Just Leave it in There- Influential Accidents in Gaming

When was the last time an accident led to something good? Games are loaded to the brim of the glass with glitches. One of the most notorious types was cartridge tilting (it was so popular that cartridge tilting was featured on Project 64, a Nintendo 64 emulator). Several times, it produced hilarious results, but more often than not, it ended up breaking the game cartridge beyond repair (depending on the game it could be considered a good thing). However, that was something completely unintentional, and Nintendo did nothing about it other than let you burn $60. In this post, I am taking a look at the things left in by accident, but were actually good for gaming. Let's get started.

When Tomb Raider was in development, Toby Gard was left in charge of designing the characters, While he was making a model for Lara Croft, his mouse slid when he was designing her breasts. As a result Lara got unrealistic breast dimensions, and it was kept in because obviously gamers (and in this case, developers) don't know how to say no to hot chicks. Gamers loved Croft so much that they decided to make a "Nude Raider" modification for several of her games (You want a link? Get your mind out of the gutter or Google it yourself!). Even though later games in the series (specifically the 2013 reboot) turned down Lara to more realistic proportions, she is still respected as one of the best females in gaming.

I SWEAR TO GOD MY MOUSE SLID!

The "Grand Theft Auto" franchise is a series all about crimes. It did not start out that way. Rockstar North (at the time known as DMA Design since Rockstar Games did not own them yet) was working on a sandbox racing game called "Race 'N Chase". While the game was being tested, the testers got bored fast and started screwing around. Players were able to steal cars (hence the namesake) and run over pedestrians, and nearby witness called the police in, whom in turn would try to ram the player off the road (think entire Police force composed of Liam Neeson characters). This became so amusing that DMA changed the concept into a crime game, and in turn we got the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise that we know and love today (and even the Government can't resist giving it "attention").

In Team Fortress 2, when valve was designing the Spy class, there was a bug that transformed the spy into the other team's color (trolling followed shortly after). Valve retooled with the Spy so that they could be disguised as any class on the opposite team as well as become completely invisible for a few moments. The spy has not led too much outside of Team Fortress 2, but will always be an excellent source for angering your fellow gamers into rage quitting.

The Konami Code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start) was left in the arcade game Gradius by developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto. Hashimoto was too lazy to actually play through his game, so when he went to test it, he put the Konami Code in the game as a way to unlock all the power ups so that he could just speed through the game. He plopped the code in, "played" the game, collected his paycheck, and most likely sped off to Walmart and Starbucks to blow his ill-gotten gains. Unfortunately, Hashimoto forgot to delete the code before release, and even though Konami (namesake of the code/distributor of Gradius) could have penalized Hashimoto, they let him continue making games and the code became a beloved staple to gaming.

And this is where laziness gets you in life: Becoming an icon to popular culture.

The first (known) easter egg in gaming dates back to the Atari 2600. While programming the game Adventure (A 1979 game), programmer Warren Robinett wanted recognition for his hard work. He decided to program in a hidden room with his name formatted in one of the most awkward styles possible (and it was comfortable compared to today's giant 10 minute credit reels). When Atari published games for the 2600, it cost a good portion, and by the time the game was published, it was already too late. Warren Robinett got his rightful place in the game and beat the evil corporation of Atari (At the time they probably were an evil corporation). Ever since, easter eggs have been found in pretty much every game published, and are here to stay in video games.

Yes it was 1979 but they couldn't have put it horizontally?

Sometimes, forgetting about something such as a glitch can lead to disastrous results, and nearly tarnishing a developer's hard work. Even though such misfortunate games exist, many glitches have managed to become so influential that they are now staples of gaming (and generally ended up distinguishing most of their respective games at the time). Even if it is not supposed to be there, it's there and it's yours to abuse to your heart's content use.

-Game on

Jacob Bacci