Getting softlocked in games

[MuNKeY | 241]

Seems there was a glitch you can force to on Metroid NES where you can make yourself get stuck in the passageways (bubble doors) and I think pause or do something to go to another screen and push left and right a lot and you will find yourself out of the play area and of course stuck and have to reset, I only remember this as I pissed off a buddy of mine as we was arguing over something in the game either I was going the "wrong" way or something and it pissed me off and I did that shit which totally wrecked the progress and had to start over with whatever last password he had handed over the controller and went home. 

[T-Pac | 7,644]

8 hours ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

That's awesome! How long did it take you to draw that? Are you a cartoonist by any chance? 

 

8 hours ago, MuNKeY said:

HAHAHAHA! Man that is epic! 

I seriously hope so as I really like this and do hope there are more lurking around, I can see a fanbase growing rather quickly too.

Thanks, guys! Yeah, I'm a cartoonist - an animator, to be more specific, so I'm trained to draw pretty fast haha. That Princess Peach thing probably took like 15 or 20 mins maybe - but a little color goes a long way at making a sketch look more polished than it really is.

Back on topic, though - the first time I played through all of Mega Man 2, the final Alien boss and I exchanged finishing blows at the same time, and the death animations started to trigger for both Mega Man and the Alien. I was afraid the game would lock up or something, but it ended up giving me the benefit of the doubt and rolled credits. It was super cool, but I don't think I could ever do that again even if I tried.

-CasualCart

[Skorp | 383]

Many times during Donkey Kong 64. I mean I played hundreds of hours of that game, so it isn't a surprise to get softlocked so many times. I'll post a vid in a bit of one I managed to record. It is pretty hilarious, well I react to it pretty hilariously. There are other games too like I remember on Rocket Power for Gamecube, I got stuck inside the side of the mountain whenever you jump off the ramp into the hole. Had to turn it off and on and just lost like 10 minutes luckily saved before it.

[8bitsupremacy | 208]

There was a part in Total Recall on NES in the level with the X-ray security machine where something went weird when I was supposed to break through the glass to exit as part of some automatic animation but Arnold never jumped through it because I was in a weird spot before the animation got triggered, so my dear Arnold kept running on autopilot into a wall instead of offscreen to next part of stage and I was forced to reset, but the biggest most brutal offense here was the final boss of Conquest of Crystal Palace. When you beat the first form of the boss, whatever you do DON'T prematurely jump down below to the next area before it drops you down you automatically.  I jumped too soon once and it rang up as a pit death but then the screen scrolled down to the final phase of the boss anyway and my character never respawned as it should have.  Since there is no timer to run out or anything there is no way to trigger a game over death, leaving you stuck on that screen watching the boss shoot projectiles at nothing since I am not present anymore and never respawned...had to reset and play all the way through again which takes like 45 min.

Edited December 12, 2019 by 8bitsupremacy

[asmikace | 68]

I couldnot finish the JB Harold murder club the TG16 CD due to not accessing some line of dialogue after I sent the person for questioning. It prevented me from approaching the suspect and not able to finish after getting so close to completing the mystery.

[DefaultGen | 5,506]

1 minute ago, asmikace said:

I couldnot finish the JB Harold murder club the TG16 CD due to not accessing some line of dialogue after I sent the person for questioning. It prevented me from approaching the suspect and not able to finish after getting so close to completing the mystery.

Was that intentional game design? I hate adventure games that do that. I'm sure some designers 40 years ago would laugh at the concept of a "softlock". Space Quest I is a bad one I remember, there's an item on like the first or second screen of the game that's needed for the very last thing in the game, and I missed it so I had to play the entire game over.

[asmikace | 68]

53 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

Was that intentional game design? I hate adventure games that do that. I'm sure some designers 40 years ago would laugh at the concept of a "softlock". Space Quest I is a bad one I remember, there's an item on like the first or second screen of the game that's needed for the very last thing in the game, and I missed it so I had to play the entire game over.

That is a bug as that game has no real game overs. On the subject of adventure games, makes me appreciate what Lucasarts did to adventure games by not screwing the player with no win situations

[Lincoln | 230]

The first time I played half life I got bored waiting in the shuttle during the intro sequence and jumped out. Apparently that is not supposed to be allowed. The shuttle left and I couldn't continue to the next scripted sequence.

[Link | 2,768]

On 12/11/2019 at 2:28 AM, acromite53 said:

This happened to me in Super Mario Bros. 2. Somehow I ended up with a mushroom block on top of me. There is no timer, enemies, or way to kill myself. I had to reset the game.  It was so frustrating.

You couldn’t duck? The block is supposed to bounce off your head. If it doesn’t register the overlap, ducking and standing again ought to reset the sprite boxes.

I know this is a glitch, but that one really surprises me. 

[asmikace | 68]

On 12/12/2019 at 2:27 PM, Lincoln said:

The first time I played half life I got bored waiting in the shuttle during the intro sequence and jumped out. Apparently that is not supposed to be allowed. The shuttle left and I couldn't continue to the next scripted sequence.

I had so many scripted sequences go wrong in Bethesda games I had to either hope I had a earlier save or have to monkey around the console commands move forward.

The last time I had to deal was the Lonesome Hearts content in Fallout New Vegas with the end quest with the Burned Man. He was supposed to follow me to the end of the quest but lost and disappeared and I needed him for the end sequence. It took me an hour to find the console command to summon him to finish the quest.