These days hack detection programs such as Punkbuster are attempting to stamp out eugenic glitches.

Glitches don't always have to provide new dynamics to improve a game, though, just so long as they're funny. Take any game for instance. Bless them they try every year, but still haven't quite nailed the art of in-game commentary.

Very occasionally Trevor Brooking, through no prompting of any particular event on the pitch, will gasp as if he's just reached a climax. And Peter Brackley will often insist you've failed to make it to the semi-finals just as a friendly penalty shoot-out gets under way.

There are also general in-game moments of madness, too, like when the keeper smashes the ball into his own net during goalmouth scrambles, or when the ball magically transports itself though torsos for no discernable reason. A recent replay I found on the net showed the ball bouncing off the crossbar a total of nine times while players beneath vainly leapt up and down in an attempt to head the ball clear - one player, inexplicably, started grinding the post, no doubt egged on by Trevor Brooking. These types of glitches aren't necessarily stable ones, in fact, the more unexpected they are the more hilarious they can be.

Glitches can even be synonymous of an entire genre. Among the first-person-shooter genre, the 'in thing' for corpses to do these days is to die in sexually suggestive death positions. There are dedicated galleries of mirth devoted to gaming glitches throughout the internet.

Glitch investigation appears to be a pursuit among many gamers too. There are glitch enthusiasts out there that spend a considerable amount of their time unearthing strange occurrences.

One such example of complex tricky comes from that seminal of all titles Halo. During the first level on the Pillar of Autumn you can, if you are quick enough, enable Master Chief to carry three weapons at once - this involves dodging a checkpoint trigger by rapidly exiting the bridge, rushing to the mess hall to pick up an assault rife, and then heading back to the bridge.

This glitch will only last for the first level and you need to be pretty committed to get the glitch to work in the first place, but for games such as Halo, the search for glitches seems to represent a further adventure once a game is supposed to be 100% complete.

There are more glitches to expose in Halo, ones that you would never find unless you actually set out to find them. For some, the hunt for glitches is an irresistible challenge - almost like a student taking pleasure in a tutor's mistake.

Like their organic counterparts, bugs will always crop up, no matter how much we try to eradicate them. Sometimes they'll appear, regular as clockwork, as a convenience; some raise in-game about whether they're or not; and sometimes glitches surprise us simply for comedy's sake. Whatever the case, glitches are more than just an unwanted by-product of gaming.

David Wonn's Unique Video Game Glitches
Quiz: Famous Video Game Bugs, Glitches, and Oddities
Video Game Glitches

By Rob Wilson