Playing a game outside of its intended purpose

[BetaWolf47]

What are some of the most fun ways you've played a game outside of how the developers intended?

I distinctly remember playing Pilotwings 64 with Gameshark most of the time. Instead of completing mission objectives, I used to use infinite fuel cheats and just explore most of the time. Birdman mode was cool, but it didn't give you the sheer control that the Rocket Belt did. I probably found most of the easter eggs in that game, including warps and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I'd go as far as to say that this was my first open world game, well before I actually played any. Me and a friend also had fun wrecking the Gyrocopter in certain levels. We'd see who could do the most spectacular crash. This also was, of course, before games like this came out, such as the crash mode in Burnout.

[FoxNtd]

The N64 Gameshark reference reminds me of Goldeneye. You could use a cheat that allowed you to traverse the big lake at the dam and inspect the little island that had intent of being used but was abandoned due to limitations. I remember reading how there would have been a boat at the dock that you would ride to this island to do some mission objective. Sadly there isn't much to see there but at least you can get a look close-up. The best change was the ability to destroy doors. In multiplayer you can destroy the locked doors on levels like Archives and have the full map available to play! I don't know why they put the locked doors there if the game runs just fine with the full map being accessible. At least offer the option to play half the map or all of it...

[YoshiM]

A friend and I use to play Hard Drivin' on the Genesis to see who could land on the cow after flying off of a hill.

[SpaceHarrier]

Since Pilotwings was mentioned: in the original game, I'd obsessively pop all those round, greyish, air field zits (or whatever they were) with the jet pack. I'd try to do it without touching the ground, since that would lose you pts. each time.

After watching helixsnake's hilarious youtube compilation of Skate 3 glitches, I had to try to make some of my own. Way harder than it looks, but totally fun.

In Virtua Racing Deluxe, I'd chase the livestock around, or go spin out in that empty parking lot of the Bay Bridge level.

Gran Turismo (pretty much all of them) driving the most insane super cars the wrong way into oncoming traffic to see how the physics would handle the collision. Or trying to launch the car into the air on the huge oval track for massive flight time.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Modern example, but in The Last of Us, I would always stop to take a look at shop signs and that sort of thing even when I was being shot at or chased. I love how fully realized that world is.

[Emperor Megas]

I don't know if it counts, but I always used classic (mainly 16-bit era) games as background noise when I cleaned house, or was reading or studying, and as a night light of sorts when I went to sleep. I also used sound tests tracks or the actual stages of games (or attract mode or looping ending screens) as ambient noise when I slept. The ending music for the Genesis version of Final Zone was a favorite of mine, as was the rave tune for the bonus stage of Cool Spot and several tracks from Mystic Defender, and various Reno/Telenet games.

I still use an old VHS recordings a friend in Junior High School made of TurboGrafx-16 CD games (Last Alert, Final Zone II, and Ys: Book 1) sometimes as background noise when I clean -- of course that's not really 'playing'.

[Drclaw411]

One word: MissingNo

[SparTonberry]

Link's Awakening "warp glitch". You could use that in a side-view room, and if Link didn't get stuck in the wall, he'd end up swimming in top-view rooms and you could pass through walls for even more fun.
Sadly Nintendo took it out in version 1.1 but (probably accidentally) put it back in 1.2, though they fixed it again on the DX version.

[JSoup]

Link's Awakening "warp glitch". You could use that in a side-view room, and if Link didn't get stuck in the wall, he'd end up swimming in top-view rooms and you could pass through walls for even more fun.
Sadly Nintendo took it out in version 1.1 but (probably accidentally) put it back in 1.2, though they fixed it again on the DX version.

It supposedly is in the DX version, it's just hard as hell to pull off and most of the functions have been plugged. I was able to pull it off once and I've read accounts of others doing the same.

[The Adventurer]

Another Pilotwings 64 player here that loved to just f around in it.

In Gyrocopter missions in Little States I would taxi off the runway, without gaining enough airspeed to take off, and drive around the highways like a car. It was fun to drive across bridges and through the cities. Though it could often get a bit dicey as any slight bump would cause you to crash.

[Niku-Sama]

random game genie codes on random games. usually with Mario.

have actually caused permanent damage to the code to some of the Mario carts I have had in the past and you know you've crossed the line when bits of duck hunt start showing up in Mario and vice versa
i'm a magnet for bugs and can never re create them on purpose.
infact when GTA 3 came out some one bought it on PS2 (I think) and had it at a lan party. they told me to play it thinking i'd suck at it. I told em I probably wont suck at it but i'll find the bugs.

as I said that I fell though a bush and through the bottom of the map

[koster]

Playing 2-player Mario Brothers on the Commodore 64 with the goal of killing off the other player. Good times!

[Edmond Dantes]

Intentionally causing crashes in several racing games. I've heard that games by Papyrus were especially popular for this in the pre-Burnout days due to realistic damage modelling.

I picked up a game called DT Racer for the PS2 not long ago. First thing I did was gave it a trial run on a time attack... and I hit the wall so hard my car defied the laws of physics and started dancing. I so wish I had recorded that (I was on a friend's PS2 and didn't have a memory card of my own handy at the time) but I'm sure I could replicate the feat.

[Leo_A]

Yep, turning backwards and watching the mayhem was something everyone tried in Papyrus games like IndyCar Racing II and the NASCAR Racing titles.

[Nesmaster]

Exploring the race tracks in the 64 Rush games. As the series went on this was pretty much required as they added more collectibles for new cars/tracks/modes, but the first one had quite a few secrets to find including an underground stunt course. That game basically rewarded you for not racing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxd7U8x0NjM

Nascar games in general and driving backwards to cause spectacular pileups. I did this more than actual racing.

Goldeneye, all guns, slow mo, and endless spawning guards on a couple levels = bliss in my young mind.

Pretty much any game that has areas that look like you can't get/go to, but then you find a way to get there and sometimes there might even be easter eggs there. Grenade jumps or glitching through walls in Halo/Borderlands.

In the Saints Row 1 X360 demo, you could glitch through the barriers of the demo area and explore a bit more of a glitched out world including floating rail cars and a weapon pickup that wasn't otherwise available in the demo.

[Ozzy_98]

Strip Bomberman

[StealthLurker]

We used to play 1942 and when your plane got shot down, we'd immediately stop the game and switch to ikari warriors. If you recall when you start ikari warriors a plane crash lands in a jungle and you proceed on foot.

[JSoup]

Just seeing what kind of crap I can actually climb on in Mario 64.
Exploring tracks in Beetle Adventure Racing.
Fiddling about in every MMO I can think of.

[Nebagram]

In Virtua Racing Deluxe, I'd chase the livestock around, or go spin out in that empty parking lot of the Bay Bridge level.

YES. I loved that game, good to know I'm not the only person who did that. More 'serious' racing games need branching tracks.

In Sonic Adventure 1 I came up with a (long since lost) list of 'achievements', which usually involved getting characters to places they didn't belong, such as getting Knuckles on top of the giant rotating disc in the upper part of the Egg Carrier. Stuff that's tricky to do, but still possible.

[goldenband]

Beating the hell out of NPCs in Light Crusader for Genesis -- or I should say, "OOPS!"-ing them.