Blue Max: only game to deliberately cause a system crash?

[Mr.Amiga500]

I remember when playing Blue Max in 1984 on an 800XL, I bombed my own hangar (...just for the fun of it ) and was surprised that the computer completely crashed, forcing me to reboot. At the time, I thought I just had a buggy copy of the game. Later I played it on a C64 and got the same system crash when bombing my own hangar and I thought that the port contained the same bug.

 

I just recently bought the XL/XE cartridge version of the game (brand new!) and got the same computer crash when bombing my own hangar. The manual says "Never bomb friendly airplane hangars." So that means this crash was deliberately put there. Is this the only game in history that deliberately crashes your computer? Or are there others? (not counting the ones that crash due to bugs...or crappy OSes they run on )

[Urchlay]

Hm, I always thought it was just a buggy cracked copy, had no idea the cart version did it too!

[Rybags]

Lots of games deliberately crash the system, although that is due to either copy protection or self-destruct code in cartridges.

[Urchlay]

I think he meant, the only one to ever be designed to crash the system as a normal part of gameplay (your punishment for bombing your buddies)

[jaybird3rd]

I think you're looking at it backwards. The "never bomb friendly airplane hangars" clause in the manual was probably put there because somebody discovered that there was a bug in the game after it was too late to fix it, so they decided to document it and call it a "feature."

 

I'm not surprised it's in the cartridge version, too; most of the XE cartridge re-releases seem to be identical to the original disk-based versions (with the exception of the updated copyright notices).

[mariusz]

I don't think that this is a bug. C-64 version has the same, so it seems that was a programmer idea. I know at least one game designed to crash the system as a normal part of gameplay - this is a polish game "INSIDE" - Atari version of "Chip War". If you will not repair Your "virtual" computer on time, then some features of Your "real" computer don't work properly or stop acting, cause total breakdown of system.

[Kr0tki]

"Inside" doesn't crash the system, it only displays white noise and waits for a user to press RESET.

[Wrathchild]

Not quite "in game" but Chimera causes a crash:

 

see http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?=&p=261245

 

'Rough' looks suspiciously like Nir ?

[Tempest]

Stunt Flyer for the C64 crashes the system if you crash your plane while playing on the hardest mode. I read an interview with Ken Williams and he said that they did it on purpose, but in retrospect it was a bad idea.

 

Tempest

[Ross PK]

Woah, a hidden game in Chimera?

[+remowilliams]

I'd vote for the "it's a bug" category.

 

The one thing it adds to that game is some tension since computer controlled planes bombing your hanger makes the game freak out as well. Many times have I sat refueling on that runway watching a computer plane on a close track and saying "don't do it you bastard!"

 

Blue Max is one of my favorite games of all time.

 

And the C64 version sucks compared to the A8

[+doctorclu]

Blue Max simply rocks.

 

There are a few times I bombed my hangar and was able to still continue playing and after a while it got where I could make out what was going on.. much like how you can kinda make out what is going on in the buggy part of Soul Star on the Jaguar.

[Mr.Amiga500]

I think you're looking at it backwards. The "never bomb friendly airplane hangars" clause in the manual was probably put there because somebody discovered that there was a bug in the game after it was too late to fix it, so they decided to document it and call it a "feature."

 

Yeah, I think you're right. It's sort of like how Microsoft operates: call bug a "feature", then keep bug around for 20 years to ensure backward compatibility. Windows is full of such "features".

 

Blue Max is one of my favorite games of all time.

 

And the C64 version sucks compared to the A8

 

Yes, it's one of my favourites too and yes the C64 version does suck (Spectrum version is even worse). I didn't realise until just last year that all of my favourite 8-bit games are way better on the Atari. Of course, all my favourite 8-bit games are 1985 and earlier and I think C64 games only started getting good after 1985 (when C64 became the dominant 8-bit). By that time, I had already moved on to 16/32 bit Amiga games.

 

I always wondered why they never made an Amiga version of Blue Max. It would have blown away all the other crappy "shoot-em-ups".

