MissingNo., or MissingNO, is an unofficial Pokémon species found in the
video games Pokémon Red and Blue. Standing for "Missing Number",
MissingNo. are used as error handlers by game developer Game Freak; they appear
when the game attempts to access data for a nonexistent Pokémon species. Due
to the programming of three in-game events, players can encounter MissingNo.
via a glitch. The species was first documented by Nintendo in the May 1999
issue of Nintendo Power. Encountering MissingNo. causes graphical
errors and the mass replication of the sixth item in the player's item menu;
the latter effect resulted in the glitch's coverage by strategy guides and
game magazines. IGN has noted MissingNo.'s appearance in Pokémon Red
and Blue as one of the most famous video game glitches. Fans of the series have
attempted to rationalize MissingNo. as part of the games' canon, and
sociologists have studied its impact on players.
History Developed by Game Freak and published by
Nintendo, the Pokémon series began in Japan in 1996. The player assumes the
role of a Pokémon Trainer whose goal is to capture and train creatures called
Pokémon. Players use the creatures' special abilities to combat other
Pokémon, and certain abilities also grant new ways to navigate the game's
world, such as instantaneous travel between two areas.
Nintendo first documented the events that cause MissingNo. to appear in the
May 1999 issue of Nintendo Power, with a warning that "any contact with it could
easily erase your game file or disrupt your graphics". The glitch is the result
of a succession of events: first, players watch an in-game tutorial for
Pokémon capture. The player then uses a Pokémon with the Fly ability to reach
the game's Cinnabar Island location, and then uses a Pokémon with the Surf
ability to travel up and down the eastern "shore" of the island until a
MissingNo. appears. Characteristics
Encountering a MissingNo. Pokémon is the result of three computing events. The
first is the game's random battle encounter system; each area assigns
values to Pokémon in a data buffer, which the game accesses for the player's
encounters with wild Pokémon. However, no values are assigned to this buffer on
the east coast of the Cinnabar and Seafoam Island locations—the information
from the previously visited area is used instead. The second factor is the
in-game tutorial, which temporarily stores the player's name in the data
buffer. This causes the game to access the hexadecimal values of the player's
name for Pokémon encounters at Cinnabar and Seafoam Island. The third factor is
the game's error handling system; if the game selects a value from the data
buffer that is not an existing Pokémon, a subroutine is triggered that causes
the appearance of a Pokémon named MissingNo., short for "Missing Number".
As with any wild Pokémon, players may flee from, fight or capture MissingNo.
After an encounter with MissingNo., the quantity of the sixth item in the
player's item menu is usually increased by a large amount and the game's Hall of
Fame Pokémon gallery becomes permanently glitched. Temporary graphical glitches
may also occur, which can be removed by viewing the statistics page for another
Pokémon or resetting the console. A captured MissingNo. is a fully
functional Pokémon, and appears in the game's Pokémon index as number 000. All
MissingNo. possess consistent abilities, type, statistics and sounds. The Pokémon
commonly appears as a scrambled "d"-shape, but certain encounter values
cause it to appear as one of three sprites not used by other Pokémon.
Reaction and reception While it only appeared in a few games in
the series, MissingNo. has had a significant impact. Calling it a
"programming quirk", Nintendo warned against encountering it, claiming
players could possibly have to restart the game from the beginning to remove
the graphical glitches. Despite Nintendo's warning, information on how
to encounter MissingNo. was printed in several magazines and player's guides
due to its perceived positive effect. Certain players attempted to sell "tips"
on capturing MissingNo. for up to $200. Despite it not being an intentional part
of the game, in 2009, IGN included MissingNo. in its list of the top video
game Easter eggs, citing its usefulness in replicating the game's rarer items.
IGN stated in a related article, "It really says something about Pokémon fans
that they took what is a potentially game-ruining glitch and used it as a
shortcut to level up their Pokémon," and later called it an "unforgettable"
glitch that helped push the original games to "gaming super stardom".
Players' reactions to MissingNo. have been the subject of sociological
studies. Sociologist William Sims Bainbridge stated that Game Freak
created "one of the most popular glitches ever in game history", and
cited its creative usage by players. In the book Pikachu's Global Adventure: The
Rise and Fall of Pokémon, professor of education Julian Sefton-Green noticed
that in his study of his son's reaction to MissingNo.'s usage as a "cheat", the
child's outlook towards the game was altered drastically, and added that the
presence of such elements as a result broke the illusion of the game as an
enclosed world and reminded them that "at heart, it is a computer program".
The book Playing with Videogames contains an in-depth study of
MissingNo., which details players' curiosity when encountering the Pokémon.
It describes their tendency to compare notes on its appearance, and to give
assessment and critique to each other's findings. The book states that, in their
attempts to canonize MissingNo. through fan art and fiction, Pokémon communities
celebrated the game's imperfections and tried to imprint themselves on series'
canon. The author described these circumstances as unique to MissingNo.,
and called its popularity an unusual case.
References External links
MissingNo. on Bulbapedia