MissingNo.
Pokémon Red and Blue | |
Website | MissingNo. on Nintendo.com |
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MissingNo.
This beneficial effect resulted in the glitch's coverage by strategy guides and game magazines, while game publisher Nintendo warned that encountering the glitch may corrupt players' game data. IGN noted MissingNo.'s appearance in Pokémon Red and Blue was one of the most famous video game glitches and commented on its role in increasing the series' popularity. Fans have attempted to rationalize and incorporate MissingNo. as part of the games' canon as an actual in-game character, and sociologists have studied its impact on both players and gaming culture as a whole. Additionally, references to the glitch and the circumstances around it have also appeared in other games, such as Vampire Survivors and The Binding of Isaac.
History
Developed by
MissingNo. is not an official Pokémon species that players are meant to encounter, but it is accessible to players in European and North American copies of the games via a glitch. Nintendo of America first documented the events that cause MissingNo. to appear in the May 1999 issue of Nintendo Power. The company warned that "any contact with it (even if you don't catch it) could easily erase your game file or disrupt your graphics".[5] The glitch was not removed from the 2016[6] re-releases of Pokémon Red and Blue on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, so players can still encounter MissingNo. in these versions of the games.[7]
Characteristics
A player can encounter a MissingNo. in Pokémon Red and Blue by following a series of steps. First, the player watches an in-game tutorial for Pokémon capture in the game's Viridian City location. Second, the player uses a Pokémon with the "Fly" move to instantly travel to the game's Cinnabar Island location. Finally, the player uses a Pokémon with the "Surf" move to travel up and down on the eastern shore of the island until a MissingNo. appears.[8]
These events manipulate the game's random encounter system to generate a Pokémon with an invalid identifier. Each area within the game assigns values to a data buffer to represent the Pokémon that can be encountered in that area. However, some areas—such as Cinnabar Island—do not overwrite the data in this buffer, so the data from the previous area is used instead. During the Viridian City in-game tutorial, the player character's name is temporarily overridden to read "OLD MAN", and the player character's actual name is temporarily copied to that same data buffer. If the player travels directly to Cinnabar Island after viewing this tutorial, the player character's name will be read as the Pokémon that can be randomly encountered in that area. Due to the player character's name not being intended to be read as this kind of data, the game can attempt to generate an encounter with a Pokémon with an invalid identifier, such as MissingNo.[9][10] Fans have dubbed this method of encountering MissingNo. the "old man glitch".[9][11]
As with any wild Pokémon, players may flee from, fight, or capture MissingNo.
A captured MissingNo. is functional as a Pokémon and appears in the games' Pokédex as number 000.[9][10] The games classify it as a hybrid Bird/Normal-type Pokémon even though the category of Bird-type Pokémon was cut from the games before release.[9][15] It commonly appears with a scrambled block-like form commonly described as a "backward L-shape", but depending on the player character's name, it can also appear as one of three ghost or fossil sprites not used by other Pokémon.[14][12]
Reaction and reception
Calling MissingNo. a "programming quirk", Nintendo warned against encountering it, saying players could possibly have to restart the game from the beginning to remove the graphical glitches.[5][16][17] Despite Nintendo's warning, information on how to encounter MissingNo. was printed in several magazines and player's guides due to its perceived positive effect.[17][18][19] Certain players attempted to sell tips on capturing MissingNo. for up to $200.[20]
Despite it not being an intentional part of the game, in 2009,
Several authors have examined how video game glitches, including MissingNo., impact the player's perception of a game. In the 2004 book Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon, professor of education Julian Sefton-Green noticed that in his study of his son's reaction to MissingNo.'s usage as a
The game Vampire Survivors added a playable character named "missingNo." which featured randomized stats and a glitched graphical appearance. Originally only unlockable by modifying the game's code, a method was later added requiring the player to enter a glitched location and kill at least 128 of the enemies that spawned there as another reference to the original glitch.[13] MissingNo. is also referenced in the game The Binding of Isaac as "Missing No.", an item that will randomize other items found on each level of the game as well as their attributes while held.[29]
Notes
References
- ^ 本日2月27日で『ポケットモンスター 赤・緑』は25周年!初代ポケモンは"ヤバい最強技"や"バグ技"だらけだった!? [Today, February 27th, is the 25th anniversary of Pokémon Red and Blue! Was the first Pokémon generation filled with overpowered moves and exploits!?]. iNSIDE (in Japanese). February 27, 2021. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021.