Edited April 19, 2007 by Mr.Amiga500

[jaybird3rd]

Yeah, I think you're right. It's sort of like how Microsoft operates: call bug a "feature", then keep bug around for 20 years to ensure backward compatibility. Windows is full of such "features".

Another example I can think of was in Super Mario Brothers on the NES. I don't remember the specifics, but I remember the manual saying that if you performed a certain action, "Mario would get stuck in Bowser's time trap and the game would pause forever." Even as a kid, I knew that was a nice way of saying that you'd hang the game because it had a bug.

[Tempest]

Yeah, I think you're right. It's sort of like how Microsoft operates: call bug a "feature", then keep bug around for 20 years to ensure backward compatibility. Windows is full of such "features".

Another example I can think of was in Super Mario Brothers on the NES. I don't remember the specifics, but I remember the manual saying that if you performed a certain action, "Mario would get stuck in Bowser's time trap and the game would pause forever." Even as a kid, I knew that was a nice way of saying that you'd hang the game because it had a bug.

 

I want to say that was in Super Mario Bros. 3, but I can't recall how you did that.

 

Tempest

[MrFish]

It doesn't look like a "system crash" to me. I only see screen garbage. If I hit the "start" button the screen clears up and I am taken to a fresh game. This is in an emulator, maybe it's different on a real machine?

[supercat]

It doesn't look like a "system crash" to me. I only see screen garbage. If I hit the "start" button the screen clears up and I am taken to a fresh game. This is in an emulator, maybe it's different on a real machine?

 

That's the behavior I remember from my cousin's 800 (game on tape).

[+remowilliams]

It doesn't look like a "system crash" to me. I only see screen garbage.

Correct, there is no crash just very garbled graphics.

[Mr.Amiga500]

I just played it yesterday on my 800XL and the "Start" and "Reset" buttons did nothing. I had to switch off and on again. (...sounds like a crash to me)

Edited April 20, 2007 by Mr.Amiga500

[supercat]

I think he meant, the only one to ever be designed to crash the system as a normal part of gameplay (your punishment for bombing your buddies)

 

IIRC, Deadline on the C64 will hang the system ("END OF SESSION") if you try to "read the ending" of the book on the coffee table.

[Mr.Amiga500]

Another bug I know of (probably not deliberate though) is the "fire pit" in the 16K version of Montezuma's Revenge (Preliminary Monty16K or Parker Brothers version)... another one of my all-time favourite Atari games. At the far left of the game map is a room that has a fire pit you can't cross and it causes graphics corruption. If you come up from the bottom (climbing the rope), you can't escape - any jump will result in burning.

 

Anybody have more info on this bug?

[Mr.Amiga500]

I've just been doing some "hangar bombings" and it looks like it's different each time. One time, I had severe graphical corruption and lockup and had to reboot. Another time, the background just went black, but planes are still visible, the score was at the top of the screen and I could keep playing (sort of). Another time, while I was refueling, the enemy plane bombed my hangar and it just "turned to dust" like regular buildings with no "weirdness" happening. So it's inconsistent.

[Kr0tki]

Hangar being bombed by another plane actually happens frequently, and it never crashes the game.

[carmel_andrews]

In regards to the XE mega cart conversions of A8 disk games, Thunderfox wasn't converted from a disk game (only tape)

 

Also, Atari seems to have changed some of the coding for thunderfox on the cart version, as the tape version frequently loads (force loads) stuff directly into hi mem (over BFFF hex), either that or they reverse engineered it

 

 

RE:Chimera, the best bit about that game is the 'Pause' mode (reminds me of A8 gauntlet)

Edited April 20, 2007 by carmel_andrews

[Tempest]

I think he meant, the only one to ever be designed to crash the system as a normal part of gameplay (your punishment for bombing your buddies)

 

IIRC, Deadline on the C64 will hang the system ("END OF SESSION") if you try to "read the ending" of the book on the coffee table.

 

There are TONS of things you can type in to crash infocom games. There are various bug lists out there that detail them. They're fun reading if you enjoy that kind of thing.

 

Tempest