Best bug/glitch to be implemented into game mechanics

[Devil'sAdvocate]

After having played Tribes: Ascend - first for nostalgic value, now due to good old addiction - for a week or two now, I realized that several key gameplay mechanics made their appearance in the original, Starsiege Tribes, in the form of glitch or bug (skiing, punting, disc-jumping etc)

What is your favorite glitch-gone-gameplay-mechanic?

 

[StriderShinryu]

Easy one. Combos, particularly 2in1 cancels, from Street Fighter 2. Never intended and yet so awesome they've been used in pretty much every fighting game since.

 

[Hazy992]

The combos in Street Figh...

Easy one. Combos, particularly 2in1 cancels, from Street Fighter 2. Never intended and yet so awesome they've been used in pretty much every fighting game since.

NVM ninja'd

 

[Lilani]

There's an article somewhere here on the Escapist that talked about how in the original Team Fortress, there was an error where a person on the other team would have the model of a friendly person. That error always threw the other team for a loop, and upset the flow of the game (if one team was steamrolling the other, a friendly who can kill them could give the other team a chance to fight back). So, the team developing TF2 took that to heart, and so the Spy class was born.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Best. Physics. Glitch. Evar.

 

[thespyisdead]

hmm... one that comes to mind, would have to be the thing involving difficulty curves, and space invaders...

i think the story went, that a guy was making the space invaders game, and wanted for the things to move at a certain, constant rate, but because he did not have powerful enough hardware to run the arcade game on, the game would ALWAYS lag at the start, and gradually get faster, as the player cleared the sprites. this eventually became a feature of the said game.

 

[linwolf]

Stacking flying units in Starcraft.

 

[Eddie the head]

hmm... one that comes to mind, would have to be the thing involving difficulty curves, and space invaders...

i think the story went, that a guy was making the space invaders game, and wanted for the things to move at a certain, constant rate, but because he did not have powerful enough hardware to run the arcade game on, the game would ALWAYS lag at the start, and gradually get faster, as the player cleared the sprites. this eventually became a feature of the said game.

That's the one I was thinking of. Everyone has played space invaders so it's some thing we all know, but a lot of people didn't know that was a glitch at first.

 

[cgentero]

Didn't FEARs super aggressive AI come from a glitch? If it counts I'd say that.

 

[ElPatron]

Wasn't the Poltergeist in Alan Wake originally a physics glitch? That's not the best I can think of.

STALKER has so many bugs they can be considered gameplay features.

I seem to remember that Counter Strike had silent running and "surfing".

 

[fix-the-spade]

What is your favorite glitch-gone-gameplay-mechanic?

THE GLITCH IS A SPY!

In the original Quake Team Fortress mod, players would occasionally spawn with the skin and colours of the opposing team. In a game with no friendly fire and battles fought along strict borders, the ensuing havoc and paranoia turned out to be a really, really good gameplay mechanic. Queu patching.

The sad thing is, I'm old enough to remember it happening...

Alternatively, the Telefrag.
Simple glitch, one player teleports 'into' the other one's space, but Quake's physics doesn't allow for that, so it simply destroyed the destroyable object in the way. Not intentional, hilarious.

 

[Hazzard]

Skyrim has a huge glitch with a giant sending you into space, which apparently is staying and and not leaving.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Skyrim has a huge glitch with a giant sending you into space, which apparently is staying and and not leaving.

Ohh god yes..... I love that glitch.

 

[mjc0961]

The police AI from GTA was originally a glitch in another game that they were making that playtesters thought was really fun, so they scrapped the original game and created GTA. And we all know where that eventually lead: a series of fucking awesome games.

 

[Shockolate]

Watch 0:48 onward.
Bad game mechanics = good laughs.

From the guy who does the "Operation" Battlefield 3 videos.

 

[Yopaz]

Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts had some I found pretty neat since they let me get certain parts a lot earlier than I was supposed to.

In regards to glitches that doesn't give unfair advantage and that really takes some effort to pull off I have to give Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time a nomination. When you're going into the Deku tree you need a sword and shield before you could pass through to get to it. However if you were to pull the cartridge slightly out of its slot while moving towards the guard you could walk through him and bypass the need for sword and shield. Not a good idea, but possible.

There's also these