Level 256 Glitches

[Tempest]

Anyone have a list of famous Level 256 glitches from classic arcade machines? For instance we all know about the Pac-Man "Split Screen" glitch at level 256, and Ms. Pac-Man will have the maze and dots disappear at level 256. I also just learned that Dig Dug has a Pooka appear right on top of your character on level 256 so your game is basically over. I know something odd happens with Galaga as well (game freezes?)

 

Any other famous Level 256 glitches?

[NE146]

My favorite when I was a kid was the extra life in Space Invaders part 2.. It was supposed to be you'd get a secret extra life if you shoot the invaders in 55 shots or less. But.... if you roll over the shot counter (255 shots) it makes it easy

 

Of course the trick in Mr. Do! maxes you out to 255 lives.

 

The Sinistar glitch rolls "back" your lives to the point where you have 255 as well (I was never able to do this by the way)...

 

And those aren't really glitches, I know. But they're cool plays on the 255 number.

 

Doesn't Defender also when you get to a certain point value (I forget what) give you an extra life for everything you shoot? I know it goes back to level 1 easy once you pass 255 stages as well.

[tiggerthehun]

Galaga - if I remember correctly - also does the split screen thing at stage 256... That was the first thing I did, once I bought Namco Classics vol. 1 for the old PSX...

(And I'll never do it again!)

[CPUWIZ]

There has got to be a few ...

 

11111111 = 255 = $FF = 1 Byte = 256 ways of representing a number

 

I bet a few programmers in the old arcade machine days screwed this one up.

[Xot]

I have an old "how to beat video games" kind of mag from 1984 or 85 that mentions that many Atari games "flip out" at around 800,000-840,000 points, specifically mentioned were Centipede and Missile command. I'm guessing that since those games don't count stages (in a way the player can easily see) that perhaps it's at stage 256 and thus the range of possible point values at which they flip out. Acc'd to this mag Centipede basically puts spiders and scorpions everywhere, ignoring the player's area (which is usually where the spiders are limited to and where the scorpions can't go) and puts multiples of every enemy on screen.

[Nukey Shay]

Interesting about the arcade Dig Dug. In the 400/800 port, the veggie is a white pooka worth thousands of points at level 128 onward...and at level 257 (level 1 following the zero board) the screen doesn't have a vertical tunnel...because it is dug out when you begin a new game.