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Generation I Glitch Discussion

Glitches on actual hardware - Page 1

Glitches on actual hardware

Posted by: Lycoder
Date: 2019-12-23 02:57:27
Hi there. I'm new to the forum, and so I didn't know where to ask this, but, I got a new Pokemon Blue cart for my Gameboy, thought why not try some glitches?
I was wondering if any of the glitches would cause damage to the cart/console. I'm pretty sure they wont (wrote a GB emulator too), as game data is contained on ROM, so its impossible for it to get corrupted there. But what about that reset right after save glitch, for example?
Thanks in advance!

Re: Glitches on actual hardware

Posted by: Parzival
Date: 2019-12-23 12:28:54

Hi there. I'm new to the forum, and so I didn't know where to ask this, but, I got a new Pokemon Blue cart for my Gameboy, thought why not try some glitches?
I was wondering if any of the glitches would cause damage to the cart/console. I'm pretty sure they wont (wrote a GB emulator too), as game data is contained on ROM, so its impossible for it to get corrupted there. But what about that reset right after save glitch, for example?
Thanks in advance!
The only thing that MIGHT cause a problem would be save corruption, but you can use the builtin save wiper to erase the save in all cases, so no, not really. Just don't use ACE to do weird, unsupported things to the screen and you'll be fine.

Re: Glitches on actual hardware

Posted by: Torchickens
Date: 2020-01-09 15:58:48
I get the impression for physical carts; the ROM can only be changed through physical damage (like a hierarchy; physical>ROM>registers/HRAM/stack/etc.>SRAM>RAM) - except of note; you can modify the HRAM with RAM too etc.), so physical things can affect ROM (damage/bit rot), ROM has control over registers and HRAM (…) ; has control over RAM. This also raises a possible misconception that arbitrary code execution can reprogram the game. It can however, modify the SRAM addresses that cause script execution on boot; so for instance, we can change the Pallet Town script in the save file to a glitch script; allowing for arbitrary code execution on boot. When that modifies things like the map,sprites, audio, text, etc. it is close to 'reprogramming the game'. The invalid opcodes usually cause freezes (I think someone a while ago, explained what might happen with these to the processor, but invalid opcodes haven't seemed to be harmful).

For 3DS Virtual Console however, it may be of note there was an escape method of sorts for Gold/Silver (I don't know if it still exists though). It's unknown if this would lead to arbitrary code execution on the 3DS, like the past Ocarina of Time 3D, Cubic Ninja exploits etc. Something unknown causes the game to halt and return to the home menu.

Re: Glitches on actual hardware

Posted by: Ryccardo
Date: 2020-01-25 06:11:44
As said (and assuming an original game), there are no permanent effects that would survive removing the battery for a while;

viceversa, there are glitches caused by bad hardware (internal damage or loose connections of the rom/ram/mapper, magnified by the (perfectly valid) use of gamecard memory as an expansion of the console's) - see https://lparchive.org/Pokemon-Blue/Fix/ :)