Games that can't be beaten due to a serious programming bug

[Rev. Rob]

 

 

Wasn't there apparently a bug in ET

 

I don't think there was. IMO, the whole lore about ET being the worst game ever came as a result of the internet age, and people were downloading roms and emulators, and couldn't figure out WTF to do in ET because they didn't have the manual, which is pretty much needed to figure the game out.

 

They also never watched this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-pzdPLfy9Y

[Video]

I think the "bug" in ET, is what people are talking about, where you beat the game, then call elliot and the ship lands onhim and the game crashes. But I'd put that in the "programming error" type of bug, though as the game is completed at that point anyways, can you really say you can't beat it Oh, someone's already probaly mentioned Impossible mission for the 7800

[+thegoldenband]

One I wrote, Asterix and the Magic Cauldron (C64) apparently had a missing cauldron piece and was, therefore, unfinishable. Somebody wrote to me about it a few years ago and asked permission to place the missing piece in a certain location -- they'd gone to the trouble of disassembling and understanding the code. Amazing. Anyway, so there are two versions -- the incompletable version and the fan-corrected completable one.

This is very interesting, since we don't often hear about these sorts of things from the programmers themselves! Do you have any recollection of how the bug was introduced? Was it caused by some last-minute change? I assume the game had been playtested and successfully completed at some point (or is that too idealistic)?

[thrax]

This would fall more under "unfinished" rather than bug since the game itself didn't crash. In Sword & Serpents there was no end to the game. You work hard to get to the dragon and there is nothing to do. IIRC they ran out of time making the game.

 

For any modern game, i.e. made in the last 10 years, for the PC i pretty well get a patch for it without thinking. I think that's a given these days.

Edited November 1, 2009 by thrax

[Andrew Davie]

This is very interesting, since we don't often hear about these sorts of things from the programmers themselves! Do you have any recollection of how the bug was introduced? Was it caused by some last-minute change? I assume the game had been playtested and successfully completed at some point (or is that too idealistic)?

 

C64 games were tested for bugs/crashes but not often for complete walkthroughs. Nintendo required a video tape of complete gameplay so you wouldn't have seen this sort of bug on a NES. Probably a bit of temporary commenting-out was left in accidentally, or perhaps even it never worked in the first place and I just forgot to test it. The linkages of the map were screwy in an attempt to 'hide' the pieces... at the time I thought I was being clever by allowing you to go E, but then to return you had to go SW. Now it just sounds borked. Clearly I screwed up in the final version, so sue me!

[Xot]

Marble Madness for the NES comes to mind. The arcade was a mouse game, and you spun the ball faster to make the marble roll faster. But the NES is digital, so you go at a set speed (I think you could go faster or slower with a button, but anyhow) as a result, there are stages that cannot be completed, cause you can't go fast enough to make it up hills.

Whaaa? I've beaten this game multiple times on real hardware! The last stage is brutal, but it's definitely possible. Are you sure you're not thinking of a different port?

 

Agreed, I've completed this one on the actual hadrware as well.

[StanJr]

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness has a bug if you return to Dracula's chamber after defeating him as the castle is crumbling, the room resets for the Dracula battle, but there is no Dracula to fight. The door locks when you enter the room for the Dracula battle, but with no Dracula to fight, there is no way to unlock the door and leave the chamber, thus no way to finish the game. As long as you don't save upon re-entering the chamber you can always reset.

[Crimefighter]

 

TMNT (NES) :

 

 

Dang that game's hard....that seaweed level is definitely bugged.

 

I've beaten it...so its not impossible.

[KevinMos3]

Metal Gear for the Commodore 64 had a bug that kept you from progressing at a certain point.

 

The thing I thought was really ridiculous was that the bug was caused by the "copy protection" that konami used. I remember buying it new years ago and being so excited to play it only to get stuck at a certain point. I ended up calling some company (it might have been the software distributor), and was told that it was indeed a bug and to fix it you needed to defeat the copy protection with a program such as Maverick. That seemed more than a little ironic to me.

[carmel_andrews]

I absolutely loved C64 rastan (on real hardware and via emulation)...I've only got past the castle stage (where you have to jump the ropes in the fire pit/swamp) once...and that was down to slowing down the emulation, unfortunately i lost my save i did and haven't played it since

 

That was one bitch of a game though (shame they nicked the soundtrack from gryzor/contra)

[SoulBlazer]

Never heard about that Metal Gear bug for C64. While I had, and loved the C64 as a kid, I only played Metal Gear for the NES. What was the bug about?

[TI99Kitty]

It seems to me there were many adventure games where you had to start over because they became unwindable if you did anything wrong at some point.

