Frankenstein Glitch

The Frankenstein Glitch is a glitch in Chip's Challenge with two variations, one which had been in both MS and Tile World from the start, and one which was programmed. It is an unusual behaviour which allows tanks on clone machines to switch direction. The glitch does not exist in Lynx or in Chip's Challenge 2.

Background

The blue button normally switches all tanks in the level, including those that are on top of a trap, with the exception of tanks on clone machines. As with all objects that are placed on top of clone machines, tanks on top of clone machines normally do not exhibit the properties of a regular tank. However, in special cases, even tanks on clone machines will switch direction, therefore switching the direction of all future tanks cloned from that clone machine.

Glitch

The premise of this glitch is that there is a tank "waiting to clone" but that cannot because the square is blocked. Under normal conditions, if the square is blocked, the tank will not even attempt to clone in the first place when the red button is hit. However, there are two special cases where a tank can reverse.

Because of programming that also causes the Multiple Tank Glitch, a tank will actually clone and enter the monster list, but not move, when there is another tank that is blocking this exact square and pointed in the same direction as the tank on the clone machine. When a blue button is hit, it will reverse the direction of this ghost tank. Because it is on the same square as the stationary tank, Chip's Challenge reads that as the tank to be reversed and will turn it around; if the square in this new direction is open, the enqueued tank will spit out in that direction. (As it appears that the tank "revives" when reversed, the glitch is named after Frankenstein.) This is known as the compass variation of the glitch, since an identically pointed tank is required to trigger it, and was programmed into Tile World version 1.3.

A simpler variation, known as the magnet variation, can be found in earlier Tile World versions and discovered initially in Monster Lab. When an object hits a red button that clones a tank on the same turn that another object, behind the first in the monster list, hits a blue button, the tank has been cloned and physically exists by the time the blue button is hit, and it will reverse direction, pulling the tank on the clone machine with it like a magnet. This occurs because cloned monsters wait [1] before they can be seen; in comparison, blocks spit out on the same turn they are cloned.

While the glitch could theoretically apply to other monsters, none of them can be controlled mechanically, and can only reverse as a result of their own conscious movement.

Example

The following cutout from David Stolp's table of contents shows a situation requiring the use of the compass variation to solve the level:

The dirt contains a southeast thin wall. To proceed, Chip must find some way to detonate the bomb at [2, 1]. The fireballs cannot touch it, as they are pointed north. To apply this in the shown situation, move R (DR, D) and 2U L.

Appearance in play

As the applicable situations for this glitch are strict, and older emulations of Tile World do not recognize the compass variation, it is rarely seen. Although the magnet variation was used even in the original Lynx emulation of CC, the compass variation was introduced to the public officially when David made table of contents, and also a second level named ode to a cloned tank, pointed the wrong way, hinting at the content of the solution.