MissingNo.

The Pokémon series of games was developed by Game Freak , and the first two games were released by Nintendo in 1996. The game character is the Pokémon trainer, whose goal is to catch and train these creatures. Players use Pokémon to fight other trainers' Pokémon or wild Pokémon ^[4] .

For the first time, Nintendo talked about what kind of gaming actions allow MissingNo. appear in the Nintendo Power release for May 1999, warning players that “any contact with him [...] can easily erase your game save or ruin the schedule” ^[5] . The bug appears as a result of three successive events: the player must review the in-game training on catching Pokemon, then he uses a Pokemon with the ability to fly ( Fly ) to get to the location “Sinnabar Island”. There you need to use a Pokémon with the ability to move on water ( Surf ) and swim up and down the water next to the east coast of the island, while MissingNo. ^{[5] [6]} does not appear.

Meeting with MissingNo. is the result of three consecutive in-game events . The first occurs in the game random encounter system : each zone contains in the game buffer the numbers of Pokémon that the character can meet in this zone. However, the developers did not indicate in the buffer the number of Pokemon for the eastern coast of Sinnabar, and therefore the game independently took the missing values ​​from the previous zone, which the player visited ^[7] . The second event was learning the basics of the game, which temporarily saves the player’s name in the buffer. This leads to the fact that the name recorded in the buffer in the hexadecimal number system is automatically converted into Pokemon numbers that can be found in the specified area of ​​the eastern coast of Sinnabar. For example, if a player names his character ASH ^{[~ 3]} in honor of Ash Ketchum , the protagonist of the anime “ Pokémon, ” the value 8C will be written to the game buffer. The third such event was a game exception handling system; if the game receives from the buffer a value that does not correspond to any of the Pokémon in the game, a special function is triggered, which causes the appearance of the Pokémon known as MissingNo. (short for "Missing Number"; Russian. Missing number ) ^{[6] [7]} .

As is the case with any Pokemon, the player can escape from the battle or fight with MissingNo. and even catch him ^[8] . After meeting with MissingNo. the number of items located at the sixth point in the player’s backpack increases by 128, and when you visit the Hall of Fame, which becomes available after passing the game and contains data on the player’s Pokemon, graphic artifacts appear for a while. Temporary artifacts may also occur during a fight with MissingNo. Itself, in which the sprites of the trainer and his Pokémon are distorted ^{[8] [9]} , but they can be deleted by opening the statistics page for another Pokemon or simply reloading the console . Caught MissingNo. retains all the functions of a regular Pokemon, and in Pokedex games will be listed under the number # 000. In addition to the number, as well as height, weight and an unknown form, there is no information about this Pokemon in Pokedex ^[10] . All Pokemon MissingNo. have their abilities, types, characteristics and voices, like ordinary Pokemon ^{[~ 4]} . A pokemon’s sprite usually depicts a figure similar to the pixelated letter “d”, but some values ​​of the pokemon from the buffer cause one of the four other sprites not used in the game to appear ^[8] .

MissingNo. can be transferred from Red and Blue to Yellow , but it is almost impossible to transfer using the Time Capsule in Gold , Silver and Crystal . In Yellow with the advent of MissingNo. even bigger bugs begin: immediately after the transfer, the level of this Pokemon drops to the first, and does not increase when the Pokemon gets experience. However, this Pokemon can be used in a multiplayer game between two consoles through a special cable. If you try to transfer MissingNo. in Gold , Silver or Crystal , the game will display the message “Your (name MissingNo.) appears abnormal.” and the transfer will be canceled. In rare cases, if the number of this Pokemon matches the number of a Pokemon from the second generation , the Pokemon will be transferred to another game. For example, the above-mentioned number 8C is converted in the new game to the EC number and is recognized as the Pokemon Tyrog . After this Pokemon, you can still return to the old game if the player has not left the Time Capsule. If the use of the Capsule is completed, the Pokemon will cease to exist in the image of MissingNo. and will be listed as that Pokemon, whose number coincided with the number of the first, although it will retain its old attacks ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]} . When migrating MissingNo. in the Pokémon Stadium, he will have the appearance of a doll that appears when a Pokémon performs a Substitute attack ^[14] . In Pokémon Stadium 2, he will be displayed as a Pokemon Ditto , and if you save the game, he will remain in the image of Ditto forever ^[15] . Trying to catch MissingNo. Using the Game Boy Tower feature in the Pokémon Stadium may cause the game cartridge for the portable console to not work with Stadium ^[14] .

