History UnwinnableByMistake / ZXSpectrumGames

There are many UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum games which can become impossible to complete due to bugs. Search [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/ the World of Spectrum forums]] for "impossible": there have been at least two threads devoted to such games.

* A particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} example is ''Xavior'', in which the end-game routine to unlock the final room [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/discussion/comment/69415#Comment_69415 doesn't work]]. This remained undiscovered for some 20 years because the game's designer went for quantity instead of quality, giving the game 4,096(!) rooms and thus making it infeasible to complete even on an emulator allowing one to periodically save one's position.
* ''VideoGame/ImpossibleMission'' centers on assembling nine puzzles to prevent a MadScientist from blowing up the world. The catch? There's a bug in the programming of the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 7800}}'s NTSC version, and of [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showpost.php?p=40508&postcount=17 the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum version]], that makes the mission ''literally'' impossible: some of the puzzle pieces are hidden behind unsearchable objects, preventing you from obtaining them. This is specific to these two versions; the Atari 7800 PAL version and other formats have no (reported) problems.
* The original release of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' can never be completed due to bugs -- most notably, the "Attic Bug," which permanently corrupts the game's data because a certain enemy in "The Attic" level travels past the ZX Spectrum's video memory and overwrites game data. As a result, some rooms will from there on kill the player instantly as soon as he enters. The developer/publisher originally claimed that the bugs were ''intentional'' (saying that the affected rooms were filled with poison gas) but later released some memory-writing hacks to correct them. According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, about half of the releases of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' (it was released on multiple platforms) were UnwinnableByMistake. The Commodore 64 bug makes it impossible to reach all of the objects in The Wine Cellar; this has been corrected by fans, 27 years after it was originally discovered, by porting code from other versions of the game over to the Commodore platform.
** ''Henry's Hoard'', which is based on the ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' engine (apparently without the knowledge of the original authors), has an unreachable victory sequence for a different reason. The last two rooms can only be reached when all 256 items had been collected. But some of the 256 items are ''[[TheKeyIsBehindTheLock in]]'' [[TheKeyIsBehindTheLock those last two rooms]].
* The [[FanNickname Speccy]] port of ''VideoGame/TigerRoad'' is so bad that Your Sinclair took the manufacturers to court over selling goods of unmerchantable quality. The judge ordered the software company to release a version with the bug fixed. This was only after Your Sinclair tried to use an infinite lives cheat to complete the game - and found out that, at one point, you either get hit by a bullet or fall down a hole. (Many players got around this by rewriting the code.)
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* ''VideoGame/TheHobbit1982'' is this due to massive amounts of ArtificialStupidity that causes the game to go OffTheRails very easily. Plot-critical characters can get bored and wander off, die, or refuse crucial directions needed to finish the game. It ''can'' be beaten, but it's all but entirely a LuckBasedMission.

* The [[FanNickname Speccy]] port of ''Tiger Road'' is so bad that Your Sinclair took the manufacturers to court over selling goods of unmerchantable quality. The judge ordered the software company to release a version with the bug fixed. This was only after Your Sinclair tried to use an infinite lives cheat to complete the game - and found out that, at one point, you either get hit by a bullet or fall down a hole. (Many players got around this by rewriting the code.)

** ''Henry's Hoard'', which is based on the ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' engine (apparently without the knowledge of the original authors), has an unreachable victory sequence for a different reason. The last two rooms can only be reached when all 256 items had been collected. But some of the 256 items are ''in'' those last two rooms.

* A particularly {{egregious}} example is ''Xavior'', in which the end-game routine to unlock the final room [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/discussion/comment/69415#Comment_69415 doesn't work]]. This remained undiscovered for some 20 years because the game's designer went for quantity instead of quality, giving the game 4,096(!) rooms and thus making it infeasible to complete even on an emulator allowing one to periodically save one's position.

* The original release of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' can never be completed due to bugs -- most notably, the "Attic Bug," which permanently corrupts the game's data because a certain enemy in "The Attic" level travels past the ZX Spectrum's video memory and overwrites game data. As a result, some rooms will from there on kill the player instantly as soon as he enters. The developer/publisher originally claimed that the bugs were ''intentional'' (saying that the affected rooms were filled with poison gas) but later released some memory-writing hacks to correct them. According to TheOtherWiki, about half of the releases of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' (it was released on multiple platforms) were UnwinnableByMistake. The Commodore 64 bug makes it impossible to reach all of the objects in The Wine Cellar; this has been corrected by fans, 27 years after it was originally discovered, by porting code from other versions of the game over to the Commodore platform.

