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Quiz about Famous Video Game Bugs Glitches and Oddities
Quiz about Famous Video Game Bugs Glitches and Oddities

Famous Video Game Bugs, Glitches, and Oddities Quiz


How well do you know your video game bugs, glitches, and oddities? Take this quiz and find out! The following questions cover examples from various arcade classics to the home console systems.

A multiple-choice quiz by fz2001us. Estimated time: 7 mins.
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Author
fz2001us
Time
7 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
87,325
Updated
Jul 17 22
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Very Difficult
Avg Score
6 / 15
Plays
4551
- -
Question 1 of 15
1. What Nintendo Entertainment System RPG classic contains a castle where one of the characters you can converse with (if you manage to somehow find her) is an inexplicably invisible woman? Hint


Question 2 of 15
2. In early versions of the 1979 arcade smash hit 'Asteroids', what part of the screen could you "hide" indefinitely in and never have any object slam into you? Hint


Question 3 of 15
3. What Sega Genesis game gave us such infamous badly translated Japanese to English dialog as, "Somebody set us up the bomb," and, "All your base are belong to us?" Hint


Question 4 of 15
4. The Sega Master System console contains a secret built in game. What is the object of this hidden game? Hint


Question 5 of 15
5. What classic 1980 coin-op game unintentionally gives the player forty extra lives if his or her score hits a certain number? Hint


Question 6 of 15
6. The Intellivison cart 'Astrosmash' contains the code to a completely different game. Sometimes this game will come up, and can be played by the unsuspecting game player when she or he hits the reset button on the console with the cart still inserted. What is the name of this game?

Answer: (One Word)
Question 7 of 15
7. Which one of the following bugs was intended to be another of the insect adversaries in the 1980 arcade classic 'Centipede' but was eventually excised from the game before release? Hint


Question 8 of 15
8. Perhaps the biggest glitch ever: Which consoles version of the excellent Epyx game 'Impossible Mission' really is impossible to win due to a programming error? Hint


Question 9 of 15
9. Finish this poorly translated, and now legendary phrase from the Super Nintendo classic 'Final Fantasy 2' (which is Final Fantasy 4 in Japan): "You spoony ____!"

Answer: (One Word)
Question 10 of 15
10. Not a glitch per se, but it is a programming limitation that is exploited by expert 'Pac Man' players. What is it? Hint


Question 11 of 15
11. The computer version of the much loved adventure game 'Shadowgate' has an extra room that is absent in the Nintendo Entertainment System version. What room is it? Hint


Question 12 of 15
12. What is unusual about the attract mode for the 1981 arcade game 'Frogger'? Hint


Question 13 of 15
13. If you wanted to "fry" your Atari 2600 thereby causing you games to become glitchy and buggy, what would you do? Hint


Question 14 of 15
14. There is a debug mode you can access in 'Sonic the Hedgehog' for the Sega Genesis.


Question 15 of 15
15. The very first computer bug. What species was this pioneering bug, and on what American campus was the computer located that it bedeviled? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. What Nintendo Entertainment System RPG classic contains a castle where one of the characters you can converse with (if you manage to somehow find her) is an inexplicably invisible woman?

Answer: Final Fantasy

The woman's character sprite was rendered incorrectly. Characters that are not inside rooms before you enter are supposed to disappear when you do go inside. This simulates you being inside the room by making the screen completely vanish on the outside and leaving the room and what's inside as the only thing visible.

Here they got it backward. The woman was accidentally made visible only when you're *inside* a room. And since she isn't in or near a room in the game, she thus becomes the Amazing Invisible Woman.
2. In early versions of the 1979 arcade smash hit 'Asteroids', what part of the screen could you "hide" indefinitely in and never have any object slam into you?

Answer: The score field

Needless to say, this made the game far too easy for those in the know, and the glitch was removed from all later shipped 'Asteroids' games.
3. What Sega Genesis game gave us such infamous badly translated Japanese to English dialog as, "Somebody set us up the bomb," and, "All your base are belong to us?"

Answer: Zero Wing

The opening cinema sequence of this game provides many laughs with such mangled phrases.
4. The Sega Master System console contains a secret built in game. What is the object of this hidden game?

Answer: Guide a snail through a maze

Turn on your Master System without a cartridge and press up and both buttons at the same time to access it. This only works for the earliest Master System consoles as later versions have their own non hidden and documented built in games.
5. What classic 1980 coin-op game unintentionally gives the player forty extra lives if his or her score hits a certain number?

