History Main / GlitchEntity

** From third gen onward, "Missingno." (in gen three, "???????", "? ? ? ? ?" or variants) is intentionally put in to catch these errors.

* ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic'' has an ore/item of this sort; it looks like some manner of default texture cube, you can gather it but not interact with it once mined beyond looking at its name, and it's called ERR://23¤Y%/. Far too functional to be a true glitch, it remains a mystery what they actually are; there's even an achievement for gathering five of them, whose description is still completely unsure what they are; only that they're hot to the touch and smell of tarmac. The dwarves can only make comments along the lines of "what the hell is that" when pointing at it.

* GlitchEntity: Subverted with [[spoiler:Missingno]] in ''Fanfic/PokemonStrangledRed'', who is given an actual gameplay purpose in the eponymous hacked game.

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'':
** "I AM ERROR" shopkeepers are variants of the shopkeepers with a beard, blue shirt, and a glitchy appearance, plus a speech bubble saying "I AM ERROR." They are most commonly found in I AM ERROR rooms but can rarely appear outside of them.
** Certain items can turn Isaac in to a glitch-person. [=MissingNo=] garbles his appearance and causes all of his items (except [=MissingNo=] itself and items required to enter certain floors) to reroll every floor, or TMTRAINER which changes all future items to randomly-generated garbled ones.
** [[spoiler:Eden is already implied to be glitch-like to some degree from their unlocks, but Tainted Eden closes the gap. They glitch out after taking damage and reroll in to different items like with [=MissingNo=]. Their character select icon is literally Eden's, just with the face glitched. Tainted Eden's "cutscene portrait" before bosses and between levels is just nothingness, implying that they are invisible or flickering out of existence.]]

Because this character was [[EldritchAbomination never intended to actually exist]], merely ''encountering'' the Glitch Entity can trigger an unpredictable bevy of side effects, ranging from other GoodBadBugs to game crashes, or even [[GameBreakingBug more severe bugs]]. In the rare worst-case scenario, it can even corrupt the player's save file, forcing them to erase it and start the game over from the beginning. Some Glitch Entities can eventually become an AscendedGlitch, though.

* In ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'', removing the file of a character from the game directory will cause that character to hover between existing and not existing, only appearing in-game in bizarrely glitched ways. The reason it's not a "real life" example is that [[DevelopersForesight the way it happens was deliberately designed in advance]]. ItMakesSenseInContext.

* Parodied in the fourth chapter of the ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'' series with "The Glitch" BonusBoss. It is portrayed as a mix of static and pieces of game sprites, is immune to everything except non-elemental attacks, and has an "overflow" attack which deals zero damage, but causes instant death all the time.

* One of the theories for why we dream is that the brain mistakenly interprets vital maintenance information as sensory stimulation while asleep, which would explain why dreams are often so weird. For example, the theory that dreams of flying/floating come about as the brain's best attempt to reconcile the sensation of moving about in some way with the fact that it can't actually sense your arms or legs moving.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' had a glitch where using debug mode to create a metric buttload of a certain object would cause Sonic's palette to be overwritten, turning him green, black, and one other color (which would often also be green or black). This miscolored Sonic, nicknamed [[http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Ashura "Ashura,"]] is a surprisingly popular "character", making bizarrely frequent appearances in fan works.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'' had a glitch where using debug mode to create a metric buttload of a certain object would cause Sonic's palette to be overwritten, turning him green, black, and one other color (which would often also be green or black). This miscolored Sonic, nicknamed "[[http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Ashura Ashura]]", is a surprisingly popular "character", making bizarrely frequent appearances in fan works.

** Has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqi5H0Myo8c Blue Knuckles]], who plays like a mixture of Sonic (his palettes and level routes), Knuckles (abilities), and Tails (uses his name at the end of act tally). The only ways to play as him are through hacking, UsefulNotes/GameGenie, or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1atT6qrRLY a massive glitch in Lava Reef]].

