I think the first time this glitch was discovered is actually by John925. His setup involved a complicated and conspicious object placement, including fiery shadow stinkers. He also discovered the strange "transporter linking together" effect long ago, but I don't think he was ever able to explain it. It, along with something even stranger, became a one-off occurence to be shown off in a level once and then forgotten.
I can't find the original threads where he reported the bug, but this is the level he made that features it, along with other glitches:
"It's an Odd World After All!". The transporter glitch can be seen in its full glory, with transporter "linking" effects and, also,
invisible trampoline creation. I'm not even kidding.
The glitch was wonderful but nigh impossible to use within a puzzle without calling too much attention to it. I converted it into a version that did not require your presence within the action and used it to permanently seal the exit gate in
"A Stroll in the Garden", but I've never seen the original shadow stinker setup anywhere outside of the "Odd World" level just because it's so specific.
Independently Loirae discovered another version, later on used by Mark in his
"Mind Freak" level. This predates the "Odd World" level, so
this may actually be the first discovered version of this glitch. I think John925's discovery happened even before "Mind Freak", because it took him some time to build the "Odd World" level, but I can't be sure now.
The beauty of this version is that everything seems "normal" at first glance. This is usable within a puzzle.
Independently, either having never seen the "Mind Freak" level or having forgotten about it (I'm not sure) I created my version in
"Nothing Hiding". It was quite conspicious, but it worked. At the time, it was revolutionary because it allowed a stinker to physically be on the transporter at the time the glitch occurs, thus allowing you to bypass otherwise impassable objects. I used it again in
"Simple 011" in, arguably, a rather unfair way. Using the glitch allows you to skip the coins (which are impossible to get) and exit the level by riding
through the exit gate.
Then I realized I only needed ONE object coming in from the side to get this version to work, not two, as I previously thought. I discovered this by replaying "Simple 011". The new version with one object was soon used with some misdirection in
"Simple 014". That's the version I used quite a few times since then. I one-upped myself with
"Mission Impossible", which is a level that I now like less than I used to, but it does include a never-before-seen variation on the consequences of this glitch. By riding into a generator through a wall, one can force the generator to send a boulder through that wall.
Later on, in a level posted on my "Shadow" account, I've created a trampoline-less version of this glitch. Other tricks are needed to even set this up. The result is
"Simple 018". I'm not sure if it's the same glitch program-wise, though, because the post-glitch behaviour of this transporter is a bit different.
There were also hex-editing experiments. For those who may not know, by editing the code of an LV6 file directly, you can create objects that aren't in the level editor and were never intended to be used. Most of them crash the game, some of them are mundane, but some are very interesting and strange. I think Mark first discovered this idea and used it in
"Levitation" to have two Loofs on a single level. It's a beautiful piece of Wonderland magic.
It wouldn't be relevant to the transporter glitch, but one such object is essentially a pre-glitched void transporter. It acts exactly the same, even leaving behind it a row of glitched transporter-like tiles. Another hex-edited object is a pre-glitched void tranposter that leaves behind itself a row of invisible trampolines. The hex-edit discussions can be found
HERE and
HERE.
To be quite honest, I thought the history of this glitch to be over, because without John925 to support it, the freakier parts of it were unexplainable one-off occurences... but it seems Mark has managed to write another chapter in this by creating a level
designed around an almost completely new side effect that involves the "transporters linkin together" part of the glitch. Amnon's additional discovery is also quite startling.
I agree, it does seem to be a complete bug in the program and I'm honestly not sure how it works or what happens to the transporter. It almost seems like the "transporter in motion" is actually coded as a separate object (which is probably why you can find it by hex-editing) and when you glitch up a transporter, you get to keep it in that "motion" state and exploit it. That still doesn't explain all the other weird things, though.
It really is a fascinating bug with a long, long history behind it. After "Mushrooms of Confusion", I officially declare transporters to be the glitchiest objects in the game.
Yes, I've finally made it out now.
