Worst bug in a Turbo game?

[guyjin]

So me and a friend were having a discussion of the merits of Computer games vs. Console games. One of the points I tried to make is that, since there is a company in charge of a console's releases, they can keep out the really bad games. (hopefully.) He brought up the infamous 7800 Impossible Mission, which actually is impossible.

Which got me to thinking - what was the worst bug that made it into a released TG16 game? Given that virtually all of them were released in Japan, and 'playtested' for us there first, there shouldn't be many.

[OldRover]

Impossamole's or Exile II's collision detection bugs. The Legendary Axe gets honorable mention for the same kind of bug.

[NecroPhile]

Hands down, the worst is the queen ant in It Came From The Desert. 

Second place goes to games like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and Shape Shifter that like to delete other save data at random.

[DragonmasterDan]

Exile II US's unbalanced enemy difficulty is another one, in addition to the collision detection issues. That game has serious problems.

[CrackTiger]

Loom: Unless I got my only defective Turbo game when I bought it new, the game was glitchy and buggy throughout. Garbled graphics at times, crashing, saves that don't work, etc.



If we're counting design flaws/imperfections, then:


Night Creatures: gameplay essentially broken and you can be juggled infinitely by enemies.

Cosmic Fantasy 2: status ailments don't exist(?)

Dragon's Curse: sneaking into Tiger Man's dungeon and defeating the boss gives you all of the game's transformations.

Shape Shifter: Holding down jump while transforming makes your character jump once they transformation is complete, even in mid-air. Allows you to fly through the game and potentially skip 90% of it, once you get the Shadowcat form.



Non-Turbo bugs:

Monster Maker: if you don't complete a particular dungeon towards the end of the game in one go, the game can never be completed. Wasting dozens of hours of playtime.

Hi Leg Fantasy: the game gave to memory space warnings, saving for the first time simply wiped out all of my game saves, including one for Cosmic Fantasy 3 approximately 2/3 through the game.

[NecroPhile]

Loom: Unless I got my only defective Turbo game when I bought it new, the game was glitchy and buggy throughout. Garbled graphics at times, crashing, saves that don't work, etc.

Perhaps it is defective, as I've never had any troubles with mine (also purchased new) and it's been played through at least a dozen times.

[CrackTiger]

Loom: Unless I got my only defective Turbo game when I bought it new, the game was glitchy and buggy throughout. Garbled graphics at times, crashing, saves that don't work, etc.

Perhaps it is defective, as I've never had any troubles with mine (also purchased new) and it's been played through at least a dozen times.

That would make me feel better about returning it as defective and exchanging it for Air Zonk.

[hoobs88]

The music in Order of the Griffon cutting out during battles.

[DesmondThe3rd]

The Godawful frame rates in Falcon and Gunboat, I find them nearly unplayable because of this. I also hate the sloppy hit detection in Fighting Street as well.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Insanity has a bug where the game sucks.

;D lol

I thought the dumbest bug in a game is the Keith Courage "last boss is loleasy" bug.

[CrackTiger]

Insanity has a bug where the game sucks.

;D lol

I thought the dumbest bug in a game is the Keith Courage "last boss is loleasy" bug.

Is that the boss that doesn't move if you fall al the way to the right when entering the boss area?


Strider's color palette may be fugly due to a bug, since some of the detail in sprites is colored invisible. It would explain the unusual coloring. The root problem for all the game's problems is sloppy development though.

[majors]

Cosmic Fantasy 2: status ailments don't exist(?)

Truth. Such a toll to go through that game.

[Shrapnoid]

I can't remember anything just now except the near impossibility of pulling off a Dragon Punch in Fighting Street.
Just to do Ha-do-ken and Hurricane kick, you practically have to do the motions twice and then push the button during the second rotation!