* ''VideoGame/ImpossibleMission'' centered on assembling nine puzzles to prevent a MadScientist from blowing up the world. The catch? There was a bug in the programming of the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 7800}}'s NTSC version, and of [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showpost.php?p=40508&postcount=17 the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum version]], that made the mission ''literally'' impossible: some of the puzzle pieces were hidden behind unsearchable objects, preventing you from obtaining them. This was specific to these two versions; the Atari 7800 PAL version and other formats had no (reported) problems.
* The original release of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' could never be completed due to bugs -- most notably, the "Attic Bug," which would permanently corrupt the game's data because a certain enemy in "The Attic" level travels past the ZX Spectrum's video memory and overwrites game data. As a result, some rooms would from there on kill the player instantly as soon as he entered. The developer/publisher originally claimed that the bugs were ''intentional'' (saying that the affected rooms were filled with poison gas) but later released some memory-writing hacks to correct them. According to TheOtherWiki, about half of the releases of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' (it was released on multiple platforms) were UnwinnableByMistake. The Commodore 64 bug made it impossible to reach all of the objects in ''The Wine Cellar''; this has now been corrected by fans, 27 years after it was originally discovered, by porting code from other versions of the game over to the Commodore platform.
** ''Henry's Hoard'', which was based on the ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' engine (apparently without the knowledge of the original authors) had an unreachable victory sequence for a different reason. The last two rooms could only be reached when all 256 items had been collected. But some of the 256 items were ''in'' those last two rooms.
* The [[FanNickname Speccy]] port of ''Tiger Road'' was so bad that Your Sinclair took the manufacturers to court over selling goods of unmercantile quality. The judge ordered the software company to release a version with the bug fixed. This was only after Your Sinclair tried to use an infinite lives cheat to complete the game - and found out that, at one point, you either get hit by a bullet or fall down a hole. (Many players got around this by rewriting the code.)

* The original release of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' could never be completed due to bugs -- most notably, the "Attic Bug," which would permanently corrupt the game's data because a certain enemy in "The Attic" level travels past the ZX Spectrum's video memory and overwrites game data. As a result, some rooms would from there on kill the player instantly as soon as he entered. The developer/publisher originally claimed that the bugs were ''intentional'' (saying that the affected rooms were filled with poison gas) but later released some memory-writing hacks to correct them. According to TheOtherWiki, about half of the releases of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' (it was released on multiple platforms) were UnwinnableByMistake. The Commodore 64 bug made it impossible to reach all of the objects in ''The Wine Cellar'', this has now been corrected by fans, 27 years after it was originally discovered, by porting code from other versions of the game over to the Commodore platform.

* A particularly {{egregious}} example is ''Xavior'', in which the end-game routine to unlock the final room [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/knownerrors.cgi?id=0005779 doesn't work]]. This remained undiscovered for some 20 years because the game's designer went for quantity instead of quality, giving the game 4,096(!) rooms and thus making it infeasible to complete even on an emulator allowing one to periodically save one's position.

* ''VideoGame/ImpossibleMission'' series:
** ''Impossible Mission'' centered on assembling nine puzzles to prevent a MadScientist from blowing up the world. The catch? There was a bug in the programming of the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 7800}}'s NTSC version, and of [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showpost.php?p=40508&postcount=17 the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum version]], that made the mission ''literally'' impossible: some of the puzzle pieces were hidden behind unsearchable objects, preventing you from obtaining them. This was specific to these two versions; the Atari 7800 PAL version and other formats had no (reported) problems.
** ''[[VideoGame/ImpossibleMission Impossible Mission II]]'' had many ways to render the game Unwinnable, such as destroying a music safe by accidentally placing a mine instead of a time-bomb in front of it, rendering an area inaccessible with a mine hole, or running out of floor-moving or robot-disabling items in a tower, thus resulting in a music piece or passcode number being LostForever. Many players also saved the game with too little time left on the clock.

** ''[[Impossible Mission Impossible Mission II]]'' had many ways to render the game Unwinnable, such as destroying a music safe by accidentally placing a mine instead of a time-bomb in front of it, rendering an area inaccessible with a mine hole, or running out of floor-moving or robot-disabling items in a tower, thus resulting in a music piece or passcode number being LostForever. Many players also saved the game with too little time left on the clock.

* ''ImpossibleMission'' series:

** ''[[ImpossibleMission Impossible Mission II]]'' had many ways to render the game Unwinnable, such as destroying a music safe by accidentally placing a mine instead of a time-bomb in front of it, rendering an area inaccessible with a mine hole, or running out of floor-moving or robot-disabling items in a tower, thus resulting in a music piece or passcode number being LostForever. Many players also saved the game with too little time left on the clock.

