missingno and the multiple masterballs

As an avid player of Pokemon Blue, I remember when word spread across the schoolyard about the MISSINGNO cheat within the game. It was like this huge secret that people didn't want to admit they used within their games. Kids would still crowd around a table during free period (while other kids played chess or read books) and watch as someone tried to trigger the glitch. The rumor was that triggering the glitch would create 50 duplicates of whatever item you had within a certain slot in your backpack. People would duplicate items to increase stats, boost levels or make money.

I can't help but remember MISSINGNO as part of my Pokemon experience, despite it being an obvious glitch. There was no sprite created for the MISSINGO character, it was just a mash of pixels. Kids were giddy and excited, as if they had cracked the code for something totally cool. Was MISSINGNO the first taste of being a "hacker" for some of these kids?

The interesting thing is that Pokemon gamers, years later, still refer to glitches within Pokemon games as MISSINGNO despite the name of the sprite being different. MISSINGNO is oddly embraced within the Pokemon community, with entries dedicated to it in fan created wikis.

Now I want to find my Pokemon Blue cartridge. . .

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Missingno.