The only other thing that comes to mind right now isn't what I'd call a bug but, it has always been a mystery to me.
In Blazing Lazers, level 3 there is this incredible power-up that you can get but, I've only seen it twice in 20 years and I've played it enough that if it's a result of some sort of bonus or secret target, I should have been able to uncover it by now.
It's what I can only describe as a flashing replica of your ship and once you touch it, you become the scariest thing with weapons in the game.
I don't remember if it has a set amount of time until it goes away or if you loose it upon getting other power-ups or what but, it will turn you into a force to be reckoned with.
I've done searches on this on and off over the years and nothing comes up.

Anyone have any idea what this is and exactly how to make it happen?  

[jayamine]

I never had a single problem with Loom, beat it on all difficulties too. My first SCUMM game.

Worst bug? Spending all that time in Exile 2 raising the last experience level (going from 30k xp to 65535xp at 20xp per kill)only to have it NOT happen ... and then calling the WD help line only to hear, "oh yeah, that's a bug in the game."

[Alt-Nintega]

Insanity has a bug where the game sucks.

;D lol

I thought the dumbest bug in a game is the Keith Courage "last boss is loleasy" bug.

Is that the boss that doesn't move if you fall al the way to the right when entering the boss area?


Strider's color palette may be fugly due to a bug, since some of the detail in sprites is colored invisible. It would explain the unusual coloring. The root problem for all the game's problems is sloppy development though.

I haven't played that many Turbo games, but I have to say that Keith Courage fall through and pwn the last boss is one of the worst bugs.

[DragonmasterDan]

Worst bug? Spending all that time in Exile 2 raising the last experience level (going from 30k xp to 65535xp at 20xp per kill)only to have it NOT happen ... and then calling the WD help line only to hear, "oh yeah, that's a bug in the game."

Since Vic via Gaijinworks, via Sunsoft owning telenets IPs now has the rights to that game again. I really want to see a fixed version of it.

[OldRover]

I thought the dumbest bug in a game is the Keith Courage "last boss is loleasy" bug.

That's not a bug, it's a debug detail that was never taken out of the game. I figure they forgot about it. We do stuff like that all the time to test certain features; I reckon they forgot about it after they finished testing the end sequence. I don't remember the ending being a part of the debug menu, so I guess that's how they tested it.

Worst bug? Spending all that time in Exile 2 raising the last experience level (going from 30k xp to 65535xp at 20xp per kill)only to have it NOT happen ... and then calling the WD help line only to hear, "oh yeah, that's a bug in the game."

This, too, isn't a bug, and it's blatantly easy to figure out that since the next level is more than 30x the number of points as the previous level required, that there is no "next level". Exile 1 made 0 the points for "Next", which would have been good to do here too, but oh well... speaking of which, Exile 1 has an experience bug as well, but it's not a huge deal.

[Keranu]

How about Riot Zone where you can keep using your special move if your life bar is low enough? At least I think that was the bug, been a long time since I've played it.

[NecroPhile]

How about Riot Zone where you can keep using your special move if your life bar is low enough? At least I think that was the bug, been a long time since I've played it.

It's a fast punch if you're life is depleted.  I figure that was a feature, not a bug.

[jayamine]

No it's a bug in Exile 2. You'll be at level 15. And it says you can raise more xp to get to the next level. And you hit that xp amount (which is also the max xp cap) and nothing happens, no level increase, no nothing.

[OldRover]

No it's a bug in Exile 2. You'll be at level 15. And it says you can raise more xp to get to the next level. And you hit that xp amount (which is also the max xp cap) and nothing happens, no level increase, no nothing.

I know what you're talking about... it gives a value of 65535 experience points, which is more than 30 times what it took to get to the level prior. I guess they assumed that no one would be crazy enough to actually try to go that high. 65535 is the highest possible value of an unsigned 16 bit integer. They were probably like "hey, let's see how many people waste all day trying to get this high..." Could have avoided it just by setting that value to 0 like in the first Exile...

It's a fast punch if you're life is depleted.  I figure that was a feature, not a bug.

Dunno if this one is a bug or a feature, but it's certainly easily exploitable. Turbo both buttons and hold on them and you can wipe out anyone in mere seconds, even the final boss. I'm gonna err on the side of "bug" though.

