20 Worst Game Breaking Bugs & Glitches
15. The Infernal Machine - Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (1999)
1999 may seem in retrospect like an odd time to release an Indiana Jones video game, given the film series had concluded its original run a decade earlier, and was still almost a decade away from any future instalments. But Indy never really went away, being kept alive in pulp novels, toys and the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV series in the nineties.
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine was developed by LucasArts and has all the hallmarks of that studio’s output, including a blockbuster scale and infuriating mechanics. In an original story, the titular explorer races against the Soviet Union to find a mysterious Babylonian power source, while collecting pieces of the Infernal Machine, an ancient device which can open portals into other dimensions.
The N64 port was handled by Factor 5, but whatever they did, they didn’t do it right. The N64 version features random lock-ups and freezes throughout, alongside numerous other action-based glitches. These prevent players from progressing through puzzles by consistently freezing on certain actions, and while it’s theoretically possible to complete the game, it’s a minefield to do precisely the right action on each level and progress without being forced to abandon the game and start over. Infernal machine indeed.