バグを発生させると「けつばん」や「アネ゛デパミ゛」という意味不明なポケモンを呼び出すこともできました。
[If you were to make glitches occur, you could even cause nonsensical Pokémon like "Ketsuban" ('MissingNo') and "Anedepami" (''M') to appear.] - ^ Hilliard, Kyle (December 25, 2016). "Pokémon Red & Blue – A Look Back At The 20-Year Journey To Catch 'Em All". Game Informer. Archived from the original on October 1, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
- ^ ISBN 9780520938991.
- ^ "Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire Preview". Nintendo Power. Vol. 165. February 2003. p. 102.
- ^ a b Staff (May 1999). "Pokechat". Nintendo Power. Vol. 120. p. 101.
- ^ Eddie, Makuch (February 26, 2016). "Original Pokemon Virtual Console Re-Releases Support Pokemon Bank". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 17, 2021. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ Hernandez, Patricia (February 27, 2016). "How To Do The Missingno Glitch In Pokémon Red and Blue 3DS". Kotaku. Archived from the original on October 11, 2023. Retrieved October 14, 2023.
- ^ DeVries, Jack (November 24, 2008). "Pokemon Report: OMG Hacks". IGN. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 11, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2009.
- ^ a b c d Hernandez, Patricia (November 4, 2014). "Pokémon's Famous Missingno Glitch, Explained". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-1442278134. Archivedfrom the original on February 17, 2021. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g Preskey, Natasha (February 18, 2019). "The Mythos and Meaning Behind Pokémon's Most Famous Glitch". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
- ^ a b Hargett, Tyler (January 11, 2019). "Pokémon: 20 Side Quests Fans Completely Missed In Red And Blue". ScreenRant. Archived from the original on February 17, 2021. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ a b James, Sarah (September 16, 2022). "How to unlock MissingNo in Vampire Survivors". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on September 16, 2022. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ^ Sammut, Mark (January 4, 2019). "Pokémon Red And Blue: 25 Hidden Things Casual Fans Still Haven't Found". TheGamer. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ Nintendo. "Customer Service — Specific GamePak Troubleshooting". Archived from the original on January 27, 2008. Retrieved June 7, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-930206-15-1.
- ^ Staff (Summer–Fall 1999). "Top 50 Games". Pocket Games (1): 96.
- ^ "Guides: Pokemon Blue and Red". IGN. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved June 8, 2009.
- ^ Sweetman, Kim (December 28, 1999). "The latest Pokemon trend: if you can't beat 'em, cheat". The Daily Telegraph. p. 11.
- ^ Staff (April 9, 2009). "Gaming's Top 10 Easter Eggs". IGN. IGN Entertainment. p. 2. Archived from the original on June 5, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2009.
- ^ Drake, Audrey (January 10, 2011). "The Evolution of Pokémon". IGN. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on January 12, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- (PDF) from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-8223-3287-9.
- ISBN 978-0-415-38523-7.
- from the original on February 17, 2021. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
- ^ Janik, Justyna (2017). "Glitched perception: beyond the transparency and visibility of the video game object" (PDF). Transmissions: The Journal of Film and Media Studies. 2 (2): 65–82. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
- ISBN 9781501363832.
- ^ Cunningham, Kendall (September 18, 2022). "8 References To Pokemon In Other Games". TheGamer. Archived from the original on July 13, 2023. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
Further reading
- Geraghty, Lincoln (March 1, 2017). "Can Pikachu die? Online fan conspiracy theories and the Pokémon gaming universe". The Journal of Fandom Studies. 5 (1): 3–20. .
External links
- MissingNo. at Nintendo.com
- Media related to MissingNo. at Wikimedia Commons
- MissingNo. at Bulbapedia, a Pokémon wiki