TheZZAZZGlitch

I like glitching Pokémon games. A lot.

Imagine booting up your favorite game on the SNES - Super Mario World. You load the save file, and suddenly, you're playing Tetris!

In theory, it's actually possible. If there's a bug in the game that causes it to run untrusted code, everything could be reprogrammed just by loading a save file! And then you can play Pong and Snake on your Super Mario World cartridge.

This is called arbitrary code execution, or ACE for short. I happen to be one of the first people that came out with the concept of arbitrary code execution in retro games. I am often credited for developing the first reliable ACE methods in Gen I and II Pokémon games. I helped a bit with Gen III too.

The whole idea seemed mindblowing to me. Running a game within a game? And so it began.

Every April since 2017, I do something special for the Pokémon glitching community - challenges contained within Pokémon save files, created with arbitrary code execution exploits. Each challenge is a game that comes with an online leaderboard and a set of optional CTF-like hacking tasks.

My April Fools Events so far:

Fools2022: Return to Glitchland
Fools2021: Road to Infinity
Fools2019: Trouble in Glitch Islands (an unofficial server is available)
Fools2018: Welcome to Glitchland (an unofficial server is available)
Fools2017: missingno.sav