** "[[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/MissingNo._ MISSINGNO.]]"(short for Missing Number) from Generation I. A similarly glitchy creature has a name consisting of a quote mark, the letter M, and two [[TheUnpronounceable unpronounceable]] symbols. It has been {{Fan Nickname}}d "M-Block." or "'M" (pronounced "Apostrophe M"). The glitch is actually caused by the game trying to interpret your PlayerCharacter's name as random-encounter data.
*** Missingno., its [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Glitch_Pokemon glitchy kin]], and the effects they have on the game make up an impressive amount of [[{{NightmareFuel/Pokemon}} Pokémon's Nightmare Fuel page]]. In fanworks such as ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'' and ''WebAnimation/StarterSquad'' they're often portrayed as a form of EldritchAbomination. [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall And not just in Pokémon, either...]]

* Milo from ''Buddy Simulator 1984''. Right from the moment you meet him it's clear there's something off about him, as the text refers to him with the name and species of your selected "favorite animal" despite clearly being a dog, with his real name only being revealed by a glitch later. For most of the game he follows you incessantly, utilizing clipping and OffscreenTeleportation to bypass obstacles, but is otherwise harmless until [[spoiler: he gets fused with Groncho and becomes the PostFinalBoss]]. The reason for his glitchiness is actually fairly realistic, as hidden files imply he's [[spoiler: a borrowed asset from another game that didn't get ported over properly]].

* ''WebComic/TowerOfGod'': The virtual reality of the Hidden Floor is neither in a computer, nor a game, but acts like the former and parodies the latter. One of its inhabitants is the sworn enemy[[note]]a virtual being created for everyone who enters from the outside that will try to kill them if they break the rules[[/note]] of Urek Mazino, who apparently shouldn't exist there, especially since Mazino himself left ages ago. There are error messages floating in the air around him.

* Parodied in the fourth chapter of the ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'' series has "The Glitch" as a BonusBoss. It is portrayed as a mix of static and pieces of game sprites, is immune to everything except non-elemental attacks, and has an "overflow" attack which deals zero damage, but causes instant death all the time.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' parodies this with the Bugged Bugbear monster, and later the Baby Bugged Bugbear familiar based on it. Neither is actually glitched, but both have chunks of their images replaced with ones and zeroes, and both spit out [=MySQL=] error messages with almost everything they do.

* The fourth chapter of the ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'' series has "The Glitch" as a BonusBoss. It is portrayed as a mix of static and pieces of game sprites, is immune to everything except non-elemental attacks, and has an "overflow" attack which deals zero damage, but causes instant death all the time.

* InUniverse example: [[VideoGame/DotHackR1Games .hack//MUTATION]] introduced the Net Slum, which are made of and populated entirely by junk and garbage data given form. Quite notably, while all player character data are rendered in 3D, some sentient AI within the Net Slum are simply 2D sprites, or 3D models with missing meshes.
* Used InUniverse in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' with the hidden character of Dr. W.D. Gaster. You have to mess around with the "fun" values in the game's coding to learn anything about him. [[spoiler:He was the royal scientist before Alphys, and rumored to have created the CORE, but he was scattered across space-time after falling into one of his inventions, with all memory of him gone. It's implied that he's ''aware'' to some degree and forced to watch the world functioning exactly the same without him. Oh, and did we mention that a later patch ''removed'' the need to mess with the files, randomly allowing him to appear in non-edited worlds?]]
* ''VideoGame/DistortedTravesty 3'' has an in-universe example: the appropriately named [[EldritchAbomination Abomination]], an [[HopelessBossFight indestructible]] pile of junk data that got locked into the Vault because of its sheer destructiveness. [[spoiler:It's also under the control of Hexor through a parasite implanted into it, and [[ICannotSelfTerminate has been secretly begging the player characters to kill it]] throughout the game]].
* Another InUniverse example occurs in ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'''s ''Record Breaker'' arc. [[spoiler: Miyako was brought into being as a replacement for a character who pretended to be RetGone, but wasn't, and was merged with the EldritchAbomination Cor Caroli during universe generation. Her simultaneous existence with Yamato breaks the laws of the universe, making it possible to destroy Canopus, the divine guiding order of the entire universe.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', the hidden boss “not_intended” is an in-universe example, since the game itself is set in {{Cyberspace}}. She lives in a MinusWorld-inspired area, speaks in glitchy text boxes and pop-up error messages, and her fight involves copious amounts of InterfaceScrew.