Answer: Tempest

The "magic number" is any six digit score where the first two numbers are greater than sixteen, the middle two are between twenty-nine and sixty, and the last two are zero and six, eleven, or twelve. If the last two digits are something else, all kinds of bizarre effects can happen, from the screen freezing to the game getting put into test mode. Needless to say, the programmers did not have this idea in mind!
6. The Intellivison cart 'Astrosmash' contains the code to a completely different game. Sometimes this game will come up, and can be played by the unsuspecting game player when she or he hits the reset button on the console with the cart still inserted. What is the name of this game?

Answer: Meteor!

'Astrosmash' started out as an entirely different game called 'Meteor!'. The earlier game was another 'Asteroids' clone. The programmer didn't care for the game much, and the legal department figured that Atari might sue them, since the game so resembled 'Asteroids.' So the intrepid programmer cut his losses by using the existing 'Meteor!' graphics and sound effects to make a new game, 'Astrosmash'.

The programmer didn't want to risk potential bugs and errors by altering the old 'Meteor!' code, so he stuck a branch routine around the opening menu straight into 'Astrosmash'.

The code for the 'Asteroids' clone 'Meteor!' is still in the cartridge. Sometimes if a player hit reset, a glitch caused 'Meteor!' to show up instead! This was a very rare occurrence I am told.
7. Which one of the following bugs was intended to be another of the insect adversaries in the 1980 arcade classic 'Centipede' but was eventually excised from the game before release?

Answer: Grasshopper

You can see the grasshopper's graphic sprites if you enter the test mode. The grasshopper has been completely removed from the actual game itself so don't think that it can be activated somehow!
8. Perhaps the biggest glitch ever: Which consoles version of the excellent Epyx game 'Impossible Mission' really is impossible to win due to a programming error?

Answer: Atari 7800

The cart was released with a bug where some of the pieces with which you need to solve the game are hidden under computer terminals but the game will not allow to you search the terminals and collect them. This bug was eventually fixed, but Atari never released the updated version in the United States.
9. Finish this poorly translated, and now legendary phrase from the Super Nintendo classic 'Final Fantasy 2' (which is Final Fantasy 4 in Japan): "You spoony ____!"

Answer: Bard

Another interesting choice in translation. Next to the Zero Wing gaffes, this quote is often cited as another example of the bizarre translation style that ruled in earlier video games.
10. Not a glitch per se, but it is a programming limitation that is exploited by expert 'Pac Man' players. What is it?

Answer: Ghost behavior patterns

The ghosts are programmed to behave exactly the same way in every maze no matter whether it is the first or hundredth time that someone is playing the game. Experts would memorize all the different ghost patterns for each stage and easily breeze through the game. This problem was corrected in the many 'Pac-Man' sequels such as 'Ms. Pac-Man'.
11. The computer version of the much loved adventure game 'Shadowgate' has an extra room that is absent in the Nintendo Entertainment System version. What room is it?

Answer: The Goblin Room

The Goblin Room consists of some goblins sitting around a table and several miscellaneous items scattered around. Trying to grab any of the items leads to the goblins attacking and killing you. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to get the goblins out of the way.
12. What is unusual about the attract mode for the 1981 arcade game 'Frogger'?

Answer: You can control the computer frog for one second

The frog becomes controllable in attract mode for about one second when it reaches the very top log.
13. If you wanted to "fry" your Atari 2600 thereby causing you games to become glitchy and buggy, what would you do?

Answer: Rapidly turn the power on and off with a cart inside

Some Atari 2600 fans use "frying" to study the odd effects it has on their favorite Atari 2600 carts. I don't recommend this myself. It could possibly cause permanent damage to the cartridges and/or console.
14. There is a debug mode you can access in 'Sonic the Hedgehog' for the Sega Genesis.

Answer: True

Nowadays debug modes are often meant to be used by the player as a sort of "easter egg."
15. The very first computer bug. What species was this pioneering bug, and on what American campus was the computer located that it bedeviled?

Answer: Moth, Harvard

Grace Murray Hopper was working at Harvard University on the Mark II computer when she found a dead moth jammed into a relay. The poor bug had accidentally stopped the delicate machine cold. She removed the moth, wrote down what happened to the computer in the log book, and glued the moth next to her written explanation. Since then, whenever the machine stopped working, the technicians would say that the computer needed to be "debugged." The page of the log book with the the moth still on it is preserved at the Smithsonian Institution.
Source: Author fz2001us

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor magpie8 before going online.
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