** ''Impossible Mission'' centered on assembling nine puzzles to prevent a MadScientist from blowing up the world. The catch? There was a bug in the programming of the {{Atari 7800}}'s NTSC version, and of [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showpost.php?p=40508&postcount=17 the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum version]], that made the mission ''literally'' impossible: some of the puzzle pieces were hidden behind unsearchable objects, preventing you from obtaining them. This was specific to these two versions; the Atari 7800 PAL version and other formats had no (reported) problems.

There are many ZXSpectrum games which can become impossible to complete due to bugs. Search [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/ the World of Spectrum forums]] for "impossible": there have been at least two threads devoted to such games.

* The original release of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' could never be completed due to bugs -- most notably, the "Attic Bug," which would permanently corrupt the game's data because a certain enemy in "The Attic" level travels past the ZX Spectrum's video memory and overwrites game data. As a result, some rooms would from there on kill the player instantly as soon as he entered. The developer/publisher originally claimed that the bugs were ''intentional'' (saying that the affected rooms were filled with poison gas) but later released some memory-writing hacks to correct them. According to TheOtherWiki, about half of the releases of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' (it was released on multiple platforms) were UnwinnableByMistake. The Commodore 64 bug made it impossible to reach all of the objects in ''The Wine Cellar'', this may have also been corrected by people hacking the code.

* A particularly {{egregious}} example is ''Xavior'', in which the end-game routine to unlock the final room [[www.worldofspectrum.org/knownerrors.cgi?id=0005779 doesn't work]]. This remained undiscovered for some 20 years because the game's designer went for quantity instead of quality, giving the game 4,096(!) rooms and thus making it infeasible to complete even on an emulator allowing one to periodically save one's position.

* A particularly {{egregious}} example is ''Xavior'', in which the end-game routine to unlock the final room doesn't work. This remained undiscovered for some 20 years because the game's designer went for quantity instead of quality, giving the game 4,096(!) rooms and thus making it infeasible to complete even on an emulator allowing one to periodically save one's position.

* The original release of ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly'' could never be completed due to bugs -- most notably, the "Attic Bug," which would permanently corrupt the game's data because a certain enemy in "The Attic" level travels past the ZX Spectrum's video memory and overwrites game data. As a result, some rooms would from there on kill the player instantly as soon as he entered. The developer/publisher originally claimed that the bugs were ''intentional'' (saying that the affected rooms were filled with poison gas) but later released some memory-writing hacks to correct them. According to TheOtherWiki, about half of the releases of ''JetSetWilly'' (it was released on multiple platforms) were UnwinnableByMistake. The Commodore 64 bug made it impossible to reach all of the objects in ''The Wine Cellar'', this may have also been corrected by people hacking the code.
** ''Henry's Hoard'', which was based on the ''JetSetWilly'' engine (apparently without the knowledge of the original authors) had an unreachable victory sequence for a different reason. The last two rooms could only be reached when all 256 items had been collected. But some of the 256 items were ''in'' those last two rooms.

* The original release of ''VideoGame\JetSetWilly'' could never be completed due to bugs -- most notably, the "Attic Bug," which would permanently corrupt the game's data because a certain enemy in "The Attic" level travels past the ZX Spectrum's video memory and overwrites game data. As a result, some rooms would from there on kill the player instantly as soon as he entered. The developer/publisher originally claimed that the bugs were ''intentional'' (saying that the affected rooms were filled with poison gas) but later released some memory-writing hacks to correct them. According to TheOtherWiki, about half of the releases of ''JetSetWilly'' (it was released on multiple platforms) were UnwinnableByMistake. The Commodore 64 bug made it impossible to reach all of the objects in ''The Wine Cellar'', this may have also been corrected by people hacking the code.

* The original release of ''JetSetWilly'' could never be completed due to bugs -- most notably, the "Attic Bug," which would permanently corrupt the game's data because a certain enemy in "The Attic" level travels past the ZX Spectrum's video memory and overwrites game data. As a result, some rooms would from there on kill the player instantly as soon as he entered. The developer/publisher originally claimed that the bugs were ''intentional'' (saying that the affected rooms were filled with poison gas) but later released some memory-writing hacks to correct them. According to TheOtherWiki, about half of the releases of ''JetSetWilly'' (it was released on multiple platforms) were UnwinnableByMistake. The Commodore 64 bug made it impossible to reach all of the objects in ''The Wine Cellar'', this may have also been corrected by people hacking the code.

There are many ZX Spectrum games which can become impossible to complete due to bugs. Search [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/ the World of Spectrum forums]] for "impossible": there have been at least two threads devoted to such games.