Pac-Man's Infamous Level 256 Glitch

When Namco released Pac-Man in 1980, the arcade hit seemed endless, but its code held a hidden flaw. The game stored the level counter as an 8-bit integer, which could only count up to 255. When players pushed past that limit, reaching level 256, the counter overflowed and broke the display, producing a jumbled half-rendered screen that made the stage unbeatable. This glitch became legendary, and reaching the so-called "kill screen" was regarded as a mark of prestige among expert Pac-Man players.

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