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Old Man Glitch: How it Works
Navigation: The Old Man Glitch | How it Works | Tips and Tricks | Image Gallery
A technical description of this trick from PikaGlitchie's MissingNO. page (Zero_Six on the Forums):
1. When creating the map of which Pokémon appears where, the programmers made a mistake. The strip of land making up the Cinnibar Island Strait was programmed to be a place where wild Pokémon COULD appear. BUT... they forgot to specify WHICH Pokémon could appear there!
Whenever you enter a new area, the data for "What Pokémon appear where" is overwritten with the specific data for that area. However, because no data is specified for the Cinnibar Island Strait, the previous data will remain, abling you to evidentially catch Pokémon there from the last area you visited (this is what causes the Safari Zone trick to take place).
2. When you watch the Old Man's demonstration, the picture and text change from your name to "Old Man". For this to happen, the programmers changed the variables given to your name so the picture and text can show up as "Old Man". These are stored in the byte containing the data for "What Pokémon appear where" as this was the place the programmers would be a safe place to store them *snort* until the demonstation finishes, and they would be overwritten when you entered a new place anyway. BUT... When you go directly from the Old Man's demonstration to the Cinnibar Island Strait, the data won't be overwritten as it should, leaving your name's variables in the "What Pokémon appear where" byte. None of these variable's HEX Values make sense, so it would fit that the Pokémon encountered there would not make sense. The game brings up an empty HEX Value = Missingno appears.
Coming Soon: An extremely in-depth investigation of the Old Man Glitch by ACE91 that explains the exact processes involved.
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Some content taken from or based on content from Professor Glitch's Laboratory which is (C) 2004 Abwayax.