, a player complained loudly and often that no matter what dungeon they went into with their friends, no matter what "raid" and no matter how deftly they tried to avoid it, they would be set upon by every nasty critter in the dungeon and ruthlessly killed. His character was doomed, he said, to die every time he entered a dungeon. It was as if the gods had decided to punish him simply because he existed.
Of course, complaining that one's character is always the victim of misfortune and developer bugs is a common thing. Nobody wants to admit they don't excel at playing a game, after all.
However, after repeated complaints and some supporting testimony from the player's friends, the developers finally took a look at his specific case...
It turns out that a unique situation existed. All player chracters had an internal ID number and portions of this number were used as a seed for random events. It wasn't thought that this small multiple would have any repeatable effect and it was simply a way to reduce overhead. It turns out that this player character's numerical ID would interact with the algorithm to have the unique and quircky result of a severe faction-altering change and what amounted to a "threat level" increase for this character as far as the monsters in the dungeon were concerned. It was unavoidable and inescapable - No matter where this character would go in the game, anything that could attack him.... would attack him.
He was, indeed, cursed by whatever game-gods existed. It's the one instance I know of that a player's claim of "the game hates me" is actually true.
PS - Don't remember the name of the game, atm. It was popular when it first came out, that much I do remember.
Not enough to produce a workable game I mean. I know the produced some patches, I got my hands on at least one.pjknibbs wrote:Er, they did support it? There were something like six patches released for FFE by Gametek--I already mentioned in the FFE thread how I got one of those via floppy through the post. Can you imagine a publisher doing that now? "Oh, this customer doesn't have Internet access, just post 'em a USB stick with the patch on it!".mrbadger wrote:The difference with those games is they got patches, FFE's bugs never were fixed by the publisher. Braben might have, but the publisher obviously had no interest in further supporting the game once it was sold.
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. ... Niccolò Machiavelli
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brucewarren
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matthewfarmery
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That reminds me of s story, this game was a side scrolling space shooter, for the Amiga (but can't remember the game) I have a friend that was able to get so far into it, the game would crash once you get so far. He even showed some shop assistants this bug, as they didn't even know about it. I guess the devs didn't bank on anyone getting that far. ( just wish I knew the name of the game?) (I think it was Project X but I might be wrong, but that name does sound familar so it might be that one)brucewarren wrote:Not all games get patched though.
I don't believe Crash Garrett was ever patched. At least not the Amiga version. It was impossible to complete the game because of bugs which was a shame as it might have been interesting
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I wonder if that explains the problem I had with Midwinter II on the Amiga? For those who don't know, this is a game where you're on an island, there's an invasion force massing on the mainland, and there are about 40 islands in between you and that. You have to take as many islands as you can in order to slow down the invasion force, who will eventually start their journey out to take your homeland. So, I'd captured a number of islands and had just arrived on my next target when I got the message that the invasion fleet had launched, so I headed back to the ship I arrived on the island on--and got the "You lost, the invasion fleet reached their destinaion" message while I was on the way? As far as I can tell, the entire invasion fleet had basically teleported to their destination!matthewfarmery wrote:I guess the devs didn't bank on anyone getting that far.
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Mighty Midget
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I seem to recall there was a video about terrible games (ashens?) that mentioned a game that couldn't be beat for the reason the devs didn't finish it so they made the last playable level unbeatable. Pretty sure a bad games video on youtube has the title.
As for absurd glitches, this one is from Interceptor on the Amiga 500:
They gave the f-18 reverse thrusters for ground ops (??) but forgot that by giving the game world a ceiling at around 30,000 feet, one could by carefully maneuverng the jet, hang like a bat from the ceiling waiting for bogies to appear. A rather silly one but hugely entertaining at the time.
The skeletons of Ultima 9: Covered by the link in the OP but since I experienced it myself numerous times while torturing myself to complete the playthrough, I thought I'd mention it. The skeletons in U9 were a nasty bunch that would rebuild themselves unless you picked up a part of the pile of bones. Mind you, if you had just beaten several skeletons not too far apart, the bones from all nearby piles would come together to rebuild a skeleton, unless you were careful to pick the same piece of bone from all piles.... most of the times... sometimes the game would say "oh f that, I'm rebuilding anyway" and rebuilt hideous frankenskeletons with multiple ribcages, hipbones etc. They would rise and not attack since all they were capable of was to vibrate violently on the spot. Bizarre to say the least.
As for absurd glitches, this one is from Interceptor on the Amiga 500:
They gave the f-18 reverse thrusters for ground ops (??) but forgot that by giving the game world a ceiling at around 30,000 feet, one could by carefully maneuverng the jet, hang like a bat from the ceiling waiting for bogies to appear. A rather silly one but hugely entertaining at the time.
The skeletons of Ultima 9: Covered by the link in the OP but since I experienced it myself numerous times while torturing myself to complete the playthrough, I thought I'd mention it. The skeletons in U9 were a nasty bunch that would rebuild themselves unless you picked up a part of the pile of bones. Mind you, if you had just beaten several skeletons not too far apart, the bones from all nearby piles would come together to rebuild a skeleton, unless you were careful to pick the same piece of bone from all piles.... most of the times... sometimes the game would say "oh f that, I'm rebuilding anyway" and rebuilt hideous frankenskeletons with multiple ribcages, hipbones etc. They would rise and not attack since all they were capable of was to vibrate violently on the spot. Bizarre to say the least.
Yup. I've seen that video. The game is "Smash TV" I think. I loved playing the arcade version, back in the day.Mighty Midget wrote:I seem to recall there was a video about terrible games (ashens?) that mentioned a game that couldn't be beat for the reason the devs didn't finish it so they made the last playable level unbeatable. Pretty sure a bad games video on youtube has the title.
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Golden_Gonads
- Posts: 2628
- Joined: Fri, 13. Feb 04, 20:21
The best bit about patched Fallout 2 wasn't actually a bug, it was intentional, but ridiculous all the same. In one of the locations in the game (Vault City, maybe? I forget) there were children running around. If they bumped into you, they'd steal some of your stuff, and the only way to get it back was to kill them. Killing children wasn't seen as a great thing to be doing, so there were complaints in Europe about this. What did they do to fix it? They basically deleted the child graphic from the game files, so the children couldn't be seen or targeted--but they left all the other code in, so you see ghostly children's voices floating around the place, and occasionally lose stuff without realising why it's happening!
I must install the GOG edition of Fallout 2 at some point to see if they kept that in...
I must install the GOG edition of Fallout 2 at some point to see if they kept that in...