Ok, here goes. This is going to be long...
I only listed bugs that I thought had enough significance.
The main reason I'm doing this is to answer the question people keep asking me:
How did I find certain bugs?
| Bug | ----- | Notes | ---- | How I found it |
|
GB Super Mario Land
screen wrap-around glitch (v1.0)
| |
Found sometime before or while working on a walkathon TAS.
Became useful only later, in the 12:08 "normal mode" improvement, saving ~1 second.
| |
By chance, when playing the game.
|
|
SNES Earthbound
"check area" glitch
| |
Aka. "tent glitch", wasn't initially found by me but after I saw it could trigger the game's debug menu,
I researched it a bit and managed to trigger the debug menu reliably on the Japanese version.
I collaborated with pirohiko to two runs.
| |
Saw others do it on Youtube.
Then did a TON of testing.
|
|
GB Daffy Duck The Marvin Missions
out of bounds glitch
| |
When visiting a new room, by abusing mechanics related to holding down the "Down" key and shooting,
it is possible to wander offscreen and reach glitch tiles that could send you to later points in the game.
| |
I don't really remember, but I was working with mmbossman
and glitch hunted the game a lot.
It was somewhat of a chance occurence.
|
|
GB Daffy Duck The Marvin Missions
health glitch
| |
Walk left and press "right" and "B".
For some reason it increases your health by 64 units, giving you "infinite health".
It took me more than 5 years to find that it had vastly different, more severe effects
on the GB version, as opposed to the SGB version.
| |
I think it happened to me while playing casually.
Basicly I saw the healthbar glitching out suddenly so I was like
"oh, I did this and then that happened".
|
|
GB The Smurfs
act 1 warp glitch
| |
When entering a stump and holding "up", it finishes the level instantly.
It works because you have "control" of the first frame.
So holding "up" makes you start out 1 pixel higher.
This makes you reach the exit trigger, which isn't updated yet.
| |
I didn't find.
A Youtuber named oudepatattezak pointed it out to me.
|
|
DS Kirby Squeak Squad
item get glitch
| |
When receiving an item, health or treasure at the same time you use an item,
you will keep the used item.
| |
Happened to me while playing casually,
I figured it could be a "two things happen at the same time" thing.
|
|
GB Trip World
preserving momentum while flying
| |
Every 16th frame, the game depletes from your x-speed.
By having the game paused on those frames, you can prevent the speed loss.
| |
I noticed x-speed behaving differently after pausing different amounts of frames.
|
|
GB Trip World
wall clipping
| |
Before I worked on this game, cyghfer(?) had found a clip in Level 4's miniboss.
The Trip World community asked to look into clipping possibilities so the game becomes interesting to speedrun again.
I tested around with the Clam miniboss in level 3 and actually ended up finding a clip.
When working on the new TAS, I found more clips along the way (Fish clip, Ball clip, Goku clip).
| |
Lots of testing.
The Ball and Goku clip work because the enemy can eject you to the side
and give you a 1 frame speed boost, in some cases enough to clip you into a wall.
So carefully watching the x-speed memory address helped a lot.
|
|
GB Super Mario Land 2
pipe glitch
| |
Most of the significant glitches in this game had already been found by other people.
The "garbage area" that you could reach using the pipe glitch caught my attention.
The game reads data that isn't meant to be read as level data -
each block represents one memory address.
I found that altering a certain address inside the "garbage area", $A2D5, can cause the game to finish on level (re-)start and I also found a way through the garbage area to reach said address.
Andymac helped a lot, e.g. by providing a map of the "garbage area" and explaining.
| |
I remember andymac kept saying there's no use in looking around
in the "garbage area", it's not going to do anything.
But I noticed all sorts of things could happen by breaking blocks at $A200 onwards,
such as screen flashing, giving you low gravity status or making the level start scrolling.
So I was persistent and tested a lot, eventually finding $A2D5.
|
|
GB Super Mario Land 2
pause glitch
| |
I already knew pausing rapidly can cause the map loading to mess up since 2008 or so.
In 2011 I noticed the game could reset itself or create blocks/coins flips above Mario's head when pausing during lag.
I then found that the bug could do some way interesting things.
Spikeman later explained that the bug has a chance of executing RAM addresses at $A201.
With help from Masterjun, I made the game read code that makes it jump to a ROM function that finishes the game.
I finished a very soon after.
| |
Lots and lots and lots of testing and trial-and-error.
|
|
GB Tennis
serve glitch
| |
Tossing the ball up, then having it land on you makes the game award you instead of the opponent.
| |
It was already a well known bug.
|
|
GB Bubble Ghost
respawn glitch
| |
Having the bubble burst at the same time it reaches a trigger makes it respawn on the other side of the room.
It happens because the game updates the information about which exit/entrance the bubble should appear in as soon as it reaches the trigger, but since it bursts, the bubble stays in the current room.
| |
Testing for "2 things happen at the same time" cases.
|
|
GBA Mario Pinball Land
save & quit
| |
The game lets you save and quit, then restart.
When done in certain situations (receiving stars or keys etc.), it saves time.
| |
I notice a shift of opinion between the early days and now.
Using softreset and using non-American versions was rather frowned upon, but now it's "anything goes". If softreset saves 1 second, go for it. If Japanese version saves 1 second on the title screen, go for it. If save & quit saves time, go for it.
I was opposed to using such techniques at first, but later I found it makes the run more interesting and I decided to go for absolutely fastest time no matter what.
|
|
GB The Adventures of Star Saver
stage 9 bug
| |
Approaching a stamper can glitch out the game.
It requires that you are in human form and haven't shoot a projectile throughout the level.
Not useful for speedrunning.
| |
By chance.
|
|
GBA Dragon Ball Z The Legacy of Goku
dialogue bug
| |
When text appears and you talk to someone, the game messes up trying to display both texts.
Not useful for speedrunning.
| |
Testing for "2 things at the same time" bugs.
|
|
GBA Dragon Ball Z The Legacy of Goku II
memory corruption
| |
When using a save point to switch characters, the ki blasts you shoot aren't removed but your attack stun is cleared.
Therefore, you can effectively shoot ki blasts every 2nd frame or so.
When doing it with Vegeta's Big Bang attack, the resulting explosions mess up the game.
Not useful yet.
| |
After watching a WIP by Bonecrusher1022 in VBA v23, I started messing around aimlessly for a bit.
By chance, I noticed that the ki blasts aren't removed when switching characters.
This quickly led up to the find of the bug. |
|
GBA Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
skipping half the game
| |
I found a decent amount of bugs in this game.
First Mini Mario glitch, then Action Command glitch, then Barrel storage and eventually the huge skip.
Others contributed by finding their own share of useful bugs (e.g sign glitch) and making the category work not only on JP but on all versions.
| |
I first stumbled upon Mini mario glitch when I was livestreaming, messing around in Bowser's Castle after a fullgame speedrun.
But I didn't know what had happened at the time and dismissed it.
Later when working on a TAS, I came across it again in Woohoo Hooniversity.
By playing around with it, I found the Action Command glitch.
Playing around with that, I managed to make it so I could teleport by screen lengths, which led to the huge skip discovery. |
- Play casually and become lucky
- Test certain scenarios, especially testing "2 things at the same time" cases:
Die and pause
Die and talk
Talk and reach loading zone
Die and reach loading zone
Get item and die
etc. etc. etc.
- Keep an eye on what others have found and put on Youtube(and Nicovideo), then try to expand on it
- Be curious and have open eyes. Don't dismiss things and
of your findings.