 

*cough*ScottAdamsAdventures*cough*

 

But back to game-killing bugs:

 

"Neopets: The Darkest Faerie" (PS2) seems to have a lot of problems with collision detection -- at least between characters and scenery. During boss battles, the boss can accidentally jump into a wall and get stuck there, making the battle unfinishable. At one point, when you're exploring some underground caves, if you try to jump over a lava-filled crack in the floor (and fall into the crack), you wind up *inside* the floor (and between the walls); essentially the same as the way the bosses get stuck during boss battles. While these don't happen *every* time, they happen often enough to have been repeatedly documented; and when they *do* happen, you can't finish the game.

[+thegoldenband]

Another one for the list: Samurai Showdown for the Sega CD allegedly crashes on the final boss, Amakusa.

[DaytonaUSA]

Jet Moto 2. I can't tell you how many times, just in the last couple days playing it, my jet rider has gone through the floor or "wall" after a jump and fallen down onto the background, below the level. Why this game sold millions is beyond me.

 

Seriously, go play the snow level, it's one of the checkpoints. If you hit the checkpoint sign and fall to the right of it, where a wall of snow is, you'll fall to an unresetable death. Very very sloppy programming...

[Bruce Tomlin]

I'm not sure I would call it a "bug", but the "Crazy" mode of Gurumin for PSP is probably impossible because the buttons are too close together to play it well enough. (I was able to get through all the other stages, but I don't think I even finished the first level on Crazy.)

 

With the buttons brought out to an arcade-style control panel so that each button gets its own finger, it could probably be done, but the PSP doesn't support external controls.

[Zap!]

Haven't read through all four pages, but I really hope Rygar for the NES was mentioned. Also, if you don't do something in King's Quest V (not throwing a fish at a running cat I think), you can't win the game. Not really a bug, but more of a bad design flaw.

[+thegoldenband]

Haven't read through all four pages, but I really hope Rygar for the NES was mentioned.

 

I've beaten this game multiple times (on real hardware and in emulation), so it can definitely be completed. I know it's a glitchy game, but I don't know of any glitches that render it uncompleteable...

[Tempest]

Haven't read through all four pages, but I really hope Rygar for the NES was mentioned.

 

I've beaten this game multiple times (on real hardware and in emulation), so it can definitely be completed. I know it's a glitchy game, but I don't know of any glitches that render it uncompleteable...

Ditto. I used to beat this all the time.

 

Tempest

[Zap!]

Haven't read through all four pages, but I really hope Rygar for the NES was mentioned.

 

I've beaten this game multiple times (on real hardware and in emulation), so it can definitely be completed. I know it's a glitchy game, but I don't know of any glitches that render it uncompleteable...

 

I never said either were unbeatable (I've beaten them both). But if you do something specific in both games, it renders them both unbeatable.

Edited December 22, 2009 by White Knight

[+thegoldenband]

I never said either were unbeatable (I've beaten them both). But if you do something specific in both games, it renders them both unbeatable.

Do you hapepn to remember how this works with Rygar? I can't find anything online about it, and would be curious to know what the sequence of events is that triggers the unbeatable state.

 

I've messed around with Rygar a bit, once using glitches to get to the final boss without using my weapon once -- a "pacifist run" that ended with the final boss, since at your starting strength, it'd take over ten thousand hits to kill him...

Edited December 22, 2009 by thegoldenband

[Zap!]

I never said either were unbeatable (I've beaten them both). But if you do something specific in both games, it renders them both unbeatable.

Do you hapepn to remember how this works with Rygar? I can't find anything online about it, and would be curious to know what the sequence of events is that triggers the unbeatable state.

 

I've messed around with Rygar a bit, once using glitches to get to the final boss without using my weapon once -- a "pacifist run" that ended with the final boss, since at your starting strength, it'd take over ten thousand hits to kill him...

 

I remember reading about this in a magazine. Maybe EGM, maybe VG&CE, around 1990 or so. I never did it, but I know it's in the final stage. You know the last guy (Lygar I think)? Before you get to him will be a maze of some sort with pits. Fall in the pits and you die. However, one pit you don't die, you just stay there, and there is no escape! Do you have a high save file on a NES emulator where you're toward the end of the game?

[+thegoldenband]

Funnily enough, I do have a savestate at the right spot! I remember the goofy glitch where you can jump offscreen to the left from the start of the Sky Castle, but nothing about a pit trap.

[ericwierson]

Thayers quest is unbeatable. The game was never finished. The last two kingdoms are not possible to beat, as they were never made. I remember playing this up in Seattle when I stayed with my cousins. We would pump endless quarters trying to figure out why we could not get any further, turns out the ending was never made.

[Arjak]

If you are referring to the original Arcade version, then I believe you are correct. Luckily, for home releases, I believe they fixed this, and the current owner of the rights to the game (Digital Leisure) made a sequel that covers the rest of the story.