People who are really into playing video games are constantly looking for ways to outsmart the game, so they explore different areas of the graphics and use the controls in imaginative ways. Sometimes they find interesting things that the designers of the game never intended. Some of these glitches or bugs in the programming show up immediately when the game is played; others can be found only by playing the game over and over.

One such glitch is in the 1979 arcade version of Asteroids, where you can hide indefinitely in the score field and never get hit. The classic 1980 coin-operated game Tempest has an interesting glitch. The player will receive 40 extra lives if he hits certain numbers in his score. In the console version of Atari 7800, there’s a terrible bug in the cart. Some of the pieces you need to solve the game are hidden in an area where the game won’t allow access. Talk about frustration! The Pokémon games, especially the older versions, contain several glitches. Players can duplicate items, catch unobtainable Pokémon and do things the game ordinarily wouldn’t allow. But there are consequences; the game’s functions become distorted and some of these glitches can ruin saved files.

Mega Man contains a very famous glitch known as the Pause Trick. Players can pause the game long enough to shoot ‘the boss’ multiple times with the Thunder Beam weapon. Since it’s a difficult game for most players to win, knowing how to use this glitch gives them the means to an end. In other words, they are cheating the game.