The Level 256 Glitch and The Senses

Last semester, I learned about the “Pac-Man level 256 glitch” in a film covering game record-breakers called “King of Kong — Fistful of Quarters”. The film explains what a kill screen is and when one sees it- on the final level, where half the screen corrupts and becomes unplayable. Getting to this level is no simple feat, as usually this achievement is held by record breakers and holders. The video below of the glitch is brief, but it is the only video on YouTube that clearly presents the glitch without padding for time. Letters and numbers stay static on the screen while a zero flickers. The initial sense one emits while playing at this point is panic, as half the screen is corrupted, rejecting boundaries and therefore the previous “rules” of the game. Then, ghosts may leave the level boundaries altogether. The 256 glitch reconfigures the player’s normal experience to be one of shock and discovery. ((Pac-Man) Level 256)

The publication Post-Digital Aesthetics in Contemporary Audiovisual Art states that “these practices are aligned with a post-digital aesthetics as artistic strategies that ultimately seek to bring to the surface ‘the digital medium’s subsurface’ to focus on its infrastructure by routing the ‘inframedia’ layer out into the sensorium, as ‘a reminder of materiality, a collapsing of representational transparency’” (qtd. In Ferreira and Luisa 114). Concerning senses, you are “taken out of the game” and its surrounding immersion. The player is suddenly aware of themselves again due to the disruption. The strangeness forces the viewer to momentarily change their perceptions of the game. They are overwhelmed and overstimulated, which encourages exploration. The work “GLI.TC/H READER[ROR]” states that too much emphasis on the tools and methodologies that bring the glitch to life may weaken the overall sensory effect of the glitch. (Westbrook) Over-exploration, specifically pertaining to visual glitches, generates underwhelming experiences in the future, as Iman Moradi states that he has only ever been repeatedly elated with sound-based glitches, never visual ones. Much of glitches’ sensory artistic value comes from the mystery of the visuals. (Westbrook) Thus, Pac-Man players are entertained by the awe-inspiring kill screen partially because it has seen as “exclusive” in addition to whimsical; though it is mostly static and lacks variation, the viewer gains a sense of anxiety and wonder due to its rarity.

MLA Work Cited:

Ferreira, Pedro, and Luísa Ribas. Post-Digital Aesthetics in Contemporary Audiovisual Art. Universidade De Lisboa, Faculdade De BelasArtes, Centro De Investigação e De Estudos Em Belas-Artes (CIEBA), Portugal, 2020.

“(Pac-Man) Level 256 the Last Level in the Game.” YouTube, YouTube, 6 Feb. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcI42czB2q4&ab_channel=TheGlitchGamer. Accessed 21 Feb. 2023.

Westbrook, Jessica. “GLI.TC/H READER[ROR] 20111.” Edited by Nick Briz et al., 11 Nov. 2011.