The Let's Play Archive

Pokemon Glitch Exhibition

by Ephraim225

Part 1: Brock through walls



An accurate name for the company if there ever was one. (But they're cool people don't get me wrong.)



I've never understood the opening battle. Gengar and Jigglypuff? How could they even hit each other?



Moving onto the intro, we actually have a glitch right off the bat. Or I guess you could say it's merely a typo. Even though Nidorino is shown here, the sound effect that plays...is Nidorina's cry.



Anyways, the name of the player is very important for reasons we'll find out later.



The Rival name is not quite as important, but I want a capital A as the first letter.



Not content with destroying Final Fantasy VI, our hero moves on to corrupt and conquer another world.



This NPC is actually pretty interesting. The game doesn't seem to restrict her movement in any way. Let's observe.



If she touches the north fence, she seems to stop moving completely.



She can also go in doors and get stuck there, too. Getting her to move where you want can be difficult without fast forwarding in the emulator.



Here we see both NPCs have gotten stuck again. I need her to not do that. If you exit to the north she'll actually vanish into thin air, because the town NPCs are unloaded.



Bingo! I need her to stay still in that spot for this trick to work.



We trigger the event where Oak appears. Where the heck was he before now?



If the NPC is standing in that spot, it messes up the pathing of the event. Now I'm one space to the right of where I should be.



And I not only pass through the sign, but I'm on the roof now?



And then I get stuck in the wall. Unfortunately I can't do anything now and have to reset. Oops!



We continue the game normally. Fortunately that glitch doesn't hurt too bad since it's very early in the game.



On second thought, you know what? I don't actually want a Pokémon after all. Let me go!



Er, what? After about 50 attempts to leave, this happened...no buttons work except Start.



aaaaaaaa is right! What the heck is this?!



Oh good, closing the menu fixes it.



I guess I'll choose a starter after all. Squirtle is the objectively best choice, because Charmander has to wait a few levels for an elemental move, and no self-respecting trainer would ever choose a Grass starter.



Case in point.



I've never understood these opening Tackle fights between starters. I get that they're pretty much tutorials, but they're entirely luck-driven. Did you know all moves have a 1/256 chance of missing unless it's Swift? Funny thing to note.



Can't really do much fun stuff until we get the Pokédex, so we progress normally until then. Next, I start to level up some, because we're gonna need it. This next trick requires having no Pokéballs, no Pokémon except the starter, and no badges.



This optional battle has some luck to it. You can't get rid of the reduced accuracy by switching, because you have no other Pokémon. Fortunately, defeating Bulbasaur is simple if you use Tail Whip a lot.



Man, they KNEW you needed luck to win this one.



So what was the point of that? Well, if you beat that battle and haven't gotten any Pokéballs or badges yet, the Professor kindly gives you five free Pokéballs. Most people don't actually know you can do this, because who would think to fight that battle and then go back here? Later generations give you free Pokéballs around the same time as the Pokédex, so good on them.



The text box is glitched, though. Maybe this was a last minute addition?



So now I'm going to capture this Pidgey...



...and get its butt kicked!



Why, you ask? Well, when depositing a Pokémon the game does not check to see if you have other Pokémon not fainted yet.



I'm literally wandering around with no concious Pokémon. Fun!



But not for long. Every four steps the game checks to see if you've blacked out because your last Pokémon fainted from poison. However!



If you take three steps, save, then reset, the step counter also resets, so you can wander around like this as long as you keep saving and resetting.

Naturally, I decided to see what would happen if you entered battle like this. So, TEN MINUTES LATER...



Man I hope to never have to do that again.



Oh. So it turns out the game blacks you out before you even send out anything. I suppose it's amusing.



So, moving onto Viridian Forest.



Take a close look at the column I'm standing on here. See how it has a tile with 3 blades of grass and a flower in the bottom-right of the tile? Tiles that look like that NEVER generate a random encounter, because...er...they just forgot to make the tile give encounters, I guess? So anytime you're walking through here you can reduce the chances of a wild Pokémon appearing by sticking to those tiles.



I did want to catch this, however. Pikachu is very important at this point. (Metapod is not. I caught him without thinking.)



This guy will be important later, though I can't REALLY show why. There's no way to pass without beating him.



We move on to Pewter City. Remember this annoying NPC? He won't let me leave town until I have the first badge.



However, if you close his text box with B instead of A and push start before he starts moving, the menu pops up! However, the cursor can't move. So before talking to him, put the cursor on Save beforehand, so you can save at this point.



After saving, I...start moving on my own without him. I reset.



He gives this line but immedietely starts talking again. Strange.



Looks like he's the one having a pathing error now.



Then he teleports and starts walking right. That was always strange to me since he walks right into an offscreen fence...



But wait! He's gone! If you walk along the top of the road where he was standing...



You can skip the Pewter gym entirely! That's a fun sequence break, but what if there was an even BIGGER sequence break?



At this point, I've arranged my party like so. Your first Pokémon must have 16 Special EXACTLY and your second Pokémon must be Pidgey with 15 remaining HP. Mine just so happens to have 15 max HP.

I do not know WHY you need to arrange them like this, but if you do...



I kinda feel bad about skipping this guy, so I'll talk to him from the right to mock him for being a useless roadblock that doesn't block roads make him feel better.



Huh? Why is there a particle from moving a Strength boulder?



Wait, what are you...



Where are you going?! What?!



What I've just done is triggered a glitch state where you can walk through any wall in the game. This is the creatively titled "Brock through walls" glitch. If you stop moving the menu likes to pop up constantly unless you're holding a button, so hold B and you can move anywhere.



Hey, remember that cave or whatever? Turns out it's only four tiles large.



We all need, to shine on, to see



How far we've come on our journey



This is the building where a guard stops you from going into Saffron City. However, all you have to do is walk south with this glitch and you're there!



Walking around like this is fun, and you can in fact do a full lap around Kanto if you desire, but it stops as soon as you enter a building. Also the game crashes if you step out of bounds, so be careful!



So at this point, I decide to go to Celadon City. Luckily, even though the road is closed, it's only closed to entry, not exit.



I will laugh, this game is hilariously broken. I need a Coin Case, so I pick it up here.



In Celadon City, there is a hotel building for...some reason. Looks kinda like the Pokémon Centers.



There's even a PC here! Except it's invisible. Funny, but not useful.



Coins are scattered around the floor in the Game Corner, and some NPCs give you free coins.



I used them to buy a much-needed Abra, since it has Teleport. The prices here are much lower in Blue than they are in Red. Never play Red version, by the way.



You're...sharing the drink? Interesting...

Now, I don't really need to buy a drink and unlock the gates, since I could just Teleport back into Saffron City whenever I want, since Teleport sends you back to the most recent Pokémon Center you entered. But I'd like to not have to go back so far every time I Teleport.



Hidden Rare Candy in Cerulean City. Important.

So now that we've broken sequence, let's explore the trick every Generation 1 player has embedded into their--



Oh. Um...I forgot about you.



Yeah we might be just a teensy bit underleveled due to skipping all those trainers...