In
video games, a glitch is a term used by players to indicate a programming error which results in behavior not intended by the programmers. There are several different types of glitches that occur in video games. Programming errors in games vary from incorrectly displayed graphics, game-freezing or crashes, data corruption, and others. The occurrence of some glitches can be replicated deliberately by doing a series of certain tasks in a specific order; the infamous Minus World glitch in
Super Mario Bros. is a simple example.
Some glitches are a result of accessing empty space. For example, in
Pokemon Red and Blue, there are 151 Pokemon to collect, yet there are 255 spaces. That leaves 104 spaces that may be filled in with a glitch Pokemon.
In
Spyro: Year of the Dragon, there are glitches on two levels ("
BambooMines") that cause the level to become
underwater. These glitches are friendly and don't prevent progress with the game as such, but do involve advantages and disadvantages.
Sometimes the game's code may be modified to create interesting glitches. For example, in the game
Impossible Creatures, which focuses on combining two animals, making a combined animal "combinable" can result in three or four-animal combinations.
The practice of exploiting glitches in video games is known as "
glitching." For example, in an online game someone may use an error in the map to get an advantage. This is sometimes considered cheating, but sometimes just considered part of the game.