[jayamine]

So you're saying Vic did on purpose? That creep!
The game was so hard that I figured raising that last level was the key to powering up enough ... and I actually did it. :-(

Oh but wait, it was the same thing in Cosmic Fantasy 2. the next to last level was 65535 xp points per character (which I did and it worked) and the final level was 99999 (which I never did). Bet it would have been a waste

[OldRover]

It's like that in the Japanese original as well.

[Senshi]

The music in Order of the Griffon cutting out during battles.

Here I thought it was just me

[jayamine]

Yeah, I remember Griffon doing that on mine too, specifically during the final boss fight cause it dragged on so long.

[FraGMarE]

The only other thing that comes to mind right now isn't what I'd call a bug but, it has always been a mystery to me.
In Blazing Lazers, level 3 there is this incredible power-up that you can get but, I've only seen it twice in 20 years and I've played it enough that if it's a result of some sort of bonus or secret target, I should have been able to uncover it by now.
It's what I can only describe as a flashing replica of your ship and once you touch it, you become the scariest thing with weapons in the game.
I don't remember if it has a set amount of time until it goes away or if you loose it upon getting other power-ups or what but, it will turn you into a force to be reckoned with.
I've done searches on this on and off over the years and nothing comes up.

Anyone have any idea what this is and exactly how to make it happen?   

Supposedly if you pick up like 50 or 100 consecutive pink orbs or something like that without touching any of the other power-ups, you get some kind of special weapon.  I've never tried it, but if it exists, I'd categorize that as more of an easter egg than a glitch.

As far as game glitches go, I'd have to say the fact that NO enemies in Cosmic Fantasy 2 (US or Jp version) use any kind of magic, poison, or anything other than melee attacks against you... despite there being items in the game that protect from said special attacks.  It really dumbs down the game and makes combat pretty boring imo.  No idea how that escaped playtesting.  Also, I remember the videos in Sherlock Holmes screwing up sometimes on my TG16 + TG-CD and getting all garbled and scratchy.  Did anyone else ever experience that?

[NecroPhile]

As far as game glitches go, I'd have to say the fact that NO enemies in Cosmic Fantasy 2 (US or Jp version) use any kind of magic, poison, or anything other than melee attacks against you... despite there being items in the game that protect from said special attacks.

Is that a glitch, though, or just an unfinished feature?

[FraGMarE]

As far as game glitches go, I'd have to say the fact that NO enemies in Cosmic Fantasy 2 (US or Jp version) use any kind of magic, poison, or anything other than melee attacks against you... despite there being items in the game that protect from said special attacks.

Is that a glitch, though, or just an unfinished feature?

Who knows.  It's hard to say, I suppose.  At any rate, it's a big mark against the game.  It's still an adequate RPG, but that particular glitch or unfinished feature makes the game damn boring at times.  I remember setting the turbo switch to high on the command button and just plowing through battles by holding down the button... because after a while it became apparent that no monster in the game actually used magic/poison/curses/etc.

[FraGMarE]

Oh!  Speaking of glitches, did anyone else ever experience the game freezing up for a while in Dracula X during the Bat/Medusa/Frankenstein boss rush when you played it on a Duo?  That would happen almost every time when my old room mate and I played Dracula X... Right after defeating the bat when the pentagram in the background starts to move, but before Medusa appeared, iirc.  He claimed tapping on the Duo CD lid helped unfreeze it faster, but I don't know if he was right.

[CrackTiger]

Oh!  Speaking of glitches, did anyone else ever experience the game freezing up for a while in Dracula X during the Bat/Medusa/Frankenstein boss rush when you played it on a Duo?  That would happen almost every time when my old room mate and I played Dracula X... Right after defeating the bat when the pentagram in the background starts to move, but before Medusa appeared, iirc.  He claimed tapping on the Duo CD lid helped unfreeze it faster, but I don't know if he was right.

I believe that the game loads between each of those bosses. The laser probably got just got lost and tapping or opening the CD door would have reset it.

[TheClash603]

One time when I was playing Alien Crush my ball got stuck in a bumper and my score infinitely went up.  Had to reset the game and I have never been able to replicate this.

