We're talking about the random glitches that make you shit your pants. We've told you twice now about how video games can, essentially, go rogue at a moment's notice, so let's again take time to gaze into the horrors that can lurk beneath innocent layers of code ...

Let's face it: There aren't that many really creepy video games -- "horror" in the world of gaming is all about stupid jump scares and shooting huge monsters with a flamethrower. No, the best creepy moments always happen by accident, when you least expect them.

6 Elmo's Letter Adventure -- The Nightmare on Sesame Street

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Here's one underrated aspect of old-school video games: Every game cartridge was one nudge away from unrelenting horror. In the last iteration of this article we talked about cartridge tilting, in which slightly misaligning the cartridge in the slot messes with the game code in a way that makes demons come alive. But if you thought cartridges becoming obsolete would spare you the horror, you were wrong:

Via YouTube

Uh ... Ernie?

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YouTuber Vinesauce has an entire channel dedicated to playing "corruptions" -- game code that is run through emulator software that randomly alters the code, turning colorful characters into twisted deformities from a realm where terrified screams are the native language. The above is from a kids' game called Elmo's Letter Adventure for the Nintendo 64. Here's a clip, and you need to turn up your sound:

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Yes, applying the corrupter opens the Pandora's box of misshapen nightmares hidden deep below Sesame Street. Muppets warp and jitter, their speech turns into demon hate language, and your childhood dies a violent death.

Via YouTube

"Hi, Grover! What letter does 'dog' start w-"

"EMBRACE THE DARKNESS, MY CHILD."

As the first round of tears begins to exit your face, the Dark Muppets spew poetry of the damned in a sound not unlike Slayer lyrics sung underwater, while Elmo appears to understand every word. All the Muppets your childhood mind remembers from the PBS show are replaced by entities so evil that Death himself rejected them.