First-Generation Glitches... Plus My Experience

The original first-generation main series Pokémon games are great games in their own right, but beyond their greatness, they hide a lot of flaws or glitches. I've noted this some months ago in a post about bugs and features, and more recently hinted about them when I discussed two pieces of lore regarding the games. I'm no stranger to a few of these glitches, having experienced them first-hand.

I've experienced what is called the "Old Man glitch", which is connected to the "fight Safari Zone Pokémon glitch". The key point of this glitch is that by Surfing on the eastern (right) shore next to Cinnabar Island or the Seafoam Islands, the player encounters wild Pokémon from the previous area with grass encounters (including but not limited to the Safari Zone), instead of sea Pokémon as expected, due to the way those shorelines are structured and how the Pokémon data is stored. While I've only rarely experienced the glitch to fight Safari Zone Pokémon, I've mostly experienced it for the former form. And when this happens, it leads to something far more serious.

The "Old Man glitch" allows encounters with Pokémon that exceed Level 100, as well as encounters with the glitch Pokémon MissingNo. and 'M (also known as M-Block). As a result of encountering these two glitch Pokémon, this triggers another glitch which duplicates the item in the sixth position of the Item Bag to 128. It's beneficial, yes, but a bit shady; what I can say is that I had completed the the games "cleanly" before I heard about and experienced these glitches, so I never used them to assist primary progress. As well, experiencing this glitch also corrupts the Hall of Fame, which I suppose means "you get what you pay for".

In Celadon City, the hotel looks much like a Pokémon Center, and in fact, an invisible PC can be used where one might think it would be. I've used this convenient glitch at times as an alternative to the normal Pokémon Center PC. There are also other invisible PCs in other parts of the game, but they aren't normally accessible. Further, this glitch (and in fact, all of the above except for MissingNo.) are fixed in the Yellow Version, which means the glitches really only apply to Red and Blue. But beyond that, there are many more glitches that I haven't experienced - one related to the Mew lore - and don't fit in the scope of this post.

The hallmark of the original first-generation games seem to go beyond the regular gameplay. The faults in their structure have also become infamous for what they can do. They are of course unintended, but they've become another inseparable side to that hallmark. At least, by having experienced them, I can testify that this is the case.

One year ago: I Need a Laugh - Pokémon Humor
Two years ago: Itasha Revisited