* The bosses from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' even though they appear in normal gameplay the ''World Warrior'' versions have always been Glitch Entities in their own right. In ''World Warrior'' they behave very differently from the playables and can't be controlled by the player even if they are chosen through cheats. It was discovered later through being manually fixed to be controllable they had quirks fighting each other or just being controlled that didn't apply to the regulars. Balrog couldn't duck or jump over Sagat's high tiger shot, Vega goes abnormally high when jumping off the cage from his BG when battling another boss, and Balrog also had uncancellable transition frames crouching and standing up.

* The original ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'':

*** While not dangerous per say, one of the most known glitch pokemon that requires effort to encounter is a glitch pokemon only known as the typical female symbol. This glitch pokemon is infamous for it's never ending cry and some youtubers make videos of recording it's cry for very long amounts of time. Some youtube video makes even have done videos using emulator tools to significantly speed up the game from the default speed and recorded for a long time just to see if there is an end to it's pre-battle cry.

* If you get more than 10 lives in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' it appears that the game "rewards" you on the start level screen with a crown in the place of the tens digit (crown-3 for 13 lives, etc). This is actually just random graphical glitch based on the programmers’ rather lazy assumption that no one would ever get more than nine lives. Once you get more than 20 lives numbers disappear altogether and the digits are replaced with random chunks of nonsense. The chunks always appear in the same order, however, meaning some people have managed to decipher the "code."

* ''Anime/DennouCoil'':

* The ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' VideoGame/GameGenie code VYUOKITE allows you to select from ''244'' of these at the beginning of the game. A large number of those are automatically killed when used, but a surprising number are actually usable.

** Has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqi5H0Myo8c Blue Knuckles]], who plays like a mixture of Sonic (his palettes and level routes), Knuckles (abilities), and Tails (uses his name at the end of act tally). The only ways to play as him are through hacking, VideoGame/GameGenie, or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1atT6qrRLY a massive glitch in Lava Reef]].

* If you get more than 10 lives in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' it appears that the game “rewards” you on the start level screen with a crown in the place of the tens digit (crown-3 for 13 lives, etc). This is actually just random graphical glitch based on the programmers’ rather lazy assumption that no one would ever get more than nine lives. Once you get more than 20 lives numbers disappear altogether and the digits are replaced with random chunks of nonsense. The chunks always appear in the same order, however, meaning have managed to decipher the "code."

** The former TropeNamer is the glitch Franchise/{{Pokemon}} "[[https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/MissingNo._ MISSINGNO.]]"(short for Missing Number) from Generation I. A similarly glitchy creature has a name consisting of a quote mark, the letter M, and two [[TheUnpronounceable unpronounceable]] symbols. It has been {{Fan Nickname}}d "M-Block." or "'M" (pronounced "Apostrophe M"). The glitch is actually caused by the game trying to interpret your PlayerCharacter's name as random-encounter data.

*** [[GoodBadBugs Missingno. also has the benefit of increasing the quantity of the 6th item in your bag by 128]].[[note]]In short, every pokémon has two bits in memory for the pokédex to store whether you've seen and/or caught it. The seen bit for MissingNo. happens to be the most significant bit of the quantity of the 6th item, so if you have less than 128 of it, the game marks that you've now seen MissingNo., giving you 128 of the item.[[/note]] For competitive battling, this is quite the [[GameBreaker Game Breaker]]. Cloned Rare Candies + Cloned Technical Machines + Cloned Master Balls + Cloned Medicine = A team of six in the timeframe it would take to create one Pokémon without glitching.