Glitched NES Graphics - Exploring with TK - Thank you 1985 for being so different

[TrippinKahlua]

So you know how the NES was designed in the US Market right? Made to load like a VCR yet it didn't really keep long due to the mechanism used. You needed to blow into the contacts to get a solid "touch" to what it needs to connect to.

Well, way back in 1991 I always found that sometimes the games load but the graphics are all messed up.

I feel this aspect of the NES isn't talked about much on the internet, so let's explore this concept a bit and see what we could find in Super Mario Bros 3.

These are all Garbage data but the way Garbage data works is it will load graphic tiles from different spots of the program leading to all kinds of wacky sights. Sometimes it even loads up beta and deleted objects.

Imagine that, in 1991 you uncovered beta elements on your own without internet.

I discovered a "Blue World 0" in SMB3 once and even had levels I could get into.

But anyway, time for something interesting. I am gonna go through every level tonight. I decided to post this here after World 1 because things were just so interesting.

This is all being done without a game genie

I will PSUSE the game later with an update as I go through World 3

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

This kinda reminds me where James was talking about facing one of the bosses in Mega Man 5 and the game glitched because it didn't show the graphics moving, but the programming was still there.

 

[Exorbital Columnations]

That's really something, my friend.

 

[Yellow Yam Scam]

all that wood panelling bro...

 

[Chin of Campbell]

Grmmtinos, pesky plumbers!

Fun thread, I like it.

 

[TrippinKahlua]

Well guess what. Just after I posted the thread, the game reset itself. It's not that perfect of a method. The game could have reset without the glitchy graphics.

I might try again after dinner. See this is the kind of thing I should carry onto YouTube.

 

[The Last Stand]

Nice setup. It looks like an average American living room in the 90s. I could smell the carpet. Godspeed.

 

[Exorbital Columnations]

Well guess what. Just after I posted the thread, the game reset itself. It's not that perfect of a method. The game could have reset without the glitchy graphics.

I might try again after dinner. See this is the kind of thing I should carry onto YouTube.

I think you're really going places.

 

[Shaved Kiwis]

Did you know that blowing on the contacts is bad? Causes them to corrode long term. I had a PAL Famiclone as a kid and even I used rubbing alcohol on my bootleg cartridges. As far as the glitching goes most seem to do this by physically tilting the cart. Which is something I learned to avoid when I was six as my pops spazzed out at 2 am because he beat the hoverbike level in Battletoads, but locked up the console after bumping the cartridge. The funny thing was I distinctly remember him fiddling with it for an ungodly amount of time until he got it unstuck while my mom yelled at him for waking me up.

 

[Meaty Spaghetti]

real hardware corruptions

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Get your black ass a Game Genie and start messing with weird codes you find online. Change them one character at a time and see what happens.

edit: and a CRT, nigga

Or a Blinking Light Win if you really feel like it.

 

[Beautiful Border]

Reminds me of when I caught Missingno in Pokemon Red and Blue

 

[TrippinKahlua]

Get your black ass a Game Genie and start messing with weird codes you find online. Change them one character at a time and see what happens.

edit: and a CRT, nigga

I have a Game Genie but I can't get it to work at all.

 

[TrippinKahlua]

Well here's what I got. The game is loading 100% right now. I will update this thread later. Ever see a Hammer bro skull or Small Firey Mario? It's there.

 

[Derbydollar]

Either the internal contacts in your NES are fucked up or you desperately need to clean your carts. This reminds me of the good old days of cartridge tilting.
You're better off with one of the toploaders especially if you're trying to intentionally fuck things up for science and all that haha

The effect can also come off on CD based consoles if your disk is majorly fucked up. I had a copy of sonic adventure when I was younger where the gd-rom was so bad that the textures on all the characters were random garbage

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

As a kid my father, degenerate gambler as he was, figured out the slot machine in SMB2 to win more lives. When the life-counter runs out of numbers the pointer keeps moving and it starts inserting things like letters, when those run out it's time for the other sprites like Mario's face, half a koopa-shell or the other sprite-tiles that everything is made up of.
"How many lives do we have left?" "Uhm, it says princess peach's lower left skirt and a Shyguy bullet, so we're good." The numbers were counted correctly in the background, it was just displaying them that broke down. I think it went up to 255.

 

[TrippinKahlua]

Either the internal contacts in your NES are fucked up or you desperately need to clean your carts. This reminds me of the good old days of cartridge tilting.
You're better off with one of the toploaders especially if you're trying to intentionally fuck things up for science and all that haha

The effect can also come off on CD based consoles if your disk is majorly fucked up. I had a copy of sonic adventure when I was younger where the gd-rom was so bad that the textures on all the characters were random garbage

You are right but there's more too it than that I think.

A few months ago, I took my NES apart to manually bend the pins back in place, and most games load properly about 75% of the time and some with the corruptions and some without.

There were two parts to the NES failing to load. The flashing screen was due to the Ten-NES Chip not reading the game properly due to the pins in the back of the console not making a firm connection. The non-flashing but blank screens were due to the game not loading up due to dust and dirt.

I regularly do clean my games with rubbing alcohol, including Super Mario Bros 3. That game just happens to be one of my personal oldest though. Its always been known to glitch out and around on me like this. And I've always been told its due to cartridge tilts and random dust.

But hey, its 2019 now and with a internet camera in my pocket, I feel like documenting the wacky things I could find.

I swear the Hammer Bros on the map were instead this beta skull. https://tcrf.net/images/5/59/SMB3Skull.png

 

[Derbydollar]

You might want to try boiling the pins on your NES, you can detatch the 72 pin connector. If that doesn't work then you can just buy a new one, they're pretty cheap on ebay or aliexpress.

Yeah, those kind of glitches kind of make it feel like you've made an organic discovery. It's like, "Woah! What the hell is this!?" They're pretty fun, haha.
Finding the beta skull is pretty interesting... It's one of those old gaming things that you just won't be able to experience in the modern day, unfortunately

 

[TrippinKahlua]

I have an incredible story regarding Zelda Links Awakening. There's tons of glitchy treasure in it. But I will tell that later.

 

[Jaiman]

@TrippinKahlua bro you should get an EasyCap and record some of this stuff