First appearing in just two games in the series, MissingNo. had a significant impact on the industry. Calling it a “programming quirk,” Nintendo warned against meeting him, warning players that they might eventually need to start the game anew to get rid of possible graphic bugs ^{[1] [5] [7]} :

MissingNO is a quirk of programming, not a real part of the game. If you catch him, the game may start to behave strangely, and the graphics will often go bad. Most often, MissingNO Pokemon appears after performing a fraudulent move during a fight in the Safari Zone.

Try to release the MissingNO Pokemon to recover the broken graphics. If the problem persists, then the only solution is to start the game again, that is, erase the existing save and start the game from the very beginning.

Original Text (Eng.)

MissingNO is a programming quirk, and not a real part of the game. When you get this, your game can perform strangely, and the graphics will often become scrambled. The MissingNO Pokémon is most often found after you perform the Fight Safari Zone Pokémon trick. To fix the scrambled graphics, try releasing the MissingNo Pokémon. If the problem persists, the only solution is to re-start your game. This means erasing your current game and starting a brand new one.

- Nintendo Customer Support

However, Nintendo calls the wrong method for eliminating graphic bugs, since the release of MissingNo. In a game of freedom, he did not solve the problem. And yet, despite Nintendo's warnings, information on how to get MissingNo. was published in several magazines and walkthroughs ^{[7] [16] [17]} . Some players even gave paid advice on catching MissingNo .; the cost of such “consultations” reached $ 200 ^[18] . In 2009, the IGN website included MissingNo. to the list of the best game Easter eggs , noting the obvious benefit of this Pokemon for obtaining rare game items ^[19] . In a related article, an IGN journalist wrote: “This says something about Pokemon fans, since they risk losing the game in order to develop their Pokemon faster” ^[6] , and later called MissingNo. “An unforgettable bug that helped these two games on their way to fame” ^[20] .

The reaction of players to MissingNo. became the subject of sociological research. The American sociologist William Sims Bainbridge claimed that Game Freak created “one of the most famous bugs in the history of games” and noted its creative use by players ^[2] . In Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon, professor of education Julian Sefton Green gave an example of his son’s reaction to the claim that he was using MissingNo. - a kind of debunking deception; after this, the child’s attitude to the game has changed dramatically: as a result, the childhood illusion of the game as a real closed world has collapsed, and it has been replaced by the understanding that this is just a computer program ^[3] . The book Playing with Videogames contains an in-depth study of MissingNo., Which describes in detail the curiosity of the players shown in meeting this Pokemon. The study describes the tendency of players to verify the details of his appearance and to evaluate and criticize each other’s finds ^[21] . The book says that in an attempt to "canonize" MissingNo. Through fan art and fan fiction, the Pokémon community found out the flaws of the game and tried to capture them in a better light ^[22] . The author describes these circumstances as unique to MissingNo. and considers its popularity an unusual case ^[9] .

• Mew is a Pokémon that can also be caught in Pokémon Red , Blue, and Yellow with a bug only.

Links to sources

• Newman, James. Playing with Videogames. - Taylor & Francis, 2008 .-- S. 119. - ISBN 0-415-38523-7 .
• Schlesinger, Hank. St. Martin's Paperbacks. - S. 184–188. - ISBN 0-312-97758-1 .
• Bainbridge, William Sims; Bainbridge, Wilma Alice. Creative Uses of Software Errors: Glitches and Cheats // Social Science Computer Review. - Sage Publications , 2007 .-- T. 25 . - DOI : 10.1177 / 0894439306289510 .
• Sefton-Green, Julian; Tobin, Joseph Jay. Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon. - Duke University Press, 2004 .-- S. 160. - ISBN 0-8223-3287-6 .

• MissingNo. at Bulbapedia , the Pokemon Wiki Encyclopedia.
• Snowden turned out to be a connoisseur of Pokemon