The October 2023 issue of IEEE Spectrum is here!

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Five Infamous Arcade-Game Glitches

Classic arcade games provided great entertainment with limited hardware, but not everything always worked as designed

1 min read

For the next few months, we’ll be taking a new look at the classic era of video games. In our series Back to the Arcade, we'll examine how games like Asteroids, PacMan, and Donkey Kong kicked off a revolution that has blossomed into an industry worth US $45 billion per year worldwide.

In our first installment, we examine arcade-game glitches.

Scott Patterson oversees part of the referee team of Twin Galaxies, the official video-game world-record keepers. He's been keeping track of video-game glitches since the early '80s. Here he describes five classic arcade-game glitches and what made each one significant. What are some of your other favorite arcade glitches? Tell us in the comment section below.

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