Glitches That Surprisingly Made Video Games Better

 
 
Video game glitches are far more common today than they used to be back in the day. Or, it certainly seems like it. Today, what with the internet existing and everything, not only is it possible to ship a glitchy product, and get it into an acceptable state later (see also: DriveClub, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Battlefield 4), but word about these glitches also spreads faster than before.

Really it only takes one small error of coding to work its way into the game during the development process in order for a glitch to become present. These errors just happen by mistake and slip by programmers and the quality assurance testers. Or yes, sometimes, they are products of a rushed or lacking development cycle.

Usually when we spot a glitch it becomes a waiting game for developers to patch and fix the error. This leaves gamers stuck at certain locations, failing textures or a limited amount of time to enjoy an exploit within the particular video game. Very rarely do we see these glitches stick around within the game or ultimately help improve gameplay. Although, on those rare occasions, these glitches that end up in the video game code can sometimes actually spark creativity for future installments. We hunted down some pristine video games that greatly improved gameplay all thanks to these mistakes and glitches, and ended up becoming fixtures of pop culture.

Note: Some videos and images have been used only for representation purposes.

Quake

Do you know that Team Fortress, the popular free-to-play video game by Valve, is the result of a mod glitch in Quake? Or well, the original Team Fortress game is, at least (yes, there was an original Team Fortress, did you just assume they jumped straight to Team Fortress 2? Even Valve isn’t that bad at counting). Three friends decided to mod the game to allow team class-based battles. During the mod, the programmers found a glitch that would change the color of a player’s name to the opposing team’s color. Instead of fixing the glitch, the programmers felt it would be neat to include classes that would act as a spy and take out enemies secretly.

After releasing the mod online, Sierra Entertainment noticed that the game had potential and presented it to Valve Software. Valve Software loved the idea so much they asked the programmers to make a mod of Team Fortress while using the Half-Life engine. Team Fortress went on to become a massive success and two of the original programmers of the 1996 Quake Team Fortress mod still work for Valve Software.