Good Bad Bugs

We hardly knew ye.


"Last version was better," says Floyd. "More bugs. Bugs make game fun."
—Planetfall

Some software glitches are so weird and wonderful that everyone likes them and looks back upon them fondly.

There are two common breeding grounds of popular bugs. One is 8-bit and 16-bit consoles where the code, data and game state are stored in one homogeneous block, and a single misplaced pointer can read sound generation code as level data or write the graphic memory to the player inventory. The other is cutting-edge 3D games where half a dozen third-party renderers, physics engines and net codes can conflict with one another in freakish ways.

If a Good Bad Bug is liked enough, it may become an Ascended Glitch. Subtropes include Minus World and The Missingno.

If it's related to some game character somehow staying alive, it's Dead Character Walking.

Contrast Game Breaker, as well as Game Breaking Bugs that may not overlap with the former. They are often helpful to Speedrunners. This trope has nothing to do with friendly cockroaches and mosquitoes.

Examples of Good Bad Bugs are listed on these subpages:
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