Also, one time in Tale Spin, I fell into the background a-la magic whistle in Mario 3.  I was able to walk to the end of the stage, but the stage didn't end.  Again, I have never been able to replicate this.

I should've taken pictures/videos for each of these.

[arromdee]

As far as game glitches go, I'd have to say the fact that NO enemies in Cosmic Fantasy 2 (US or Jp version) use any kind of magic, poison, or anything other than melee attacks against you... despite there being items in the game that protect from said special attacks.

I actually called them up at the time and got an answer.  Supposedly the special attacks do have an effect, but the effect just adds extra damage rather than being a special attack.  The protective items protect you from the extra damage.  No idea if that's true.

[HercTNT]

Not in my experience. I never had a single enemy hit me with a status ailment or do extra damage. I have owned the game twice and both copies were the same in that respect.

[FraGMarE]

As far as game glitches go, I'd have to say the fact that NO enemies in Cosmic Fantasy 2 (US or Jp version) use any kind of magic, poison, or anything other than melee attacks against you... despite there being items in the game that protect from said special attacks.

I actually called them up at the time and got an answer.  Supposedly the special attacks do have an effect, but the effect just adds extra damage rather than being a special attack.  The protective items protect you from the extra damage.  No idea if that's true.

Yea, I called Workding Designs back in like 1993 or something about and got the same bullshit answer.  They just plain didn't put them in the game.  It's not really Working Design's fault, though.  It's Telenet's fault, since they developed the Jp version and Working Designs simply translated it.  Telenet... making half ass yet still halfway decent games since 1983!  

[esteban]

I can't think of any Turbo-glitches at the moment (gimmee time), but...

One time when I was playing Alien Crush my ball got stuck in a bumper and my score infinitely went up.  Had to reset the game and I have never been able to replicate this.

Also, one time in Tale Spin, I fell into the background a-la magic whistle in Mario 3.  I was able to walk to the end of the stage, but the stage didn't end.  Again, I have never been able to replicate this.

I should've taken pictures/videos for each of these.

...your post reminded me of a glitch in R-Types on PlayStation 1. I was playing R-Type and I blew up the first level boss, but I steered my ship into a stray bullet and blew up. This event qualified as completing the stage and I was able to play the next level, but with background graphics totally garbled and few (if any) of the enemy sprites visible. I made it pretty far...considering that my ship was invisible as well and it was easy to get stuck behind wall/barriers in the second stage.

Crazy.

[Keith Courage]

I have a bug to mention and I am not sure if it is suppose to be a cheat code that no one has ever figured out but.... I remembered when I was a kid I had a faulty turbo tap and the player one port would glitch out from time to time. Well I used this tap a few times in the game World Class Baseball and by accident the turbo tap glitched the game making it possible to play as the Championship team. I have never found a code or cheat anywhere to do this. Makes me think it exists but I have no idea what the button combinations would have been to make it work.

[Shrapnoid]

Oh!  Speaking of glitches, did anyone else ever experience the game freezing up for a while in Dracula X during the Bat/Medusa/Frankenstein boss rush when you played it on a Duo?  That would happen almost every time when my old room mate and I played Dracula X... Right after defeating the bat when the pentagram in the background starts to move, but before Medusa appeared, iirc.  He claimed tapping on the Duo CD lid helped unfreeze it faster, but I don't know if he was right.

I had to tap my Duo to get some CD games to move on too when they'd get stuck. Not long after I got the system this started but, a technician at TTI had warned me that this came from me having the console sitting directly on the carpet while playing it.
After I took her advice and put it on a shelf, this happened a lot less often and happens less and less as time goes on. It's weird, almost as though it's healing it's self.

Sorry I wasn't around to tell you, thanks for pointing out how to get that super power-up in Blazing Lazers, I was so busy with trades and transactions that I thought this thread had died but, it's good to see it alive and kicking.

[HercTNT]

I know this is gonna sound like blatant butt snorkling, but i have not ran into to many turbo bugs. I just think they were alot better about ironing out their software before they released it. I

can think of numerous nes, snes, and genesis games that were buggy as hell.